Microsoft has signalled its intention to close down Hellblade developer Ninja Theory after two deals to save the Xbox studio fell through.
In-line with UK employment law, a consultation with the staff at the Cambridge-based studio has begun. While Microsoft has said it is now working to close the studio, it remains open to an agreement to rescue the company.
"Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through," Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty said in a blog post issued today. "We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward."
In June, at an Xbox Games Showcase event, Microsoft announced Senua, the third game in the Hellblade series. At the...
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Microsoft has today confirmed that the next mainline Halo game will be developed by Call of Duty maker Activision, with mass layoffs hitting Halo Studios amid a significant restructure of its Xbox studios setup.
Xbox announced 268 layoffs today "across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer" as part of the ongoing cuts first announced in July. The layoffs, the majority of which are at Halo Studios, come as part of new Xbox boss Asha Sharma’s “reset” of Microsoft's gaming business that had already seen 1,600 staff lose their jobs in the summer.
"The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three-quarters of the way through previously...
This is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who worked at Official Xbox Magazine from 2002-2012 during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before joining IGN, where he remains “the Xbox guy” and has reviewed several Halo games, including the Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite.
I’ll give Asha Sharma this: she is not afraid to shake things up. Whether you love or hate how she’s run the Xbox business in her first six months as CEO so far, there are no sacred cows with her. Whether it’s slashing Xbox Game Pass prices, nuking an unpopular marketing campaign, restoring console exclusives, telling Obsidian to make a damn Fallout game already, or signing Hideo Kojima after PlayStation cancelled Physint, she is more than willing...
Konami's latest game in the nu-Silent Hill era has arrived, and as is the case with previous entries in the series, Townfall boasts a handful of endings to unlock and an even bigger handful of scares. But how long does it all take? We got five different members of the IGN team, who all played Silent Hill: Townfall very differently, to share their time. So whether you’re a completionist, or just someone who’s only interested in the story, you’ll learn just how long you’ll be spending in St. Amelia depending on your playstyle.
How Long is Silent Hill: Townfall?
Our fastest player finished Silent Hill: Townfall in 12 hours and 37 minutes.
Our “slowest” player spent 15 hours and 15 minutes before credits rolled.
Everyone plays games...
Handheld gaming PCs grant you access to a nearly limitless library of PC games that you can play anytime and anywhere. There are plenty of brands and models available nowadays, but the Legion Go S is still one of our favorite - and one of the most affordable - gaming handhelds. For a limited time, Best Buy is offering a used "excellent condition" Legion Go S AMD Ryzen Z2 Go Edition handheld gaming PC for just $494.99 with free shipping.
Lenovo Legion Go S Handheld Gaming PC for $494.99
Used "like new"
The Lenovo Legion Go S is a recent model (late 2025) featuring the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go CPU, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB SSD. IGN's Jackie Thomas wrote up a great piece on why the Steam Deck no longer gets her recommendation. In the...
The first major The Blood of Dawnwalker update will introduce an easier difficulty option for "people who don't want to experience combat" when it launches in October.
Developer Rebel Wolves' game director, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, teased the changes coming to the team's breakout vampire RPG during a new interview with Eurogamer. Amongst a batch of combat tweaks and other gameplay changes, one of the highlights for the early October The Blood of Dawnwalker update includes reworked difficulty options for players who don't want to spill too much blood during the story.
When the update launches, players will see the new easier difficulty option replace the current easiest mode, called Story Mode, and adopt its name. The version of the mode...
Editor's Note: This article is sponsored by SCUF Gaming.
Black Friday is still a few months away, but you don't have to wait that long to score some great deals on gaming peripherals that can instantly up your game. Starting now and running through September 27, SCUF is kicking off its aptly named It's Time to Win Sale with up to 20% off performance gaming controllers for every platform. Premium controllers usually command a premium price point, and SCUF is no exception, with its top-end controllers priced upwards of $200. That's why you don't want to miss out on any opportunity to get one on sale.
The SCUF "It's Time to Win" Sale Is Live: Save Up to 20% Off
SCUF's "It's Time to Win" sale is a bit different from the previous Labor...
Call of Duty YouTuber Tdawgsmitty has started a petition to remove skill-based matchmaking in the FPS franchise following successful Destiny protests.
The YouTuber has been an outspoken advocate against Call of Duty's SBMM and has tried to make noise on the issue in a variety of ways. Last week, he began tweeting at Xbox CEO Asha Sharma about the matter every day in hopes of getting her attention. Now, he's trying a different way. After seeing Destiny fans successfully rally together to get Bungie to resurrect the sci-fi MMO, Tdawgsmitty decided to try to bring Call of Duty fans together in hopes of a similar outcome.
The YouTuber launched a petition which has gained over 500 signatures in roughly an hour. The call to action aims to...
Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has begun taking down videos and posts about leaked GTA 5 and GTA 6 content.
Last week, a ton of files for Grand Theft Auto 5 leaked online. These were reportedly obtained during the 2022 hack, which also resulted in the first-ever footage of GTA 6 leaking online. These files have been rumored for some time, but are only just now surfacing publicly. They include cut dialogue from GTA 5, which also seems to hint at different outcomes for the story, such as a darker ending for Franklin. However, the two biggest things are details of a scrapped Liberty City expansion for GTA 5 and an extremely early version of GTA 6's map.
Given that this material was illegally obtained in a...
Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed its open-world StarCraft shooter "won't be exclusive" to Xbox platforms when it launches in 2030.
Representatives for the World of Warcraft developer shared the update for the far-off franchise revival in a series of post-BlizzCon 2026 email exchanges with Kotaku. It's an update that slightly widens what will be StarCraft's list of launch platforms – but where exactly it will be available isn't so simple.
When Blizzard announced its new game with the "Dominion" cinematic trailer at BlizzCon, it neglected to share how exactly players will be able to play it in 2030. Although previous entries in the RTS series have traditionally been available on PC, the only real platform confirmation we've received...
For one day only, Best Buy is offering a good deal on an Alienware gaming laptop that has been very rarely discounted this year. The Alienware 16X Aurora GeForce RTX 5060 gaming laptop drops to $1,674.99 with free shipping after a $900 off instant discount. Even at the discounted price, the 16X Aurora is one of the more expensive RTX 5060 gaming laptops I've covered. The reason is simple; this is a premium model with an all-aluminum body, gorgeous OLED display, and an excellent cooling system that allows for discrete graphics will maximum allowable TGP.
Alienware 16X Aurora RTX 5060 Gaming Laptop for $1,675
Today only
The Alienware 16X Aurora gaming laptop is equipped with a 16" 2560x1600 240Hz OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX...
Speaking with IGN Japan at Tokyo Game Show 2026, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi said the game will contain an option to let players automatically level up their characters, allowing them to experience the story without needing to grind — but the broader gaming community is at odds with this idea.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, like every other game in the series, is very narrative-focused. Luckily, there’ll be a feature for those who want to breeze through tough battles and get to its major story beats, as told by Hamaguchi at TGS 2026.
During our conversation, he told us that he’d received feedback from players who claimed they had a hard time getting through the previous games’ main story due to being underleveled...
A new slate of "full-cast audio dramas" based on Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books is set to release in 2026 and 2027. Starting with Crossroads of Ravens, Sapkowski's latest Witcher novel and a prequel following an 18-year-old Geralt of Rivia, which is out now.
Rather than a traditional audiobook built around a single narrator, the new production uses an ensemble cast alongside original music and sound design to bring Sapkowski's world to life.
The cast includes Sam Stafford as Young Geralt, Richard Armitage as Preston Holt, Clare Corbett as Nenneke, Tom Alexander as Artamon of Asguth, Peter Kenny as the narrator, among others.
That's only the beginning as well, with the publisher planning to work through the rest of Sapkowski's...
Through all of the uncertainty and livestream chat takeovers, Bungie has confirmed more Destiny is coming, and fans can't believe it.
In case you missed it, the Sony-owned game developer confirmed earlier today that more Destiny "stories and games" are on the way just four months after it launched the final major update for Destiny 2. Content is in the process of being unvaulted, too, with the studio promising that the long-running sci-fi shooter franchise remains "foundational" to its future.
Calling this a change of tune would be an understatement. Sony and Bungie announced in May of this year that the Monument of Triumph update would be the last major Destiny 2 update when it launched in June. While the content drop did manage to...
The Steam Deck has been around for four years at this point, and while I mostly use it to play Ball x Pit while I watch TV, scientists at Airbus in the UK have used it to test the the ExoMars Rover.
In a video published by YouTuber Tom Scott, an Airbus senior engineer walks him through progress on the new rover, which is being tested in a simulated Mars setting. Ultimately, this rover will be controlled autonomously through mounted 3D cameras thanks to the distance between Mars and Earth, but for now, it has to be controlled locally with a computer.
Initially, she gives the prototype rover instructions through a laptop, telling it to go forward. Later on in the video, Scott is handed a Steam Deck that's running some kind of custom...
From musicals to whatever comes next, The Witcher creator, Andrzej Sapkowski, isn't ruling out even more unconventional ways of bringing the fantasy series to life.
The Witcher has already been adapted into just about every major format you could think of, from the immensely popular video games and Netflix's live-action series to animated films and comics.
But during our recent wide-ranging interview with Sapkowski and his English translator, David French, we asked the author whether there are more experimental formats he'd like to see The Witcher explore, such as the possibility of a major stage production like Game of Thrones.
"Does a musical count as a stage play?" he asked. "If so, there were already two. What else? I am open to...
Nintendo's latest September Direct had quite an exciting announcement for fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: the game is getting a Royal Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 next year. While its official release date is unfortunately still up in the air, preorders have already started going live at select retailers, so you can secure a copy way ahead of time (see it here at Amazon for $59.99).
As of the time of writing, it appears only Amazon has the new Switch 2 edition up to preorder, but we'll be keeping an eye out for other retailers as they drop their preorder pages over time. Alongside where to buy it right now, you can also learn a little bit more about what this Royal Edition includes.
Preorder Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: Royal...
Bungie Studio Head Poria Torkan, alongside the Head of Product and GM of Marathon, Josh Dean, revealed plans to “evolve” Marathon as Bungie continues to navigate big internal changes.
In a September 21 video message to fans, Torkan and Dean addressed what’s next for Marathon, saying the game is an “important part” of shaping where Bungie goes next.
"It didn’t reach as many players as we’d hoped,” Torkan admitted. “But we also know and understand that the game needs to evolve.”
“We’re gonna anchor on what makes Marathon special and evolve it beyond the genre constraints that we’ve placed on it. We’re going to expand Marathon into a deeper survival experience that gives players more ways to take on its dangerous alien world,” Dean...
Bungie has said it is "absolutely not done with Destiny" just months after the controversial decision to end ongoing support for Destiny 2.
The five-minute upload features Bungie studio head Poria Torkan and head of product, GM of Marathon Josh Deane. The two executives start their surprise talk with fans, promising that Sony has not completely abandoned the Destiny brand after months of fans pleading to see them either return to Destiny 2 or eventually create Destiny 3.
"We're not asking for your trust," Torkan said, acknowledging some of Bungie's recent struggles. "We know we have to earn it, and to do that, we need our games to deliver in ways that exceed your expectations of what you've come to love about the games that we make –...
To use a sports analogy, Hideo Kojima is like a superstar athlete whose previous team (PlayStation) dropped him for, reportedly, salary-cap reasons. Xbox was all too happy to sign him, and unsurprisingly, they trotted him out at the Tokyo Game Show as the new face of the franchise. As they should. If this really was a sports team, a giant banner featuring Kojima’s face would be hung up on the outside of the stadium, and his jersey would be sold at the team shop.
Getting Kojima’s next two projects as Xbox exclusives, or at least what could be Xbox exclusives – Xbox hasn’t yet announced that, but given CEO Asha Sharma’s refocus on exclusives and the common-sense thought that Xbox probably didn’t just sign Physint to publish it on...
This is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who worked at Official Xbox Magazine from 2002-2012 during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before joining IGN, where he remains “the Xbox guy.” In the run-up to Xbox’s 25th anniversary, he’ll be sharing his memories from the platform’s first quarter-century.
Sometimes, video game release schedules converge to create memorable superstorms that live on for years after the fact. The Fall of 1998 (Half-Life, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Doom 3, Metal Gear Solid, Grim Fandango) comes to mind, as does the Fall of 2004 (Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft). But for my money, the greatest season in gaming history was the Fall of 2007. It was so...
The Witcher author and creator Andrzej Sapkowski has confirmed that he is already hard at work on Geralt's next adventure, and hinted to IGN that "the sky is the limit" for future prequels.
Sapkowski has confirmed that his next novel in The Witcher universe is already underway, with the Polish author targeting a 2027 completion date.
As reported by Redanian Intelligence, speaking on stage at the Copernicon convention in Torun, Poland, Sapkowski revealed that he has outlined his next book and is actively writing. While specific narrative details remain under wraps, Sapkowski shot down a fan question asking whether he would consider writing a novel centered on other characters, such as Yennefer of Vengerberg, confirming the story will...
The latest Witcher novel, Crossroads of Ravens, finally arrived in English last September, giving fans their first proper look at Geralt of Rivia's earliest days as a monster hunter.
I personally loved it, which probably won't come as much of a surprise given I've been eager to badger Andrzej Sapkowski with questions ever since I first picked up The Last Wish many moons ago.
Well, I finally got my wish.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Sapkowski, the creator and author of The Witcher books, over email, alongside David French, the English translator of Crossroads of Ravens.
See at Amazon UK - £9.49 (was £10.99)
See at Amazon US - $15 (was $20)
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Sapkowski is every bit as sharp and disarmingly...
Why is everyone talking about Mighty Mike Plays? From the (alleged) $118,000 bill to AI-generated T-shirt designs, we're here to explain how a Minecraft YouTube channel has captured the internet's attention.
It's a tale as old as time: a child is playing a video game, they grab their parent's credit card, and all of a sudden, someone has a thousand-dollar hole in their bank account. The story of Mighty Mike has so much in common with the lesson countless others have learned in the past – or does it?
Over the space of just a week, a nine-year-old YouTuber and his dad have ensnared an audience of millions, but not everyone is buying the events that started with a 14-minute Minecraft upload.
Mighty Mike Plays is Over
Last week, a small...
I spent so much of my time stalking through Silent Hill: Townfall tensed in a cautious crouchwalk, that by the end of the story I was just as worried about the damage to my character’s fraying mental state as I was about the wear and tear on his knees. Taking an about-face from the action-heavy adventure in last year’s Silent Hill f, this latest survival horror spin-off instead embraces the sustained tension of slow-paced stealth, handing you a motion-sensing gadget and tasking you with sneaking past a series of sound-sensitive beasts that have descended on its abandoned seaside village in mid-nineties Scotland. What unfolds is a gripping investigation through an increasingly unsettling world witnessed from a fresh, first-person...
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi teased that completionist playthroughs for the remake trilogy's conclusion could "easily take over a hundred hours" to beat.
The developer helping lead the charge on Cloud and the rest of the party's final assault against Sephiroth opened up about the size of the final chapter during an interview with GameSpot. We already suspected there would be a lot to do when Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches for PC and consoles next year, but it sounds like those looking to see all Square Enix has to offer will be especially busy.
"In a standard playthrough from beginning to end, if I were to review and check every single asset and element in the game, it’ll easily take over a hundred hours,"...
Escape from Playtime, the co-op survival horror extraction spinoff of the popular Poppy's Playtime episodic horror games that was announced at Gamescom last month, will be launching into Steam Early Access on October 21.
In this multiplayer spinoff, you and your friends play as Smiling Critters trapped in the abandoned Playtime Co. factory, trying to escape. You'll work together with your friends, heeding the instructions of a mysterious voice in the factory to build "a promised home for toys who prove their loyalty and usefulness." Puzzle-solving, hiding, sneaking, and careful use of communication – Escape from Playtime uses proximity chat, so if you're too loud, the Playtime Co. rejects roaming the factory will find you and destroy...
This is an IGN opinion piece from Mat Jones, who thinks everyone’s made too big a deal out of experience-altering mods, and wouldn’t replay a video game ever, even if he were forced to do so by vampires holding his family hostage.
I’ve spent the weeks since The Blood of Dawnwalker’s release nodding at headlines about how the time-pressured quest to rescue lead character Coen’s family – which is on a controversial 30-day timer – is the heart of the design, and that anyone looking to extend that clock with a mod wouldn’t be having the intended experience.
But, after reading that the developers themselves aren’t so bothered about the timer that they’d definitely want to add it in again – that a Dawnwalker sequel could strip out this...
World of Warcraft: Forever looks like it could be a smash hit after the launch of the beta was overrun with eager fans, surprising even Blizzard itself.
Blizzard’s ended last weekend’s BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony with the announcement of World of Warcraft: Forever, a “Classic Plus” MMO developed by the World of Warcraft Classic team, and set during the first year of World of Warcraft.
While Forever doesn’t launch until November 4, the beta was made available this week, and it was flooded by players. Those who did manage to get in faced disconnects. And then actually playing the game was tough due to extreme lag with looting and accepting quests. Hardly ideal.
World of Warcraft Classic developer Josh Greenfield took to X / Twitter...
I find myself in a weird place for my in-progress review of EA Sports FC 27. On one hand, worthwhile strategic elements have finally been added that reflect real-world tactics in a concise, intuitive way. On the other hand, the promised improvements to behavior and pathing of computer-controlled players on the field still ring hollow, carrying over many of the same issues the series has had for over a decade. Couple this with the dreaded introduction of open-world elements via The Grounds, and the result is yet another instance of positive steps forward but negative steps backward.
Ever since NBA 2K14 introduced MyPark, which eventually evolved into The Neighborhood in NBA 2K18 and The City in NBA 2K21, I figured it was only a matter...