Category: IGN

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive has released Patch 1.2.3 for its well-received role-playing game across all platforms.

The update makes a long list of fixes and, crucially, balance changes, including nerfing Clair Obscur’s most game-breaking build (patch notes below).

Sandfall had signalled this change was coming, saying it hadn’t planned to make any balance tweaks this early — just bug fixes, “unless something clearly stood out.”

“Well, Stendhal did,” the developer continued.

The build in question is (was!) for young fencer Maelle and a sword called Medalum, which unlocks a Virtuose stance that deals 200% bonus damage. Players were combining this with ability-stacking and the Stendahl skill, which deals extreme single target Void damage, to dish out billions of damage, enough to kill the final boss in just one hit.

“It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance pass, we gave it a big damage boost — and clearly overdid it. It ended up overshadowing most other options,” Sandfall said.

“We still want you to be able to break the game — and you absolutely still can — but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy.”

The nerf is included in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s first full hotfix set. While Stendhal is still a strong single-hit skill with great synergy potential, it’s now more in-line with everything else.

Here’s the relevant points from today’s patch notes:

• Stendhal: Reduced damage by 40%.

Clair Obscur is a breakout hit for Sandfall, and has already sold over 2 million copies. It’s worth remembering that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was, alongside Bethesda’s Oblivion Remastered, a day-one Game Pass title. That makes this sales milestone all the more impressive.

When Bethesda shadow-dropped The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered amid the launch of fellow role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, most thought there could be only one winner. However, it turned out that there was plenty of room for both games to succeed.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has done so well that French President Macron has praised the development team. Be sure to check out our tips for the important things to know before heading into the game.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 update 1.2.3 patch notes:

Steam Deck

• Fixed backgrounds of various menus not displaying properly on the Steam Deck

Various Ultrawide Fixes

• Gameplay no longer becomes zoomed after a cutscene occurs in ultrawide resolutions
• The Options menu image will no longer be stretched in ultrawide resolutions
• Combat UI now adapts correctly to ultrawide resolutions
• Game will no longer minimize upon changing settings in ultrawide resolution
• Cutscenes won’t letterbox in 32:9 aspect ratio
• Title screen now displays fullscreen when the game is launched in ultrawide resolution

Mouse and Keyboard

• UI button prompts in Expedition Menu are now visible and fully able to be triggered with Keyboard
• Mouse buttons do not become unresponsive after first use
• With mouse cursor on screen, using ‘WSAD’ or directional arrows to navigate in UI or trigger any other functionality will no longer hide the cursor instead of doing the intended action
• Left Mouse-button click will no longer block the player from using Keyboard to navigate menus
• Mouse input is not lost after the first Jump counter attack if it is pressed only once

Fixed areas of the world map where you can get stuck:

• Between lanterns scattered on the ground near Stone Wave Cliff portal
• While walking on the ship wreck near the Forgotten Battlefield level entrance
• Between lanterns on the ground near Bourgeon encounter next to Stone Wave Cliffs level
• Between two small rocks located between Spring Meadows and Abbest Cave
• Between vases and corals when jumping from rooftopps
• Between various rocks
• In ruins behind Flying Manor level entrance
• Near the bridge between Flying Waters and Spring Meadows
• In the rocks on the World Map, near Flying Waters
• Next to hardened land, close to the Flying Waters location exit

Fixed situations where Esquie specifically would get stuck (poor guy):

• When taking off from paint bridges, making him fall through the bridge and restrict movement
• When flying into bottom parts of levitating structures near Visages
• Near the Flying Waters entrance level
• Near a giant hammer when traversing close to Blades’ Graveyard level

Weapon and skill fixes and tuning:

• Fixed Lithelim attribute scaling not working at high level. Reduced initial Vitality scaling from A to C (will still end at S at max level). Added Luck scaling starting at D.
• Fixed Blizzon attribute scaling not working at high level. Reduced initial Luck scaling from B to C (will still end at S at max level). Added Defense scaling starting at D.
• Fixed Medalum third Lumina doubling all damage in Virtuose Stance instead of doubling only Burn damage.
• Stendhal: Reduced damage by 40%.

Other fixes

• Boss encounter in Stone Wave Cliffs can now be finished on NG+
• You will no longer be blocked by the Journal UI window after opening the first Journal in the Spring Meadows
• Fixed being unable to shoot in Free aim while exploring levels due to worn triggers
• Lune and Monoco no longer spawn in same place during end of theirs Level 6 relationship quests if they are completed without going to camp
• If at camp you pick “remember the objective”, then quickly choose to “go to sleep” and immediately after press “leave”, the screen no longer goes black
• You can no longer trigger the “Discovering the truth” cutscene in Old Lumière a second time in a row, splitting the party forever with only Verso and Maelle in it.
• Update to rolling credits

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.

According to Cineverse, which has acquired the rights for the third Silent Hill film in the U.S. when it releases later this year, Return to Silent Hill will be a “faithful adaptation” of the original Silent Hill 2’s story.

“Silent Hill is one of the best video game franchises, period, and Christophe Gans did a phenomenal job capturing the atmosphere of the games once again with Return to Silent Hill,” Cineverse executive director of acquisitions, Brandon Hill, told Variety.

Director Christophe Gans added: “I am delighted to partner with Cineverse, which has shown a genuine understanding of fanship. Return to Silent Hill is an adaptation created out of deep respect for a true masterpiece of a game, Konami’s iconic Silent Hill 2. I hope fans will enjoy and be fulfilled with the experience this new film has to offer.”

The film’s plot will feel familiar to anyone who played the original Silent Hill 2 or the 2024 Bloober remake. It follows “James (Jeremy Irvine), a man broken after being separated from his one true love (Hannah Emily Anderson). When a mysterious letter calls him back to Silent Hill in search of her, he finds a once-recognizable town transformed by an unknown evil” and “terrifying figures both familiar and new.” It was unveiled in October 2022, but it took until May 2024 for us to get our first glimpse at Return to Silent Hill’s version of Red Pyramid Thing — AKA Pyramid Head.

Gans’ first Silent Hill movie, based loosely upon the first game, follows mother Rose as she searches for her missing daughter, Sharon, in a town where it snows during summer. Although the screenplay was written by Oscar-winning writer Roger Avary, who wrote Pulp Fiction, we thought Gans’ first adaptation was a mediocre 5/10, writing: “So there we have it. Our worst fears realized yet again. The video game-to-film genre has endured more than a decade of mediocrity. Silent Hill is probably the smartest and best-looking video game adaptation yet, it just doesn’t have much else going for it. After all, video games are about entertainment, and Silent Hill is a chore to sit through.”

The second movie, Silent Hill: Revelation — which was not directed by Gans but instead by Michael J. Bassett — was based loosely on sequel Silent Hill 3. That secured a less favorable 4.5 in our review: “Silent Hill Revelation 3D is an inferior sequel in every way, shape and form, a horror sequel that fails to either intrigue or scare, and one that just might have killed the franchise cold-dead.”

Return to Silent Hill is slated to release sometime later this year, with Cineverse promising a “wide theatrical release in America.”

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.

If you’ve ever wondered what a prospective Pope does to pass the time, wonder no more; according to a close family member, the recently elected Pope Leo XIV is just like us, playing games and watching movies in his downtime.

As we reported earlier this week, Edward Berger’s sensational papal thriller Conclave took moviegoers by storm last year, prompting some real-life religious leaders — including those who had participated in this week’s actual conclave to select a new Pope — to look to the film for guidance given its “remarkably accurate” portrayal of the process. That included Robert Francis Prevost, who’s just been elected as Pope Leo XIV.

If you’re hunting for some Untitled Boxing Game codes in Roblox, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve scoured the game’s official social media pages and compiled all of the game’s redeemable codes for May 2025 in one place so you can get your hands on some free spins, coins, and emotes.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest codes in Untitled Boxing Game, you can also find them across the game’s various pages and social media platforms. The best two spots to check are the game’s official Roblox page, where the codes are posted directly below the description, or on its Trello page in the “Codes” tab. You can also become a member of the DrowningSome Discord server, where you’ll find members of the community frequently sharing codes they’ve come across. Or, of course, you can keep track of all active Untitled Boxing Game codes here in this article.

Active Untitled Boxing Game Codes (May 2025)

Make sure to type the codes exactly as they appear below. Untitled Boxing Game’s codes are case-sensitive, so if you don’t type them exactly as shown, the code won’t be accepted.

• disjoints – 5 Spins (NEW)
• whitecash – 14999 Cash
• joeisreal – 10 Spins
• vexthegoat – 15 Spins
• void – 9999 Cash
• bringus – 15 Spins
• lovereturns – 2999 Cash
• matchmaking – 5 Spins
• newyear – 2999 Cash
• jolly2 – 5 Spins
• morefeints – 3 Spins
• avatar – 4999 Cash
• fastservers – 2 Spins
• dualemotes – Free emote spin
• freeemoteforall – Free emote spin
• ubgforever – 5 Spins
• freecrates – 3000 cash
• teleport – 3 Freespins

Expired Codes

As of May 2025, these are the codes that no longer work:

• bigbigcode
• supersecret
• sale
• knockdownfits
• halloween
• spooky
• powerlevel
• asura
• weball
• brazil
• activateboost
• jumpscare
• animetime
• animecrates
• shotgunrework
• bigcode
• comingsoon
• thegames
• kocash
• 500mil
• manyfixes
• oneyear
• ipposreturn
• freeemote2
• settings
• cashcashcash
• beefy
• beefy2
• koanims
• watwatwat
• balrog
• delayapology
• chronose
• pocketchange
• morecash
• delayingsome
• vegeta
• yamcha
• hammer
• randomcode
• feint
• 200mil
• freeemote1

How to Redeem Untitled Boxing Game Codes

To redeem Untitled Boxing Game Codes, all you need to do is head into the game itself and look for the “Codes” tab on the left-hand side of the screen. Click the tab, type in your code and hit enter. If the code is accepted, you’ll see your redeemed award appear above the enter button. If the code isn’t accepted, you’ll get an error message reading “Invalid Code”.

Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.

Paradox Interactive has announced that its next grand strategy game is Europa Universalis 5, following a tease posted last week.

The publisher behind titles such as Cities: Skylines, Crusader Kings, and Stellaris pulled back the curtain on its latest continuation with a sweeping cinematic trailer today. It’s being developed by the Barcelona, Spain-based Paradox Tinto, the same team that’s aided in the development of Europa Universalis 4 for the last few years. While there’s no release date yet, the Europa Universalis 5 Steam page is already online.

“Challenge your strategic skills over 500 years of history, in Europa Universalis 5, the latest version of the celebrated grand strategy game,” a description shared by Paradox says. “Master the arts of war, trade, diplomacy, and government in the largest and most detailed Europa Universalis game ever. Guide the destiny of any of hundreds of nations and societies in a simulated living world of unparalleled depth and complexity.”

Europa Universalis 5 has been in development at Paradox Tinto for more than five years, with the team saying it’s made the experience “with the devoted Paradox fan in mind.” The team has taken “over a year of public discussion” into consideration, adding that the public’s voice has played an important part in what it calls “the largest and most detailed Europa Universalis game ever made.”

Europa Universalis 5’s campaign begins at the dawn of the Hundred Years’ War in 1337. As players lead their people through the major moments in history set to follow, they’ll have an army of new features to enjoy. Highlights from today’s reveal include the promise of a new and larger map that takes advantage of accurate map projection with hundreds of different societies. Paradox says it features a population-based system this time around, as well as upgraded production and trade systems that will see players carving out a place for themselves by building farms, plantations, and factories or trading with neighboring areas.

It’s all in the name of creating a strategy experience that gives players the freedom to build and run their nation the way they see fit. It was teased to be a mysterious and “ambitious” project from the Paradox team last week, though fans had largely figured out what was in store beforehand.

“Europa Universalis 5 builds on the franchise’s core concept of developing and advancing nations from around a deeply researched historical world,” the description continues, “adding more detailed diplomacy, a more sophisticated economic model, a revised military system, and greater logistical depth that will challenge even the most experienced strategy gamers.”

Europa Universalis 5 is currently set to launch for PC at an unspecified time in the future. While we wait for updates, you can read up on our hands-on preview here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

On the latest episode of Hideo Kojima’s KOJI10 radio podcast (Episode 16), the veteran game director revealed why Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is going to be releasing in June. His answer gives insight into the various factors that impact game launch dates.

This recent episode of the TBS radio show, which started last October, had the theme of drinking at an izakaya (Japanese pub). Although Kojima revealed early in the episode that he doesn’t tend to drink alcohol nor get drunk, the prospect of a drunk Kojima seemed to have emboldened some listeners, with one asking: “Here’s a question that a drunk director might just answer… (Kojima: “I’m not drunk!”) Did you have any preferences for Death Stranding 2’s launch date? Is there a reason you are releasing it in June and not September?”

In his reply, Kojima first of all clarified that he can’t just release the game whenever he wants. When game development starts, the timeframe for the release has already been worked out, along with the budget. The projected launch windows of other games also play a big role in this decision.

“For example, Sony has various other games lined up,” Kojima explained. “So, we can’t overlap with these other titles. It’s the same with movies. This decision (about Death Stranding 2’s release date) was made quite a while back.”

Developed by Kojima Productions, Death Stranding 2 is being published by Sony. Although Kojima doesn’t name specific titles in the podcast, just looking at PS5 game release dates revealed so far indicates that there are already many titles that DS2 could clash with if it were slated for a September launch.

For example, Ghost of Yotei (the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima) is coming on October 2, and is one of Sony’s big first-party releases. As for other publishers, Konami is due to launch Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater on August 28. This MGS3 remake could also have ended up competing for players’ time with Sam Porter Bridges if Death Stranding 2 had a September release. Then there’s Gearbox’s Borderlands 4, which was originally due out on September 23 before being brought forward to September 12.

“Generally, games sell well in the West in October and November, I wanted to release (Death Stranding 2) around this time.” Kojima revealed, mentioning that in the past, a lot of his games hit shelves in November (such as the North American releases of MGS2 and MGS3). However, the need to not clash with the “many big games coming out this year,” meant that June was chosen instead.

“June was decided upon quite a while ago, whilst looking at the schedule. If we end up releasing Death Stranding 2 even slightly late, it will be a problem,” said Kojima, in reference to avoiding clashes with other new games.

Kojima went on to give an example of how a hypothetical sudden launch date reveal for a major title could impact other games’ releases: “For example, if GTA 6 were announced for November, the second that happened everyone else would move their game’s release date out of that month.” He added that “a game might take the player two months or so to finish,” which also must be taken into account when spacing out game releases.

Of course, game producers do sometimes abruptly move launch dates to avoid such clashes. For example, just this year, Sega decided to launch Like A Dragon: Pirates in Hawaii a week earlier to avoid clashing with Monster Hunter Wilds.

Kojima identified May/June, and September/October/November as good times to release games — however, another factor that needs to be considered is the promotion of the game, which must line-up with the release date as marketing costs aren’t something that can be easily recuperated if the game is delayed.

But what if you have a brand new IP? Kojima suggested February as a possible strategy (assuming there’s no MHW to contend with), as it is usually a quieter season where you won’t have to compete with as many established titles for advertising space.

We’ve got plenty more on Death Stranding 2, including an interview with Hideo Kojima himself, and our impressions after 30 hours of hands-on time.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Mafia: The Old Country has a release date: August 8, 2025 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.

The Hangar 13-developed gangster game also has a new trailer showcasing the combat and new stealth mechanics.

We also have a handful of new screenshots showing off Mafia: The Old Country, below.

The announcement comes alongside some interesting quotes from the developer and publisher, 2K. Hangar 13 President Nick Baynes described Mafia: The Old Country as a “focused, linear experience that combines quality storytelling, authentic era immersion and a refined take on the familiar Mafia gameplay.”

He continued: “That focus allows us to deliver a story that’s gritty, grounded, brutal and emotional. Embracing early 1900s era Sicily, this is a mafia origin story that follows our protagonist, Enzo Favara, as he takes the oath and works his way up Don Torrisi’s crime family.”

Tellingly, 2K President David Ismailer added: “We think there’s a large audience for compelling stories that don’t require massive time commitments.

“We’re excited to offer a game like Mafia: The Old Country in our portfolio, and to provide a linear highly-polished narrative experience that can easily complement the other more persistent games our players also love and engage with on a more consistent basis.”

Based on these comments, Mafia: The Old Country will be a relatively short affair. There is no multiplayer mode, so the story is the entire package.

Perhaps that’s why the standard edition costs $49.99 across all platforms, and the deluxe edition costs $59.99. Here’s the breakdown, per 2K:

Mafia: The Old Country will offer two editions: Standard Edition and Deluxe Edition. Both editions are available for pre-order today and will release worldwide on August 8, 2025.

• The Standard Edition includes the full base game and will be available for $49.99 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
• The Deluxe Edition lets players descend into Sicily’s criminal underworld in true Cosa Nostra style with a variety of bonus items and will be available for $59.99 on PlayStation, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. This edition includes the Padrino Pack, featuring “Lupara Speciale” Shotgun, “Vendetti Speciale” Pistol, “Immortale” Charm, “Padrino” Outfit, “Stiletto Speciale” Knife, “Eckhart Speciale” Limousine and “Cosimo” Horse and Accessories. Additionally, it offers the Gatto Nero Pack with the “Bodeo Nero” Pistol, “Velocità” Charm, “Gatto Nero” Racing Outfit and “Carozella Nero” Race Car, plus digital bonus materials including the Original Score and Digital Artbook full of concept art and developer notes.
• Pre-order Mafia: The Old Country Standard Edition or Deluxe Edition to receive the Soldato Pack featuring the “Soldato” Outfit, “Scannaturi Speciale” Knife, “Tesoro” Horse and Accessories and “Lupara” Charm.

In December, IGN interviewed Baynes and game director Alex Cox about all things Mafia: The Old Country, and the prospect of running up against GTA 6. With GTA 6’s delay from fall 2025 to May 26, 2026, that is of course no longer a concern.

In the interview, the pair dismissed comparisons to GTA 6, insisting Mafia: The Old Country shouldn’t be considered an open-world game at all.

Rather, the pair insisted, Mafia: The Old Country is more like Mafia 1 and 2 than it is the open-world Mafia 3. It is a “linear, narrative-driven” game, a “focused package” that offers a “cinematic experience.” You might find yourself driving around an authentic representation of 1900s Sicily in Mafia: The Old Country, or even riding around on horseback a bit like that other Rockstar game, but the similarities to Rockstar games stop there.

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.

Overnight, Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 Trailer 2 was captured “entirely” in-game from a PlayStation 5, putting to bed speculation that the footage looked so good it must have come from a PS5 Pro or a PC. Crucially, Rockstar also confirmed that Trailer 2 is “comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes.”

Taken at face value, Trailer 2 does not appear to feature gameplay, with most of what we see looking like cutscene material. There is now Heads-Up Display (HUD) shown, no controller icons, or any other element that would suggest gameplay is in there.

However, given Rockstar’s statement, we can assume that there is gameplay, just with the HUD turned off and the camera perhaps in a non-gameplay position. So, what bits of Trailer 2 fit the bill? That’s exactly what the GTA community is trying to work out right now.

The most obvious candidate was already flagged as a potential cutscene to gameplay transition moment: when Jason enters his apartment. It seems a safe bet that this is gameplay, and potentially even how players will begin GTA 6.

Elsewhere, redditor OriginalTomato8235 compiled a compilation of what they believe to be gameplay shown in Trailer 2. It includes:

• The sequence where Jason robs a convenience store
• Jason walking out with beer
• Jason driving in what looks like a first-person perspective
• Jason lifting weights on the beach (which players suspect is one of GTA 6’s mini-games)
• Jason firing a gun from inside a moving car
• Lucia’s combat training (another potential mini-game)
• Lucia shooting what looks like a grenade launcher at police cars (the camera is in a third-person perspective here)
• The sequence where we see Jason’s TV from a first-person perspective (this is the shot that includes the fake PS5 and DualSense controllers, and a character who may be Phil Cassidy from Vice City)
• The chopper chase over the swamp
• Jason and Lucia jetskiing
• Jason riding a motorbike
• Jason jumping into a car Lucia is driving
• Jason throwing a guy into a car

That’s a long list (remember, Rockstar said “equal parts”), but what it boils down to is that the gameplay is probably all the bits that aren’t obviously cutscenes. That is, all the bits where a character does not talk.

Trailer 2 is already breaking viewership records but it’s also wowing fans, and the idea that we’re seeing in-engine PS5 gameplay footage here is pretty spectacular. Yes, the HUD is turned off, and yes, Rockstar is positioning the camera in ways players won’t be able to when they finally get to grips with the game in May 2026, but we are getting a realistic look at what to expect next year – and that’s encouraging.

While we wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including all the details we’ve discovered so far, a roundup of 70 brand new screenshots, and the expert opinion on how GTA 6 will look on PS5 Pro.

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.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are some of the best-selling Pokémon games ever.

As shared by the webmaster of Serebii.net, Joe Merrick, and spotted by Eurogamer, the two games combined have sold north of 25 million copies, which is more than any other Pokémon game since Pokémon Red/Green/Blue, and that sold 31.4 million copies when it released way back in 1996 on the Game Boy.

Scarlet/Violet’s 26,790,000 sales only just pip Sword/Shield to second place, which has sold 26,720,000 copies.

Gold/Silver and Diamond/Pearl round out the top five games by units sold with sales of 23.7 million and 16.7 million, respectively.

Scarlet/Violet had a mixed reception when it launched, debuting to mainly mixed or average scores that make it one of the lowest-received mainline games of the entire series, with fans complaining of technical issues, performance troubles, and bugs.

We thought Game Freak’s latest instalment was “Okay,” awarding it 6/10 and writing in IGN’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet review: “The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which Scarlet and Violet feel deeply unfinished.”

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set to release sometime later this year. It’s set in Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon. A leak sharing unknown information about numerous Pokémon games, including Legends Z-A, spilled online last October, and Nintendo has recently subpoenaed Discord to track down the user behind the “TeraLeak.”

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.

Did you watch the new GTA 6 trailer and think, ‘Wow, the bubbles inside that bottle of beer look really, really good?’ You’re not alone. Hundreds of millions of viewers have now watched the second Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer and marveled at the technical brilliance on display. And knowing that the trailer footage was all captured on PS5 is just mind-blowing. But are we being set up to be fooled?

IGN spoke to Digital Foundry’s Alexander Battaglia to help break down what we saw and understand whether there are any takeaways we can glean from the newest GTA 6 trailer and how it might translate into actual gameplay experience on console. And it turns out, we can.

“The trailer is running at 30 fps and is completely made up of — presumably — real-time cutscenes and not gameplay — hence the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen,” Battaglia says. “I imagine the game’s primary target for such cutscenes is 30 fps, and it’s likely the same for gameplay.”

30 fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X is nothing new. Games often come with either a fidelity mode, which prioritizes up to 4K resolution at 30 fps, or a performance mode, which targets 60 fps at lower resolution. But with the launch of the PS5 Pro, Sony has made efforts to bridge the two modes, and it’s something Battaglia says we’ll likely see pushed closer to the game’s release.

“Given the image quality in the trailer, which may well be a use of FSR1 (AMD’s AI performance enhancing tool and the basis of PS5 Pro’s PSSR) from a low internal resolution, PS5 Pro could enhance image quality through the use of PSSR making a less aliased, more detailed image with less blur.”

Personally speaking, I tend to always opt for performance mode over fidelity mode, but one of the key selling points for PS5 Pro is that you don’t have to make that choice, you can have both. So while Digital Foundry thinks PS5 Pro can improve image quality, the big question is: Will GTA 6 run at 60 fps on console?

On the Digital Foundry tech breakdown posted on YouTube, the panel seems to agree that GTA 6 will not be able to hit 60 fps on console. “As soon as you have RTGI [Ray Traced Global Illumination], a massive open world, those things tend not to run well at 60 fps… I think everything points to this being a 30 fps game, maybe with a 40 fps mode on some [consoles].”

At the heart of the matter is ray tracing, which Digital Foundry says seems integral to GTA 6, not just from a tech perspective but an artistic one. “You can’t get rid of RTGI. It’s inherent to the way the game works. And they’re throughout the trailer, so they obviously made them a part of the gameplay.”

Leonida, Rockstar’s version of the Sunshine State, is full of light. Whether it’s from the sun itself beaming on bright beaches and suntanned bodies, or the neon lights illuminating Vice City’s nightlife, ray tracing feels core to GTA 6’s art direction, and also why it likely won’t run higher than 30 fps. It could also be where PS5 Pro players find the most joy over their PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts: “The trailer uses ray tracing extensively, which could be further enhanced on PS5 Pro,” Battaglia says.

While the ray tracing improvements on PS5 Pro are speculative, you only have to compare the new GTA 6 trailer with the first one to see that Rockstar is hammering the importance of RTGI to the look of GTA 6. “Real-time ray-traced transparency reflections are much more obvious in this trailer, so glass on beer bottles, cars’ windscreens, building windows, and more look particularly good.” The bubbly beer that hundreds of millions of GTA fans are obsessing over is why GTA 6 might not run at 60 fps, but also why GTA 6 might look even better on PS5 Pro.

While 30 fps seems to be the default across consoles, PS5 Pro’s better ray tracing capabilities mean this key GTA 6 feature should get a better showcase on Sony’s more powerful console. To date, the improvements PS5 Pro offers over the base console varies wildly from one game to the next, with Assassin’s Creed Shadows currently the best showcase for what the console can do. But I’m hoping Rockstar and GTA 6 take it a step further and make the difference even more noticeable.

At the opposite end of the powerhouse scale is the Xbox Series S, which is currently the weakest console that can play GTA 6 (there’s no word yet on whether Rockstar will bring GTA 6 to Switch 2). Digital Foundry says that to get GTA 6 on the Series S, Rockstar may need to sacrifice ray tracing completely to run the game at 30 fps, with sub-1080p resolution. But the Series S still has the same ballpark CPU power and storage as Series X, so it’s not impossible.

There’s still a whole year until GTA 6 hits shelves (sadly), and with only two trailers released so far, there are still a lot of unknown variables. But even the changes from the first GTA 6 trailer to the newest one reveals loads of interesting technical details, from a constant 30 fps captured on PS5 to the improved ray tracing. And with history telling us that Rockstar typically only releases 30 fps GTA games, all signs are pointing to the same for GTA 6 – although if the trailers are anything to go by, the series has never looked better.