Canceled Wonder Woman ‘Was Gorgeous and Expansive,’ Comic Book Writer Who Consulted on the Game Says

Comic writer Gail Simone has revealed she worked on Warner Bros.’ beleaguered Wonder Woman game before it was shelved yesterday.

Simone, known for being the longest running female writer on Wonder Woman comics to date, praised the “dream team” working on the video game, insisting everyone she worked with from the now-shuttered Monolith and Warner Bros. was “enthusiastic and supportive.”

“I was asked to do long-term consulting on the game, and I was thrilled to do it, it was a perfect storm of stuff I adore,” Simone wrote on social media. “Wonder Woman, video games, and one of my favorite games studios: Monolith, who produced the Game Of The Year Mordor games, that I was completely addicted to.

“The game was gorgeous and expansive. It was beautiful to look at. I am not going to give details for a number of reasons, but every effort was made to make this not just a great game, but a great Wonder Woman game. A showpiece epic.

“And all of that was because of the team. Everyone who worked on it brought their A-game. Programmers, artists, designers, everyone. I don’t know that I have ever worked with a team that cared more about making sure the end product was perfect.”

“It was a dream come true. Wonder Woman had a dream team and they put their all into it,” Simone concluded.

“They made sure it had WW and DC lore on every aspect of the game. It was a thrill and honor to work with them. I know there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on, but everyone I worked with from Monolith and WB both was enthusiastic and supportive. Everyone wanted to make the best game ever.”

Announced in December 2021 with a brief teaser trailer and description, Wonder Woman was a single-player action adventure set in a “dynamic” open-world in which players became Diana of Themyscira in an original story set within the DC universe.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Wonder Woman was in trouble after reportedly rebooting and switching directors early last year. It had already cost more than $100 million and was reportedly still years away from release.

Monolith’s reimagined Nemesis system (it developed the much-loved Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel) would have seen Wonder Woman befriending enemies, but the system was ditched in favor of a more traditional action adventure game.

Yesterday, Warner Bros. announced the end of development on Wonder Woman and the closure of three of its studios: Monolith Productions, MultiVersus developer Player First Games, and WB San Diego.

It followed a troubled year for Warner Bros.’ video game division, first with the catastrophic release of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, then the disappointing release of Smash Bros.-style brawler MultiVersus. The company said Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s failure contributed to a $200 million hit to its business, with MultiVersus adding another $100 million on top. Warner Bros. Games’ only other recent release, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, also failed to make an impression.

Meanwhile, fans of Monolith’s much-loved Nemesis System are now lamenting its “wasted potential.”

Here’s Warner Bros.’ statement:

We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.

The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games. We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Preorders Are Available Right Now On Amazon

Tarkir is back, and that means dragons. A lot of dragons. Magic: The Gathering – Tarkir: Dragonstorm is diving headfirst into the plane where clans battle, and giant flying lizards rule the skies. If you played during Khans of Tarkir, this set is like a reunion with old friends (except now, those friends have even more firepower and zero chill). Expect three-color madness, absurdly powerful spells, and just enough nostalgia to make you forget how many Siege Rhinos you lost to back in the day.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Preorders

There’s something for everyone this time around. Want to Play Boosters, hunt for Collector Booster treasures, or jump straight into Commander mayhem? This set has you covered. No matter your budget or how badly you want to pull that ridiculously rare serialized dragon.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm – Play Booster Box

Just want to rip packs? You get 30 Play Boosters, each with 14 cards and a chance at 1-4 rares or mythics. That means you could open a legendary dragon or just another bulk rare mocking your choices in life. There’s at least one foil per pack, though, so at least your disappointment will be shiny.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm – Collector Booster Box

12 packs loaded with foil everything, alt-border cards, and up to five rares per pack. If you’re feeling lucky you might pull one of the 500 serialized Headliner cards, because nothing says “flex” like a dragon with a number stamped on it. If you like your cards extra fancy and your bank account slightly emptier, this is the one to grab.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm – Collector Booster

Same as the Collector Booster Box, but you’re only committing to one pack. This is for the gamblers and those who tell themselves, “I’ll just open one” before buying three more. Hoping to score something rare without diving in too deep? This is it.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm – Commander Deck Bundle – Includes All 5 Decks

Can’t decide which Tarkir clan is calling your name? This bundle gives you all five Commander decks. That’s 500 cards, 10 foil legendary creatures, and 5 Collector Booster Sample Packs to sweeten the deal.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck – Abzan Armor

If your idea of fun is turning defense into offense, this is your clan. The Abzan play the long game by stacking up defenses until they’re suddenly steamrolling everything in sight. Expect big toughness creatures, grindy value plays, and your opponents regretting every attack they make.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck – Jeskai Striker

Love casting spells non-stop and making your opponents question their life choices? Jeskai’s got you covered. This deck is all about spell-flinging, chaining effects together, and making sure your opponents never get a moment’s peace.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck – Sultai Arisen

Welcome to graveyard central, where nothing stays dead for long. This deck thrives on filling up the graveyard, reanimating threats, and making sure your opponents never feel safe. If you like your creatures coming back for revenge, this is the way to go.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck – Mardu Surge

Mardu plays to win fast by being aggressive, reckless, and ready to throw creatures at the problem. This deck is packed with token generators, sacrifice synergies, and combat tricks that make every attack a nightmare for your opponents. If patience isn’t your thing, you’ll love it.

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck – Temur Roar

Big creatures, big spells, big wins. Temur is all about ramping up mana, playing massive threats, and making sure every turn is a spectacle. If your favorite part of Magic is dropping 10-mana creatures while your opponents sigh in frustration, this is the deck for you.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

This Fan-Favorite Sims Character Is Finally Making an Appearance in The Sims 4

Careful, Sim fans… The Burglar is back.

The Burglar, a familiar sight for those of us who’ve spent time with any of the older Sims games, is sneaking back into your life as part of the latest update for The Sims 4.

Rolling out across PC and console, the update (re)introduces Robin Banks, which means it’s time to hide your valuables well out of sight. She only strikes at night, usually only sneaking into homes when everyone’s asleep, but she has been known to attempt a daring heist even when Sims are awake… so be alert.

To combat the thief, Sims can make use of the handy burglar alarm. If Banks trips it, the police are guaranteed to turn up in time to arrest her and recover your goods. But even homes without an alarm can call the police, you just have to be quick about it. Or there’s vigilante justice, of course. It’s your call.

By design, burglar events are fairly unusual, but if you live for chaos, activate Lot Challenge Heist Havoc to boost your odds.

“We are so thrilled to finally bring the Burglar back into The Sims universe,” The Sims’ team wrote. “Sending a special shout out to our full team for making this a reality. Robin Banks isn’t just ready to rob your Sims’ houses — she’s here to steal your hearts too! What better way to celebrate The Sims 25th Birthday than with this nostalgic yet fresh addition? We hope you’re as excited as we are to see what kind of chaos Robin Banks will bring to your households.”

The Sims 4 may be 10 years old — and the series itself 25 years old — but last year, it attracted over 15 million new players.

In EA’s Q2 earning report, published towards the end of last year, we learned that The Sims 4, then a premium game, took four years to reach 20 million unique players. When it first went free-to-play in 2022, however, it gained a whopping 31 million new players out of the gate and reached a total of 85 million as of May 2024. And no, there’s currently still no plans for The Sims 5 at this time… Plum!

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Tekken 8 Director Blasts Fan for Criticizing Anna Williams’ New Look, Saying ‘The Content of Your Argument Are Entirely Unconstructive, Utterly Pointless’

Tekken 8 veteran Anna Williams is returning to the roster, and while her redesign seems to be going down well with most fans, some aren’t so sure and are even comparing her new look to Santa Claus.

When one fan asked Tekken game director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada if the development team could bring back the “old Anna design,” Harada slammed the criticism, saying: “If you prefer the old design, I am not taking those away from you.”

“While 98% of the fans are welcoming this, there will always be people like you,” Harada wrote. “I understand and sympathize that it may not suit your personal taste, but if you prefer the old design, past works already exist. I am not taking those away from you.

“Also, you refer to yourself as ‘Anna fans,’ as if you represent all Anna fans, but you should express your opinion as an individual.

“You threaten to quit if she isn’t brought back. You complain the moment she is brought back. You demand that she be reverted after she has been completely redesigned from scratch, including her model and framework,” he added. “And if she actually were reverted, you’d just say, ‘That’s recycling!’

“Either way, your method of expressing your opinion and the content of your argument are entirely unconstructive, utterly pointless, and, above all, disrespectful to the other Anna fans who are genuinely looking forward to her.”

When another commenter pointed out that Tekken “hasn’t rereleased one of [its] older games into modern systems with functional netcode” and summarized Harada’s response as “a joke,” the director said: “Thank you for POINTLESS reply. You yourself are the joke. MUTED.”

As mentioned, reaction to Anna’s new design is largely positive, although there are some complaints, mostly around her outfit. “Before she was announced I was hoping for an edgier, angry, violent Anna out for revenge for her fiance’s death and so I’m quit happy with this design!” said redditor AngryBreadRevolution.

“The hair is growing on me. It really suits the outfit and personality well. It wont look good on all her outfits naturally, but her original bob will still be available.

“Coat was ruined for me when it was pointed out the resemblance to Christmas. The leotard, tights, boots and gloves all look fantastic though so looking forward to being able to take off the coat.”

“Love everything but the white feathers,” said troonpins. “It’s giving Santa Clause.”

“Aside from looking like Santa Claus, she looks a lot younger than she did in Tekken 7 and before,” added Cheap_Ad4756. “She looks like less of a ‘woman’ now and more like a girl. I don’t get the dominatrix vibe from her at all anymore.”

“Horrible,” declared spiralqq. “It’s another overdesigned T8 look, feels like almost every costume in this game lacks a real focal point and everyone is just decked out in 100 bulky accessories from head to toe. I’d like it a lot more without the coat, or at the very least if the whole outfit didn’t look like Santa cosplay. You can’t have a bright red coat with white fur trims and a black belt and read as anything other than Santa.”

Tekken 8 has sold 3 million copies a year from release, achieving the sales milestone at a faster pace than Tekken 7, which took 10 years to sell 12 million copies worldwide.

“Tekken 8 is an amazing new entry in the long-running series,” we wrote in IGN’s Tekken 8 review, awarding it 9/10. “Interesting tweaks to its classic fighting systems, a full suite of fun offline modes, great new characters, incredible training tools, and a vastly improved online experience all add up to a fighting game I will be playing for many years to come. By honoring its legacy, but continuing to move forward, Tekken 8 manages to stand out as something special.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

FragPunk Preview: Exclusive Hands-on with New Character Chum and Dongtian Map

Hot on the heels of the global success of Marvel Rivals and with other popular live-service games like Naraka: Bladepoint and Once Human under its belt, NetEase has turned its attention to the hero shooter genre with FragPunk. New internal development team Bad Guitar Studio is made up of young, hardcore FPS fans, and after joining them for a one-hour play session where we tried a new character and map revealed exclusively in this preview, the team’s eye for detail is clear to see.

FragPunk’s main game mode is the 5v5 Shard Clash mode. On its surface, this mode resembles your typical Overwatch-like hero shooter skirmish, but it also pulls from a variety of influences to mix up the gameplay. The rounds in this mode are closer to the bomb-defusal objectives of Counter Strike, with one team planting bombs at specified locations and the other defending, with relatively small arenas that keep rounds tight and focused.

As with any hero shooter, players can choose from a selection of characters – named Lancers – who each have a selection of unique skills, meaning plenty to learn in terms of individual character preferences and team makeup. For our session, we tried the newly unveiled character Chum, a stone robot who is accompanied by a mechanical pet angler fish named Chomper. In addition to using the game’s arsenal of satisfying guns, Chum can toss projectiles similar to sticky mines and smoke grenades, as well as sending Chomper out as support. Chomper can track and bite enemies for multiple low-damage attacks, essentially like a walking turret, or can be modified with pet treats that make it explode on contact or trail a thick smokescreen in its wake, adding several strategic layers that felt fun to mix up.

Chum is a stone robot who is accompanied by a mechanical pet angler fish named Chomper.

And being made of stone, Chum is also a strong defence character, making him a great all-round option for newcomers.

Many other Lancer abilities are not only offensive but defensive or tactical – walls for cover, traps, speed boosts, skills that highlight enemies on the map, and so on. We tried several Lancers, and found a varied effect on gameplay. Using Nitro, with her directly-controllable four-legged drone and gun turrets, we were able to rack up multiple assists; while Axon was another favourite thanks to his more aggressive selection of skills, including projectile bombs and a cool guitar-gun. In the Lancer selection screen, you can watch a short video clip for each ability to help you quickly grasp what they do.

But what really sets FragPunk apart is its Shard Cards system. At the start of each round, each team is randomly assigned a set of three cards, which they can swap in and out, each of which changes the rules of the round for your entire team. Some are simple stat percentage boosts or buffs, while others do things like increasing the size of your enemies’ heads, decreasing your own or equipping helmets, affecting the difficulty of headshots for that round. Others still are much more unusual, and completely change the gameplay.

For example, one Shard Card gave our team a kind of proximity detector so that we got an aural and visual signal whenever an enemy was nearby, while another slowly regenerated our health gauge, both of which gave us a welcome advantage. Some cards affect the environment, such as shrouding the map in fog that adds tension as enemies are harder to spot. Others have active effects – press the Z key to swap health bars with an enemy, or to swap gear with them, or to jump into a parallel world where you can essentially run unseen to a new location and then pop back into the fight to ambush your foes.

It’s a lot to take in. You only have around 30 seconds to finalise your hand for each round, and at first each of the 150+ cards will be new to you. “We deliberately made the rule for each card as simple as possible so that they can be quick to understand,” Creative Director Xin Chang told us. “We also made the description text for each card as short as possible, and used visual design to make its effects more obvious.”

The ruleset-shuffling Shard Cards were inspired not only by other videogames, but also by sports.

After a few rounds, the Shard Cards system began to make sense, and really paid off in terms of making each round feel different. We were forced to engage differently with every round, rethinking strategies and responding not only to our team’s current hand but also the enemy team’s.

Interestingly, the ruleset-shuffling Shard Cards were inspired not only by other videogames, but also by sports. The development team’s building has a large gymnasium with facilities for activities such as basketball, table tennis and badminton, its walls adorned with photos of the developers in competition.

Chang explained, “I play soccer and basketball, so I like games with a two-team system. I also watch a lot of NBA, and they often make changes to the rules to keep the sport interesting. Based on that idea, I also wanted to have a system of tweaking the rules in our game.”

Sports also influenced the team’s approach to FragPunk’s maps. Level Designer An Yuan added, “In level design, we divide the map into areas that are good for attack or defence phases, so that the player has to keep moving. It’s kind of like basketball, where you have different spatial design around the court that suits the different roles of the players. We applied that concept in our game, and also in the Shard Cards, which can turn a good hiding place into a bad one.”

FragPunk also features a Duel mode. When a match ends in a tie, it changes to a one-on-one showdown, a little bit like the mano a mano face-offs in Call of Duty: Warzone’s Gulag, but inspired by soccer’s penalty shootouts. Each player takes their turn in the queue for a series of short and sharp winner-stays-on rounds in small but vertically layered arenas. With all our teammates spectating during our turn, we totally felt the pressure, making for a fun and different tie-breaker mini-game. It’s so cool, the devs even added it as a separate standalone mode called Duel Master.

Each map has interactive gimmicks that players can use strategically to gain the upper hand. First, we tried the newly unveiled map Dongtian. This is the Hangzhou, China-based dev team’s stab at an Asian-flavoured map, and its two bomb sites can be rotated by players for tactical advantage. When the switch in the middle of the map is activated by a player, the core cover at the bomb site rotates, altering strategies for both the offensive and defensive teams.

Each map has interactive gimmicks that players can use strategically to gain the upper hand.

“We want to use these rotating walls to switch the edge between the attack team and the defence team,” explained Yuan. “So we encourage players to fight for that core area to maintain their edge or get the edge for themselves.”

Other maps have their own gimmicks – BlackMarket’s manually controlled bridge allows players to change the map’s layout and even pull the ground from under their opponents’ feet; Akhet has an underground river that allows sneaky players to move directly from the middle area to a bomb site; and Tundra has magic portals that instantly zap players between gates to outmanoeuvre the other team. It was fun to explore these maps, and clearly players who take the time to learn them properly will gain an advantage.

Dongtian is the home setting for the Lancer Kismet. Narrative Director Wenhe Fu explained, “The game has a multiverse concept, which allows us to have each character come from quite a different universe. We’ll take some time in future phases to introduce those background details to players.”

Built into a mountain and dotted with ancient wooden temple buildings, mystical statues and wizened trees with gracefully warped trunks, Dongtian’s Eastern aesthetic brings a smart visual twist to FragPunks’ colourful world.

Art Director Yiming Li told us, “We wanted to blend ancient buildings that look like they could come from China with near-future science and technology elements, as well as some religious elements. While each map will have its own distinctive cultural features, we want them all to fit into the game’s overall sci-fi feeling. It’s like in Star Wars: Each of the civilisations are very different, but when they are viewed as a whole, they also exist under a harmonious sci-fi setting.”

And that brings us to FragPunk’s visuals. This is a really gorgeous game. The punk-influenced and sci-fi-tinged fluorescent aesthetic is rich and appealing, and its kill animations are punctuated by dazzling bursts of colour. Its maps are extremely readable, and player characters pop, making it easy to follow the action. Even its menus are pretty to look at, with the flashy presentation you’d expect from a Persona game or Street Fighter 6, with bold layouts accented by graffiti scribbles. It really stands out in the hero shooter space.

FragPunk will be free to play, with a small selection of Lancers available at the start so that players can learn them gradually, unlocking more as they go through in-game currency accrued through play or paid microtransactions. Other optional purchases will be strictly cosmetic. We’ll have to wait until launch to see how the service side pans out – other NetEase games like Marvel Rivals and Naraka: Bladepoint have seen complaints about pricing, but that aside they have managed to keep players satisfied, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

In addition to the Shard Clash and Duel modes we tried, FragPunk will feature a mix of modes at or after launch that are targeted at both hardcore and casual players, including one where all players are forced to use the same Lancer, or melee weapons only, and so on. The development team is apparently largely made up of pro-level players, but it’s clear they have also taken steps to make the game accessible to newbies and even streamers and their viewers.

Warner Bros. Cancels Wonder Woman Game, Closes Three Studios

Warner Bros. is canceling its planned Wonder Woman game and shutting down three studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier.

Schreier broke the news on Bluesky today, followed by the release of a full report on Bloomberg. Shortly after Schreier’s post, WB confirmed the shut downs to Kotaku in a statement:

We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.

The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games. We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.

Earlier this year, another Bloomberg report suggested Wonder Woman was in trouble after rebooting and switching directors in early 2024. This came amid larger struggles at the company’s gaming division, including layoffs at Rocksteady, the lukewarm reception to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and the shutdown of MultiVersus.

And even more recently, WB Games has appeared to undergo a restructuring of sorts, as long-time games head David Haddad announced his departure from the company, and rumors circulated that the division might be sold off.

Specifically, this move represents a blow to WB’s DC universe-connected gaming efforts. Notably, just yesterday, James Gunn and Peter Safran said in a presentation that it would be “a couple of years” before the first DCU video game.

With this closure, the games industry loses three incredibly storied studios. Monolith Productions, which had been working on Wonder Woman, was founded in 1994 and acquired by WB in 2004. It’s best-known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Shadow of War, the former of which pioneered the lauded Nemesis system that WB successfully patented in 2021.

Player First Games, a newer studio established in 2019, was responsible for MultiVersus. The game was well-received critically and saw launch success, but underperformed relative to WB’s expectations. WB San Diego, similarly, is a newer studio established in 2019 with a focus on mobile, free-to-play games.

These shutdowns continue a trend going back roughly three years of increasing games industry layoffs, project cancellations, and studio closures. In 2023 alone, it’s estimated that over 10,000 game developers were laid off. That number shot up to over 14,000 in 2024, and while 2025 has seen numerous closures, the exact number of impacted individuals is hazier due to fewer companies reporting these layoffs and shutdowns, or specific numbers affected.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Mecha Break Is Garnering Tons of Players on Steam, but With a ‘Mostly Negative’ User Review Rating — Here’s Why

Mecha Break recently launched into a new round of open beta play on Steam, and quickly dethroned some titans in the process. Even though it’s just a glimpse of the final experience, Mecha Break’s demo is bumping elbows with the likes of Marvel Rivals, Grand Theft Auto V, Apex Legends, and Naraka Bladepoint. So why’s it got such a bad rating on Steam?

The open beta launch pulled in over 300,000 players on Steam, deseating Marvel Rivals and hitting a top-four place in the most played games on Valve’s platform. Even right now, at the time of writing this, Amazing Seasun Games’ mecha battler has the fourth-highest concurrent players per SteamDB, though it falls behind Rivals’ 24-hour peak.

Popularity doesn’t naturally incur positivity; Apex Legends has a ‘Mixed’ overall rating on Steam, as does Delta Force, and both have substantially more recent players than many other games on the PC platform. Yet Mecha Break’s demo is sitting at ‘Mostly Negative’ right now, with over 6,500 reviews.

Taking a look through the reviews, there are a few discernible complaints. The most easily addressed are the server issues. With hundreds of thousands of players flocking to the open beta, which apparently overwhelmed the servers. Amazing Seasun responded, saying the studio has addressed the problem and is issuing several batches of “Ultimate Maintenance Boxes” to players as compensation.

Those boxes are a constant, and longer-term, point of concern among players though. Individual mechs are unlocked through the store or battle pass, as well as cosmetic purchases. There’s also a loot box mechanic for mods, which come with mild upsides and downsides, that has players worried about long-term balance and time investment.

It seems that while many aspects of Mecha Break can be unlocked for free, it will take at least some time to do so. “Outside of missions, the match to match reward of currency is very low. In order to unlock the entire roster you’ll likely have to play hundreds of games to get there,” one reviewer said.

Another repeat critique across several reviews is the anti-cheat measures. Mecha Break uses the kernel level anti-cheat Anti-Cheat Expert, or ACE. These often allow for greater access to users’ machines, in exchange for monitoring for more extensive cheating options. Usually, players aren’t too happy about anti-cheats like this. The anti-cheat is also apprently causing problems for Linux desktop users, per GamingOnLinux.

Tack on some extra customization woes, like spending currency to re-customize your in-game pilot, and the negative reviews paint a fairly stark picture of frustration over currencies and grinding for unlocks. Mecha Break is set to be a free-to-play game, so some of those do end up coming with the territory. And interestingly, there does seem to be a counter-movement of positive reviews, though it’s still lagging behind the negative ones by raw numbers.

At the very least, while there are some gameplay concerns, those sentiments seem to be broadly positive compared to the out-of-combat critiques. Most of the positive reviews and even many of the negative reviews praise the actual mecha battles, as well as the pilot and mecha customization options, which include a bunch of cosmetics and paints to create, say, your very own Evangelion Unit-02 or Gundam Heavyarms.

We’ll see if Amazing Seasun works to address the negative responses leading into the full release sometime later this year.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Tekken 8 Hits 3 Million Sold a Year After Launch, Milestone Achieved at a Faster Pace Than Tekken 7

Tekken 8 has sold 3 million copies a year from release, Bandai Namco has announced.

The company said it had achieved the sales milestone at a faster pace than Tekken 7, which has so far sold 12 million copies worldwide 10 years after launch.

Tekken 8 had sold 2 million units a month after going on sale in January 2024, so it’s sold an additional 1 million units in the last 12 months.

“We hope that everyone will stick with us, as we have a lot of cool stuff planned to keep the franchise going,” Bandai Namco said during a live stream update.

For context in the fighting game world, NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 1 is now up to 5 million copies sold, having gone on sale in September 2023, and Capcom’s Street fighter 6 is on 4.4 million units, having gone on sale June 2023. Tekken 8 has a way to go before matching its competitors, then.

Meanwhile, Bandai Namco announced Anna Williams as the next Tekken 8 DLC character. She launches on March 31 for Character Year 2 Pass owners and April 3 for all.

As part of the roadmap of support for Tekken 8’s second year, summer 2025 will see a new stage and character, fall 2025 a new character, and winter 2025 / 2026 a new stage and character. That’s a total of four DLC characters for Season 2.

It’s not been all plain sailing for Tekken 8. In December, Tekken 8 boss Katsuhiro Harada stepped into a row over the sale of a premium DLC stage after fans accused Bandai Namco of “corporate greed.”

Alongside the release of DLC character Heihachi Mishima and the accompanying free story mode expansion, Bandai Namco sold the Genmaji Temple stage for $4.99, sparking a backlash from fans who had expected the stage to be made available for free — as the stage that accompanied the release of prior DLC character Lidia Sobieska was.

Harada ended up saying he needed to reorganize not only the Tekken business but his role within it to ensure community expectations were met in the future.

IGN’s Tekken 8 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Tekken 8 is an incredible evolution for the series, with tons of single player content, an excellent suite of training tools, a great online experience, and exciting new mechanics that make Tekken more dynamic than ever.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Activision Finally Admits It Uses Generative AI for Some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Assets After Backlash Following ‘AI Slop’ Zombie Santa Loading Screen

Call of Duty maker Activision has finally admitted to using generative AI in the development of Black Ops 6, nearly three months after fans had accused the company of creating an “AI slop” Zombie Santa loading screen.

In December, following the release of the Season 1 Reloaded update, fans noticed a number of telltale signs in Black Ops 6 loading screens, calling cards, and art used to explain how Zombies community events work.

At the centre of the backlash was a loading screen image of Zombie Santa, aka ‘Necroclaus,’ which some said showed the undead Father Christmas with six fingers. Generative AI often struggles with hands, adding extra fingers where they shouldn’t be.

Another image of a gloved hand was used to show off a new Zombies community event. It contained what looked like six fingers with no thumb on-screen, suggesting up to seven digits on this hand.

The release of the Zombie Santa image sparked a closer look at other images in Black Ops 6, which some in the Call of Duty community subsequently called into question. Redditor Shaun_LaDee highlighted three images included in paid bundles that have irregularities that could suggest the use of generative AI.

Fans then called on Activision to disclose the use of generative AI for art that is included in bundles that are sold, and following new AI disclosure rules for Steam, it has now added a vague disclosure that covers the entirety of Black Ops 6 on Valve’s platform.

Black Ops 6’s Steam AI Generated Content Disclosure reads: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets.”

In July, Wired reported that Activision sold an “AI-generated cosmetic” for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last year. The cosmetic in question was not named, but was linked to the Yokai’s Wrath bundle released in December 2023. The store did not disclose any use of generative AI for this bundle.

This bundle cost 1,500 COD Points, the premium virtual currency sold for real-world money that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Activision each year. 1,500 COD Points is approximately valued at $15.

Wired pointed out that Microsoft, which owns Activision Blizzard after its $69 billion acquisition of the company last year, cut 1,900 staff from its gaming business just months after Activision sold this skin. The report alleged that 2D artists’ jobs were being replaced by AI at the company.

“A lot of 2D artists were laid off,” one anonymous Activision artist told the site. “Remaining concept artists were then forced to use AI to aid in their work.” Activision employees were allegedly “made” to sign up for AI training, with its use promoted throughout the business.

Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. Generative AI thus far has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

ID@Xbox Showcase February 2025 – Every Game Pass Game Announced In One Handy Place

Microsoft’s latest ID@Xbox Showcase has been and gone, stuffed with updates and announcements from some of the best indie games around, including Balatro, which shadow-dropped onto Xbox Game Pass yesterday, February 24.

Another fan-favorite indie, Buckshot Roulette, is also making the jump to Xbox. Within a year of its release back in December 2023, the tabletop horror game was a hit, taking over four million of us through a fiendish – and terrifying – game of Russian roulette with a pump-action shotgun.

But those aren’t the only games jumping onto Microsoft’s subscription service. We’ve rounded up all the new indie games confirmed at last night’s show as coming to Xbox Game Pass later in 2025.

Xbox Game Pass 2025 lineup:

This is of course on top of Watch Dogs: Legion (Cloud, Console, and PC), which launches into Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard today, February 25.

Check out IGN’s Fan Fest 2025 hub for more.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.