If you preorder the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Pokémon Legends Z-A, you’ll be treated to improved graphics and frame rates. It’s also worth noting that if you buy the Nintendo Switch version, you can always upgrade it to the Switch 2 version by purchasing an upgrade pack.
What Is Pokémon Legends Z-A?
Set in Lumiose City, a place for both people and Pokémon, Pokémon Legends Z-A will see you living life as a Pokémon Trainer in the big city. You’ll be able to choose between Chikorita, Tepig, or Totodile as your starterPokémon to join you on a journey around the city. As mentioned in the title as well, you’ll also be able to participate in a tournament called the “Z-A Royale”, with the goal of working your way through the competition to reach rank A.
This year already has a stacked lineup of releases that are worth keeping on your radar. If you’re looking for even more games to add to your library, have a look through the other options up for preorder below.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have revealed the new gear that’ll be arriving in the game with its next warbond on June 12, and there’s an armour set that seems inspired by another franchise high on authoritarian satire, Judge Dredd.
Honestly, I’m surprised it’s taken that long for one of the warbonds – which as plenty of people have pointed out often amount to giving players a way to look even more fascisty than you do by default in Helldivers 2 – to dip into something Dredd-ish.
Nintendo fans have known for some time that Switch 2 is backwards compatible with Switch 1 games. But what happens when you do the reverse and stick a Switch 2 game in a Switch 1?
Insert a Switch 2-only game such as Mario Kart World in a Switch 1 and Nintendo’s last-gen console will simply display an error message, saying that the software is designed for Switch 2.
What is going on here? Well, Nintendo itself hasn’t gone into detail, but packaging for Switch 2 Edition games does note that cartridges contain both the original game and the Switch 2 upgrade.
“This Nintendo Switch 2 Edition comprises the Nintendo Switch game and the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade pack,” Switch 2 Edition packaging reads. “The upgrade pack is also available separately.”
In other words, when you put a Switch 2 Edition cartridge in a Switch 1, the older console knows to ignore the Switch 2 bit and just play the original game.
Nintendo doesn’t appear to have ever stated in plain English that this is how some Switch 2 Edition cartridges operate, but it’s a useful feature to be aware of. For example, if you’re a Switch 1 owner who plans to buy Switch 2 in future, you could buy a Switch 2 Edition of a game now to play cross-gen when the time comes, without worrying about upgrading your game down the line.
“Huh. Confirmed that this does indeed work on a Switch 1. (As the OG Switch game.) Kinda surprised,” John Ricciardi, founder of Tokyo-based video game localization firm 8-4, wrote on Bluesky today, upon testing his Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition cartridge on a Switch 1.
It’s a system that’s not a million miles away from how Xbox handles ownership of games across its family of consoles. Owning a copy of a game unlocks access to different versions of said game, which the hardware will detect.
One difference, of course, is that Nintendo has decided to charge extra for some Switch 2 Edition versions — such as with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and (deep breath) Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV.
Of course, just to make everything even more confusing, Nintendo has also provided other updates and upgrades to Nintendo Switch 1 games on Switch 2 for free — and it issued a long list of patch notes for titles such as Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom earlier this week.
We’ve already seen a stripped-down Joy-Con, confirming (as Nintendo had already actually said) there’s no Hall Effect sticks in there, and now it’s the turn of the dear old GameCube controller in its new NSO form. Please remember that this controller, for now at least, only works on Switch 2, too (we tried it).
Coming to Game Pass: EA Sports FC 25, The Alters, FBC: Firebreak, and More
Megan Spurr, Senior Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass
We’re getting close to the Xbox Games Showcase, so you still have a little more time to download and play these games before we throw more at your “to be played” wishlist! For now, we have more updates, some day ones, and a few blasts from the past. Let’s get to it!
Available Today
Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions (Cloud and Console) – June 5 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Standard
Gather your party; the RPG saga returns. Immerse yourself in an epic RPG series where every choice matters. Play over 100 hours of adventure in enhanced editions of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II!
Coming Soon
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – June 10 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Step into the armor of a relentless Space Marine and use a combination of lethal weaponry to crush overwhelming Ork forces. Immerse yourself in an intense and brutally violent world based on the richest science fantasy ever created. Enhanced for a new generation, this edition brings quality of life & graphical improvements.
Barbie Project Friendship (Cloud, Console, and PC) – June 11 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Get ready for the ultimate Barbie gaming adventure as Barbie and Barbie work together to save a beloved Malibu landmark, the Malibu Waves Community Center! The once thriving destination is nearly abandoned and on the verge of being closed. It’s time to band together to restore the beloved community center to its former glory. Complete fun quests, unlock exciting minigames, and earn valuable community points to give outfits and spaces a stylish upgrade.
Kingdom: Two Crowns (PC) – June 11 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Collect coins, build defenses, and reclaim your Kingdom. Explore and uncover secrets, unlock technologies, and protect your crown against waves of Greed monsters. Kingdom: Two Crowns is a solo/co-op side-scrolling strategy and tower defense game set in a beautiful pixel world.
EA Sports FC 25 (Cloud, Console, and PC) via EA Play – June 12 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Lead the line and write league history for the club in EA Sports FC 25, coming soon to The Play List. Members can light up the stadium with stunning, title-winning tactics with unlimited access through Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta), PC Game Pass, or Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play. Claim the limited-time Supercharge Pack from June 12 through July 12, featuring 11x Rare Gold Players (82+), including one player with an 87+ OVR and one 93+ OVR TOTS Loan, and more.
The Alters (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – June 13 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! The Alters is a sci-fi survival game where you play as Jan, stranded on a hostile planet. Create alternate versions of yourself — each shaped by different life choices — to survive, gather resources, and navigate deep moral dilemmas. Your past becomes your crew in this unique sci-fi survival.
FBC: Firebreak (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – June 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! A cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak — the Bureau’s most versatile unit — has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, contain the chaos, and fight to reclaim control.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Console and PC) – June 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Crash fourward into a time-shattered adventure with your favorite marsupials. Neo Cortex and N. Tropy are launching an all-out assault on not just this universe, but the entire multiverse! Crash and Coco are here to save the day by reuniting the four Quantum Masks and bending the rules of reality.
Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – June 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! Lost in Random: The Eternal Die blends dynamic real-time action, tactical combat, and risk-reward dice mechanics for thrilling second-to-second battles. Unravel an original stand-alone story as Queen Aleksandra, the once great ruler of Random on a mission for vengeance and redemption.
In-Game Benefits
Zenless Zone Zero: Xbox Game Pass Benefits (Cloud and Console) – June 6 Game Pass Ultimate
Get this bundle and obtain the following Zenless Zone Zero in-game rewards: Polychrome ×80, Ether Battery ×2, Senior Investigator Log ×10, W-Engine Energy Module ×15, and Denny ×75,000!
Splitgate 2: Aeros Javi Ace Skin (Cloud, Console, and PC) – June 6 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Splitgate 2 is the only free-to-play shooter with portals. This Ace character skin is designed with Game Pass members in mind, with characteristic green and black stylings.
The Finals: Urban Ronin Set (Cloud, Console, and PC) – June 12 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Claim the Urban Ronin Set and a sleek collection of matching weapon skins, an emote, a gun charm, 25% Bonus Match XP, and 500 Multibucks!
Game Pass Ultimate Perks
Stumble Guys: Neon Bundle – Available now Grab the Neon Legendary skin, Popped Bubble emote, plus 250 gems and 50 tokens.
Minecraft: 1 Month Marketplace Pass – Available now (US ONLY) Get access to the Marketplace Pass for 1 month! Discover and customize your adventures with worlds, add-ons, skin & texture packs, and more.
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms: 5 Free Champions – Available now (US ONLY) Adventure through the Forgotten Realms and beyond with the Dungeon Master’s Champions of Renown! Claim this perk to get 160 Platinum Champion Chests and to unlock five Champions, including Dungeon Master, Eric, Hank, Sheila, and Diana!
Apex Legends: Gold Tribal Mask Weapon Charm – June 5 Flex your style like a true warrior with the Apex Legends Gold Tribal Mask Weapon Charm, available with your EA Play membership.
Rainbow Six Siege X: Mute Pack – June 10 Rainbow Six Siege X marks its biggest evolution in the game’s history, bringing a visual overhaul, an enhanced player experience, and gameplay changes that deepen the game’s tactical core. For a limited time, claim a free pack that includes headgear, uniform, and weapon skin for Mute! Only available for console.
Leaving June 15
The following games will be leaving the Game Pass library soon, so be sure to pick back up where you left off or jump in fresh before they go! You can save up to 20% off your purchase on these games before they leave to keep them in your library.
Dordogne (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Hypnospace Outlaw (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Isonzo (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Keplerth (PC)
My Time At Sandrock (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Depersonalization (PC)
We’re adding more games over time to the ‘Stream your own game’ collection for Game Pass Ultimate members. Go to Xbox.com/Play to see the list of available cloud playable games to stream on supported devices if you own them.
As always, keep your eyes here or on Xbox, Game Pass, and PC Game Pass for the latest announcements, surprise drops, or handy reminders when these “coming soon” games are actually “available today”! We’ll talk soon!
Are the words “dog” and “cat” similar enough to cause confusion? Naughty Dog owner Sony thinks they are, and has used that as the basis of an official opposition to a trademark application for ‘Naughty Cat.’
Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a Notice of Opposition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) against the “Naughty Cat” trademark application filed by a company called Naughty Cat Co., Limited.
This Hong Kong-based company has two apps listed on the App Store, both gambling “games” that promise to reward users with real cash. That’s a world away from the likes of The Last of Us and Uncharted, but that hasn’t stopped Sony’s lawyers from baring their teeth and barking angrily at their feline competitor.
In documents reviewed by IGN, Sony’s lawyers argue that the Naughty Cat trademark is “confusingly similar” to the Naughty Dog trademark it owns “in overall commercial impression and connotation.”
“The first, dominant element of the two marks, NAUGHTY, is identical,” Sony said. “The second elements, DOG and CAT, are highly similar in that both refer to house pets and are likely to mislead consumers into believing, mistakenly, that Naughty Cat is affiliated with SIE and/or Naughty Dog or that its goods are licensed or approved by SIE and/or Naughty Dog.”
The opposition note goes on to insist that any registration of the Naughty Cat trademark is “likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake or to deceive the public as to the source of Applicant’s goods offered under Applicant’s Mark, to the harm and damage of SIE and the public.”
“Registration of Applicant’s Mark will lead the public to conclude, incorrectly, that Applicant is or has been affiliated or connected with SIE, and/or that Applicant’s goods provided under Applicant’s Mark are or have been authorized, sponsored, endorsed, or licensed by SIE. Issuance of any registration to Applicant for the proposed mark will result in damage to SIE and the public.”
On top of this, the Naughty Cat application claims a first use date of December 25, 2023. The Naughty Dog trademark was of course in use many years beforehand.
Whether you agree with Sony’s assertion here or not, the USPTO has outlined a schedule to resolve the dispute and set trial dates if it comes to that. Naughty Cat Co., Limited has until July 12 to answer Sony’s opposition. If it fails to do that, the USPTO may mark the application as abandoned and Sony will have their victory. If not, the dispute may go to trial in 2026.
We don’t know anything about it yet. Perhaps it’s about cats?
Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images.
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.
Nintendo’s $10 Switch 2 mini-game collection — the game that many fans believe should have been free — requires you own at least $95 of accessories in order to complete 100%.
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is available today alongside the new console, and offers a selection of miniature games and experiences designed to show off the new hardware.
But this also includes mini-games designed to showcase the Switch 2’s camera, and the extra GL/GR buttons which are not found on the standard Switch 2 Joy-Con and instead require a Charging Grip or Pro Controller (thanks, NintendoSoup) — which of course are sold separately.
Oh, and you’ll also need a 4K TV, in case you don’t already have one of those, or were planning to only play your Switch 2 in handheld mode.
Three mini-games require specific equipment, fans now report, with a camera needed to play 1 minigame, a controller with GL/GR buttons for another minigame, and a 4K-supported screen needed for 1 minigame and a separate tech demo.
Nintendo fans who want to see absolutely everything in Switch 2 Welcome Tour will therefore not only need to pay up the $10 cost of the game, but also $54.99 for a Switch 2 Camera, and either $39.99 for a Charging Grip or $84.99 for a Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller to use those GL/GR buttons.
One useful PSA here is that the Switch 2 does support third-party cameras — so you could get hold of a USB-C webcam for cheaper.
But while the Switch 2 does also support the Switch 1 Pro Controller, this does not have the necessary GL/GR buttons — so you really will need to fork out separately for those. And, thanks to tariffs, these now cost slightly more at launch than Nintendo originally announced.
Nintendo has previously faced criticism for not including Switch 2 Welcome Tour with the console itself. An experience designed as an introduction to Nintendo’s new hardware and essentially act as an interactive instruction manual, Welcome Tour would have been a perfect fit to be packed-in with the console — just as Wii Sports was with the Wii.
Even former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has got stuck into the debate, highlighting the Wii Sports situation from his tenure in charge. At the time, Fils-Aimé disagreed with Nintendo’s Japanese bosses who said Wii Sports should have been sold separately (as it still was in Japan). But Fils-Aimé got his way for the U.S. and European markets, and Wii Sports went on to become one of the most successful games of all time.
“Everyone has to decide if it’s worth their $10 to learn about the Switch 2 cartridge slot and watch an HDR fireworks display, and the whole conversation surrounding Welcome Tour has suffered because of Nintendo’s irritating decision to charge for it,” IGN wrote earlier this week. It’ll be interesting to see whether the added costs further impact customer purchases.
Oblivion’s a notoriously buggy game, so it probably shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that Oblivion Remastered was also pretty damn buggy. While a lot of those bugs are the kind of charming nonsense TES 4 is beloved for, Bethesda and Virtuos have now confirmed that the remaster’s got two updates incoming to fix its more serious problems.
Having scrolled through the patch notes for the first of these updates, which releases in Steam beta today, there’s one fix that’s stood out, because the thing it outlines has been haunting my dreams.
XDefiant‘s servers went dark on Tuesday, June 3, a little over a year after Ubisoft’s free-to-play arena shooter was released. Ubisoft gave its Call of duty rival just four months before confirming it would discontinue support. Almost half the team lost their jobs as Ubisoft made a swath of cuts across its San Francisco and Osaka studios.
Producer Mark Rubin, who led development fo the game having previously worked on the Call of Duty series at Activision, called it a “sad day” in a lengthy statement posted to X/Twitter earlier today. After thanking his co-workers for making a “really fun and terrific game,” he announced he’s decided to “leave the industry” for good.
“In case everyone doesn’t know, the team behind XDefiant was all let go at the end of last year and I know many people have moved on to other studios, which is great, and I hope that for all of those still looking, that they find something quickly,” Rubin wrote.
“As for me, I’ve decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family so unfortunately you won’t be hearing about me making another game. I do care passionately about the shooter space and hope that someone else can pick up the flag that I was trying to carry and make games again that care about the players, treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say.”
Rubin said the team made “remarkable” progress despite “very little marketing,” claiming that despite a lack of advertising, XDefiant “still had the fastest acquisition of players in the first few weeks for a Ubisoft title” just from word-of-mouth promotion.
“But unfortunately, with little to no marketing, especially after launch, we weren’t acquiring new players after the initial launch,” he added, before claiming Ubisoft’s in-house game engine “wasn’t designed for what [XDefiant] was doing.”
“We had other issues, though, as well that we tried to be transparent about. For one we had crippling tech debt using an engine that wasn’t designed for what we were doing, and we didn’t have the engineering resources to ever correct that. I do personally think that in-house engines are not the valuable investment that they used to be, and they are often doomed to fall behind big engines like Unreal.
“This tech debt included the dreaded netcode issues that we could just not solve given the architecture we were dealing with,” he added. “And so, for many players with solid network connections (in both speed and consistent reliability) the game played well but if your connection had even the smallest amount of inconsistency the engine just couldn’t handle it and you would have a bad experience. Normally, you should be able to weather those bad moments on your network. But this was a major issue with XDefiant.”
Rubin also lamented the lack of resources to make content.
“Another issue we had was having the right resources to make content for the game. What we saw at Season 3 wasn’t even enough content in my mind for launch. There were some really cool features coming later in Season 4 or even 5 that would have completed the game in a way that I felt it should have been for launch. I can say everyone’s (devs, HQ leadership, etc.) heart was in the right place, but we just didn’t have the gas to go the distance for a free-to-play game.”
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.
Silent Hill f got a concrete release date at last night’s State of Play. You’ll be able to play it on PC on September 25 this year, which is also when it arrives on consoles.
As for what you’re in for, a fresh trailer made pretty clear that protagonist Hinako Shimizu is going to have a bad time of things, with freaky flower monsters and creepy scarecrow-inspired doll things with the mangled posture of your average veteran office worker all seeking to hurt her as she runs around cracking skulls with a pipe.
