Subnautica 2 has sold so well that publisher Krafton has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million earnout to the developers — a bonus that was at the heart of its high-profile legal dispute with the fired Unknown Worlds leadership.

The underwater adventure has sold a mammoth 4 million copies since its early access launch on May 14, achieving more than 467,000 peak concurrent players on Steam. But its development was turbulent, with Krafton firing Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and other senior team members in the summer of last year. At the time, Krafton said the game's launch had also been delayed — something it blamed on Gill — even though its team had been working towards an early access release that would have seen them eligible for that $250 million bonus.

Gill and his former teammates immediately launched a lawsuit against Krafton, suggesting they were ousted to avoid that bonus being paid, while Krafton hit back and said the staff had "resorted to litigation to demand a multimillion-dollar payout they haven't earned." Krafton also accused the staff it fired of having stolen documents in anticipation of subsequent legal action, muddying the waters over their exit.

In March, Krafton was ordered to reinstate Gill and extend the proposed $250 million bonus to staff in one of the most dramatic legal rulings the video game industry has ever seen. And today, reports coming out of the South Korean business press indicate that Krafton has now agreed to pay the bonus.

According to estimates from Alinea Analytics, Subnautica 2 generated $100 million in just a week, and is is 2026’s fastest-selling Steam game so far. The Korean Economic Daily said Krafton now faces that $250 million bill after agreeing to pay $3.12 for every $1, or up to $250 million, to Unknown Worlds’ former shareholders every time the studio’s revenue topped $69.8 million a month since the Korean game developer acquired the U.S. firm in 2021. $250 million is equivalent to about 35% of Krafton’s operating profit last year.

IGN has asked Krafton for comment.

The legal battle between Krafton and the Unknown Worlds shareholders revealed a number of shocking revelations around the South Korean company’s internal actions in the run up to Subnautica 2’s release. For example, as internal projections showed Subnautica 2 looked on course to trigger the earnout, Krafton’s chief executive, Changhan Kim, believed it was a “bad deal” and felt “taken advantage of,” according to the ruling.

Kim was warned by his legal department that the earnout would still need to be paid even if there was a “dismissal with cause” of the Unknown Worlds’ leadership: co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire and chief executive Ted Gill. He was also warned it would expose Krafton to “lawsuit and reputation risk.”

Kim then turned to ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot built by OpenAI, for help, vice-chancellor Lori Will of the court of chancery in Delaware said in the ruling. ChatGPT initially responded that the earnout would be “difficult to cancel,” but later, at ChatGPT’s suggestion, Kim formed an internal taskforce, dubbed Project X. “The task force’s mandate was to either negotiate a ‘deal’ on the earnout or execute a ‘Take Over’ of Unknown Worlds,” Will stated. “They looked to buy time.”

“Over the next month, Krafton followed most of ChatGPT’s recommendations,” Will wrote.

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.

Donkey Kong 64 is coming to Nintendo Switch Online next week, Nintendo has confirmed.

The legendary N64 platformer will arrive on June 4, and like other N64 titles will be accessible to any Switch or Switch 2 owner with an active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription.

Originally released in 1999 and developed by famed British studio Rare, Donkey Kong 64 is remembered for its many levels filled with collectibles, its use of the N64's Expansion Pak add-on, and as the birthplace of the iconic DK Rap.

While disliked at the time, the DK Rap has gone on to find cult status (and appear in numerous other things, such as the Super Mario Bros. Movie and various Smash Bros. soundtracks). Today, Nintendo's announcement for the game's Switch re-release also uses the DK Rap as its music.

Donkey Kong 64 will join around 40 other games from the Nintendo 64 era available via Nintendo Switch Online, including other classics such as Super Mario 64, Paper Mario and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For the full catalog, IGN has a list of every Nintendo Switch Online game available to date.

Today's announcement follows last year's launch of excellent new DK platformer Donkey Kong Bananza for Nintendo Switch 2 (IGN's Donkey Kong Bananza review returned a rare 10/10), and comes amid growing fan speculation that Nintendo's mysterious upcoming Mario movie spinoff slated for launch in April 2028 is actually a Donkey Kong film.

In a bizarre twist, fans have noted that today's announcement has also arrived exactly on the 10th anniversary of legendary gorilla Harambe's untimely passing. Whether intentional or not, it's an apepropriate gesture.

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

007 First Light developer IO Interactive has teased what fans can expect from the game's first content update, and it should be a treat. After players complete the main story, they'll notice an ad in the game's main menu that teases new content coming to TacSim, the game's challenge mode. The ad confirms that a future update will add the Valhalla Protocol, a mission that features the souped-up Aston Martin that you briefly see in the main story.

While its role in the main story is small, it appears that the new TacSim update will add a larger course for players to drive through, blasting and blowing stuff up. This would be a pretty big departure from the other content in TacSim. Right now, there's only a handful of levels in the challenge mode, and all of them see James Bond completing objectives on foot. Although epic car chases are a big part of Bond's lineage, 007 First Light only has a few driving sequences, which are brief and very linear. As of right now, there's no release date for the Valhalla Protocol, but hopefully it'll be in the next few weeks.

The 007 main menu is teasing future Tac Sim missions pic.twitter.com/JM9e3nDdUO

— Farzam (@farzam_plays) May 26, 2026

IO Interactive is, of course, best known for the Hitman series, a franchise that has only grown in popularity because of the developer's extensive post-launch support. These games are supported for years after launch, giving fans new reasons to come back regularly. Whether 007 First Light will have the same level of support remains to be seen, but one can hope. It's great to see that there are already plans for a notable piece of new content, but only time will tell if this is something we can expect regularly.

007 First Light is already off to a strong start, with the game being showered in critical acclaim. In our review-in-progress, we called the game "the best Bond has been since GoldenEye." Other reviewers have offered similar praise. The jury is still out with regard to how well 007 First Light will sell but, hopefully, it'll be a success for IO Interactive so we can get more James Bond adventures. IO Interactive previously stated it hopes to make a trilogy of Bond games, but it's unclear what milestones First Light needs to hit to make that a reality.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Bungie is opening the gates to Marathon next week and letting players jump in on the action, free of cost. As part of Marathon Season 2's launch, the full game will be getting a free trial from June 2nd to June 9th on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. All of the progress you make during this time will carry over to the full game, so it's a great way to try before you buy. It's a clear move from Bungie to try to win over players, as Marathon has had soft sales and underwhelming player counts for a new game.

Marathon Season 2 also plans to add more PVE content to the game as a way to lure in more players who are turned off by core modes in the game. The extraction shooter genre has had some massive wins, like Arc Raiders, but the premise can be daunting for some, pushing away more casual shooter fans. As always, Bungie has incorporated strong gunplay into Marathon, but some wish it were in a more accessible game. It seems like Bungie is trying to cater to those would-be players with upcoming content.

Despite sales issues, Marathon has received pretty solid reviews. We gave the game a 9/10, noting: "Marathon is a ruthless and unforgiving extraction shooter that’s worth every ounce of hell it puts you through." It's at least a promising sign that Marathon has strong fundamentals, because it's all Bungie will have for the foreseeable future. Destiny 2 is ending live-service support in June, and the studio will be turning all of its attention to Marathon while figuring out what's next.

Reports indicate that Bungie is not actively working on Destiny 3, nor does it have any other titles in production. Bungie is also expected to suffer "significant" layoffs in the coming weeks and months, likely tied to the fact that the studio has more people than it needs with Destiny 2 winding down. Some are protesting against Marathon following the Destiny 2 news, but it remains to be seen if that will have any kind of meaningful impact.

Either way, it'll be interseting to see if Bungie can win people over with Marathon. If not, it may pose major danger for the beloved shooter studio. Sony is likely going to be picky about any future projects that Bungie pitches, given the high costs associated with developing games at the studio's normal scale. We also likely won't see whatever Bungie's next game is until the 2030s, so Marathon needs to become sustainable for the foreseeable future.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

There have been some rather odd claims stating that Backrooms director Kane Parsons didn't actually direct the film, prompting him to respond. The claims began circulating across social media, with some trying to discredit the 20-year-old director's efforts, likely due to his age. Backrooms is produced by acclaimed directors like James Wan (The Conjuring), Shawn Levy (Deadpool and Wolverine), and Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), which led some to believe that they may be running the show and "ghost directing" the project.

Actor Mark Duplass addressed the rumors on his social media pages by stating that it was totally false, even posting a video on Instagram stating that Parsons didn't need any help because he was "intensely prepared." The actor went on to praise Parson's thoughtfulness as a creator, including with his ability to work with actors, something that Parsons wouldn't have had much experience with before.

Parsons himself jokingly addressed the rumors as well in the comments section of a video from YouTuber Dolan Darkest.

"This is actually all true," joked Parsons. "They don’t tell you this, but 96% of all movies released in North America and Europe are actually directed by the same person. They call him 'The Older Gentleman.' He has had all of Hollywood in a chokehold for decades now. They make you sign over all of your intellectual property, life rights, and genetic information to him when you enter the industry. He loves movies."

Parsons gained prominence as a filmmaker in 2022 with the debut of his liminal short horror film, The Backrooms. The teenage creator had made some compelling videos prior to this, but the virality of The Backrooms attracted a lot of attention. By 2023, A24 had recruited Parsons to develop the idea into a feature film. Early reviews for Backrooms indicate it's a strong and promising debut for the young creator and, should the film be a financial success, Parsons will likely have the opportunity to direct more projects.

IGN gave Backrooms an 8/10, noting that it "blends superb visuals and excellent characterization with the lore of the Backrooms to create a terrifying and thrilling big-screen debut for the liminal horror classic."

Young YouTubers and content creators have been getting opportunities to direct feature films, resulting in a new generation of savvy directors that can turn a profit on small budgets. Earlier this month, Curry Barker's Obsession was released and has become one of the most successful films of 2026. Barker has also been tapped to direct a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou AKA RackaRacka made waves in 2023 with their film Talk to Me, after years of success on YouTube.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Ferrari has revealed its new $640,000 electric car, known as the Luce, and it seems to have significantly harmed the legendary company's reputation. The Italian car company is known for making some of the most revered vehicles in history. The cars are almost art-like with the level of detail that goes into producing them, and those who own them treat them with a high degree of care. They're premium, prestigious, and high-value. So, everyone was eager to see what was in store for the company's new electric car only to be outraged.

The car was unveiled with a baby blue color, one that doesn't really scream Ferrari. Not only that, but it's a four-door with five seats, as opposed to a two-door. It's much more roomy, maybe akin to a fancier version of something you'd expect from Honda or Kia rather than a luxury car manufacturer like Ferrari. The car was designed by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, which may explain why it looks the way it does.

Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo tried to mince words to avoid hurting Ferrari too much when speaking with media, but what he did say was still extremely damming.

“I cannot say what I really think," he said. "I would harm Ferrari. We risk the destruction of a legend. So sorry. Take the Prancing Horse off.”

One user on X was much more direct: "Ferrari just killed their brand just like Jaguar did. This is straight to the junkyard trash."

However, Ferrari is aware that this isn't the most appealing car for everyone. Ferrari chief design officer Flavio Manzoni noted to YouTuber Cleo Abram that the car is meant to be "polarizing" and that the company is trying to innovate, rather than lean on the past or nostalgia. Jony Ive also noted that he's familiar with backlash to innovation, but he welcomes challenge when trying to pave a path toward the future.

Still, the Ferrari Luce will move rather fast. The car can hit 60mph in 2.5 seconds, though there are far cheaper electric vehicles that can hit 60mph faster. The Tesla Model S Plaid can hit 60mph in 1.99 seconds for a fraction of the cost of Ferrari's new vehicle. Perhaps Ferrari really is just ahead of everyone else and the Luce will be what we expect from a car 10-15 years from now. Or maybe it'll be something it regrets and looks back on as a total mistake.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

The Wheel of Time is one of the best-selling fantasy book series of all time, but it's a franchise that has struggled to take hold as an adaptation. Most notably, Amazon's live-action Wheel of Time show was tragically cancelled just last year after what IGN called it's "best season yet". But a new kickstarter for the first-ever official board game is bringing some fresh hope to fans of Robert Jordan's fantasy world that there's still more to look forward to.

War of the Dragon is an upcoming strategy game for 2-4 players that according to the Kickstarter page, "combines tableau building, action selection, and area control mechanics in a thrilling struggle for conquest and survival". The game just launched on Kickstarter today with a funding goal of $50,000 that was pretty much immediately met. At the time of writing, almost $300K has already been pledged and those numbers continue to go up.

This isn't the first time The Wheel of Time has been adapted for the tabletop, but it is the first actual board game for the franchise. Wizards of the Coast made a Wheel of Time TTRPG all the way back in 2001, but it has been mostly forgotten over the years. War of the Dragon takes it a step further by bringing a full experience to the table with new illustrations, miniatures, and multiple game modes included.

The popularity of this game on Kickstarter isn't too surprising thanks to the publisher that is actually adapting the story into this format. Dire Wolf is known for publishing some incredible board games like Dune: Imperium and Clank! over the years. Dune: Imperium is a somewhat similar deck-building board game that has consistently been a favorite for IGN, with our reviewer giving it a glowing 9 out of 10 review. So while War of the Dragon is getting its start as a crowdfunding campaign here, it's backed by a trusted studio.

Outside of this Kickstarter, The Wheel of Time series has been seeing a bit of a revival in TV and games. It was announced fairly recently that a new Wheel of Time animated series and a video game are currently in the works. As of right now, there isn't any sort of release date attached to those projects, but there is an estimated June 2027 window for War of the Dragon. The Kickstarter campaign is set to run from now until June 23, 2026.

Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and 10 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics -- from TV series to books and the latest Pokémon games.

Square Enix issued a significant update on Dragon Quest 12 today, giving fans a quick look at the long-awaited RPG sequel. The Japanese company also dropped the bombshell that the game’s development was restarted from scratch. As a result, Dragon Quest 12's original subtitle, The Flames of Fate, was ditched in favor of Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams.

In a special video to mark Dragon Quest’s 40th anniversary on May 27, Dragon Quest 12 executive producer Yosuke Saito and game designer Yuji Horii shed light on the upcoming game’s current state.

“We’re hard at work on 12,” Saito said. “But it’s going to be a bit longer until it’s in your hands.” He explaining that the title’s development was overhauled after a team reshuffle. “Work on the original version, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, hit a lot of hurdles along the way.” Saito added. “But as we kept talking with Mr. Horii and pinned down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like, we decided to move things around and start over from scratch.”

“It was a major decision, but I believe it’s the right one,” Saito said, citing that this rehaul will enable the dev team to make an enjoyable game that appeals to a wider range of Dragon Quest fans.

It seems the devs changed Dragon Quest 12’s protagonist, story and themes. Apparently, Beyond Dreams’ hero has mysterious visions in his sleep, and the plot will delve into what lies beyond these dreams. “The game has gone in a different direction to what we originally announced, but I think you’ll enjoy it,” Horii said. Dragon Quest 12 will explore a “bright and exciting future,” with Horii suggesting that Beyond Dreams may have ditched the darker tone that The Flames of Fate was set to bring to the 40-year-old series.

The game’s development has changed direction but Horii reassured fans that quintessential Dragon Quest elements remain. Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams will still have the late Akira Toriyama’s iconic character designs and composer Koichi Sugiyama’s epic score. Although Sugiyama passed away in 2021 and Toriyama in 2024, both creatives managed to complete work for Dragon Quest 12 before they departed. Both have worked on every entry in the series since 1986’s Dragon Quest 1.

However, it won’t just be the same old classic gameplay. Saito said that Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams will evolve the RPG series to the next level “with plenty of things you've never seen in a DQ game before.”

Dragon Quest fans have been waiting a long time. Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was announced in 2021 during the series’ 35th anniversary celebrations. It’s also been eight years since the last mainline entry, Dragon Quest 11, was released. Saito and Horii did not give any hints as to a release timeline for Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams, so fans will have to wait a bit longer.

During the 40th anniversary celebration, Square Enix also revealed that spin-off title Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World will be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch and Switch 2 (release date to be announced later). The game will feature Dragon Quest 5’s Nera and Bianca as dual protagonists. Also, Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Elusive Age will be coming to Switch 2 on September 24.

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.

Valve has announced a substantial price increase for the Steam Deck. The company announced today that all new OLED models are officially back in stock after months of being out of stock, but they will be getting a price increase. The lowest-tier model, the 512GB OLED Steam Deck, was previously $549 and will now cost $789. The premium 1TB OLED Steam Deck was previously $649 and will now cost $949. Valve stated that "these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."

Refurbished LCD Steam Decks sold through Steam will not suffer a price increase, though it does appear that the refurbished OLED Steam Decks will still cost more than their original price. The refurbished 512GB and 1TB OLEDs now cost $629 and $759, respectively. If you're okay with a slightly less premium handheld, the refurbished versions of the now-discontinued LCD Steam Decks are a solid option. 64GB LCD costs $279, the 256GB LCD costs $319, and the 512GB LCD costs $359.

The PC handheld has been a beloved piece of gaming tech for a while, partially thanks to its value. It allows for a premium gaming experience on the go, and previously, it was relatively affordable. Now, the Steam Deck will likely be a harder sell, especially as it now gets into the price range of other high-end handhelds like the Xbox Rog Ally X, which costs $999.99.

Valve isn't the only one raising prices on its hardware. The three major gaming platforms (Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo) have all raised prices on their consoles, making it one of the only times in history when prices for consoles went up instead of down during a generation. A regular PS5, for instance, now costs $100 - $150 more than it did in 2020.

The news also comes amidst growing concerns that Valve's console-like device, the Steam Machine, will be unaffordable. Valve has yet to announce a price for the Steam Machine, leading to feverish speculation. The device aims to be a PC for your living room, and some hoped that would mean that even if it's more expensive than an Xbox or a PS5, it will at least still be more affordable than a PC. However, the rising costs of things like RAM mean that it may not even be possible for Valve. With the Steam Deck getting a massive price increase, one has to imagine that the Steam Machine will suffer as well.

The Steam Machine is currently expected to release sometime in 2026. It's unclear when Valve may reveal a release date or pricing information. It seems like Valve is waiting things out before it makes a definitive pricing decision, but the clock is ticking unless the company wants to indefinitely delay the new hardware.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

It was recently announced that Brandon Sanderson would be working with Tomorrow Studios on an adaptation of his popular YA series Skyward. The news was a bit of a surprise for fans who have been following the author's progress on the Mistborn screenplay. But unlike Sanderson's Apple TV deal for his Cosmere projects, the Skyward TV series does not currently have a streaming service attached.

"I actually started meeting with [Tomorrow Studios] like four our five years ago," Sanderson said in his latest YouTube update. "It was right after the One Piece television show came out that I sat down seriously with them. I'd taken some meetings earlier, but this was the first time I'm like, 'All right, you really can make things that are good.'"

Season 1 of the One Piece live-action show was first released on Netflix back in August 2023 and quickly became one of the most popular shows on the streaming service. The second season of the adaptation was released earlier this year and was critically received even better than the first season. IGN's review of Season 2 called it "nothing short of a miracle" thanks to how well it adapts Eiichiro Oda's absurd cartoony world.

"There's a really cool exec there that I like a lot. We talked for a long while and eventually we said yes," explains Sanderson about the partnership with Tomorrow Studios. "So that's been in the works for a quite a while and we now picked our showrunners. It's Mo and Jed. They were the showrunners of Agents of SHIELD and they are fantastic people. They've been really good to work with an so we're working on that."

Sanderson is talking bout Jed Whedon and Maurissa "Mo" Tancheroen here, who worked on the Marvel spin-off series between 2013 and 2020. For those who don't remember Agents of SHIELD, it was one of the more popular Marvel shows on TV before the Disney+ era of originals kicked off in 2021 with Wandavision.

In addition to providing more information about the Skyward adaptation, Sanderson also addressed that he has been overly busy with Hollywood lately, saying: "I do promise I'm getting back to the books very soon." During his update last week, he confirmed that he plans on starting work on Ghostbloods revisions again in July, which is the next era of his Mistborn series.

Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and 10 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics -- from TV series to books and the latest Pokémon games.

Fans attending IGN Live 2026 will have the opportunity to be the first to watch the first two episodes of the new animated series Adventure Time: Side Quests on Saturday, June 7th at 12:45pm PT.

This special, in-person advance screening is happening weeks before the series premieres June 29th on Disney+ and Hulu.

IGN Live 2026 is a multi-day celebration of video games and entertainment that will take place at the Magic Box @ The Reef in downtown Los Angeles on June 6 - 7 from 9 am - 5 pm PT. Tickets are now on sale.

Produced by Cartoon Network Studios, Adventure Time: Side Quests is a companion series to the award-winning original show Adventure Time.

According to the official synopsis, Adventure Time: Side Quests “follows young hero Finn and his magical dog best friend Jake as they embark on adventures across the fantastical land of Ooo — partying with cloud people and punching evil in the butt along the way.”

The new series “builds on the spirit of the early seasons, delivering lighter, self-contained adventures. Designed to introduce a new generation of fans to the land of Ooo, whilst giving existing fans more of what they love, the series brings standalone, silly quests and playful challenges - celebrating the joyful chaos of Finn and Jake’s adventures.”

Adventure Time: Side Quests joins a stellar IGN Live lineup that includes CONTROL Resonant, Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, Jackass: Best and Last, Rick and Morty, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Magic the Gathering, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, WWE's Kevin Owens and much, more more.

Xbox will also be on hand with multiple dev interviews and a showcase watch party.

The late Marvel comics legend Stan Lee will have his voice and likeness replicated by an AI company for commercial use, it's been announced.

AI audio company ElevenLabs has acquired the rights to Lee's image and voice and intends to license them for further use by other companies, opening the door to a digitally-resurrected Lee appearing in films and commercials.

ElevenLabs users will also be able to hear a replication of Lee's voice narrate audio books — including via a "Stan Lee Book Club of the Month" — and generate a comic book panel featuring Lee from templates that include his likeness.

"Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo," said Chaz Rainey, a lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, the company that currently owns Lee's image, per Variety.

"This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan's voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality."

This isn't the first time that Lee's voice and image have been replicated using AI. Last year's Los Angeles Comic Con saw technology company Proto Hologram charge between $15 and $20 for a three-minute chat with Lee's AI likeness, to widespread disapproval from fans.

The legal rights to Lee's image remain a messy subject, with Stan Lee Universe now set up as a joint venture involving Lee's own company POW! Entertainment. Shortly before his death in 2018, however, Lee also attempted to sue POW! Entertainment, claiming the company's other chiefs conspired to "fraudulently steal" his name and likeness and benefit financially at his expense.

Lee was 95 at the time of this lawsuit, and by his own admission had suffered from advanced macular degeneration for several years, a condition that left him unable to read unaided.

For ElevenLabs, Lee is just another voice added to its vault of living and deceased celebrities, which already includes Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, Judy Garland, David Hasselhoff and Albert Einstein. Caine previously said that ElevenLabs was "using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it... It's not about replacing voices; it's about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere." The company's technology was also used to bring the late James Earl Jones' Darth Vader to Fortnite as a chatty NPC.

Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

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

X-Men ’97 Season 2 finally has a release date — July 1 on Disney+ — and a debut trailer confirming the appearance of a long list of new characters, and a big reversal in fortunes for Wolverine.

Warning! Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 1 follow:

Towards the end of X-Men ’97 Season 1, Magneto rips the adamantium right out of Wolverine’s body in a scene directly adapted from the 1993 Fatal Attractions comic storyline. But in the Season 2 trailer, below, we see Wolverine alive and well — complete with his adamantium claws. So clearly something positive has happened to Logan following his torrid time at the end of the last season.

Elsewhere, the trailer shows Apocalypse as the antagonist of Season 2. The X-Men are scattered through time and must face the incredibly powerful villain in various eras, from the ancient past to the far future.

We see En Sabah Nur in Ancient Egypt (the start of Apocalypse's reign), and in the future, at the height of his rule. The mission is to "get the X-Men back to the ’90s," and Bishop and Forge are on the case. It looks like an adaptation of sorts of the famous Age of Apocalypse comic storyline. which sees Apocalypse cause all sorts of problems for the X-Men. In the trailer, Apocalypse declares: "I must strike them at their most vulnerable, the 1990s!"

The trailer kicks off with Rogue still grieving the death of Gambit, who heroically saved the day in Season 1. One of the big surprises in the trailer is a brief look at Deadpool, but it's not actually the 'Merc with the Mouth,' rather Morph taking his form. Still, it will be interesting to see Deadpool in battle, and any fourth wall-breaking quips he might have up his sleeve.

Here’s the official blurb:

X-Men ’97 Season 2 continues with the heroic mutant team of X-Men, divided and thrown across different eras in time as they struggle to navigate their return home. Meanwhile, back in the 1990s, suspicious foes and new strains of mutant intolerance are on the rise in the wake of the X-Men’s absence. The second season of the original animated series features nine episodes, and the voice cast includes Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast.

The series is executive produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Julia Lewald, Eric Lewald, Larry Houston, and Beau DeMayo. The supervising producer is Jake Castorena. Episodes written by JB Ballard, Beau DeMayo, Bailey Moore, Antony Sellitti, Brian Ford Sullivan, and Mariah Wilson. The episodic directors are Emmett Yonemura and Chase Conley.

IGN's X-Men '97: Season 1 review returned a 9/10. We said: "X-Men '97 isn't just a fitting continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, but one of the best adaptations ever of this iconic Marvel franchise."

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.

Destiny 2 fans distraught over Bungie's decision to end support for the franchise are planning to try and "crash the servers" to demonstrate that there's still huge interest in the game.

In a lengthy thread on reddit, Destiny fan w1nds0r has issued a call to arms for all Destiny players to return on June 9, when the game's final ever content drop arrives.

Bungie stunned fans last week with the announcement it was ending content updates for Destiny 2 to focus instead on its more recently-released extraction shooter Marathon, which has reportedly failed to meet sales expectations. Subsequent reporting has suggested that no Destiny sequel is currently in the works, and that Bungie is also now set for "significant" layoffs.

"We need to at least smash Marathon's all time high to show them they made the wrong decision," w1nds0r wrote, suggesting that this would show Sony that Destiny remains "a franchise worth continuing to invest in... It's our last chance to send a message the franchise is still valuable." (Marathon launched in March with a Steam peak of 77,358 players. Its daily peak is now hovering around 10,000 players.)

More than 1,000 responses to w1nds0r's post all say pretty much the same thing: that Destiny fans are still keen to return one last time to wander its Tower, go forth in missions across the surface of alien worlds, or just sit in orbit and chat for hours.

Join us and make history! pic.twitter.com/sy1uRg9v4J

— Kaine Richardson (@KaineRich2555) May 25, 2026

"Haven't played since The Final Shape, but I'll be there," wrote one fan, JulioTheBoi. "I need to give this game one last hurrah so that we don't go quietly into the dying of the light."

"S*** I'm gonna reinstall just for that, f*** em," replied izzbot. Added Hungry_Document_2385: "Crash the servers."

Of course, Sony is likely expecting an influx of players on June 9, since it has already announced plans to put Destiny 2 into PlayStation Plus Extra and Premier tiers on the day it receives its final update. The Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2025), including The Final Shape expansion, will be available for Extra and Premium/Deluxe members, though some earlier expansions will remain paywalled.

As the dust settles on last week's bombshell news, the Destiny community has begun bidding their farewells to the franchise, as word surfaces that the "vast majority" of Bungie staff were unaware of the plan to ditch the game until the news broke. In the days since, fans have taken to the Marathon Steam page to make their frustrations clear by leaving negative reviews, even as others have begun combating these reviews through a positive countercampaign.

A petition calling for Sony to greenlight Destiny 3 continues to amass signatures, meanwhile, with more than 265,000 fans now calling for a third game in the franchise to be made.

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

Ever since those initial Overwatch cinematics made their way onto our screens, the prospect of an Overwatch animated series has been an exciting one. For the past decade, rumours of such a thing have come and gone, but there may still be hope.

In a recent interview, I asked Walter Kong, Overwatch general manager and head of live games and mobile development at Blizzard, if a TV show translation of the hero shooter could still find its way to us. “I would not rule it out,” Kong replied.

“Every time we release assets, whether it’s a hero trailer or an event piece, there are all of these comments about, ‘Hey, we would love an Overwatch animated series. Blizzard, what the hell? When's that happening?’ Kong continued. “So we certainly hear that and I think that it is not a huge stretch to believe that there would be a lot of demand for that type of content. So certainly, no, I won't rule out that sometime in the future there could be other storytelling experiences in the Overwatch universe.”

Blizzard actually did try to get animated shows based on its games off the ground, but those efforts failed. In 2024, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment author Jason Schreier revealed that StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo were due the Netflix adaptation treatment, but then Blizzard sued Netflix for poaching the company’s Chief Financial Officer. In early 2019, former Blizzard CFO Spencer Neumann was fired after breaching his contract to become CFO of Netflix. It seems this dispute was at the heart of the end of those Netflix adaptations.

With Overwatch currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Blizzard revealed that over 4.4 billion matches have been played in that time, but a hunger for story still remains. This year saw a rethink in how the developer is approaching narrative, with year-long arcs now being told through several seasons. Kong admitted that the studio has always wanted story to be a big part of Overwatch, but bit off more than it could chew back in 2016.

“I think we got the sense that there was this desire to know more about the story of Overwatch, because we had quite a few of the cinematic pieces released before launch,” he explained. “I think they helped establish that kind of emotional resonance prior to the games launch, but what we weren't prepared for was being able to support so many ambitions. I think very early on we knew that we wanted the game to have an ongoing release cadence to it and you don't know how hard that's going to be until you actually do it.”

“And then we also had the ambition to deliver some narrative, some story missions in the game as we showed in 2019 at BlizzCon,” Kong continued. “I think we really underestimated the level of resources necessary to hit with all of that ambition. And I would say that by the time that I stepped into the GM role in the latter part of 2021, it was clear to me that there was too much to work on and I had to make some prioritization decisions. Back then we had been in a bit of a content drought and I made a pretty clear call to prioritize getting back to the delivery of live game content in the PVP game, and then I think that is really the story of why we shifted to that Overwatch 2 model.”

“We did give it a try in terms of resuming development of the story missions and releasing the first chapter in Season 6 of 2023. We did get the signal back from players that it really wasn't resonant and I think that's when we made the decision to focus our resources on the core PvP experience and really have stronger definition of what the game would be that we would serve the players that we had and they were enjoying that specific experience.”

Beyond story, though, Kong has ambitions for Overwatch to spread its wings further than the PvP experience that the world is rooted in. Clear signs of this can be seen in the recent collaboration between Blizzard and Epic to bring its heroes into Fortnite, a deal initiated by Kong himself.

“I went to Epic, and part of my history is that I was at Epic from 2018 to 2020, and I worked on the Fortnite team at the time, and I just saw firsthand the positive excitement and energy that could come from surprising collaborations,” Kong revealed. “It was something that was positive for Fortnite as well as the partners, the collab partners and I felt that the time was right to just bring a bit of excitement to the overall franchise and perhaps expose our heroes to some new audiences. Quickly we felt that our heroes would be presented in a very positive way and as the work developed, that feeling got reinforced and overall we were very, very happy with how the collaboration delivered.”

It was a long time coming, said Kong, who harboured long-held desires for Overwatch’s most beloved characters to exist outside of their hero shooter bubble. “That has been the ambition pretty much from the beginning, but I felt that it could not be done until the core game experience of Overwatch was at a certain level of health and ability to serve our players was at the right place,” Kong added.

“I didn't think that pushing on these type of opportunities prematurely would be the right thing to do. I'm very happy with the leaders on our team and the energy and passion they bring to leading the game, which meant that I could spend more time looking to the future and working on initiatives that take a long time to fully realize. I would say that we are seeing some of that early work come to fruition, but there's a lot more of it that I still want to complete and nothing that I should really talk about right now.”

Could one of those things be the aforementioned animated series? We’ll just have to wait and see. For now, Kong is “happy with where the game is today,” after Overwatch ditched the 2 and refocused its efforts on what made it the smash hit it once was. Blizzard will be hoping that momentum keeps up over the next months and years.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

The Pokémon Company manufactured more than 10 billion Pokémon trading cards last year alone, and has now produced a staggering total of 85 billion cards to date.

Just last year's number of cards represents a higher figure than the number of people on the planet. But it's also especially shocking considering the supply issues still faced by Pokémon cards — that are still hard to find despite that huge production volume.

New card releases have constantly been scuppered by scalping, in-store squabbles and constant sell-outs. The huge popularity of Pokémon cards (and in particular the rarer varieties) has also led to a never-ending spate of thefts, with dozens of instances where trading card stores were broken into reported across the U.S. alone.

The latest Pokémon card production figures come from a freshly-updated page on The Pokémon Company's website, which lists the franchise's various sales milestones (as of the end of March 2026).

In the world of Pokémon video games, more than 515 million "Pokémon-related software" units have been shipped to date, with 16 million shipped in the last year alone. This will likely include the 4 million copies of Pokémon Pokopia sold on Nintendo Switch since the game's debut in early March. Last year also saw continued strong sales for earlier games such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which has now hit 12 million copies across Switch and Switch 2.

Just yesterday, reports emerged of a Florida man who had been arrested after $12,000 of Pokémon cards were stolen in a heist that involved a battery-powered chainsaw. Last month, another desperate Pokémon fan was arrested in Pasadena, California, after hiding inside a closed Best Buy ahead of a Pokémon card drop. And back in January, staff and shoppers were held at gunpoint in a brazen raid at a card shop in Manhatten as $100,000 worth of stock was swiped.

Image credit: Martin Lelievre / AFP via Getty Images.

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

Hulk's return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day might be an open secret, but a new toy leak has spilled fresh detail on how Bruce Banner will suddenly lose control.

Mark Ruffalo's return as Banner has of course been shown in Spider-Man: Brand New Day's record-breaking first trailer, though Marvel has not officially confirmed the return of his angry green alter ego as well — despite other toy leaks confirming his inclusion.

Now, however, a new Bandai SH Figuarts action figure (via France-Figures) has been spotted showing Hulk's Spider-Man: Brand New Day guise — with a spoilery product description that explains exactly why Banner has gone green once more.

Warning! Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow:

"In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Bruce Banner uses an inhibitor that keeps him in human form since the events of Endgame," the action figure's description reads. "But this constraint has its limits: the film marks the return of the Hulk in his feral form, a departure from the Smart Hulk of previous films."

It's worth breaking that down in a bit more detail, to explain how this all fits with what we've seen in the MCU already.

Endgame saw an injured Banner in Smart Hulk form during its finale, witnessing an elderly Steve Rogers pass on his Captain America shield. However, Banner then appears in human form at the end of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, chatting via hologram alongside other Avengers. Here we can see he's wearing an inhibitor device on his arm that blocks his Hulk side from re-emerging.

Hulk returns again in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, after Banner's inhibitor is broken in the series' opening episode. Banner than spends the rest of the series as Smart Hulk (including in the finale when he unveils his long-lost son Skaar — who the MCU is yet to acknowledge again).

By the events of Brand New Day, Banner has clearly rebuilt his inhibitor. But the suggestion here is that when it goes wrong this time, he doesn't just morph into Smart Hulk, but a wilder and more savage version of his alter ego.

"Banner and Peter Parker, both grappling with an uncontrollable transformation, find themselves in a narrative parallel at the heart of the film," the toy's description concludes. This is also interesting, as it is another hint at a fresh transformation we're due to see in Peter Parker (with fans wondering whether he'll morph into the many-limbed Man-Spider, or whether the Venom symbiote seen in No Way Home's post-credits scene will somehow be involved).

"Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves," reads an official Brand New Day blurb released by Marvel. "Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he's devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is due to launch on July 31, and set to star Holland, Zendaya as MJ, Sadie Sink (in an undisclosed role that fans are now certain they've identified), Jacob Batalon as Ned, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, Tramell Tillman as Department of Damage Control boss Bill Metzger, Michael Mando as Scorpion, and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner — and as Hulk.

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

We have just launched IGN Shorts, a brand-new way to experience everything we do here at IGN. Designed specifically for gamers, tech enthusiasts, and entertainment fans who want high-quality content delivered fast, IGN Shorts promise to deliver pure, unfiltered gaming and entertainment content to you.

IGN Shorts is a fully native vertical video feed built directly into IGN. Fans can expect rapid-fire news, bite-sized reviews, gameplay tips, and more. You’ll be able to stay on top of all the breaking news and moments in the world of gaming and entertainment, from the latest GTA 6 trailer to the reviews of blockbusters like Avengers: Doomsday to sneak peeks from major industry events like San Diego Comic-Con and IGN Live.

You can find IGN shorts directly on the IGN.com homepage, both on mobile devices and desktop browsers.

We will keep working on and improving IGN Shorts over time. We want to hear from you, as we’d love you to help shape our roadmap for the future of the feature.

If you are reading this, go check out the initial batch of IGN Shorts and leave feedback in the comments section and let us know what you want to see next, how we can improve the feed, and anything else that comes to mind.

This is only one of the many ways IGN is pushing content forward in 2026, and it joins other initiatives like our IGN30: Icons series that presents deep dive, longform interviews with industry luminaries about the past, present, and future of gaming and entertainment, and IGN Live - our multi-day celebration of games, movies, shows, and comics you won’t want to miss.

YouTube has announced improved AI labels for videos as part of a movie to add transparency to content made with generative AI.

Anyone who’s used YouTube recently will no doubt be aware of the increase in AI slop on the platform, including fake AI-generated movie trailers that often get millions of views from misled viewers. Earlier this month, amid the wait for Marvel to release the Avengers: Doomsday trailer shown behind closed doors at CinemaCon, people filled the void by making trailers of their own, using online descriptions of the official trailer to generate fake AI approximations of what to expect.

Clips of fake Avengers: Doomsday trailers that show fights between Gambit and Shang-Chi, Thor and Doctor Doom, and Steve Rogers turning up at the end in dramatic fashion enjoyed millions of views across social media, with some saying they were misled into thinking they were the real deal.

But the problem extends into other, more serious areas of YouTube, including AI slop aimed squarely at children, most of whom struggle to discern the nature of what they’re watching.

In a blog post published today, YouTube announced two updates it believes will improve AI disclosures. It’s moving the disclosure label for “photorealistic and meaningfully AI altered or generated content” to a more prominent position. For long-form videos, the label will now appear directly below the video player, above the description. For Shorts, the label will appear as an overlay on the video itself.

“By moving these labels on to the main stage, viewers get the context they need at a glance,” YouTube said. “This is now the single label format for all photorealistic and meaningfully AI altered or generated content on YouTube.”

However, for content that is unrealistic, animated, or slightly altered, the disclosure will be found in the expanded description.

Perhaps more significant is YouTube's introduction of automatic AI detection. “While we still require creators to manually disclose when they use realistic AI, we want to make the process more seamless and reliable,” YouTube explained. “Starting in May 2026, we’re rolling out new internal signals to help identify AI-generated content.

“If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label.”

Any creator who believes their content was incorrectly flagged as AI-generated can update the disclosure status in YouTube Studio. However, disclosures will remain permanent in a handful of cases, including:

• Content created using YouTube’s own AI tools, like Veo or Dream Screen.
• Content containing C2PA metadata indicating they were fully generative AI.
• Our commitment to responsibility

“These changes are designed to balance transparency with creator control,” YouTube continued. “It’s important to note that a disclosure label alone does not change how a video is recommended or whether it’s eligible to earn money. In a world where AI is changing what’s possible, our goal is simple: make it as easy as possible for creators and viewers to have the right information.”

In December, YouTube killed two of the biggest YouTube channels responsible for fake movie trailers. Screen Culture and KH Studio, whose fake movie trailer videos had collectively generated billions of views, were hauled offline. Both Screen Culture and KH Studio were infamous on the internet after pumping out fake trailers for years, particularly for movies that fans either hoped Hollywood would end up making, or had announced but had yet to see an official debut trailer. As you’d expect, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a popular choice, and some of the fake trailers ended up outranking official ones on YouTube.

It’s important to note that the clampdown follows Disney’s cease-and-desist letter to Google. The megacorp had accused Google of infringing its copyright "on a massive scale" by using its works to train its own generative AI models.

Misleading videos made by generative AI have exploded on the internet in recent years as the technology has become more popular and accessible. Physicist Brian Cox went public with complaints about YouTube accounts that had used AI to create deepfakes of him saying “nonsense” about comet 3I/ATLAS. Similarly, Keanu Reeves hit out at AI deepfakes selling products without his permission, insisting "it's not a lot of fun." In July last year, it was reported that Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.

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.

No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games has announced The Swarm update, which adds a “mysterious Death Star like construct” to the sci-fi adventure.

The Swarm update adds “something new, huge and foreboding" to the sky above planets. Hello Games said it's "unlike anything we've seen before.” Patch notes, courtesy of the No Man's Sky website, are below.

“Players are going to need a combined community effort to figure out what is going on,” Hello Games chief Sean Murray teased. “Travellers will boot up to be greeted with a personality test, dividing players into three factions, each will need to co-operate, strategise and compete to counter the Hive of Glass, an existential threat to the universe.”

“A war effort is being launched from the Nexus, with defenses rapidly being constructed, and a new bulletin page tracking progress,” Murray continued. “Your contribution to the face-off with the Hive is being logged for all to see in both the Anomaly and the Galactic Atlas. Travellers will want to keep a constant eye on which squad is contributing the most to the war effort. The most effective faction will be memorialised in the Space Anomaly for all time!”

The Swarm adds No Man’s Sky’s “biggest and most epic space battles to date,” Murray said. “The Hive of Glass protects itself by releasing swarms of robotic drones, creating an awesome spectacle of battles with hundreds of ships. The Hive itself is a weapon too, with the iris opening to release the largest weapon we’ve ever seen in No Man’s Sky. A laser capable of destroying freighter fleets and perhaps even something as large as a space station…

“While in space there are huge battles, on planet there is investigating and pillaging the remains of crashed drones (using the newly-acquired Gravity Gun we introduced earlier this year). Shot down drones need to be salvaged and researched. There are miniature planetary swarms to defeat, and research efforts to sabotage the swarm’s network. The secrets of the Hive’s origins and weaknesses can be uncovered and shared with your fellow rebels.”

Murray added: “The prospect of all existing Travellers converging on a single area of the universe to take the largest space battles to date, against the back-drop of an ominous, mysterious Death Star like construct, with the ability to destroy space station sized objects… is going to make for some exciting weeks ahead for us and for players. We can’t wait to see how this plays out.”

No Man's Sky The Swarm Update Update 6.4 patch notes:

The Swarm Expedition

• Expedition Twenty-Two, The Swarm, will begin shortly and run for approximately eight weeks.
• Players on the expedition will be assigned into one of three teams of Travellers, and allocated a ship and uniform in their team colours.
• All teams must work together to unlock the final battle. Progress is represented by the construction of the Prismatic Core in the Space Anomaly, as well as displayed in the Mission Log and on the Galactic Atlas website.
• Construction of the Prismatic Core is driven by completing three categories of missions to counteract the Swarm - Purge, Restoration, and Sabotage. Each category has a different impact on the rate and balance of construction.
• The most valuable team will be glorified in the Space Anomaly for all time.
• Rewards include new posters, decals and titles; flags representing your assigned soul fragment; the Direwasp rifle Multi-Tool; the Direwasp Flightpack; and the six-piece Direwasp customisation set.

Swarmer Enemies

• During the expedition, players will encounter two new enemy types: small, agile swarmer ships, and the huge, formidable Hive of Glass boss.
• In all game modes, crashed swarmer ships can now be found on dissonant planets. Crash sites are defended by small but deadly planetary swarmers.
• Buried debris from crashed swarmer ships can now be found on worlds which are both dissonant and contain salvageable scrap.

Stability and Optimisation

• Fixed a rare softlock where the Connecting banner could display indefinitely when viewing the initial frontend screens.
• Fixed a crash related to rendering thumbnails for multiple complex corvette-class starships.
• Implemented a number of memory and performance optimisations related to ship trails and speedlines.
• Improved performance when piloting wheeled Exocraft on Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.
• Implemented a significant optimisation in freighter battles.
• Improved performance of certain lighting calculations on CPU.
• Significantly improved performance when handling object visibility in complex scenes.
• Optimised memory usage when rendering UI in sub-4K resolutions on PS4 Pro.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when playing in 4K on PS4 Pro.
• Fixed a number of rare crashes.

Space Combat

• Improved the visibility of targeted enemy ships in third person space combat.
• Improved weapon aiming of the starship in third person space combat.
• Improved the navigation of the starship when using auto-follow in space combat, and allowed auto-follow to boost the ship.
• Improved the navigation and flight patterns of enemy ships in space combat.
• In space combat, when battling enemies with weak points, hitting the weak point will now always crit, and hitting other areas of the enemy will never crit.
• Improved the appearance of speedlines in the starship.
• Fixed an issue that caused mission notifications counting the number of nearby enemy ships to delay updating until a destroyed enemy ship completed its death spin.
• Improved controls for the player ship while in space combat.
• Fixed an issue that could allow Sentinel interceptors to spawn when space combat was disabled in the difficulty settings.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Sentinel interceptors from detecting criminal activity in space if ground combat was disabled in the difficulty settings.
• Fixed an issue that could allow the countdown notification for the pulse engine enabling after combat to display a negative time.
• Improved the notifications for re-enabling the pulse engine after combat to display the correct pulse technology name for the current ship.

QOL and Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused teleporter endpoints from previous galaxies to be removed when progressing to the next galaxy through the galactic core.
• Fixed an issue that prevented teleporter endpoints from being added in galaxies outside the player's "home" galaxy.
• Fixed an issue that caused In Stellar Multitudes to direct the player to the galaxy map when their first purple star system was actually in a different galaxy.
• Fixed an issue that prevented corvettes from landing in the Space Station and the Anomaly.
• Fixed an issue that caused the player's backpack to disappear from the inventory screen when piloting a corvette after being in third person.
• When viewing a corvette through the Analysis Visor, the name of the specific module is now displayed on the HUD.
• Fixed an issue which caused the Analysis Visor to close when attempting to tag a marker whilst facing an interactable object.
• Fixed an issue that could cause markers to be displayed for non-existent resource deposits.
• Fixed an issue that prevented transferring inventory items when purchasing a ship.
• Fixed an issue that prevented inventory items from being deletable when transferring into a storage container.
• Fixed an issue that caused the camera to spin if the player quickly exited the ship after answering the ship communicator.
• Fixed a camera judder when first entering a ship after repairing it.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Corrupted Sentinels to flicker rapidly on Nintendo Switch 1 & 2.
• Fixed an issue that allowed retroviral pellets to be duplicated.
• Arena League Challenger's Invitations are more likely to encourage you to battle on multiple planets before offering a Champion's Invitation.
• Arena League Challenger's Invitations are more likely to pick Holo-Arenas you have not previously visited.
• Arena League Champion's Invitations will now function correctly when used in Outlaw systems.
• Improved the balance of experience awarded to companions when battling in the Holo-Arena against opponents of a much higher level.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the prompt to claim Twitch rewards to persist when all rewards had been claimed.
• Added support for viewing the Gamercards of each Xbox player in the host's session when on the Join Game screen.
• Hid the Quick Menu keyboard hotkey prompts on PC and handheld devices when playing without mouse and keyboard.
• Fixed an issue that caused armour on display near the Exosuit Research merchant in the Space Station to disappear as you got closer.
• Hid the holographic representation of community mission progress above the Quicksilver Synthesis Bot when no blueprints are currently being generated.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the use of touch controls to claim expedition rewards.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent saving of gyro settings when applying changes from the front end menu.

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.