Here’s a great deal on an excellent game that many Switch owners slept on when it first came out. The colorful, turn-based strategy game Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is on sale at Amazon for $29.99 right now. That's the lowest price we've seen on this game. Also, it's unclear how long the sale will last, so grab it if you've had your eye on it.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Deal

This Nintendo Switch exclusive is a sequel to the 2017 game Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. But instead of doing a copy-paste job, Ubisoft brings a bunch of major changes and improvements to this crossover sequel. The overworld is expanded and sprinkled with puzzles. Battles are more dynamic this time around, thanks in large part to new movement mechanisms that let you cross the map quickly, giving you tons of leeway in your battle strategy.

Also mixing things up is the addition of Sparks, critters you collect and equip in order to broaden your characters’ ability sets. Sparks let you do everything from adding elemental charges to your attacks to reviving fallen teammates. You can equip two Sparks to each character, creating clever and powerful combos, if you play your cards right.

In our Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope review, critic Dan Stapleton scored it 9/10, writing:

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope takes the excellent tactical combat ideas of Kingdom Battle and runs absolutely wild with them. Its goofy characters still have the ability to bounce off of each other, but they’re now free of the rigid grid and wonderfully customizable thanks to the mix-and-match Sparks that give them new and reliably interesting powers. Between fights you get to catch your breath in the large and brilliantly colorful open worlds, solving its light puzzles and being puzzled yourself by its oddball story. It’s extremely gratifying to play an ambitious sequel that fixes all of the main issues I had with the original, and then some.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.

February's IGN First is all about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the hotly anticipated sequel to 2019's Jedi Fallen Order. We've got a whole month's worth of exciting coverage, but to kick things off, we wanted to start with an introduction to a brand new planet in the Star Wars universe: Koboh.

Not too far into the game, Cal crash lands onto Koboh after a secret mission goes awry, and must seek out assistance in repairing his ship, The Mantis. This gameplay picks up soon after Cal lands and goes through a number of new combat techniques, force powers, and enemies that players can expect once Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases on April 28, 2023.

Stay tuned for more coverage all throughout the month of February right here on IGN.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

After three games of air juggles, pistol dances, hair-centric finishing moves, and universal acclaim from both critics and fans, PlatinumGames is dramatically remodeling the established Bayonetta formula. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is arriving only five months after the release of the erstwhile Bayonetta 3, and it brazenly trades in its third-person, button-mashing precepts for what is, essentially, a straight-up Zelda facsimile in the Super Nintendo tradition. The camera has been yanked back to an isometric vantage point, the levels are deliberately balanced between doses of environmental puzzle solving, tricky combat, and light platforming, and the sweatless, stylish tone of the mother series has been replaced with a somber tale about a vulnerable girl in an uncaring world. It is, in other words, the last thing you'd expect from a game bearing the Bayonetta name. That will undoubtedly turn off some fans of the franchise, but personally, I already can't wait to play more.

Platinum starts subverting your expectations from the moment you get your hands on Bayonetta Origins. The game is played by piloting two distinct characters, by using a detached Joy-Con in each hand. On your left, you have Cereza — a younger, softer Bayonetta — who is just becoming accustomed to her nascent magical powers. (No, she is not yet brandishing firearms, nor is she dressed in stilettos and corsets.) On the right, we have the Lost Demon — known as Cheshire — who has possessed the patchwork cat doll owned by Cereza, and is able to deal massive payloads of damage with brute strength. You're going to be navigating the world with both of these characters using each joystick, which brings to mind Josef Fares' lowkey 2013 adventure Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. PlatinumGames has drummed up a number of clever navigational puzzles that require tight collaboration between the partnership to overcome. A carnivorous plant in the way? Perhaps Cereza can call on the spirits to bind it to the ground, while Cheshire uproots it from the earth. Does our prodigal demon need to reach a cliffside that's just out of his grasp? Shrink him down to doll size and chuck him up there. Then he can morph back into his monstrous scale and get down to business.

It took me the length of the introductory level I played to become truly comfortable with this esoteric control scheme — the learning curve is going to be pretty steep, even for seasoned gamers. It gets especially hairy in combat, where you'll be navigating two distinct move sets simultaneously, as you attempt to nullify all of the restless imps that want you dead. Cheshire handles the bulk of the offense by swinging his massive body around the arena, while Cereza plays more of a support role with her spellbook and a selection of stat-boosting items mapped to her D-pad. All of this is a far cry from the breezy 1,000-hit combos you might remember from other PlatinumGames titles, but I found myself enjoying some of Bayonetta Origins' more tactical principles. The studio hasn't lost any of its sublime mechanical fluidity, even as it has slowed down the pace.

Bayonetta Origins' world also trades in the urban streets and moonlit cathedrals of the established canon for a fey, verdant forest — very Brothers Grimm — and a story that literally unfolds through a children's picture book. It looks gorgeous on the Switch, wielding lots of deep blues and soft greens, which helped me immerse myself in the idea that the eight-foot-tall librarian I previously controlled in other Bayonetta games — the woman who cackles as she eats people with her hair — was nowhere to be found in this realm. Cereza is a teenager on the absolute precipice of her journey, and Origins matches those circumstances with an ethereal wistfulness. Yes, even Amazonians have to start somewhere.

It remains to be seen if Bayonetta Origins marks the beginning of a divergence with the overarching Bayonetta timeline, or if it's simply a one-shot Platinum was cooking up as Bayonetta 3 approached its street date. Regardless, it's nice to know that we'll still be getting new games in this universe from a variety of different perspectives. Sometimes Bayonetta is carving up the forces of Hell on top of an 18-wheeler, other times she's wandering through an enchanted woodland with a raggedy cat doll who also happens to be her guardian angel. Witches contain multitudes.

Veiled Experts is quite the mysterious name for a game that is filled with mechanics and game modes that are commonplace in multiplayer shooters these days. Being familiar isn’t a bad thing here, though. The team-based tactical shooter is easy to pick up and play competently, as demonstrated in the short time I had to preview it. Its two modes – a standard deathmatch with a little twist and a more tactical bomb defusal – were a bombastic good time. But without much depth outside of the running and gunning, the future for a game like this in today’s tough games-as-a-service climate seems cloudy.

Before you jump into either game mode, you’re introduced to the cast of contractors that you can take the field with. A surprising nine of them were available to try, each with their own sets of passive and active abilities. I didn’t get to examine and try out team comps that took best advantage of these unique abilities, but some seem like they can be pretty impactful – like this guy who is definitely not John Wick, but can stun enemies with pistol shots to the torso. The cast is also pretty diverse and aesthetically expressive up close, but I found that when it came to game time, it was pretty hard to identify them. They dress well and have fun haircuts, but in the heat of battle, they're all just humanoid shapes.

Of the two modes available, bomb defusal was the star. Both teams take turns defending and attacking two points on a map, with the attacking team tasked with planting a bomb and keeping it safe long enough to go off. The second map I played on, a multi-story art gallery, was my favorite, as it really encapsulated Veiled Experts’ emphasis on planning and thinking strategically. There are multiple ways into the building, and only a limited time to do so as a Fortnite-style level barrier slowly closes in around you. You can go through the front door of course, but finding side and window entrances were also on the table. During the first assault my team made, we blew a hole through a wall in the basement from the parking garage and caught our enemies completely off guard. The hole we made stayed there for the remainder of our attacking rounds, but this light, Hitman-esque problem solving made us feel brillant in the moment.

The other map, a cluttered parking lot with some warehouses and vehicles, was a bit underwhelming in comparison. A sand storm would randomly whip up and make seeing more than a few feet in front of us impossible. In these moments, things felt like utter chaos. Otherwise, the strategy felt far more in favor of the defenders, who could park themselves on one of two roofs and see most of the map, and were much more prepared to engage attackers than the other way around, with far fewer options to be dynamic as the aggressor. It felt the most like the team deathmatch mode, which featured both squads in a straight-up shoot out, with the play area, guard-railed by that aforementioned barrier, moving back and forth between different positions on the map. This was a great little twist that forced teams not to get too entrenched, forcing everyone to think a few seconds ahead at all times. All of the character abilities were disabled in this mode though, with the action boiling down to who’s got better weapons and the skills to wield them.

The shop is available between rounds of bomb defusal, or between deaths in team deathmatch, with money earned based on your performance. You can purchase weapons and items, upgrade your team's tactical level (which widens the offering of what you can buy), or donate your cash to other players so that they can get their gear up to speed. It felt a bit like Valorant, but with the added availability of big-money purchases like juggernaut armor, which makes you a nigh-invulnerable killing machine for a limited time. I'm sure there is plenty of tactical depth to the timing and assignment of gear that I didn’t have the chance to dig into, and mixed with the round recap time elapsed maps after every round, there's plenty of competitive potential here.

But for those queuing up solo or looking for a long term game to really invest in, Veiled Experts seems to be lacking much to earn or do outside of the round-to-round play. Cosmetics and Agents to unlock seems to be a given, but there's no indication that special events or other incentives to play will exist at this time. It’s even too early to tell how many agents will be in the game or how many maps will exist for each mode at this stage in development. It’s a solid start for a third-person competitive team shooter, but the market is very crowded these days. With bright and promising service games shutting down pretty frequently, I worry about its longevity without something to keep people coming back.

If you liked the idea of mixed reality kart game Mario Kart Home Circuit but felt like it could use fewer red-clad plumbers, the same developers are on the cusp of releasing a very similar game... but with Hot Wheels. It's called Hot Wheels: Rift Rally, and it's coming to iOS, PS4, and PS5 on March 14, 2023.

Hot Wheels: Rift Rally is, similarly, a mixed reality game that involves a Chameleon RC car and tracks that players can set up around their homes using "Rift Gates" - basically gates the car can drive through that denote where the track is. Then, players drive the tracks they've set up using the in-game screen, with the RC car digitally changing into one of over 140 different variations of Hot Wheels car on-screen.

Rift Rally includes both a campaign mode where players use the gates to build tracks and explore different maps, and a stunt mode that eschews the gates for performing drifts, wheelies, and burnouts to hit high scores.

Like Home Circuit, Rift Rally does get a bit pricey because of the included RC car - the standard edition is $129.99 and the collector's edition is $149.99, which includes a special edition RC car and an additional limited edition Hot Wheels car in a display case.

We liked Mario Kart: Home Circuit when we tried it out, but it had some technical hiccups that kept it from shining as bright as it could that hopefully Rift Rally can sort out. It's worth noting that developer Velan Studios is also the studio behind Knockout City, a very different game nvolving dodgeballs and online multiplayer, that we just learned is officially shutting down in June.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Update 02/07/2023: Nintendo has revealed that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have now sold through more than 18 million units, with more than 20 million units sold to retailers.

As revealed in Nintendo's latest earnings report, 18.2 million customers bought a copy of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet by the end of December 2022, up eight million from the previously announced ten million units sold as of November 23.

In terms of units sold through to retailers, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sitting at 20.61 million units puts it straight onto the Nintendo Switch's top ten best selling games list. Currently in seventh place, it sits behind Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon Sword and Shield, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Animal Cross: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in first, which sits at 52 million units.

Original Story 11/23/2022: Not only has Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sold an impressive 10 million combined units within the first three days of launch, they also account for "the highest global sales level for any software on any Nintendo platform" within that time frame.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet launched globally on November 18, 2022, and these sales figures from Nintendo include both packaged and downloadable versions.

The newest entries in the legendary Pokemon franchise mark the second outing of the mainline franchise following Pokemon Sword and Shield. For comparison, Sword and Shield sold over six million units in their first week, which was a record for the fastest-selling Switch title at the time.

The Switch has seen plenty of Pokemon titles since 2017, including Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

These sales numbers were reached despite some glaring technical issues plaguing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. That being said, the game surrounding these bugs appears to be something special.

In our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet review in progress, we said, "After a few years of experimentation on the Switch, Game Freak has finally stumbled upon an open world formula that successfully reinvents how Pokémon is played, while remaining true to the nostalgic childhood vision of exploration, adventure, and cute monster collecting."

"It is, in almost every way, the transformation I’ve been waiting for – but the grievously poor performance that has come along with it significantly mars this otherwise exciting design evolution."

For more, check out our full Pokemon Scarlet and Violet wiki, which includes all the details on the new starters, version differences and exclusives, the new pokemon, our full walkthrough, and things to do first.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

It's that time of year again folks. We've got a Nintendo Direct on the way, taking place tomorrow, February 8.

Confirmed in a tweet from Nintendo of America (below), the Direct will take place at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK (so 8am on February 9 AEST) and can be viewed on Nintendo's website and its YouTube channels.

The Direct will be around 40 minutes long, focusing on games launching in the first half of 2023. Though no specific games were confirmed by Nintendo in the tweet, this could include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which has a May release date.

Tune in at 2 p.m. PST tomorrow, Feb. 8, for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information mostly focused on #NintendoSwitch games launching in the first half of 2023.

Watch it live here: https://t.co/8ce3reaEig pic.twitter.com/Pmf41dQWIw

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 7, 2023

We've also yet to see anything about Pikmin 4, which is also supposedly planned for this year, and Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp is supposedly still done and sitting on a shelf somewhere too. Beyond that, fans are hopeful we might get a look at Hollow Knight: Silksong.

That said, try not to get too excited, as IGN recently reported that Nintendo is skipping E3 this year at least in part due to having a lighter launch slate than normal. This Direct is likely filled out with stuff we already know about (Tears of the Kingdom and Kirby, anyone?) as well as smaller games that don't quite fuel the hype machine in the same way.

You can check out all our predictions for Nintendo's lineup this year right here while we all wildly speculate together in the lead-up to the Direct.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Dwarf Fortress has sold over 600,000 copies in its first two months on the market according to a new post from publisher Kitfox Games on Medium.

“In the first two months, which ended yesterday, we’ve now sold exactly 606,342 copies of Dwarf Fortress, almost exactly 5,000 of which are from itch.io,” wrote Kitfox Games co-founder Tanya X Short on behalf of the development team.

Prior to release, Kitfox Games posted the projections of an analyst who used the Steam wishlist numbers of previous titles to forecast that Dwarf Fortress would sell around 160,000 units in its first two months. According to Short, that same number of games were sold within 24 hours of its December 6 launch.

The success of Dwarf Fortress reportedly netted the game’s original creators, Zach and Tarn Adams, a healthy January paycheck of $7 million - a figure which dwarfs December’s pre-release earnings of $15,635.

Kitfox Games also posted the Steam traffic stats for Dwarf Fortress, revealing that the store page received a staggering 26.81 million visits in the first two months following its release.

Dwarf Fortress’s Steam release brought much needed graphics, UI and control improvements to the beloved cult classic from 2006, making it accessible to a new generation of gamer, and the game currently has a 95% positive score from 17,478 user reviews on Steam.

In our review of Dwarf Fortress IGN described the game as “infinitely explorable in its complexity and equally as rewarding in the depth you’ll find there, this is the quintessential world simulation and building management game".

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

The Nintendo Switch has now sold 122.55 million units, surpassing the PlayStation 4 and Game Boy to become the third best selling video game console of all time.

The figure was revealed in Nintendo's third quarter earnings report, which also announced that 994.30 million units of Switch software have now been sold.

Having passed 122.55 million units, the Switch now sits behind just the Nintendo DS at 154.02 million units sold and the PlayStation 2 at 159 million units sold.

Despite the impressive number, up eight million from November, Switch sales declined by 21.3% from 2021, when it sold 18.95 million units in the first three quarters compared to 2022's 14.91 million units. 5.22 million of these were of the original Nintendo Switch, 7.69 million were the OLED Model, and 2 million were the Nintendo Switch Lite.

Nintendo admitted that the impact of semiconductor and other component shortages (that have plagued the hardware market for the last two years) were resolved for this holiday season, but noted that 2021 year saw the launch of the OLED Model which could be a reason for increased sales.

Nintendo's earnings report also revealed that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have sold 18 million units, crossing into the Switch's ten best selling games of all time.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Check out our Hogwarts Legacy vs Harry Potter movies comparison. Hogwarts Legacy lets us walk around the iconic magical school from the Harry Potter series, but just how accurate are its ancient passageways and sprawling towers compared to the movies? From Hogwarts’ familiar grounds to the quaint Hogsmeade Village, and even the depths of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, we’ve visited various locations from the Harry Potter films and compared them with the new action RPG. We also ran into some familiar magical creatures along the way!

For more on the Wizarding World, check out our Hogwarts Legacy review, or the first 25 minutes of the game.

Emma Matthews is IGN's Junior Syndication Editor.

Attention, Metal Gear Solid fans! Right now on the IGN Store, you can preorder a Metal Gear Rex model kit. The model kit costs $99.99 and is expected to ship in August of this year. The preorder is open now at the IGN Store, and you can check out the listing below.

This iconic mech from Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid comes in black to allow for easy painting. It also comes with decals like caution marks that add detail to the model. Plus, it comes with four minifigures: Solid Snake, a Cyborg Ninja figure, a damaged version of Cyborg Ninja, and Liquid Snake. Take a closer look at the model kit in our gallery below.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is known for being very upfront with media and investors about where he thinks technology, especially around games, is heading. And during today's earnings call, Zelnick made his thoughts clear on a subject that's recently been popular in tech circles: artificial intelligence, and whether or not it will transform game development.

Zelnick offered a lengthy response to a question about AI technology like ChatGPT, opening by noting his own historic skepticism around overwrough technology hype and saying that while AI stands for artificial intelligence, "there is no such thing as artificial intelligence."

That said, he's "really excited" about the current leaps being made by AI and machine learning, and believes that tools are actively being created that will eventually reduce development costs in gaming. However, he doesn't think it's going to impact overall cost structure - because if development becomes easier, he says, developers and publisher will simply want to do even more.

"The belief among college students [is] that ChatGPT is now going to allow them to make a query and send their homework. The problem is if the question is, 'Describe what actually happened on the night of Paul Revere's ride', and everyone gets the same question, which you do in class, and everyone uses ChatGPT, oops, everyone's going to submit the same essay, last time I checked.

"ChatGPT is today's hand calculator. When I was a kid, there was no such thing, I hate to admit, but it's true, so I had to do math longhand. And then hand calculators came along and parents were up in arms and thought, 'Oh kids won't have to learn math anymore,' and the answer is yes, you still have to learn math, turns out, you absolutely have to learn math, but you have a tool that makes it easier to do. And ChatGPT is the same thing.

"We are ushering in a very exciting era of new tools and they're going to allow our teams and our competitors' teams to do really interesting things more efficiently, so we're going to want to do more, we're going to want to be even more creative. And no, it's not going to allow someone to say, 'Please develop the competitor to Grand Theft Auto that's better than Grand Theft Auto', and then they just send it out and ship it digitally and that will be that. People will try, but that won't happen."

Additionally, Zelnick offered some commentary on another technological topic: cloud gaming. When asked about this subject, Zelnick acknowledged Take-Two believed in the tech and had, in fact, been an early supporter of recently defunct Google Stadia.

That said, he's not convinced it's revolutionary, especially after what happened to Stadia specifically.

"Cloud gaming is a technology, not a business model," he said. "It's a distribution technology. And our view is broader distribution is always a good thing in the entertainment business. If we can reach more consumers with our properties we're happy to do it as long as the terms make sense, and I think broader distribution over time probably benefits us in any number of ways including the cost of distribution which I believe will go down over time.

"That said, I've never felt like cloud gaming would represent a seismic change, because I think if you're prepared to pay $60 or $70 for a frontline title, you're also prepared to buy a console, and I think Stadia found that out. So bringing high quality titles to consumers that don't have consoles will probably have an effect around the edges but I don't think it'll be a revolution in the business. I think it will be more an evolution in the business. And there are still technical challenges to be addressed."

Zelnick also offered commentary to IGN on other topics connected to the earnings, including the impact of GTA 6 leaks on Take-Two's business plans, and a very, very loose release window for Ghost Story Games' Judas.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

For the first time since 2012, the new World of Warcraft expansion has not performed as well commercially as its predecessor. In Activision Blizzard's Q4 2022 financial results, the company said "early Dragonflight sales have not reached the level of the prior expansion".

The new World of Warcraft expansion failing to meet or exceed sales of the previous expansion is a rarity for the franchise. 2020's Shadowlands sold over 3.7 million copies on its launch day, which outpaced 2018's Battle for Azeroth. That expansion sold over 3.4 million copies on launch day, which was a record for the franchise at the time.

2016's Legion sold 3.3 million on day one, matching the previous record. You have to go all the way back to 2012's Mists of Pandaria to find the last expansion that didn't match or outsell what came before.

Activision Blizzard didn't provide a number of Dragonflight copies sold, but we know it's fewer than Shadowlands' 3.7 million. However, Activision Blizzard noted that it will deliver "substantially more follow-on content for the expansion than in the past," and that post-launch subscriber retention in the West is stronger than recent World of Warcraft expansions. Blizzard also said mobile title Warcraft: Arclight Rumble continues to "progress well through regional testing."

We awarded World of Warcraft: Dragonflight a 7 in our review, saying, "Dragonflight reignites the sense of wonder and exploration that originally drew me to World of Warcraft, for about the first 30 or 40 hours. Beyond that, it definitely starts to feel a bit threadbare."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

After years apparently in development hell, Ghost Story Games appears to finally be ready to show us more of its mysterious FPS, Judas. We got our first real look at the next game from BioShock creator Ken Levine at The Game Awards last December, and according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, we'll get to actually play it for ourselves...sometime before the end of March of 2025.

This comes from Take-Two's quarterly earnings report, which outlines that it has 87 total games planned for release between fiscal 2023 (the fiscal year we're in now, which concludes at the end of March) and fiscal 2025 (which ends at the end of March 2025). Speaking to IGN ahead of the earnings release, I asked Zelnick if Judas was included in that 87 number, and he said yes.

That said, delays happen all the time, 2025 is far away, and delays have been especially prevalent across AAA game development in recent years. I followed up by asking Zelnick if he anticipated significant delays to impact that promise of 87 games, and while he acknowledged some delays were always possible, he seemed confident in the plan Take-Two is putting out to its investors.

"We did have some slippage in the last few years," he said. "We feel really stable right now. I feel great about our upcoming schedule. Of course there's always the possibility of some slippage but the teams seem to be functioning really well and I'm optimistic about delivering great titles to the marketplace on an ongoing basis."

In the same conversation, Zelnick clarified the possibility of layoffs at the publisher in the coming months, saying that while some jobs may be lost, he expects the impact to be "modest." He also discussed the GTA 6 leaks from late last year and their emotional impact on the team.

As for Judas, we got our first true look at Ken Levine and Ghost Story's upcoming project at The Game Awards last year. We know that it's a single-player, narrative first-person shooter that's coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Game Store.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

It's been a tricky quarter for Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive - its earnings today fell short of its guidance, the company's planning for cost reductions that may include "modest" layoffs in the workforce, and its biggest potential blockbuster on deck, Grand Theft Auto 6, suffered a massive leak last quarter.

On the final point, at least, CEO Strauss Zelnick isn't concerned that the leaks might impact the business. But speaking to IGN ahead of Take-Two's earnings release today, he called them an "emotional matter" and focused on the impact to developers working on the game.

"We take leaks very seriously indeed and they disappoint all of us, it's really frustrating and upsetting to the team," he said. "However as a business matter we're not affected. But as a personal matter and an emotional matter, our teams are affected."

That said, the earnings suggest that Take-Two employees may be about to feel a more tangible kind of business impact soon, in the form of layoffs. Following a report of $1.38 billion in net bookings for the quarter, falling short of its $1.41 billion guidance, Take-Two is preparing to undergo cost cutting measures that it projects will save it roughly $50 million per year. One of the areas Take-Two suggests this will impact is personnel.

When I asked Zelnick if this meant layoffs, he replied that "that's not the plan," but caveated that while he doesn't expect large-scale layoffs, some jobs may be lost.

"We don't expect some kind of broad-based RIF [reduction in force] or anything of the sort, but that said it's not as though we guarantee lifetime employment sadly," he said. "So there will be certain instances where jobs will be lost, but I think that will be pretty modest."

The company notes that the guidance miss and subsequent cost reductions are the result of "macroeconomic conditions" that drove consumer spending toward more established blockbuster franchises and games that were on sale. While Take-Two admits it did benefit from this, it did hurt spending on both new releases (possibly referring to Marvel's Midnight Suns, which released in December) and recurrent consumer spending on some of its console and PC games. Notably, multiple tech and gaming companies have reported similar

Elsewhere in its earnings report, Take-Two offered updates on unit sales for two of its biggest games: Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2. GTA5 has surpassed 175 million copies by selling roughly another 5 million in the last quarter - a feat it's achieved quarter after quarter for years now. It was also the third best-selling game in the U.S. in 2022 by unit sales, and the second best-selling game on Steam last year.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Today's daily deals include several Apple devices, including the newest Apple AirPods Pro, the newest Apple iPad, and the newest Apple MacBook Pro. You can also save on the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch, a fantastic ASUS ROG Scar Strix RTX 3080 gaming laptop, a MagSafe compatible charger, and more.

PlayStation 5 Finally In Stock on Amazon

Amazon is finally letting you buy a PS5 console without an invite. The PS5 God of War Bundle (Disc Edition) is currently the only model available without requiring an invitation. That means Amazon now joins the ranks of Walmart, Best Buy, and Target who have already had PS5 consoles in stock. For Amazon Prime cardholders, that's great news because now you can get 5% Amazon cashback on this deal. If you're an Amazon Prime member and you don't have the Prime card, you're missing out. The Price card has no annual fee and gives you 5% cashback on all Amazon purchases.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope for Switch for $29.99

This is the first time we've ever seen the price drop this low. Amazon has the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch for only $29.99, a massive 50% price drop. If you liked the first Mario + Rabbods game, I think you will love Sparks of Hope. I personally played and enjoyed Kingdom Battle, but Sparks of Hope is, in my opinion, a much more polished game. Mario + Rabbids is an XCOM-like turn based tactical strategy game that's different from your standard Mario fare. It's also a lot more challenging than the cute creature outfits might suggest.

2nd Gen Apple AirPods Pro for $199

The 2nd gen Apple AirPods Pro truly wireless noise cancelling earbuds is back down to Black Friday pricing. Amazon currently has it for $199, a price drop of $50. The Apple AirPods Pro is one of the best sounding "truly wireless" earbuds you'll find, especially at this price point. "Truly wireless" earbuds have no wires whatsoever, even to each other. In addition to the excellent sound quality, the AirPods Pro is the only AirPods earbuds with active noise cancelling technology.

New 2022 Apple iPad for $399

This is the first time we've seen a discount on the 2022 Apple iPad, which was released at the end of October 2022. It's normally $449 but Amazon has the Pink color only for $399, undoubtedly a Valentine's Day focused price drop. The new iPad has a host of upgrades from previous models, including a newer A14 Bionic chip, larger 10.9" screen size, and the universal USB Type-C port now replacing the proprietary Lightning port.

Anker MagGo 621 5,000mAh Magnetic Battery for iPhone for $34.99

If you don't want to plunk down $100 for an official Apple MagSafe battery, then Anker has the next best thing. The Anker MagGo 621 boasts a 5,000mAh battery capacity and is MagSafe compatible. The magnets are strong enough to stick directly to your iPhone or a MagSafe case. The iPhone 14 has an internal 3300mAh battery and the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4300mAh battery, so the Anker MagGo should easily give either phone at least an extra full charge worth of battery life.

ASUS ROG Scar Strix 15" AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX RTX 3080 Gaming Laptop for $1669.99

Amazon is offering a fantastic deal on this ASUS ROG Scar Strix gaming laptop. It features an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, RTX 3080 GPU 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The GeForce RTX 3080 provides plenty of muscle on the GPU front. It's the most powerful mobile GPU available. Compared to desktop variants, it's roughly comparable to the RTX 3060.

Preorder Hogwarts Legacy (Any Edition), Get a $10 Best Buy Gift Card

The highly anticipated Hogwarts Legacy game, an open world adventure that takes place in the Wizarding World in the late 1800s, has an imminent release date of February 10. Right now the only way to get a discount on the console version is at Best Buy. If you preorder any edition on either Xbox or PlayStation, you get a bonus $10 Best Buy digital gift card.

New 2022 Apple MacBook Pro with M2 Chip for $1406

A 2022 Apple MacBook Pro laptop featuring the brand new Apple M2 chip in on sale today. Amazon has a 13" model for $1406, a substantial 17% price drop from its $1699 MSRP. The new M2 chip is about 20% more powerful than the previous generation M1 chip, which was already faster than any other CPU found on previous Apple MacBook laptops. The M2 chip is also extremely power efficient, with this laptop boasting up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge. In addition to the new M2 CPU, this laptop features a gorgeous 13" Retina display with P3 wide color, 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

55" TCL 4-Series 4K Roku TV for $268

Here's a 55" TCL 4K TV with the excellent Roku smart TV interface at an excellent price. The TCL 4-series is a no frills TV with a limited set of features but, more importantly, still offers good 4K image quality. It also fares well in gaming at 4K thanks to its low input lag. The Roku smart interface is intuitive to use and every bit as good as a Google TV or Fire TV.

BOGO 50% Off at Target Includes New Releases Like Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol, and Forspoken

Target's Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off deal on select video games is back, and there are some great choices up for grabs. This time around, the offer includes a trio of very recent games: the Dead Space remake, Square Enix's Forspoken, and The Callisto Protocol. If you want to grab two of these three recent releases, you can do so through this deal to save a good chunk of change. Plus, other 2022 games like Sonic Frontiers, Elden Ring, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and more are also included.

GeForce RTX 4090 Starting at $1649.99

Here are two RTX 4090s at or close to MSRP! The stock RTX 4090 normally sells for $1599.99. However, both the MSI Gaming X Trio and the PNY XLR8 come overclocked right out of the box, which accounts for the small surcharge. Everybody knows by now that the RTX 4090 is the undisputed king of the hill. It's significantly more powerful than any other NVIDIA card out there. It's laughably more powerful than any AMD card, thanks to its support for DLSS 3.0 and it's marvelous domination of ray tracing tech.

Xbox Series X Finally In Stock on Amazon

This is the same deal with PS5. While other vendors like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target have had the Xbox Series X in stock for a while, Amazon has always required an invitation. Starting today, though, one bundle is available for immediate shipping, and that's the Xbox Series X Forza Horizon 5 Bundle. Like the PS5, this is eligible for 5% cashback.

Akira 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc for $14.99

Here's your chance to grab one of the most iconic anime classics in glorious 4K Ultra-HD at an excellent price. It's normally $29.99 and very rarely discounted. Create or sign into your (free) MyBestBuy account to get free shipping on this item.

LEGO Speed Champions 007 Aston Martin DB5 76911 Building Toy Set for $15.99

This is a nice piece of LEGO kit for only $15.99. Bond's 1964 Aston Martin DB5 is part of the LEGO Speed Champions series and measures a very respectable 6.5" in length with a total brick count of 298 pieces. That averages to a mere 5 cents per brick, a fantastic priced for a branded and themed LEGO set. A minifig of James Bond from No Time To Die is also included.

Kasa Smart Plug Mini with Energy Monitoring for $12.99 (or Buy 4 for $9.30 Each)

Amazon is offering the Kasa Smart Plug Mini with Energy Monitoring for only $12.99. That's a hefty 35% price drop from its $20 MSRP. This is also lower than what we saw on Black Friday, barring deals that involved buying something else and getting this smart plug for a discount. If you want even more savings, pick up the 4-pack for only $38.96 after you clip the $3 coupon. That averages out to $9.74 per smart plug and they also support energy monitoring.

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 Core for $116

The Xbox Elite Series 2 Core wireless controller is fundamentally the same controller as the older generation Xbox Elite Series 2 controller at a much lower MSRP. The Elite Series 2 Core controller features pro gaming features like adjustable-tension thumbsticks, wrap-around rubberized grip, and shorter hair trigger locks. Microsoft was able to significantly cut the price by removing some of the accessories that the original Elite controller came with. Specifically, the Elite Series 2 Core does not come with the extra paddles, thumbsticks, and d-pad. These accessories are still compatible with the Elite Series 2 Core, but if you want to get them, you'd have to buy them separately.

2022 Apple iPad Air (10.9", Wi-Fi, 64GB) for $499.99

Back down to the best price we saw during Black Friday. The 2022 Apple iPad Air was released in March of 2022 with a $599 MSRP. It represents a healthy upgrade to the 10.2-inch iPad in nearly all aspects. It boasts a larger screen size (10.9" vs 10.2") with both True Tone and P3 wide color. It has the same powerful Apple M1 chip found in the 2021 iPad Pro. Despite the more powerful hardware, the iPad Air is roughly the same size as the 10.2-inch iPad (thanks to the slimmer bezel) and weighs a bit less as well. Charging is done through the universal USB Type-C connector.

Hisense R6 65" 4K QLED Google TV for $378

The Hisense R6 is essentially the same TV as the A6 but uses the Roku smart TV interface instead of Google TV. Unlike the U6 which uses a VA panel, the R6 uses an IPS panel, which offers wider viewing angles. At this price it's also over $100 cheaper than a 65" U6 TV.

NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Pro for $179.99

The NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro is still founded on the same hardware from when it was released a few years ago, but the software has been updated to Android 11 OS. The Shield Pro features an NVIDA Tegra X1 CPU (the same processor found in the Nintendo Switch), 3GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in storage. In terms of performance and versatility, the Shield Pro blows the Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick, Chromecast, and just about every other media player out of the water. It's capable of handling 4K video with Dolby Vision HDR from all of your favorite streaming apps. It also supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus.

The Shield Pro is also one of the only devices that supports GeForce Now, which allows you to stream your PC games to your TV without having to own a gaming PC. A remote PC does all the processing work for you, and all you need is a fast internet connection. It even has a built-in Plex server so you can organize all of your digital media in one centralized location.

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Warning: The below contains some vague details about an early Hogwarts Legacy mission, but no major spoilers.

Adding a new wrinkle to the ongoing debate over the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy, IGN has learned that a transgender woman features prominently in an early mission.

The character, Sirona Ryan, runs the Three Broomsticks tavern and is first encountered in the second main story quest.

Sirona's inclusion in Hogwarts Legacy is particularly notable given the controversy surrounding the game, which has ignited debate because of Harry Potter author and primary rights holder J.K. Rowling's consistent anti-transgender rhetoric for the past few years. Many Harry Potter fans have vowed not to buy Hogwarts Legacy as not to benefit Rowling and her anti-trans views.

Curiously, Sirona was not included in any pre-release marketing for Hogwarts Legacy, and the development team at Portkey Games has largely remained mum on Rowling and the controversy at large. IGN asked Portkey to comment on Sirona's inclusion in the game, and a representative for the developer responded via email:

Can you talk about the creation of Sirona Ryan? How early in development was she conceived?

"It has been a high priority throughout the development of Hogwarts Legacy to create a game that is representative and diverse, aligning with our wonderful fan community. Offering players choices in the way they play the game is an element that we have worked on since the start of development. The Character Creator is just one example of that and of course, the large, diverse cast of characters present throughout the game have also had a huge amount of thought from Avalanche and Warner Bros. Games, as well as counsel from outside D&I experts."

Sirona is coded as transgender in her appearances throughout the story. How deep does Hogwarts Legacy delve into her background?

"The best way to get to know any character is to delve into the game."

Can you talk about what Sirona Ryan means for Hogwarts Legacy, particularly in light of J.K. Rowling's vocal opposition to transgender people like her.

"The team felt that it was very important to create a game that is representative of the rich and diverse world of Harry Potter as well as the groups of people who play games, which includes the LGBTQIA+ community. We have a diverse cast of characters that players will encounter throughout the game."

Why wasn't she featured in the promotional marketing?

"As with most of the game, we want players to discover all of the different elements of the story and gameplay as they play through it."

Ultimately, what do you hope will be the reaction to Sirona Ryan?

"The team is very excited about the launch of the game overall and can’t wait for fans and gamers to experience their own Hogwarts Legacy."

Previously, speaking to IGN as part of a preview, Hogwarts Legacy director Alan Tew also didn't mention Rowling by name and used fairly similar language, saying they made the game for a diverse audience.

"I think for us there are challenges in every game we've worked on. This game has been no different. When we bumped into those challenges, we went back and refocused on the stuff that we really care about. We know our fans fell in love with the Wizarding World, and we believe they fell in love with it for the right reasons," he said. "We know that's a diverse audience. For us, it's making sure that the audience, who always dreamed of having this game, had the opportunity to feel welcomed back. That they have a home here and that it's a good place to tell their story."

Hogwarts Legacy releases on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Feb. 10. PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch versions will follow. For more, check out our official final preview of the game, our review, and how Harry Potter fans have been coping with the complicated situation.

Major League Baseball, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and San Diego Studio are partnering to introduce legends from baseball's Negro Leagues to MLB The Show 23.

In a video posted to MLB's Twitter, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick spoke about the partnership, saying the museum is thrilled to "take you on a journey back to the Negro Leagues and introduce you to some of the baddest brothers and sisters to ever play this game." You can check out the full video for yourself below, which introduces the players and shares some brief history of the Negro Leagues.

MLB The Show 23's new game mode is called Storylines: A New Game Experience Celebrating The Negro Leagues. Eight Negro League legends are a part of MLB The Show 23: Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Buck O'Neil, Rube Foster, Hilton Smith, Hank Thompson, John Donaldson and Martín Dihigo.

MLB announced that Storylines will feature a narrative experience for each featured Negro League player, with "short videos about the players mixed with gameplay centered on important moments of their careers." The players will also be available in exhibition mode and other areas of the game.

This isn't just a one-off idea, either. MLB The Show 23 will feature Season 1 of Storylines, with every new MLB The Show game including a new roster of Negro League legends. Kendrick will narrate the stories in the mode, and also helped select the list of Negro Leaguers to introduce over the next several years.

San Diego Studio will also donate $1 to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum for every copy of MLB The Show 23 Collector's Edition sold from now to the end of 2023.

The Negro Leagues was established on February 13, 1920. They operated from 1920 until around 1960, giving African Americans and Latin Americans a place to play baseball when Major League Baseball was segregated. The Negro Leagues saw some of the greatest players in the history of the sport, and in 2020, MLB bestowed Major League status upon seven professional Negro Leagues, officially recognizing over 3,000 players as Major Leaguers.

Last week, we learned the cover athletes for MLB The Show 23. Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Miami Marlins will headline the standard edition, while New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter will grace the Captain Edition of the game. MLB The Show 23 launches on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 28, 2023.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Superman's son Jon Kent is spinning out into a new DC Comics series called Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, but there's a big piece of the story DC hasn't revealed until now. The series will feature Jon crossing over into the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe.

Adventures of Superman is one of several books included in DC's line-wide revamp of the Superman franchise this year. Up till now, DC only revealed that the series will feature a rematch between Jon and Earth-3's Ultraman (a villain who's busy trying to murder the Supermen of the multiverse) and that Jon's powers are beginning to flare out of control. Now we know that Jon will be further tested by meeting a version of his father who was driven to become a despotic tyrant instead of a force for good.

This is an auspicious crossover, considering that series writer Tom Taylor also penned the bulk of DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2 comics. Taylor has helped greatly flesh out a universe where Superman is driven mad by the deaths of his wife and unborn child. So what happens when he meets his son from another universe?

"Injustice for me is a very troubled time," Taylor told DC.com. "I had so much fun on that book. Obviously, I was on it for years. I think I was originally hired for fifteen chapters, and I wrote over 150. But there's a lot about Injustice that that rubs me up the wrong way. I don't believe Superman, no matter what happens to him, can become that person. I don't believe Wonder Woman becomes that person. So, for me, it's a really interesting Elseworld, and throwing Jon Kent as sort of that beacon of hope and in a way, quite an innocent character and a character who wants the best for the world, throwing him into that world where his father has become a dictator gives us so much to play with. I've been talking about this story to all my friends who will listen for months, long before we knew where we were going with this."

Taylor revealed that Jon will arrive in the Injustice universe during the period of Injustice 2: Year 5, meaning it takes place shortly before the events of the second game. He also noted that while Jon's encounters with the Injustice Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman will be key moments in the series, there's another character who's relationship to Jon becomes key.

"I guess the biggest one—and I wasn't going to give this away, but you know what, for anyone reading this I will—there is a different Damian Wayne in the Injustice world. Literally his best friend is essentially not on the side of the angels in this world. That is going to give us a very fun and entertaining dynamic and quite a tortured dynamic to play with."

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1 is slated for release on March 17, 2023.

Taylor is also hard at work on a new volume of Titans, one which repositions the team as the replacement for the Justice League after the events of Dark Crisis. Similarly, Marvel is about to introduce a new team of Avengers when that series relaunches later this year.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Overwatch 2 Season 3 will not only feature an Asian Mythology theme, a new Antarctica Control map, and a Valentine's Day-themed browser-based Overwatch Dating Simulator, but it will also see the game's first IP collaboration with Doomfist's One-Punch Man skin.

Season 3 of Overwatch 2 will begin on February 7 and the One-Punch Man collaboration follows comments by Overwatch's commercial leader and vice president, Jon Spector, about the company's interest in exploring brand crossovers in the game similar to those seen in Fortnite.

Overwatch previously crossed over with other Blizzard games for special skins like Widowmaker's Nova and Kerrigan Legendary skins, but this will mark the first time Overwatch 2 has seen a skin from another company.

As for the other additions in Season 3, the first one discussed was the new Antarctica Control map. Fans may remember that the main facility of Ecopoint: Antarctica was seen in Mei's "Rise and Shine" cinematic, but this will be the first time players will be able to explore it to the fullest. Blizzard promises it is a "lore-rich tundra with several stories yet to be told."

As previously mentioned, Season 3 as a whole will have an Asian Mythology theme. Alongside featuring Overwatch's "most unique skins to date," those who complete the Premium Battle Pass will be able to unlock the Amaterasu Kiriko Mythic skin, which is "inspired by various deities in Japanese mythology with customizations you can mix and match themed for the moon, the sea, and storms." As an added bonus, Kiriko's spirit fox even gets a new look with the skin.

Players will also be happy to know that Season 3 will offer even more rewards for just logging in and playing Overwatch 2. There will be 10 additional tiers on the free Battle Pass track and an additional 1,500 credits to earn, while the premium track will add an additional 500 Credits.

Blizzard also noted that all 300 Epic and Legendary event hero skins from Overwatch have been added to the Hero Gallery and will always be available for purchase, and they have also gotten a discount from 1,900 Credits to 1,500 Credits.

Lastly, skins and cosmetics will be earnable outside the Battle Pass via in-game events, and more details will be revealed in the future.

As for the Loverwatch Dating Sim, it will be part of the Ultimate Valentine event that will see a Hanzo 4v4 Limited Time Mode and Support-themed challenges added to the game alongside two epic skins and other rewards.

Loverwatch is a non-canon text-based dating sim where players will have the chance to try to date Mercy or Genji. There will be dialogue options to choose from, and a Cupid that looks "suspiciously like Hanzo" will assist you. If you are able to unlock the secret ending, you will earn a themed POTG Highlight. Loverwatch will be available at this link and will be playable from February 13-28 and will take about 30 minutes to complete.

There is so much more coming in Season 3, including the return of PachiMarchi from March 21 to April 4, a ton of balance, matchmaking, and quality-of-life changes, the Overwatch World Cup celebration, streamer mode and accessibility improvements, and more.

For more, check out our Overwatch 2 review, where we said its "switch to a 5v5 format breathes new life into what was once the sharpest shooter around. It just hasn’t quite recaptured all of that glory – yet." Maybe Season 3 will get it even closer to that glory.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.