If you’ve seen Crimson Desert’s impressive 15-minute gameplay video, you might be wincing at the thought of it running smoothly on your console or PC. Well, right now, the developers at Pearl Abyss are focusing on optimization to help ensure a “smooth” experience when the game comes out in March.

Crimson Desert is set in a huge and seamless open world packed with enemies, NPCs, and all sorts of things to do. It’s dense with detail, and you can zip around quickly on the back of a dragon. Based on the video, below, Crimson Desert will be a demanding beast — it will be interesting in particular to see how it runs on the Xbox Series S.

According to Will Powers, director of public relations at Pearl Abyss America, the developers are doubling down on the “optimization phase” as we speak, telling former IGN video extraordinaire Destin Legarie in a new interview that this is the focus ahead of Crimson Desert’s March 19 release date.

“We have gone gold. Now comes further, further optimization to make the game run as good as it possibly can,” Powers said. “And that’s as important of a part. So that’s the phase we’re currently in between now and launch to make sure that the experience when players eventually get their hands on the game, is as smooth as possible.”

Powers wouldn’t go into specifics on the graphics settings that will be available on consoles, but did confirm Crimson Desert has PS5 Pro enhancement. You can also turn off the particle effects in settings, although Powers said they do convey important information during fights.

Pearl Abyss built a new engine for Crimson Desert, and Powers explained that it’s capable of providing a 4K60 native presentation, complete with ray tracing, without the aid of graphics technology such as DLSS or FSR. But of course you’ll need powerful hardware to enable it.

“Yeah, we’ll show 4K 60 native, sure, with ray tracing on, that’s not done through DLSS or FSR, that’s done natively in-engine,” Powers said. “And then if you want to further optimize then you can tweak all the settings and do all the things, but we want to show that you don’t have to… like the game itself should be able to stand on its own.”

And on that decision to go with a proprietary engine:

“I’m not going to say that the game is absolutely perfectly optimized, but within the engine it’s using every single thing. So it’s as optimized as it can be within that space. That’s not possible otherwise. And so rendering thousands of trees within draw distance, it does those things better than an off-the-shelf engine could because of that.

“Off-the-shelf engines weren’t able to deliver the uncompromised vision that the developers set forth to create with this game. So, they needed to create their own engine in order to deliver on that vision.”

Crimson Desert’s huge open world has been a topic of debate recently. Pywel is divided into five distinct regions: Hernand; Pailune; Demeniss; Delesyia; and the Crimson Desert itself. The main quest revolves around protagonist Kliff’s journey, but you’re free to explore the world in any order, taking faction-driven quests, large-scale battles, fortress sieges and smaller, character-focused missions.

Pearl Abyss confirmed that as the story progresses, two additional playable characters become available, each with unique combat styles, skills and weapons. Exploration is a big part of the game — you travel on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances, and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon. Pearl Abyss said the world is filled with hidden treasures, ancient mechanisms, puzzles and points of interest “designed to reward curiosity and discovery.” As for combat, expect to face enemy soldiers, sorcerers, beasts and machines.

Earlier this month, Powers called Crimson Desert’s open world “absolutely massive,” bigger even than that of Bethesda’s Skyrim and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.

Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open-world games around.

“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world wouldn’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor.

“The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”

Image credit: Pearl Abyss.

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.

Inevitably, the New California Republic Power Armor that made such a dramatic appearance in the latest episode of the Fallout TV show is now in Fallout 76. But rather than sell it via the in-game shop and thus allow players to buy it with Atoms, Fallout 76’s virtual currency, it is only available as part of a standalone DLC bundle priced $30.

In lieu of a brand new Fallout video game, Bethesda has leaned heavily on Fallout 76 to capitalize on boosted interest in all things Fallout following the breakout success of the Prime Video TV show. Fallout 76 has Walton Goggins’ character The Ghoul dishing out quests, for example. There is a New Vegas-style expansion (Season 2 is set in New Vegas — or what’s left of it). And now Fallout 76 has the NCR Power Armor that Maximus uses to fight a pack of Deathclaws in Episode 7.

Never underestimate the power of brand recognition. pic.twitter.com/vuHbfcQ6EB

— FALLOUT⚡️ (@falloutonprime) January 28, 2026

That NCR Power Armor is a big talking point among Fallout fans for a number of reasons. It’s brand new — we’ve not seen its type in the video games before — and it sparks all sorts of questions about the Fallout lore and what we thought the NCR was capable of. Setting aside the fact that an NCR Power Armor appearance in Fallout 76, which is set before all the other Fallout video games, makes little sense lore wise because the NCR didn’t exist yet, its price has become the big talking point.

The NCR Power Armor is available in Fallout 76 via the Mojave Bundle, which includes the following:

• Ranger Power Armor Paint
• NCR Flag
• New Vegas Neon Sign
• Ad Victoriam (Super Sledge)
• Legion Legate Outfit
• Player Title Prefix – “Advictoriam”
• Player Title Prefix & Suffix – “Tribune”

Magic: The Gathering feels like it’s more popular than ever, and with no fewer than seven sets on the roadmap, here’s hoping there’s something for everyone.

The first set of the year is Lorwyn Eclipsed, and it’s pretty darn great, actually. It’s also causing some big changes to card value as players rush to upgrade its precons, particularly the Blight Curse one. Thanks to our friends at TCGplayer, we’ve got a rundown of the movers and shakers kicking off the latest set.

Climbers

Video game adaptation company Story Kitchen is cooking up a movie based on the popular Roblox experience, Steal a Brainrot.

As reported by Deadline, the movie studio has announced that it is officially in early development on a feature-length film based on the meme-collecting experience that launched just last May. It’s not exactly Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider, or any of the other games the studio is known for getting involved in, but it’s still something it’s (mostly) serious about.

“We’re thrilled to bring STEAL A BRAINROT to the big screen,” Story Kitchen co-founders Dmitri M. Johnson and Michael Lawrence Goldberg said in a statement. “Noobini Pizzanini 6-7.”

Deadline says the Steal a Brainrot movie will blend all of the “chaos, comedy, and competitive mischief” that has attracted the 56.6 billion visits the Roblox experience has achieved. Fans have turned up every day since May to buy “Brainrots,” which are essentially meme versions of collectible monsters not unlike Pokémon. Some Brainrots are rarer than others, with players able to generate money, sell Brainrots, and, of course, steal them from other players.

Around 400,000 users are active in Steal a Brainrot as of this piece’s publication, with the all-time peak it reached in October being a whopping 25.8 million concurrent players. Even if you’ve never played Roblox, there’s a decent chance you’ve heard about this particular experience, as multi-instrumentalist and Uptown Funk mastermind Bruno Mars helped put together an exclusive concert for Steal a Brainrot earlier this month.

Story Kitchen is bringing Steal a Brainrot to moviegoers at an unspecified point in the future. The project is in development alongside Do Big Studios and Spyder Games, and it’s led by Johnson, Goldberg, Timothy I. Stevenson, and Elena Sandoval. Think Influence, which represents the creators of the experience, is also involved in the production.

The company has shown interest in the Roblox community before, announcing in November 2025 that it had started putting the pieces together for a movie based on Grow a Garden. Other projects in the works at Story Kitchen include the live-action Tomb Raider show, a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 movie, a Life is Strange show, an It Takes Two movie, and more.

While we wait for updates on how Steal a Brainrot will bring memes to the movies, you can read about why experiences like Grow a Garden are bringing in millions of players. You can also see where Roblox ranked on the list of the most-played console games of 2025 (and 2024).

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).

Borderlands 4 is getting a major update today, including, among other things, the addition of the long-awaited Photo Mode that was announced prior to the game’s launch, but was allegedly held due to the need to prioritize polishing other elements.

The update was announced via the official Borderlands 4 website, and it isn’t just a Photo Mode being added. Harlowe’s Zero-Point Action skill is getting a rework, and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode levels will now increase dedicated loot drop levels.

But Photo Mode is the crown jewel here, and it’s available now by restarting your game and downloading the update. Once the update is installed, you can find Photo Mode in the Pause menu while you’re playing. It’ll let you adjust the camera and apply a variety of visual effects including Field of View and Depth of Field adjustments, filters, changing the time of day, and even toggling visibility of elements such as characters or even damage numbers. Entering Photo Mode will also pause the game entirely in single-player mode (sorry multiplayer folks, just doesn’t work that way). There’s a full guide to how to use the Photo Mode and all its settings right here.

Photo Mode was promised for Borderlands 4 way back in June of 2025, with creative director Graeme Timmins saying on social media that while it was planned, the team was prioritizing polishing other core elements, and Photo Mode thus wouldn’t be around at launch.

I had us prioritize polishing some other elements, more core to the moment-to-moment experience. We’ve always planned for it, and had it tasked up, we just needed to spend a bit more time on things that would directly impact QoL of playing the game.

— Graeme Timmins (@ProdigyXL) June 24, 2025

Below we’ve pasted the full patch notes, including all the other updates to Harlowe and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode:

Progression and Rewards

Contract Missions:

• Patrol: Order troops: Now progresses when killing enemies
• Trace: Scrap Core: The scrap core object is able to be interacted with consistently and the contract from Dominion can now be completed
• Convinced the Intrusive Thoughts Vile Ripper, Deep State Phalanx, and Breaux Chambeaux Phalanx bounties to show up when a player has taken their contracts

Vault Card Challenges:

• “Loot or Purchase 10/15 legendaries” Vault Card weekly challenge will no longer reset with a save/load
• “Loot or Purchase Ordnance” will now increase when conditions are met
• “Kill enemies with Torgue guns and gear” will now progress when using Torgue legendary grenade Firepot
• “Kill X enemies with Maliwan guns and gears” and the Maliwan Challenge “Last Wan Standing” will now progress as intended

Challenges:

• Legendary Forsaken Chaos and Legendary Midnight Defiance have been removed from the Collect All Phosphene Challenge
• Updated Maliwan status effects to better identify what triggered the status effects, leading to better tracking on challenges

Progression and rewards

• Addressed a reported issue that was causing travel to Dominion to be locked by a player leaving a transition area in multiplayer
• “Potty Mouth” Mission: Objectives are no longer blocked when exiting to the main menu
• Addressed an issue causing unlocked DLC content to be unavailable while offline
• True Mode is now able to be consistently enabled for newly created level 30 UVHM characters
• Added a tutorial for True Mode when the campaign is completed
• Players creating a new character in multiplayer will now receive all intended rewards
• Addressed a reported issue causing all equipment to be lost when quitting to the main menu during a countdown in multiplayer when switching to solo play
• Addressed issues with the “Gourd Your Loins” cosmetic reward not being awarded with SHiFT code
  • If you were impacted by this issue the first time around, or you missed these gourd-geous heads during the Horrors of Kairos event, this SHiFT code will redeem your missing cosmetic! This code will not reward anything to those that successfully received their cosmetic rewards the first time.
  • Redeem the SHiFT code below (check out our SHiFT User Guide if you don’t already know how) to get the “Gourd Your Loins” Vault Hunter Head and the “Hex Appeal” Weapon Skin!*
  • THFB3-R9XKK-CFBJW-T33BB-9R3CC
  • *Requires a copy of Borderlands 4, SHiFT Account, and Internet connection. Must redeem by December 31, 2030. One redemption per SHiFT Account. Terms apply.

Vault Hunters

• Addressed reported issues where critical hit damage sometimes wasn’t being applied to critical hits

Specializations

• Daredevil: Action Skill Cooldown rate has been adjusted to .5% and a multiplicative Action Skill Damage bonus has been added
• Runner: Melee Damage bonus is now a multiplicative instead of additive

Harlowe the Gravitar Skill Rework

Dev Note: We’re making several changes to Zero-Point as another step towards making this skill tree feel more satisfying and better balanced relative to Harlowe’s other trees. Because we’re changing the fundamental behavior of Zero-Point to include the old Inertia Augment behavior in the base skill, we want to see how these changes balance out before doing more work in the rest of the tree.

We have our eye on a few other passives that may be candidates for some buffs, but between the recent passive buffs that were implemented several weeks ago, combined with today’s changes, we’ll revisit those in the future once we’ve gathered adequate feedback on the current changes.

Long term, we want to ensure that each Vault Hunter has plenty of build diversity, with each Action Skill having its own pros and cons. If and when we see one falling behind, we’ll continue to explore changes like today’s.

• Zero-Point (Base Skill): Now includes the benefits of the previous “Inertia” Augment. Killing an enemy in Stasis now resets the duration, searches for a new target, and makes the duration decrease faster
• Inertia Augment (Changed): Updated to increase Harlowe’s Slam Damage. Whenever she slams an enemy, create Mini Unstable Energy Pocket projectiles that randomly deal Cryo or Radiation damage. Additionally, she also gains increased Status Effect Damage and Status Effect Chance. This effect stacks.

Amon the Forgeknight

• Amon now consistently deals bonus Cryo Damage when equipping Cryonic Thrum Augment in multiplayer
• Prevented unintended increases in the number of segments in the Vault Hunter bar when Amon activates his Action Skill
• Dragon’s Breath now applies properly to Ripper Heavy Weapons with beams
• Firewall Forgeskill will now block Moon-Maddened Callis projectile attacks

Vex the Siren

• Addressed the cooldown for Prismatic Ichors sometimes resetting when applying a status effect
• Phase Pocket Passive no longer resets the Taser underbarrel magazine when using a Vladof Enhancement
• Healing numbers now present correctly when Specters are using Ripper Legendary Sniper Rifle Tankbuster
• Addressed Incarnate Action Skill behavior so that it continues to work while using the Vibe Check Capstone with the Legendary Class Mod Technomancer

General Gameplay:

Bloomreaper Boss Fight:

• Falling into the fog will now consistently kill players instead of having them fall out of the map
• The purple rift will now only appear after the boss is defeated
• Addressed an instance of Bloomreaper keeping the Invincible health bar in the second phase
• Addressed an exploit that would allow UVHM time trial rewards to be obtained while not in UVHM
• Addressed an issue that would cause the chest for Platinum rewards to be empty after fulfilling the requirements
• Disc-shooting heavy weapons will now damage Bloomreaper’s crystals
• Vile Creeps should no longer get stuck in the air

World Events and Bosses:

• Increased the spawn rate of world bosses in the Punitive Manufactorium area
• Rewards will now reliably spawn when completing the Airship or The Goredello world events
• Minister Screw is no longer able to be frozen
• Toy Pinheads are now affected by singularity grenades
• Idolator Sol now takes damage from Elemental Hazards created by skills while Bio Armor is broken
• Vile Lictor’s limbs will now continue to respawn after freezing them
• Gennifer will now remain inside the refugee even if the player is dying near the area
• Lowered the amount of Badass enemies spawning in one spot by Electi Safe Collectable
• Ensured that boss fights consistently reset when all players have died
• Restored the ability to interact with Fortresses if travel was canceled by leaving a transition area in multiplayer

Loot and Stations:

• UVH levels now increase dedicated loot drop levels. The higher the level, the higher the chance of dedicated loot dropping!
• Changed the Respawn Station outside of Umbral Foundry to a Fast Travel station to allow for easier travel to the entrance
• Prevented loot items from dropping into unintended areas after defeating The Oppressor or killing all enemies in Ripper Drill Site Saw’s Clench
• Red Chest in Coastal Bonescape will only unlock when all enemies are killed

Mission, Enemy and ECHO Location Updates:

• Guns Blazing: Arjay will now consistently engage in combat against enemies
• The Power Ballad of Rodd Vomit: Addressed enemy pathing to reach the player
• Missions will no longer progress unexpectedly in multiplayer when switching from splitscreen to solo play
• Radioactive Rail Liner will now attack if players are close to it
• ECHO Location guidance improvements
• Rift Champion icon removed from the Compass, with cleaned-up functionality for those icons in the Map

Guns & Gear

Enhancement:

• Adjusted the Underdog enhancement to only apply to Vladof underbarrel weapons as intended. This will remove an unintended damage bonus that was happening when some guns switched their ammo or element types. We also updated Wombo Combo rockets so they now correctly count as underbarrel damage and receive this boost

Tediore:

• Tediore Legendary Assault Rifle Chuck now throws properly when the player has over 120% gun reload speed
• Addressed a behavior that prevented homing on the third gun spawned by Tediore reloads when specific conditions were met
• Removed extra gun from Tediore shotguns with Ripper magazines

Maliwan:

• Maliwan Legendary SMG Ohm I Got will no longer consume Energy Shield when Overshield is active
• Only active element Status Effects will spread when killing an enemy with a Maliwan-licensed part with Maliwan Enhancement and Transfuser Core
• Singularities now spawn correctly on Maliwan Sniper Rifles with Singularity Grenade Launcher underbarrels

Jakobs:

• Addressed Jakobs ricochet damage to apply the intended amount of damage on Jakobs weapons

Torgue:

• Torgue Legendary Pistol Hardpoint will fire as intended with Tediore licensed-part “Shooting”
• Torgue Legendary Shield Compleation now properly triggers Segment Break armor shield augments

Order:

• Order Legendary Sniper Rifle Rooker needle projectiles will consistently home in on enemies at a distance with the Callous augment. It will also no longer spawn unintended underbarrel projectiles with Jakobs licensed parts and a Jakob enhancement with Leaper and Bounce Pass

Ripper:

• Ripper Legendary Shield Watts 4 Dinner will now consistently give the overshield in multiplayer from Overshield drops

CoV:

• Weapons with CoV magazines now continue to fire when using Bullets to Spare firmware level 3 with the Ventilator enhancement

Daedalus:

• Daedalus SMGs with the Overcharge attachment and a Ripper Magazine will now inherit the Ripper magazine charge-up time

Atlas:

• Atlas Sure Shot perk is no longer triggered by Rafa Peacebreaker Cannons Action Skill while equipping a weapon with Atlas licensed parts and the Sure Shot enhancement
• Updated Tracker Antenna and Trauma Bond to no longer incorrectly apply to gear without Atlas-licensed parts

Ordnance

• Heavy Weapons now cause damage to BoomBoom Drones during the Callis boss fight

Firmware:

• Skillcraft will now receive the proper amount of stacks when dealing skill damage to enemies
• Deadeye 2-piece now functions as intended with intended projectiles
• High Caliber 3-piece now functions as intended with Atlas Tracker Grenade
• Get Throwin’ now properly increases Heavy Weapon Ordnance damage

Visual, Audio, and Animation updates to Guns and Gear:

• Restored prefixes to Tediore Legendary Grenade UAV
• Order Legendary Pistol Bully with Hyperion Shield enhancement now display with all parts on the item card
• Repkit will no longer disappear when trying to heal after climbing
• Corrected animations for Daedalus SMGs with Atlas Underbarrel attachments when switching
• Corrected audio on the Daedalus Legendary Shotgun Missilaser
• Maliwan Legendary Shotgun Mantra now shows the Amara Phase Fist when fired
• Adjusted effects on Maliwan Legendary SMG Ohm I Got and Daedalus Legendary Shotgun Missilaser to be consistent throughout gameplay
• Adjusted animation on Tediore Shotguns to prevent shell cases from appearing when using secondary fire
• Tediore weapons no longer explode when thrown if they overlap with water
• Tediore Assault Rifles and Pistols have consistent laser sights on gear
• Effects for Vladof Legendary Assault Rifle Whiskey Foxtrot will now expire as intended
• Adjusted reload animation for Ripper Shotguns with CoV magazines
• Adjusted Ripper effects when shooting Ripper guns with Maliwan-licensed underbarrel parts
• Ripper Grenade Transmitter effects have been restored when they are despawning
• Adjusted missing effects of needles when using the Order Legendary Sniper Rifle Rooker

Audio & Visuals

• Vault Hunter voices now return to normal after unequipping the Kittycopter head customization
• Marcus now talks at the proper time
• The second round of the Goredello will now announce the enemy type
• Updated various sound effects to play while fighting Bloomreaper
• Updates to various incorrect or missing VO lines
• Damage numbers have been removed when continuing to shoot Arjay when the fight has ended
• Corrected ECHO-4 appearance when using the ECHO-IVIV frame and Nurple paintjob customization
• Ensured Vex the Siren’s tattoos glow as intended with all skins
• Melee animations for Rafa the Exo-Soldier will now play correctly in multiplayer
• Characters can now climb after double jumping at the Abandoned Post Safehouse in the Coastal Bonescape
• Resolved climbing animations not syncing in multiplayer
• Using the grapple point by the propaganda speaker in The Howl will now take the player to the roof of the house
• Adjusted Idolator Sol animations when buying Boss replay in multiplayer
• Reduced the brightness of Seeker Witness’ laser effects
• Ripsaw’s rotating blade effect will now disappear after death
• Minister Screw’s triangle effects now disappear after death
• Ensured Bruce’s head consistently disappeared in multiplayer during Angry Mob mission
• Addressed reported instances of NPCs performing their animations early or in the wrong locations
• Adjusted effects on power cores during the “Powerdrop” Mission
• Carried items will no longer become attached to a weapon after firing and reloading quickly
• Adjusted fading distance in the intro
• Addressed hitching with Vault Hunter saves in the main menu
• Reduced the number of unused materials throughout the game
• Prevented Shield Boosters from blocking the screen
• Trees inside buildings no longer blow in the wind
• Missing animations when destroying the grate near the Vault Fragment in Tonnage Peel have been restored
• Unintended transition effects will no longer appear on players outside of Vile Lictor boss arena
• Fire no longer starts popping when getting closer to Dominion
• Prevented flickering after opening an Electi Safe
• Haybales in The Howl no longer show glass VFX when hit
• House now displays properly during Breeding Daisies
• The lights on the Candlelight Catastrophe skin now flash consistently
• Ensured the launch pad in Cuspid Climb is consistent with other launch pad areas
• The Black Market Vending Machine will no longer have an obstructed view if spawned in Tonnage Peel
• Lowered several floating items
• Addressed multiple cases of lootables not being able to be opened
• Updated various cinematics for consistency
• Addressed clipping, missing collision, out-of-bounds access, stuck spots, and visual errors in various areas of the game

UI, Text, Localization

• Sorting in the Customization Menu now defaults to show Unlocked Customizations first
• Corrected an issue causing the Backpack to appear empty after filtering
• Repkits now appear as intended in Inventory
• Addressed a reported issue causing Vault Cards to not update or progress in multiplayer
• Addressed a reported issue causing Vault Card progress to reset or disappear after a disconnect
• Vault Cards will no longer carry over progress if the same challenge reappears after the daily reset
• Updates to Vault Card UI
• Various optimization updates to UI
• Addressed various reported issues with scroll bar, sorting, and menu UI
• Updated localization, various text descriptions, subtitle timings, icon visibility, and alignment across the game
• Material thumbnails in the Customization menu now appear correctly
• Updated Credits

Splitscreen

• “Flip Card” functionality has been restored after level transitions
• Corrected various scrolling issues in the Vault Cards Menu during splitscreen
• Corrected a case of a persistent “Logging in” message when a secondary player joins splitscreen
• The Golden Chest will no longer get stuck with the “Transaction in Progress” message when the secondary player leaves after opening
• Both splitscreen players will now see all mission items during “Breeding Daisies” mission
• Resolved an issue with Recent Friends not functioning as intended when a player is added to splitscreen during gameplay
• Adjusted Vault Card UI to prevent overlapping or not displaying the entire Item Card
• Vehicle FOV will now change for both players
• Adjusted nameplate text sizes to scale correctly in splitscreen
• Updated various UI elements for correct placement and to prevent overlapping

Player Experience

• [Console Only] Several instances of incorrect gear meshes have been corrected on consoles
• [PC Only] Adjusted default mouse sensitivity and added a setting option to disable mouse smoothing
• Blended facial animations for better optimization
• Visual optimizations for Jakobs Legendary Shotgun Rainbow Vomit
• Optimizations to Mission Menu
• Various improvements to stability and optimization

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Magic: The Gathering has a frankly ridiculous schedule for 2026, but while the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Hobbit, Marvel heroes, and Star Trek are on their way, we’re starting the year with Lorwyn Eclipsed.

An in-universe set that’s seeing positive buzz already, thanks to being a return to a fan-favorite plane and the fact that there’s no City Pigeon or Hot Dog Cart in sight, it launched on January 23 but is getting a discount already.

Amazon is offering a Play Booster Box of 30 packs for $129.98, a 21% drop from the list price of $164.70.

Rainbow Six Siege is getting a Metal Gear Solid crossover, as Ubisoft is teasing that Solid Snake will appear as a new Operator in Year 11.

A 15-second clip for the tactical action game’s next roadmap lays it on thick, showing not just a faceless body wearing a familiar sneaking suit but a Metal Gear Solid 1-style Codec Call from none other than Splinter Cell star Sam Fisher. It’s the kind of crossover fans have dreamed about for decades, brought to life as Ubisoft teases a full reveal for the Year 11 roadmap that’s scheduled to take place next month, February 15, at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET on the Rainbow Six Siege Twitch page.

It’s unclear if today’s tease is just for the Solid Snake Operator or if fans should instead expect a selection of skins from Konami as well, but judging by the fanfare surrounding the reveal, it looks like Ubisoft went all out for this latest collaboration. Either way, the Solid Snake teaser marks what is likely the most exciting Operator in the last 10 years.

There were some early signs that Rainbow Six Siege could soon meet the world of Metal Gear Solid. Reputable dataminer @Shiiny77 suggested a collaboration was in the cards for Year 11 Season 1 just last week, teasing that “it is not just a skin collaboration” like fans have seen in the past. Insider Gaming later said it was able to independently verify the leak as well.

“There is so much out of this collab and the season itself, its so packed,” @Shiiny77 added at the time.

Metal Gear Solid may be one of the wildest crossovers for Rainbow Six Siege so far, but it’s far from the first. Other recent collaborations have brought the Attack on Titan and The Boys universes into the fold with various cosmetics for existing Operators. Splinter Cell didn’t launch with the game when it first launched back in 2015, but Sam Fisher did go on to get his own Operator in the form of Specialist Zero in 2020.

We’ll learn more about what this official meeting between Solid Snake has in store February 15. In the meantime, Rainbow Six Siege recently received a massive 10-year update to become Rainbow Six Siege X. You can check out why we think it’s now an 8/10 in our review.

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).

Xbox has been having a hard time selling consoles lately, and it didn’t get any better over the 2025 holiday quarter. Microsoft has just reported its Q2 2026 earnings, including the news that hardware sales were down 32% year-over-year, after quarter upon quarter upon quarter of hardware declines.

Though we don’t have actual numbers to tell how much revenue is being lost out on here, we can get a sense of how grim this is for the hardware by looking at past quarters. Last quarter, Q1 of 2026, hardware declined 29% year-over-year. The quarter before that, Q4 of 2025, hardware was down 22%. The quarter before that? Down 6%. Before that? Down 29%. And before that, 29%, in Q1 of 2025, which was July – September of 2024. Going back even further through Microsoft’s earnings reports, the prior year quarters saw declines of 42% (woah) in Q4 of 2024 and 31% in Q3. In fact, you have to go all the way back to Q2 2024, which was October through December of 2023, to find the last time Xbox’s hardware revenue was better during that period than it was the year before – it was up a whopping 3% over the holiday quarter.

And yes, it was down 7% the quarter before that, 13% before that, down 30% before that, down 13% before that, and finally up 13% year-over-year in Q1 of 2023, or July – September of 2022, at which point the numbers start finally showing consistent improvement year-over-year, largely due to proximity to the launch of the Series S and X.

Now, look. It’s extremely normal for a six-year-old console to not be selling as well as it was in the first few years after launch. That’s to be expected. Early adopters tend to buy up consoles in large quantities at launch, distributers run out of stock, more is produced, people continue to buy until the vast majority of enthusiasts who want the console already have one, and then sales slow down as the console gets older. But it…usually takes a bit longer to get to that point! For comparison’s sake, we have evidence that neither the PlayStation 5 nor the Nintendo Switch have had this much trouble on this scale selling systems at this stage in their respective life cycles, and certainly not as far back as less than three years after launch. There’s maybe a reason why we have hard unit sales numbers of Switches and PS5s from Nintendo and PlayStation, but no official numbers whatsoever from Xbox on the Series S and X.

None of this is surprising to anyone who’s paying attention. We’ve been reading headlines about the strugglines of the Xbox Series consoles for the last several years now. In the U.S., Xbox console sales hit an all-time November low in 2025, after several years in a row of declining hardware sales in what is usually the busiest retail month with Black Friday.

These more recent struggles are likely tied as well to the two spikes in Xbox console prices just this year, which saw the least expensive Xbox rise to $400, and the most expensive to an unimaginable $800. Its recently-released ROG Ally launched last year at a whopping $1000. And because much of the high prices are tariff-related, the U.S. – Xbox’s biggest market – is primarily impacted here. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella speaking to us last December, the average price per Xbox unit in the U.S. has risen 30% year-over-year in 2025.

Xbox seems to be well-aware that its console business is seriously suffering. While it’s promised a new, next-gen console to follow the Series, it’s also said such a console would be a “very premium, very high-end curated experience.” And even though there have been rumors it’s considering backing off about its hardware plans recently, Xbox is still denying them, even as a former Xbox founding member says that “Xbox hardware is dead.”

While the hardware declines were the most noteworthy figure from Microsoft’s earnings yesterday, it’s not like software was doing a whole lot better. Content and services revenue dropped 5% year-over-year, and overall gaming declines caused revenue in the More Personal Computing segment of Microsoft to drop 3% year-over-year. In the investor presentation, CFO Amy Hood said that the revenue drop was “driven by first-party content with impact across the platform,” suggesting that its first-party games (perhaps Call of Duty?) didn’t do as well as they expected them to.

All-in-all, another real rough one for Microsoft’s gaming department.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

With Crimson Desert just a handful of weeks from release, developer Pearl Abyss has released a 15-minute video showing everything from the story to the open world, alongside fresh gameplay.

This video shows main character Kliff and the continent of Pywel, which promises to be a seamless open world. Expect “sprawling wilderness, bustling cities, ancient ruins, and diverse regions, all set against a backdrop of escalating conflict and supernatural danger,” Pearl Abyss said.

Kliff is a warrior of the Greymanes, a faction from the northern region of Pailune. The story begins in the aftermath of a peace being shattered, and Kliff must reunite the Greymanes and reclaim their homeland. You end up discovering that the entire continent is involved.

The threat comes from the Abyss, a mysterious realm that’s sending fragments crashing into Pywel. Some want to exploit these fragments. You’re trying to restore balance to the Abyss and stop those who are exploiting it.

Crimson Desert’s huge open world has been a topic of debate recently. Pywel is divided into five distinct regions: Hernand; Pailune; Demeniss; Delesyia; and the Crimson Desert itself. The main quest revolves around Kliff’s journey, but you’re free to explore the world in any order, taking faction-driven quests, large-scale battles, fortress sieges and smaller, character-focused missions.

Pearl Abyss confirmed that as the story progresses, two additional playable characters become available, each with unique combat styles, skills and weapons. Exploration is a big part of the game — you travel on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances, and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon. Pearl Abyss said the world is filled with hidden treasures, ancient mechanisms, puzzles and points of interest “designed to reward curiosity and discovery.” As for combat, expect to face enemy soldiers, sorcerers, beasts and machines.

Earlier this month, Pearl Abyss called Crimson Desert’s open world “absolutely massive,” bigger even than that of Bethesda’s Skyrim and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.

Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Pearl Abyss’ Will Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open world games around.

“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world won’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor.

“The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”

Unlike Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2, in Crimson Desert you can fly around on a dragon, so despite the size of its world, you’ll be able to get about quickly. And don’t expect RPG elements in terms of decision-making and choice and consequence as it relates to your character, either. The sheer amount of things to do in the world will facilitate the role-playing part of Crimson Desert, which players will form through “head canon.”

“You choose the type of character you want to play as in terms of your progression within the systems in the game,” Powers explained. “And then through head canon you’re having this very different experience than other players because of the scope and scale of the game. You’ll be distracted by something, you’ll go on this quest line, you’ll have an experience that’ll be radically different than someone else, even though they’re playing the same game and the same canonical storyline that you both are going through.”

Crimson Desert has gone gold, locking in its global release date of March 19, 2026. That’s across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Mac.

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.

Magic: The Gathering has a busy 2026 planned, but the last set to be revealed was a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes, it marks our second trip to New York in less than a year, thanks to last year’s Spider-Man set (seriously, there are infinite dimensions we could travel to!), but the Heroes in a Half Shell are doing things a little differently.

Not only does it offer our first Universes Beyond Commander Deck since Final Fantasy, but there are some new product types, too. Here’s everything you can preorder, including more than a few sealed products that already have some tidy discounts.

MTG x TMNT Preorders in a Half Shell

As you can probably imagine, there are more products coming than you can shake a Bo Staff at launching on March 6, with pre-release a week prior from February 27 to March 5.

The foundation, as expected, is Play Boosters, and Amazon has a box for $124.99 right now – which is a massive saving.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is Getting a Commander Deck

UK Preorders

I can’t remember the last time a set came with a single Commander precon. In 2025 alone we’ve had sets with no precons (Spider-Man, Avatar), sets with two (Aetherdrift, Edge of Eternities), a set with four (Final Fantasy) and a set with five (Tarkir Dragonstorm).

Why just the one? I honestly can’t complain. Even at my age, picking my favorite turtle is serious business, so having the whole gang in one, 100-card boxed product means I don’t have to make any tough choices.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.