Author: Game Infliction

While the promise of a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake disappeared along with several other games earlier this year, Prince of Persia fans still have spin-off The Rogue Prince of Persia — and now its team has unveiled a sizable 2026 spring roadmap.

Via Steam, developer Evil Empire wished its community a happy 2026, and confirmed the addition of a Flaming Horses tool as a nod to lunar new Year of the Horse. This tool unleashes a herd of flaming horses that “charge forward, leaving a burning trail behind them.”

“We’ve always wanted a burning tool that works like Altan’s Bracelets, and the year of the fire horse provided the perfect creative spark,” the team teased. “Plus, when you talk about Persian culture, you have to talk about the horse! From the Nisean Horse and the Royal Road to the legendary Rakhsh from the Shahnameh, horses are legendary.”

That’s not all, though. The “Breathless” update is slated to arrive with a public beta at the end of March, promising a “quicker and more intense” experience. This includes a rework of the game’s first hour, tighter pacing and improvements to when and how you unlock new game content and new mechanics, as well as changes to bosses’ difficulty. “Reworks of the level design of the first few biomes will also highlight our iconic wall-run move and make each biome quicker and tougher,” developer Evil Empire said.

There are changes for established players, too, including a new Freeze element, which is coming with a new weapon, the slingshot, arenas — “zones that lock you in, and the only way out is to defeat wave after wave of enemies!” — and weapon affixes which can “make each weapon that appears in your run much more interesting and varied, giving you some difficult choices to take…”

Here’s the full update:

The “Breathless update” will arrive with a public beta around the end of March! As you can guess from its title, this update means making the whole experience quicker and more intense, leaving you… breathless!

We have done a big rework of the pacing of the first hour, including when and how you will unlock new game content and new mechanics, as well as the bosses’ difficulty. Reworks of the level design of the first few biomes will also highlight our iconic wall-run move and make each biome quicker and tougher.

For veteran players who have been looking forward to new toys to play with, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! First up, we’re introducing a new element – freeze – which is coming with a new weapon, the slingshot!

Next on the list is the arenas – zones that lock you in, and the only way out is to defeat wave after wave of enemies!

Most importantly, weapon affixes are coming too!! These affixes will make each weapon that appears in your run much more interesting and varied, giving you some difficult choices to take…

End Game Update

That’s it for the first update, let’s quickly talk about the second one!

We’re planning for it to land in early May, and some of the content may change, but we know what we’d like to do… It will focus on the End Game, plus bringing more challenges like Speed Run mode and Daily Awakening.

You’ll be able to really test your skill and push the limit with this update coming! Speed, precision, and strategy—show us what you’ve got.

From 2025 to 2026

Looking back on 2025, it was a big year for The Rogue Prince of Persia. We finally graduated from Early Access and increased the game’s Steam review score from 70% upon Early Access release to 88% so far with your support and help!

Of course, we’re not just on Steam, we’ve also successfully brought the game to Switch, Xbox, and Playstation! Right now, we are almost at the point of having 1 million people who’ve played our game!

Even though we are only in the second month of 2026, the game has already achieved something else: we have been included in the Bafta awards longlist and gained 4 nominations at the french game awards ceremony PEGASUS, including best game. We’re crossing all the fingers and toes we have until March.

Following the awards season, vinyl and physical collector editions are also on the way! We believe it will be a great year for the rogue prince of persia, and we can’t wait to make this game better with you guys in 2026!

Ubisoft began this year by announcing a sizable company restructure, resulting in the cancelation of six games, including its Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, and a delay to a further seven titles. Two Ubisoft studios will close completely as a result of the changes, while others are subject to further layoffs.

Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner recently reacted to Ubisoft’s cancelation of its Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, describing the loss of any project as a “brutal experience” for developers. “A cancelation so close to release can be particularly devastating for younger team members who don’t have decades of past shipped titles on their resumé,” he said. “It’s tough to suddenly absorb that the past four years of hard work you were proud of, and looking forward to seeing out in the world as your new calling card, will now never see daylight.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Surprise! Japanese studio CyberConnect2 is marking its 30th anniversary with the announcement of a new .hack game: .hack//Z.E.R.O.

To whet our collective appetites, we’ve even been treated to a teaser trailer, which you can watch below.

.hack is a series of action RPG games that explore a virtual game-space called The World, with action taking place both there and in our real world, branching off of a multimedia franchise that extends to a collectible card game, a Japanese-only MMORPG, plus animated movies, manga, and live-action TV shows.

Today, February 16, 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of CyberConnect2.

To commemorate, we will begin development of .hack//Z.E.R.O., a new original game. This title will be fully self-published by CyberConnect2, from planning to development to release.#hackZERO #dothack pic.twitter.com/J5nrgnXU83

— CyberConnect2 Official (EN) (@cc2information) February 16, 2026

It’s been the best part of ten years since we last had a .hack game — the last was .hack//G.U. Last Recode in 2017 — but don’t let that put you off: Hiroshi “Piros” Matsuyama recently told Famitsu that the new release won’t link directly to any previous title, so you don’t need to come into the game with any prior knowledge.

Although .hack has always been developed by CyberConnect2 and has usually been published by Bandai Namco, Bandai Namco has given CyberConnect2 permission to “manage the entirety of the project from planning and development to release.”

As for what to expect? “World-renowned violinist Taro Hakase has penned the music, kick-starting the project to the dexterous tune of his violin. .hack//Z.E.R.O. will be a novel RPG experience that blends the series’ trademark duality of fantasy (game world) and reality (real world) with modern expectations, infused with 100% pure CyberConnect2 spirit.

“The game will be enjoyable for both veteran fans and new players alike,” the team said. “Please look forward to this newest iteration of .hack.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Activision has confirmed Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will go dark on April 17, 2026.

We already knew that Activision had decided to walk away from Warzone Mobile — the publisher admitted last May that it “unfortunately has not met [Activision’s] expectations” — but now we have a specific date as to when the smartphone battle royale will be taken offline.

In a brief statement posted to its official website, the team thanked players for their “dedication and passion,” and said “as a final step in the previously communicated service changes to Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, the servers for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will go offline on April 17, 2026, after which the game will no longer be available for play.”

Up until that time, players can still play and “engage with existing content,” but refunds are not available for any unused COD Points or previously purchased in-game content, so you’re advised to use them up before the game shutdowns in April.

Mobile fans are encouraged to migrate to the free-to-play Call of Duty: Mobile — a different game, albeit with a confusingly similar title — “which offers franchise-favorite game modes, including Battle Royale, Multiplayer, and Zombies, as well as the new extraction-based DMZ: Recon.

“The standalone Call of Duty: Mobile delivers frequent seasonal content updates that include Ranked Play, Events, and the tier-based Battle Pass rewards system offering,” the team explained. “Call of Duty: Mobile is available to download through Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Additionally, Call of Duty: Warzone is available on PC and console and is also free to play.”

Warzone Mobile launched in March 2024 on iOS and Android as a Warzone-specific Call of Duty mobile experience that offered battle royale for up to 120 players, with cross-progression to the PC and console versions of Warzone, Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and, later in the year, Black Ops 6. It struggled right out of the gate, though, and failed to make a mark with “mobile-first players like it has with PC and console audiences,” leading to Activision’s decision to cull it just a little over a year later.

IGN’s Call of Duty Warzone Mobile review returned an 8/10. We said: “Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile includes all the best elements of Warzone, while speeding up and streamlining matches and using cross-progression to make this a meaningful extension of the traditional experience.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

It’s been almost a year since Assassin’s Creed Shadows released, and Ubisoft is not done updating its feudal Japan-set stabathon. This month brings the addition of a manual jump option, alongside two other fan-requested changes.

As part of the 1.1.8 update going live today, February 17, Ubisoft will add a manual jump option to the game (if you’ve toggled on your Advanced Parkour setting), which returns from previous titles in the series.

Two other small additions are also set to become available: a detailed stat page so you can analyze your build in granular detail, and some visual improvements to when you make a critical hit. All of these changes had been requested by fans, so are likely to be positively received.

That said, this is a pretty small set of additions that look like the game’s only major update across the first three months of this year. Update 1.1.7 launched back in December, capping off a first nine months of post-release additions that had arrived pretty much every month.

Today’s update to Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the first notable addition to the game of 2026, and according to a Winter Roadmap released by Ubisoft looks to be the only one coming ahead of the game’s March 20 anniversary, which the company will celebrate with a livestream and giveaways. Here’s hoping we hear more of what’s coming to the game in its second year then.

The only other item of note before then is the Switch 2 launch of the game’s Claws of Awaji expansion, which caps off the game’s main narrative and now looks to be the only major expansion the game will get. It’s hard not to compare the level of support for Shadows with that for the series’ previous game Valhalla, which received three major expansions, an Odyssey crossover DLC, an epilogue DLC and several major new modes, and feel like Shadows has been underserved in comparison.