Category: IGN

Upcoming multiteam MOBA game Project ZETA announced today that signups are open for its next beta test, which will begin on Steam on December 12. This final closed beta will be the last chance to jump in early before the game goes public, and the developers have asked for opinionated players to help shape its future.

If you’re not already familiar with Project ZETA, we can catch you up to speed. Developed by Nirvanana, a team built of former Eternal Return devs, it mixes up the traditional MOBA formula in two key ways. First, instead of the standard of having two teams go head-to-head, it pits five teams against each other at the same time in a race to capture Prisms, the game’s most precious resource. There are multiple ways to get Prisms, giving each team the opportunity to follow different paths to victory. And second, it uses a third-person camera rather than an isometric one, making combat more dynamic and action-focused.

That combat is PvPvE, with monsters and bosses populating the map. Defeating monsters will score you XP and shards, which can upgrade your abilities and provide buffs to your stats, cooldowns, and more. Defeating bosses gets you all of that plus Prisms. However, just picking up a Prism isn’t enough, you need to return it to the center of the map in order for it to actually count toward your score.

And that’s where the PvP comes in. Competing teams can ambush you on your way to deposit your Prisms and steal them from you. And that looming threat constantly affects the strategy your team chooses. Do you blitz bosses and try to rush their Prisms to the center of the map to win quickly? Do you bide your time, taking down monsters to scale your team’s power and enter the next fight better prepared? Or do you lie in wait near the center of the map to pounce on opposing teams and take their Prisms after they’ve already done the work for you?

These are all viable strategies, but the reality is within one match you’ll jump between all three. In Project ZETA, strategies shift dynamically from one moment to the next. With five teams roaming the Aran Plateau, improvisation matters most. Focus too much on one adversary and another might stab you in the back, or worse, run up the score to take a commanding lead.

Your strategy will also be driven by the heroes your team members choose. There are currently 13 heroes, with more to be revealed in the future, and they’re grouped into four categories: Fighter, Marksman, Assassin, and Mage. Each hero has unique abilities that can synergize with other heroes, some of which can trigger devastating multikills if you pull them off at the right time.

It’s been six months since Project ZETA’s second closed beta, and a lot has changed in that time. In fact, it’s been the period with the biggest advancements in the game to date. There are two new heroes, reworked visuals and abilities for most heroes, new game-changing equipables, revamped environments, simplified Prism scoring, team respawn fixes, and lots more, all based on player feedback.

The final beta test will offer another chance to provide more feedback and further enhance the game. Anyone in North America or Europe can sign up for it on Steam, and both regions will have devoted servers running on two weekends: the first will be December 12–14, and the second will be December 19–21. For those who can’t stop playing, there will also be a custom game server that will stay live for the entirety of the beta, from December 12–21.

Project ZETA is also available to wishlist on Steam, and if you want the latest info and updates, you can join the official Discord server, follow on Twitter or Facebook, or check out its official website.

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is celebrating its first anniversary, introducing a major update with brand-new Crew Deck gameplay. Now there are more ways than ever to interact with your T-Dolls, with exclusive animations and story content for nearly 40 characters. Each Doll has unique behaviors that come out as you spend more time with them, and there are interaction scenes between certain Dolls when they show up together.

New Features Land in Crew Deck Upgrade

With the Crew Deck open, Commanders will find fully realized 3D versions of the collectible cabinet and armory in addition to the new interactive story moments. Commanders should have received mail with an item that lets them unlock the interactive story scene for the hard-eyed but soft-hearted sniper, Makiatto. The story scene “Time Capsule – Pulse-Racing Night” will be available for free. If you already have Makiatto’s Outfit (“Embroidered Bamboo, Blooming Shadows”), you’ll be able to experience Makiatto’s scene after unlocking the relevant area. You’ll also be able to get 35 Outfit Access Permissions at no charge through upgrade rewards, mail rewards, and other limited-time events.

An interactive story scene is available for the elite Doll Klukai alongside the release of her new “Cerulean Breaker” outfit, which gives you the unlock item “Time Capsule – Body Maintenance Technician.” For a limited time, you will also be able to make exchanges for more Outfit Access Permissions.

Speaking of Klukai, she’s the highlight of the Crew Deck’s new Holography Function. You can collect 3D trinkets, customize your living space, cook, play minigames in the Crimson Arcade, and lots more.

Anniversary Rewards Overflowing

‘Tis all about giving during the Starry Season, and developer Mica Team has tons of limited-time event rewards to put on GFL2’s plate for its first-year anniversary celebration. By joining in, players can earn more than 130 pulls and more than 13,000 Collapse Pieces.

The Crew Deck Date Reward includes 10 Access Permissions, an Elmo Model ornament, 300 Collapse Pieces, and more growth materials. The season also delivers two free outfits: Dragon Chef for Qiuhua from the Glory Store and Enjoy the Fragrance for Springfield are unlocked for free once your collectibles reach the required level. Additional Access Permissions can be earned from daily activities, furniture exchanges, gift packs, mail rewards, and the seasonal Battle Pass event.

Check out the Video of 404 Squad, with More to Come

Commanders can look forward to meeting two new Dolls, Leva and Lenna. These additions from the original 404 Squad use electricity to attack and debuff their foes, and they’re sure to give Electric teams a boost.

Check in with GFL2’s main site and social media (Including Twitter and YouTube) for more information about the timing of prize drops, stay up-to-date on upcoming collabs with other games and franchises, and to see a new trailer that reunites the 404 Squad when Lenna, Leva, Klukai, and Mechty are reunited under the Commander to carry out a dangerous mission. There are intense battles with gatling guns, helicopters, humvees, and other heavy machinery. Commanders and their Dolls should expect to stay busy for quite a while, but don’t forget to relax on the Crew Deck from time to time. That’s what it’s for.

EA and Battlefield Studios are preparing Battlefield 6 players for Season 1: Winter Offensive with a community letter with a list of changes set to be introduced with the upcoming 1.1.3.0 update.

The message, which aims to roll out the welcome mat for what will be yet another feedback-driven update, was posted on the official Battlefield 6 website today. It comes with a breakdown for some of the community talking points BF Studios has attempted to address so far, while giving fans a closer look at what’s to come when Winter Offensive launches December 9.

With anticheat, challenge/progression, and Escalation updates topping the list of recent highlights, BF Studios is turning its attention to a number of key issues across combat, REDSEC, and the overall Battlefield 6 experience. One especially troublesome issue for the community that the team is seeking to fix with update 1.1.3.0 are audio issues that have existed since launch. Players should notice, for example, that footsteps have been tweaked to “improve clarity, distance definition, and positional awareness across the game.”

“We have also continued to work on performance and memory issues that could cause sounds,” BF Studios says, “such as vehicles or footsteps, to sometimes not play as intended, which has been particularly noticeable on larger Battle Royale maps.”

Following last month’s multiplayer mode tweaks is a set of additional adjustments for Rush and Breakthrough. The studio explains the new changes as another step in the balancing act that has seen it attempting to keep matches fair, with the new update ideally improving the experience for attacking players.

Capture volumes and vehicle availability in Breakthrough will also be updated when 1.1.3.0 launches next week, with BF Studios explaining that Siege of Cairo, for example, will feature an additional attacker tank for Sectors 1 and 3 and a reworked capture area for objective B. Rush fans will notice M-COM locations for Manhattan Bridge and Liberation Peak have been adjusted to further refine attacker gameplay.

“These updates are intended to reduce bottlenecks, remove frustration points, and create more consistent and engaging fights around objectives,” BF Studios says.

“Beyond these highlights, we have also made a range of quality-of-life improvements across UI clarity, minimap behavior, controller aiming responsiveness, and more, which you will see detailed in the full notes.”

Another topic plaguing the Battlefield 6 fanbase since launch involves potential hit registration and netcode issues. It’s an area BF Studios has taken aim at before, with update 1.1.3.0 set to, hopefully, buff out even more scratches related to inconsistent gameplay across multiplayer and REDSEC. Also included in the new changes is the promise that Battlefield 6 will be easier on the eyes thanks to changes to close-range soldier visibility, lighting, prone animations, and more.

While players across the experience will likely pick up on “wide-ranging” changes to weapon handling, attachments, and recoil patterns, REDSEC fans can look forward to armor and tank availability changes. Armor changes for the battle royale experience will be detailed in its own dedicated post in the near future, with tank changes also subject to change as fans get their hands on update 1.1.3.0.

“We are actively exploring several areas aimed at improving clarity, responsiveness, and fairness in combat, BF Studios adds. “This includes further work on edge cases related to hit registration, investigating rare desync scenarios with destructible objects, and gathering deeper data on situations where players feel they were eliminated after reaching cover. These areas remain key priorities, and the findings from our ongoing investigations will inform updates planned for the new year.”

This latest communication from the Battlefield team stops short of providing full Battlefield 6 update 1.1.3.0 patch notes. Players are told to expect a more detailed list of all of the new weapon, map, and mode changes in “the next few days.”

Battlefield 6 Season 1 will deliver its third and final chapter when Winter Offensive launches December 9 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. While the two previous chapters have introduced additional weapons, modes, and two maps – Blackwell Fields and Eastwood – next week’s content update focuses on its Ice Lock event changes. Expect snowy limited-time goodies for Gauntlet and Empire State, as well as an ice climbing axe melee weapon.

Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles October 10. As BF Studios continues to refine its gameplay, players have found themselves divided over map sizes and goofy skins while EA boasts record-breaking launch sales.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The highly-acclaimed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 just added yet another accolade to its name — as it’s now the biggest new third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025.

Microsoft announced the news today after examining data from every day one Xbox Game Pass launch this year, and ranking every third-party game by the number of unique users during its first 30 days of availability.

It’s a hugely impressive achievement for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut game from French studio Sandfall Interactive, for several different reasons. Firstly, because the game arrived just two days after Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (which itself also launched via Game Pass). And secondly, because we already know that Clair Obscur went on to sell very well too (5 million copies in five months) — something its launch via Game Pass does not appear to have dented.

“From being there to announce our game back in Summer 2024, to coming to the studio for the Developer_Direct video in January, Xbox helped us get the word out there and reach a lot of players,” Sandfall creative director Guillaume Broche said in a statement.

Xbox Game Pass let “a lot of people try our game when maybe they might not have before,” Broche continued. “The turn-based RPG genre has a lot of fans but sometimes it might put people who prefer more real-time action games off, but Game Pass lowered that barrier of entry. They could just try it and see how it feels. So a lot of curious players could start the game, explore Lumière and the early game, and realize there’s a lot to enjoy here, even if they weren’t expecting it at first.”

So, what was Clair Obscur’s Xbox Game Pass competition? It’s been a long year, so it’s worth reminding ourselves of everything the turn-based RPG has beaten to become this year’s biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass release. (And remember, this is separate to Microsoft’s own first-party output, which will include Avowed and South by Midnight, as well as Bethesda games such as The Outer Worlds 2, and Activision fare like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.)

Other third-party games that arrived day one via Microsoft’s subscription service notably included the highly-anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, as well as the post-apocalyptic survival game Atomfall. The highly-acclaimed indie puzzle favorite Blue Prince also arrived this year, as did Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Ball X Pit, and PowerWash Simulator 2.

Congratulations, then, to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — something we may well be hearing a few more times this month, considering its record-breaking number of nominations at The Game Awards. Tempted to give it a try? It’s still on Xbox Game Pass, and we have an array of tips for the important things to know before going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Briana White, the actress who portrays Aerith in Final Fantasy 7, has called on fans to stop tagging voice artists in spicy material featuring their characters.

The discussion began after White saw KPop: Demon Hunters actor Rei Ami discovering adult fanfiction featuring her character Zoey. In response, White suggested fans in general had “forgotten the meaning of the word inappropriate.”

“Maybe let’s normalize not tagging voice actors in smut of their characters,” White wrote in a series of posts on X. But many fans responded by saying Ami had gone on to look for the content purposefully — to which White then suggested it was all a matter of “consent.”

“It’s really a shame when VAs want to interact with the people who love the characters on social media but just a few creeps ruin it for everyone,” White wrote, acknowledging that she had seen all sorts of fan-made Final Fantasy 7 content even though she tried to “actively avoid it.”

White portrayed Aerith in the 2020 Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a role she has then continued in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, 2024’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.

“I’m so associated with FF7 that it gets shown to me every single day anyway,” White explained. “As someone said earlier, it is a matter of consent. And it can be almost impossible to know what exactly is acceptable or not to an individual just from knowing their social media persona.”

Ultimately, White conceded that while Ami had chosen to seek out the fan-made content that had prompted her initial post, fans should still be mindful of what they share. “Alright alright y’all have spoken and I hear you,” White concluded. “Point stands, just not for [Rei Ami]. Carry on.”

White is set to return in Square Enix’s upcoming third and final entry in its Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy — a game that won’t cut content in order to feel “more concise” than the sometimes meandering Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

“It’s about making sure the pacing feels right,” series director Naoki Hamaguchi said. “It’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right, and it is fairly quick and feels like you can get through it at a reasonable pace. But it has to feel right, so that’s what I mainly intended to say there.”

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has responded to fan concern about the choice of Justin Lin as the director of the Helldivers movie, after it emerged he leaned into not being a gamer for his pitch.

Helldivers 2 is an explosive co-op focused action shooter that’s a lot like a video game version of cult sci-fi classic Starship Troopers. You play as a disposable soldier in an ongoing galactic war, defending a fascist Super Earth regime against alien robots called Automatons and bugs called Terminids, all the while preaching “Managed Democracy.” (Incidentally, Sony is also working on a new Starship Troopers movie, which should make for a somewhat bizarre one-two punch of sci-fi satire.)

This week, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Justin Lin is set to direct the upcoming Helldivers live-action film adaptation. Lin is best known for his work on the Fast & Furious films, and was the director of the series from 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. He also directed 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the final film in the modern Star Trek trilogy, and 2021’s F9.

But it was one paragraph in THR’s story that raised eyebrows within the Helldivers community:

Lin is not a gamer and leaned into that as a strength when pitching his take on the material, said insiders. He aims to find the humanity in the characters and weave timely themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology. There are plenty of details waiting to be drawn in, something that is compelling to the filmmaker.

Some fans are now worried that Lin simply won’t get what Helldivers is about because he’s not a gamer and, presumably, hasn’t played Arrowhead’s shooter. And because of that, some players believe, the Helldivers movie is at risk of missing the video game’s vibe.

Over on the official Helldivers Discord, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani briefly addressed this concern. He first responded to one fan who asked if they could direct the Helldivers movie instead of Lin, saying: “let Justin Lin work his magic.”

Jorjani then responded to the following question from a fan:

“If you guys have any sway with Sony over the movie can you make sure the director plays the game at least once or at least sees some gameplay?”

Jorjani replied: “I trust Justin. He did a great job on the Star Trek movie.”

Arrowhead will likely face this sort of concern until fans see the Helldivers movie in trailer form, or hear from Lin himself on his vision for the film. And Helldivers is not alone in this approach. Amazon’s adaptation of God of War is helmed by Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore, who isn’t a gamer either.

But it is in contrast to the situation with the Elden Ring movie, which is being directed by Ex Machina and Civil War director and self-confessed Elden Ring superfan Alex Garland. In June, Garland told IGN he was on his seventh playthrough of FromSoftware’s epic fantasy RPG, and revealed the boss he found the toughest to take down.

As for Helldivers, in January, Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt insisted the studio shouldn’t have the final say on the Helldivers movie because it doesn’t know anything about making films.

“We are not Hollywood people, and we don’t know what it takes to make a movie,” Pilestedt said. “And therefore we don’t, and shouldn’t, have final say.”

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.

New gameplay footage of Resident Evil Requiem has teased a glimpse at a fresh area in the game filled with classic zombies — and it all looks very Resident Evil 1.

The snippet comes from a special Resident Evil program that aired recently on Japanese TV, shared online by long-time Capcom leaker DuskGolem. Within the footage, we can see Requiem’s lead character Grace Ashcroft approaching a staircase in a dimly-lit mansion, and taking aim at a shuffling zombie.

Ashcroft’s shots miss, and the zombie lunges forward to grab the character. It looks like the undead enemy manages to gnaw her arm, before she eventually fights it off — only to find another zombie waiting for her down the corridor.

There was some new Resident Evil Requiem gameplay of a new area with Grace fighting a zombie in the Resident Evil special program that aired on Japanese television. pic.twitter.com/FToPeqi4HW

— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) December 3, 2025

It’s only a short clip, but fans are celebrating the classic Resident Evil vibe it gives off, and the setting for this gameplay segment which looks straight out of the Spencer Mansion. (It’s definitely not, but still.)

Of course, another classic element expected to appear in Resident Evil Requiem is a certain fan-favorite Leon S. Kennedy, who has been named in persistent rumors and reports as secretly appearing in the game as a second playable character. Capcom has remained tight-lipped on the matter and refused to discuss Leon’s involvement specifically, though recently gave its biggest hint yet when it acknowledged that other classic characters connected to the Raccoon City incident would indeed appear.

Capcom has specifically pitched Resident Evil Requiem as a return not just to the classic location of Raccoon City, but also to the series’ “overarching narrative” begun 30 years ago, after more recent games such as Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village focused on events set elsewhere, with fewer connections to past titles.

What has Capcom got in store? Time is beginning to run short for Capcom to reveal much more, as Resident Evil Requiem launches on February 27, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

At the PlayStation Partner Awards 2025 Japan Asia held in Tokyo on December 3, Monster Hunter Wilds won the Grand Award and the User’s Choice Award.

In an interview held before the award ceremony, Ryozo Tsujimoto, the producer of this work, and Yuya Tokuda, the director, answered questions from local media. IGN Japan was in attendance.

When Monster Hunter Wilds was first released on February 28, some players left harsh feedback, but Tokuda said the team worked to improve the game by taking advantage of that feedback.

“Immediately after the release, we apologized for the inconvenience caused by the volume of content and the difficulty level. Despite this, we were delighted to receive various awards, including Users’ Choice awards. We would like to thank all the players who have given their opinions and spoken warm words even in this situation. The development team was able to turn everyone’s feedback into an asset and work on the update with all our strength, and I think the result was also the reason why players voted for us,” said Tokuda.

Legendary voice actress Jennifer Hale has been replaced as the voice of Samus in Metroid Prime 4, the new game’s credits have revealed.

Numerous actors have voiced Samus over the years, though Hale had been the artist behind most of the bounty hunter’s grunts and cries in Metroid Prime 1, 2 and 3 (with some additional work from a second artist, Vanessa Marshall).

Many fans had assumed Hale would return as Samus in Nintendo’s long-awaited new Prime game, but Nintendo Life has now reported on Metroid Prime 4’s credits, which list that Erin Yvette has taken on the role of Samus.

If you’re playing Metroid Prime 4 and think Samus’ grunts sound familiar, Yvette previously voiced Snow White in The Wolf Among Us, Alex in Oxenfree, and can currently be heard as Blonde Blazer in Dispatch.

The past few years have seen Nintendo replace many of its previous regular voice actors, including the veteran voice of Mario and Luigi, Charles Martinet. Princess Peach and Toad voice actress Samantha Kelly, meanwhile, discovered her 18-year tenure as the Super Mario characters was over on Nintendo Switch 2 launch day — when Mario Kart World released without her in it. Takashi Nagasako, who previously voiced Donkey Kong for 21 years, has also been replaced as of the Switch 2’s launch.

IGN recently caught up with Hale and discussed her past work as Samus, and questioned whether she had recorded any new material for Metroid Prime 4 over the course of its lengthy development.

“I don’t know,” Hale told IGN. “I have no recollection of recording it or signing a contract, so it could be no. When we work, this is the thing, everything’s under a code name, so they would’ve called it Sasquatch or Pineapple or Cookie Jar. And ‘okay, I’m going to do Cookie Jar.’ And then when you get to the session they’ll tell you, but it stays in your brain for so much shorter a time. It doesn’t stick as much.”

While Hale’s work as Samus is limited to the famously silent bounty hunter’s range of grunts, she said she still had a full voice for the character in her mind while performing the role.

“I like to have identified a character’s way of speaking before I do grunting for them, because how you grunt is different to how I grunt, to how anyone else grunts,” Hale explained. “It’s very specific. If you are a civilian and you’re grunting, you’re like… [makes surprised grunt noise] because it’s all surprising and it’s all new. If you’ve done it a million times, you’re like [makes short grunt noise], because you’ve gone under fire 1,800 times and you’re used to it.”

Hale has voiced a string of famous video game characters over the years, including Ratchet and Clank’s Rivet, Metal Gear Solid’s Naomi Hunter, and BioShock Infinite’s Rosalind Lutece. But it’s for her role in Mass Effect that she remains perhaps known. Speaking to IGN, Hale said she hadn’t been asked to return for Mass Effect 5 yet, but “would be there before they finish the sentence” if BioWare got in touch.

“Not all of Prime 4’s additions work, but this is still an excellent comeback,” IGN wrote in our Metroid Prime 4 review, scoring the game an 8/10.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Fern “Antireal” Hook, the artist who found her own designs and graphics in Bungie’s Marathon, has confirmed she has “resolved” the issue with the studio and its parent company Sony.

In a brief update posted to X/Twitter, Hook wrote: “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.” She did not provide details of any settlement.

Destiny 2 developer Bungie found itself battling accusations of plagiarism back in May after Hook accused the studio of lifting aspects of her artwork for its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon. In screenshots taken from Marathon’s alpha playtest accompanying the tweet, Hook alleged she could see distinct icons and graphics she designed, some of which were originally shared on social media years ago in 2017.

bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language i have refined for the last decade, but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution. pic.twitter.com/G3FbPtbPJD

— N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025

Shortly afterwards, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross apologized on a painfully uncomfortable livestream that featured no Marathon art or footage at all, as the team was “still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation.” The studio commenced an “immediate investigation,” eventually acknowledging that a “former Bungie artist” had indeed used Fern Hook’s work without compensation or credit.

And then, of course, Marathon was delayed into 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to feedback from playtests. Things went very quiet until Marathon reemerged in October, when Bungie announced the extraction shooter was ready for a limited, invite-only playtest for players in North America and Europe across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.

The art issue continues to cast a shadow, though. Last month, the director of the Marathon reveal cinematic short expressed his disbelief that he felt forced to come out and defend the work as “not AI.”

Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development and has suffered multiple delays. The pressure is on for Marathon to succeed amid Destiny 2’s high-profile struggles. Earlier this month, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge.

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.