It comes as no surprise to anyone that the Switch bundles over Black Friday were one of the most popular choices for those shopping in the sale. Interestingly, unlike previous years, these bundles have managed to maintain stock at a few retailers -- so they are still available at the time of writing. That means that December is still a great time to buy a Nintendo Switch for yourself or as a gift.

Even in its seventh year on the market, the Switch has continued to see impressive first-party support with titles like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, so there's still plenty of new games to play right now if you pick one up. For more Switch deal updates, ensure you're following @IGNDeals on Twitter/X.

TL;DR - Where to Buy a Nintendo Switch

• Switch OLED Super Smash Bros Bundle for $349
• Switch Mario Kart 8 Bundle for $299

Where to Buy a Nintendo Switch OLED

Nintendo Switch OLED is the premium model of the Nintendo Switch family. This console offers a larger OLED display that makes your favorite games come alive in portable mode with colors that pop. The $349 bundle includes a copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a Nintendo Switch OLED with themed Joy-Con, and a three-month code for Nintendo Switch Online. That's approximately $67.98 in savings, making this one of the biggest deals of the holiday season, and it should absolutely be considered by anyone who is after a Switch (or even as a Nintendo gift as well).

Where to Buy a Nintendo Switch

If you're not overly keen on the OLED model and its added cost, there's still an impressive deal on the standard Nintendo Switch. This special edition includes a Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe copy, and a three-month voucher for Nintendo Switch Online for just $299. This is a great deal, and well worth considering -- otherwise, we've also discussed the best place to buy the PS5 this Christmas as well if you want to shift into something a little more current-gen.

What to Look for in a Nintendo Switch

Will you Play in Portable or Docked?

Something you should think about before purchasing is whether or not you are going to play in portable, docked, or both. Depending on your answer, you might gravitate towards a certain Switch model. If you plan to use both modes, the best Switch for you is the standard Nintendo Switch. On the other hand, if you think you won't play your Switch on a TV, then you should purchase a Nintendo Switch Lite.

The Nintendo Switch OLED are where things get interesting since it is a premium model. Generally, it is a good fit for you if you're looking to get the most out of the Switch and its games. If you tend to play more in Handheld mode than Docked mode, the Switch OLED is a worthwhile purhcase.

Do You Want to Play with Friends?

If you want to play games locally with your friends, then the Switch Lite is something you want to avoid. Its portable-only nature doesn't allow for it to connect to a TV and dock. Additionally, no kickstand or Joy-Cons means that it is tricky to attempt tabletop play for local multiplayer. Both the Switch and Switch OLED have the missing features listed above, so we recommend choosing one of those models if you want to play local multiplayer. For more Nintendo offers, check out our best Nintendo Switch deals roundup. Dozens of games, accessories, and consoles are available this year with various sales.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2023, as well as the first new additions coming to the Game Pass Core library.

It sounds like these games are the full lineup for December. “This month, we’re going for a ‘let’s announce everything coming in Game Pass for December’ sort of vibe,” Microsoft said in a post on Xbox Wire. “We’ll be back in early January after the holidays for more games coming soon to Game Pass. So, grab your controllers, charge those mice, and let’s get to the games!”

Remnant: From the Ashes (Cloud, Console, and PC) and Remnant II (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) surprise-dropped on Game Pass overnight. IGN’s Remnant 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Where Remnant: From The Ashes was a strong first draft, Remnant 2 is a revolutionary sequel and a sterling manifesto for the looter-shooter soulslike.”

Spirit of the North (Cloud, Console, and PC) joins Game Pass on December 1. It’s a single-player, third-person adventure game where you play as a red fox who’s story becomes entwined with the guardian of the Northern Lights.

SteamWorld Build (Cloud, Console, and PC) is available day-one with Game Pass on December 1. IGN awarded this one a 7/10. “SteamWorld Build is a simple but fun city builder cleverly combined with a dungeon-constructing miner that keeps things quick and casual.”

Next up is Clone Drone in the Danger Zone (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), available from December 5. Here’s the official blurb: “A robot voxel slice ‘em up where any part of your body can be sliced off. With your mind downloaded into a robot gladiator, you must survive the sinister trials of the arena. Fight up to 15 players in Last Bot Standing, team up for online co-op, or face down the robot emperor in story mode!”

Also on December 5 is Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider (Cloud, Console, and PC), which makes a return to the Game Pass library. IGN’s Rise of the Tomb Raider review uncovered a 9/10: “Rise of the Tomb Raider takes its predecessor's winning formula and improves on it in every way.”

December 5 is a big day for Game Pass. Then, While the Iron’s Hot (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches as another day-one Game Pass game. “Step into the boots of a journeyman blacksmith on a quest to become a master and restore a ruined village along the way. This crafty adventure game sends players to the mysterious isle of Ellian, where the world’s finest artisans dwell. While you might forge a few weapons on your journey, this isn’t the kind of game where you wield them – the island’s troubles can all be solved with your wits and crafting moxie.W

And, again on December 5, Game Pass gets co-op third-person shooter World War Z: Aftermath (Cloud, Console, and PC). IGN gave this one 8/10: “World War Z: Aftermath is another lumbering step forward for zombie-kind, even if it doesn’t completely satisfy one’s appetite for brains.”

Moving on to December 7, Coffee Stain’s Goat Simulator 3 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass. “Goat Simulator 3 is bigger, sillier, and packed with more low-stakes fun,” we wrote in the 8/10 review.

City builder Against the Storm (PC) launches into PC Game Pass on December 8. “A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization’s last survivors.”

Lemmings-style game Tin Hearts (Cloud, Console, and PC) enters Game Pass on December 12. “Spanning across four distinctive acts with 50+ puzzles masterfully woven throughout a grand Victorian home, steadily uncover a variety of whimsical inventions with unique abilities to provide a safe route of passage for a troop of tin soldiers to travel.”

And finally, Far Cry 6 (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches into Game Pass on December 14. IGN’s Far Cry 6 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Far Cry 6 smooths over a lot of the bumps that have cropped up in the past few games and even though it misses some steps, especially with its new inventory system, it's the best the series has been in years.”

Here’s what’s coming to Game Pass in December 2023:

• Spirit of the North (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 1
• SteamWorld Build (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 1
• Clone Drone in the Danger Zone (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – December 5
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 5
• While the Iron’s Hot (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 5
• World War Z: Aftermath (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 5
• Goat Simulator 3 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – December 7
• Against the Storm (PC) – December 8
• Tin Hearts (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 12
• Far Cry 6 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 14

As mentioned, Microsoft is making its first two additions to the Game Pass Core library, both on December 6: Chivalry 2 and Totally Reliable Delivery Service. Microsoft has announced it plans to update the Game Pass Core library two or three times a year.

As usual, a number of games leave Game Pass in December. You get up to 20% off if you buy these games while a Game Pass subscriber.

Here’s what’s leaving Game Pass on December 15:

• Chained Echoes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Opus Magnum (PC)
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Rubber Bandits (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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

Microsoft stopped announcing Xbox console sales some time ago, a move most believe was at least in part because they compare poorly to sales of PlayStation consoles and Nintendo Switch. But according to one Xbox executive, that has nothing to do with it.

Speaking at the Wells Fargo 2023 TMT Summit, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart insisted Microsoft decided to quit publishing console sales because console sales alone do not paint the full picture of the health of the Xbox business.

“About six or seven years ago, we stopped giving console volume externally,” he said. “And at first, it was like, 'what are you doing?' You're the Xbox business, you're not giving us consoles, that makes no sense. But it was really the first point of us saying, no, no, it's about content services.

“Our business is PxQ [the product of price and quantity], more customers spending more money. And that's really how I think about our model. So, when we talk about content and services externally, that's our [key performance indicator]. And for that number to go up, you need more gamers and you need more gamers spending money. And we've really focused on that with our internal teams as a — here's how we grow the business, go bring more users in and find ways for them to play.

“And it goes a little bit to — and my last point here is about business model — we call it business model optimisation, but really business model diversity. And if a gamer comes in, they can subscribe to Game Pass, they can buy a game digitally, they can have advertising to fund their gaming that way. And so however they want to monetise, we're trying to find a way for them to spend money with us. And we've seen that as a very, very good accelerant in this content and services landscape.”

Stuart’s comments echo those made by Xbox executives before, but come at a particularly tough time for Xbox console sales. According to recent data for October, Sony’s PlayStation 5 is “comfortably” number one in Europe, with sales up an incredible 143% over October last year. The near seven-year-old Nintendo Switch is second despite a 20% drop in sales year-on-year. But the Xbox Series X and S have seen a whopping 52% drop in sales. Microsoft itself has admitted it has lost the console war.

In contrast to Microsoft’s position, Sony and Nintendo do publish console sales figures. Perhaps there’s no surprise there, given how healthy they are. PS5 has now sold an impressive 46.5m PlayStation 5 units three years after the console launched. The Nintendo Switch has sold an eye-watering 132.46 million units as it nears its seventh birthday.

Microsoft’s argument that console sales alone do not reflect the health of the business is backed up by its efforts to bolster its Game Pass subscription service as well as its push into the PC market and mobile. It has been some time since Microsoft announced Game Pass had 25 million subscribers. Stuart said the number had grown, but failed to offer an updated figure.

“But even things like Game Pass, we last announced 25 million Game Pass subscribers,” Stuart said. “It's obviously grown since then. But Game Pass is this millions and millions of subscribers month in and month out, which for me, I love because it's more of a paid annuity as opposed to that you're betting on those big game launches every quarter or every year, but a Game Pass helps us smooth it as well.”

Clearly, Microsoft is driving toward the mobile game market. Its $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard was as much about King’s $20 billion mobile smash hit Candy Crush Saga as it was about getting Call of Duty on Game Pass, something Stuart acknowledged. In fact, Stuart talked about the limited nature of the console business, which he described as a “couple of hundred million” market and “not growing that fast”, and the PC games business, which is “300 million or 400 million”. Mobile, however, is a market in the billions.

“The most gamers in the world play on mobile,” Stuart said. “We think about the console landscape and part of the real evolution of the deal was, hey, look, we've got a fixed console audience with Xbox or relatively fixed, but not growing that fast. You've got a couple of hundred million kind of console addressable market. You've got 300 million or 400 million kind of in that PC gamer market, and then you have billions in the mobile market.”

The question for Microsoft is of course how it carves out a significant slice of the mobile game pie. Its efforts so far have failed to achieve the blockbuster success it’s clearly after. With King’s Candy Crush and Activision’s Call of Duty mobile games on board, overnight Microsoft is a major player here. But what’s next? Halo on mobile?

“Mobile games are hard to make,” Stuart said. “You have to have the DNA, you have to know how to AB test. You have to know how to do performance marketing and how you think about getting installs. And we've tried on our own a few times. We've got a great Minecraft mobile experience on iOS and Android and other things. So, we've got some foothold, but what Activision, Blizzard, King does on mobile is impressive. And what they've done with Candy Crush being one of the biggest ones from King, but also you think about Call of Duty Mobile, that's the most players playing is, frankly, to Call of Duty Mobile. You think about what they've done with Blizzard and Diablo and World of Warcraft Mobile, they just talked about at BlizzCon a few weeks ago and like I said, Candy Crush.

“So, they're taking their IP into the mobile landscape, and they know how to do it, how to build it, how to iterate quickly, and that's just the DNA is gold. And we can then leverage that with our IP and take the learnings into our business and say, okay, how do we go now address these new - frankly, these new billion gamers that we've never had a chance to go reach before.”

For now, thoughts are still very much on the Xbox console business, and Microsoft’s commitment to pump out more exclusives from its huge first-party studios network amid plans to launch mid-gen refreshes of both the Xbox Series X and S at some point in 2024. It’s promised announcements at next week’s The Game Awards. Perhaps fans will get a clearer idea of what’s to come then.

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

PlayStation 5 consoles were one of the most sought-after, and most popular deals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023. While those sales are now over, thankfully the discounts haven't stopped. You can still pick up a great deal on the PS5 or PS5 Slim just in time before Christmas -- the top bundles cost $499, and feature Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Spider-Man 2 at no additional charge; offering potential buyers savings of $70 compared to purchasing the items separately. For more PS5 deal updates, ensure you're following @IGNDeals on Twitter/X.

TL;DR - Where to Buy a PS5

• PS5 Slim Spider-Man 2 Bundle for $499 (Save $70)
• PS5 Slim Modern Warfare 3 Bundle for $499 (Save $70)
• PS5 Digital Slim for $449
• PS5 Disc Spider-Man 2 Bundle for $499

Where to Buy a PlayStation 5 Slim

PS5 'slim model' is the brand new PlayStation 5 console that will become the widely available version of the console from now onwards. It's 25% smaller vs the original console, and features a larger SSD at 1TB, alongside a custom disc drive slot that can be removed or added to whenever you like (for future reference, if you buy the digital edition, the attachable disc drive is also now available for $79.99).

As we've mentioned, these new PS5 slim disc edition bundles come packed with a digital code for either Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS5). As the bundles cost the same as the MSRP of the PS5 Slim, you're effectively getting a PS5 game for free with your purchase. Plus, for all digital owners, the PS5 Slim Digital Edition is also now available to buy for $449 - but there aren't any bundles featuring a free game just yet.

PS5 Slim Deals

PS5 Slim Digital

Where to Buy a Standard PS5

It's been notoriously difficult to get your hands on a PS5 since its launch in late 2020 between industry-wide chip shortages and scalpers reselling consoles for nearly $2,000, but the supply has finally caught up to demand for the most part, and now it's far more common to see the consoles in stock in-store and online at most retailers.

The best deal right now is similar to the Slim bundles we've mentioned above and features Marvel's Spider-Man 2 alongside at no additional cost. Just so you're aware, the standard PS5 disc edition is 25% larger than a PS5 Slim, has a 825GB SSD, and it's disc drive is not removalable (at least its not intended to be).

How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles

If you're looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.

While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you'll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction, the latter of which poses its own risks.

Where to Trade in PlayStation Games

Similar to PlayStation console trade ins, you can also trade your existing games in at specific retailers. The most widely available retailer accepting used video games is GameStop, but they are notorious for giving you pennies on the dollar for your pre-owned titles. However, if you're looking for an easy way to offload some of your library for cash or in-store credit, this is a convenient option. You can always look up the expected trade-in value on GameStop's website before heading into a store, so you know exactly how much you'll receive. Additionally, you can trade in your used games online through Amazon in exchange for an Amazon gift card.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Reliable PlayStation Plus leaker billbil-kun has this time revealed the next batch of games coming to Xbox Game Pass, as well as two new games coming to the Game Pass Core library.

Game Pass saw the surprise additions of Remnant: From The Ashes and Remnant 2 overnight. Following those releases, 10 more games are due during the first half of December, starting with SteamWorld Build on December 1, according to billbil-kun's report on Dealabs.

Here’s the lineup:

• Remnant 2 (Cloud, Console and PC): Already available
• Remnant: From The Ashes (Cloud, Console and PC): Already available
• SteamWorld Build (Cloud, Console and PC): Available Day One from December 1
• Far Cry 6 (Cloud, Console and PC)
• World War Z: Aftermath (Cloud, Console and PC)
• Goat Simulator 3 (Cloud, Console and PC)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Cloud, Console and PC)
• Against the Storm (PC)
• Clone Drone in the Danger Zone (Cloud, Console and PC)
• Tin Hearts (Cloud, Console and PC)
• While the Iron's Hot (Cloud, Console and PC)
• Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition (Cloud, Console and PC)

The headline here is perhaps Far Cry 6, although Goat Simulator 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider also catch the eye.

Meanwhile, billbil-kun revealed two new Game Pass Core titles, both of which arrive in December. They are Chivalry 2 and Totally Reliable Delivery Service.

Microsoft is expected to make an announcement soon.

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

If you, like a lot of British folk, bloody love video games and a cuppa, then Yorkshire Tea has created your perfect PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S controllers — though the price may make you boil over.

British tea brand Yorkshire Tea has brewed the pair of controllers in collaboration with "controller designer extraordinaire" POPeART, and is selling them for a steep £149.99 each (around $190).

This is more than double the standard price of a PS5 DualSense controller, which has a recommended retail price of £59.99, and the Official Xbox Series X and S Controller, which has a recommended retail price of £54.99.

Limited edition controllers are a different kettle of fish though, and these Yorkshire Tea gamepads certainly won't be available forever. The company didn't say exactly how many or for how long it will sell the special controllers, however, leaving fans to read the tea leaves and hope for the best.

"Picture the scene. You're facing down a boss with three heads and a hammer as big as a truck, armed with nothing but a rusty sword you looted from a guard," Yorkshire Tea proposed. "Gulping, you look down at the controller in your hands, wondering if victory is even possible. And you see it — the reassuring branding of your favourite tea. 'Yes', you say to yourself. 'I can do this'."

The PlayStation controller features the outer shell to match the actual tea's branding, with its iconic imagery of the Yorkshire Dales, while the logo sits upon the Touch Pad. The Xbox one features the Yorkshire Dales green on the left and the logo's red background on the right.

Microsoft is well-known for creating wild and wacky controllers, with Xbox Series X and S generation highlights including red and blue fluffy Sonic the Hedgehog gamepads, one made out of actual Jade, and even an edible gamepad.

Its more regular line of controllers including the sexy Gold Shadow, cosmic Stellar Shift, dusty Stormcloud Vapor, and even an Earth Day one made partly from recycled CDs, water jugs, and other Xbox controller parts.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has shared a first look at the incoming official Game of Thrones cookbook, including a recipe for Highgarden Dumplings.

Revealed on his blog, Martin deemed the holiday period a "fitting time" to give Game of Thrones and food fans an early glimpse at the incoming cookbook.

"The cookbook is presented as the in-world manuscript of Maester Alton, a curious, food-obsessed Citadel master who loves the fare of the highborn and small folk alike," Martin said.

"His recipes evoke the world’s regions, history, and stories in a charming and knowledgeable voice. Each section is introduced with stunning woodcut illustrations like this one featured in the opening pages of the book."

Though it doesn't release until May 7, 2024, Martin shared one of several hundred recipes in the cookbook. The Highgarden Dumplings page does not include the recipe itself but, as mentioned, an excerpt written as if by Maester Alton from within Westeros.

"Nowhere in the Seven Kingdoms can boast such rich harvests or such flavourful produce as the Reach," it begins. "Perhaps there is some truth to the legends of Garth Greenhand and his agrarian powers, but more likely the fertility of the lands around Highgarden can be attributed to the more mundane properties of its soil and geography."

This recipe will be joined by hundreds of others in the final cookbook, which are broken down into different categories: 19 in The Pantry, 111 Breads, 47 Breakfast, 139 Mains, 65 Sides, Starters, and Snacks, 173 Desserts and Sweets, 89 Soups and Stews, and 197 Drinks.

Readers can even prepare meals that make thematic sense, as the cookbook also includes a list of dishes organised by region.

Game of Thrones isn't the first major entertainment franchise to get an official cookbook. Fellow fantasy series The Witcher and The Elder Scrolls have both received entries, for example, alongside other video game franchises such as Stardew Valley and Destiny.

Martin, meanwhile, has been chipping away at the latest A Song of Ice and Fire novel The Winds of Winter, though fans grew concerned at his latest update. The author said in November 2023 he'd written around 1,100 pages, the same number he gave in 2022.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Gunfire Games’ Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant II have been made available today on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Uncharacteristically, the games have arrived with no announcement.

Remnant II launched in July this year to significant praise from players and critics alike, and sold more than one million copies in its first week across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. It went on to take down Diablo 4 as July's best-selling game in the US.

IGN’s 9/10 review called Remnant II “a triumphant sequel that doesn’t just reimagine the soulslike genre as a co-op looter-shooter, but absolutely nails that concept in nearly every way.”

The arrival of the Remnant II standard edition on Game Pass comes following the November 14 release of its first DLC, The Awakened King. Two further DLC add-ons are scheduled for 2024.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can chat to him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.

Just one day after the launch of Season of the Wish, Bungie has removed a $15 "starter pack" microtransaction for Destiny 2 that quickly became the subject of criticism and backlash over pay-to-win concerns.

Over the years, Bungie's monetization model for their long-running live-service shooter has increasingly relied on DLC and numerous microtransaction channels to support its game, but when players noticed a new "starter pack" added to the store yesterday, many voiced concern that the company had gone too far.

How is this microtransaction different from the numerous paid offerings of years past? Well, importantly, it contains powerful guns and in-game materials that can take hours of playtime to earn normally, and while Destiny has flirted with pay-to-win elements in the past, this was the first time they'd very clearly gone beyond cosmetic and time-saving mechanics into the world of pay-to-win.

Among the concerned voices was popular Destiny content creator Datto, who reserved a section of his recent YouTube video to lay into the microtransaction offering, asking "How much more tone deaf can you possibly get?"

One of the ways players expressed their disdain for this pay-to-win package was by taking to the Steam storefront with online reviews, and marking the item with user tags including, "Capitalism," "Crime," and "Psychological Horror." The listing has since been removed.

The controversy comes at a troubling time for Bungie, after an underwhelming expansion earlier this year and poor player engagement leading up to the Destiny saga's finale. So much so, in fact, that Bungie cited lower than expected revenue when it laid off 8% of its staff last month.

As concerns grew louder in the day since the starter pack debuted, Bungie quietly removed the item from their store in an apparent admission that those concerns were valid. IGN reached out to a Bungie representative who declined to comment on the matter.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

This is the best year ever for Xbox Cyber Monday deals, from the best Cyber Monday Xbox console deals we've ever seen, to the lowest-prices on Xbox Cyber Monday controller deals, ever. That's on top of all the Black Friday deals on Xbox games, too.

The Xbox Series X comes with 1TB built-in storage, and the base-model Xbox Series S comes with 512GB. With modern games taking up more and more room (looking at you Call of Duty), that built-in storage tends to fill up fast, especially on the Series S.

Thankfully, this Black Friday and Cyber Monday stretch has Xbox storage deals to help you easily double the storage of your Xbox Series X.

Best Black Friday Xbox 1TB Storage Card Deal

Unlike the PlayStation 5, which accepts any compatible SSD so long as you're not afraid to crack open the case of your console, the Xbox Series X and Series S uses a memory-card system with high-speed storage that plugs into the back. The WD_Black 1TB Xbox expansion card adapts the speed of WD_Black SSDs to work with the Xbox storage expansion requirements.

Black Friday External Hard Drive Deals Still Live

The Xbox storage cards increase the capacity of your Xbox and let you play games directly from the cards themselves. However, you can still attach an external hard drive to your Xbox and use it to store your games. The difference is, you can't play the games from an external hard drive without first installing them to the high-speed storage built-into the Xbox (or expanded with one of the storage cards).

In my experience, this is fine. It takes much less time to move a game from the external hard drive to the high-speed storage than it does to redownload games, even with a fiber connection.

Grabbing an external hard drive Black Friday deal for your Xbox is easily the best cost-saving solution for expanding the room you have for your Xbox games.

It’s a heck of a time, running through an abandoned bunker in the dark with nothing but a hazmat suit on your back and three of your closest buds at your side. Oh wait, that’s not your closest bud at all – it’s a grotesque, white-eyed monster eating their corpse and using their body like a puppet. Welcome to Lethal Company, a co-op survival horror game that’s all about digging deep into the (procedurally-generated and largely haunted) crevasses of exoplanetary human history for loot, which your party of up to four companions will need to figure out how to safely transport back to your ship and eventually sell to your eldritch bosses at the end of each round. This is a simple but highly enjoyable premise, and thankfully, there’s enough chaos decking the halls of its current early access version to sink an entire weekend into its depths without realizing you’ve done so. But, even with such a riveting loop and plenty of monsters to make it satisfyingly treacherous, Lethal Company does still feel like the work-in-progress it is thanks to its janky graphics and having little-to-no story to carry it.

Each successful run through these abandoned lunar tunnels lets everyone in your squad invest in better gear – like flashlights and eventually high-powered jetpacks – so that you can take on higher-tier expeditions to places like the elusive and extremely dangerous moon of Jupiter, Titan. Inventory space is rather limited – you’re given only four slots in total, and they’re quickly strained when you factor in that you effectively need to carry a flashlight or a walkie-talkie. Both are crucial to survival but difficult to recover if something goes wrong deep inside of a dungeon, where your teammates won’t easily be able to recover your body. At least those items aren’t too expensive to replace.

Regardless, everything in your inventory weighs you down, making it appropriately tough to get away if you’re carrying a heavy load of loot. Thanks to Lethal Company’s plethora of challenges and secret dangers, it’s an absolute blast to try to escape, even when you die horrifically. Even after being blasted to bits by a hidden turret or getting chomped on by one of the many cosmic horrors awaiting me in the twisting corridors, it was still a joy to watch my surviving teammates outrun death. My favorite comic relief moments even took place from the comfort of the death cam – for instance, when one of my teammates tried to haul a big piece of scrap, screaming from the top of their lungs in sheer terror while something chased them across the map.

I’ve deeply enjoyed learning how Lethal Company works, getting a little savvier with each run – and even after spending about 15 hours with it, I still feel like there’s plenty left to discover. What’s hiding on the frozen moon of Rend? Has anyone heard about the mysterious ghost girl who only appears to one crewmate at a time before she kills them? How did that guy just get eaten back at base? And, on a side note, why am I gaining experience points and leveling up when there are no unlocks? It’s a little frustrating that Lethal Company raises a few questions like that that it doesn’t yet have answers to. Right now, progression does absolutely nothing, and virtually nothing is carried between save files. That means you’ll need to restart often, even if you survive long enough to reach the endgame in a public group and have to dip out for some reason. But hey, at least there are no microtransactions.

Still, Lethal Company already instills a sense of wonder, subtly mimicking the early days of Minecraft in the way I had almost no clue what I was going to find whenever I selected my destination at the beginning of every in-game day. There are eight different explorable moons, each varying in difficulty – with higher-difficulty moons costing more currency to land on, so you effectively have to ante up before you make your run. The surface of each moon is static, so it’s possible to familiarize yourself with their maps and attempt to plan your route ahead of an excursion. But the real excitement begins once you and your crew enter the labyrinthine underground complexes. Everything from outdoor weather to the interior layout to enemy spawns and loot locations varies between runs, so there’s enough unpredictability to keep you on your toes.

For every run, you’re only given three in-game days to find enough scrap to reach your profit quota, meaning there’s a baked-in deadline and you’re racing against the clock. Once it strikes 5:30 PM you’d better be ready to blast off, because the entire landscape becomes a living threat. Luckily, each in-game day is reasonably long, around 10 minutes or so, and I’ve encountered countless moments where I became separated from a teammate as they faced what seemed like a certain death, only for us to rendezvous back at the ship and share our wildly differing stories of how we individually survived and made our way back to safety.

But it loses some momentum because there isn’t too much to carry you forward from one run to the next. There’s zero story to follow; progress through the campaign is entirely about surviving to meet the next quota, and that’s it. And even with procedural generation, or maybe because of it, the endless bunkers and basements of Lethal Company’s lowest-tier planets all look alike… and this means they can get stale very quickly. It’s nice that there are a few different types of interior environments later on, but they’re locked behind higher-tier zones that require a bit of time and grinding to earn access to. This means you’ll scrounge your way through tens or even hundreds of abandoned bunkers before you find your way to an abandoned mansion, and I wish those alternative locations showed up earlier.

Most of the enjoyment in Lethal Company comes from multiplayer antics. Like any co-op game, communication and coordination are key to carefully planning and executing the safe extraction of loot from the bowels of a dungeon – with all of your party members intact, at least – and all that underlying tension truly reaches its zenith when your initial plan goes awry, scattering your team and sending you running for your lives. Each of these terrifying adversaries have different tricks and strategies, forcing you to adapt accordingly. For example, the shadowy Brakken stalks its prey while shying away from direct light, but it has a knack for easily skirting around corridors in the dark and flanking unaware adventurers. At the same time you have to keep an eye out for the creepy doll-esque Coil-Head, which rushes toward you at lightning speed unless you’re looking directly at it, in which case it freezes in place like a Dr. Who Weeping Angel statue. Most of these opponents range from fairly difficult to impossible to kill, and this is partially because Lethal Company rarely equips you with conventional weaponry. There are no guns here; your best bet is a melee weapon like a yield sign. Thus, combat is largely untenable. Especially against the most challenging enemies, like the giant Forest Keeper or the terrifying jack-in-the-box-like Jester. Most of the time, it’s best to lighten your load and run in the opposite direction.

Spicing things up even more, sounds attract the attention of these nefarious monsters – including any noises picked up by each player’s microphone. Setting up Push to Talk is a good way to stay covert when you don’t need to speak, but chatting with your teammates is a fundamental survival tool. This built-in limitation makes every bit of communication significantly more important – you have to keep chatter to a minimum, especially around sound-sensitive monsters like the Eyeless Dogs that prowl the outskirts of your ship at night. Inversely, talking to your teammates over walkie-talkies or while huddled in a group can keep your avatar’s sanity meter from filling up, lessening the chances of monsters spawning in the first place. This mechanic keeps Lethal Company interesting at all times, especially since you can use a particularly loud teammate as a tool to, for instance, draw monsters away from a valuable piece of loot.

It’s all made a bit simpler once you’re able to equip multiple party members with walkie-talkies, including at least one who can stay behind on the ship – directing your expedition over radio comms while opening doors remotely and helping you navigate around potential threats by telling you where to go. That said, I found it’s a bit of a chore to sit in the ship and direct everything instead of venturing into the dungeon. At least it gets a bit more interesting after dark when monsters spawn near the ship. This forces the operator to be quiet, otherwise, they’ll invite the unwanted attention of passing creatures who can break in and eat them.

Darkness is as much an antagonist as any of the marauding creatures stalking Lethal Company’s hallways. Everything – even the interior of your ship – is dark, dreary, muddy, and deeply unsettling. Most of the time, unrelenting darkness obscures potential threats or even portrays distant team members as oncoming monsters. As in other survival horror games like Alan Wake 2, the most powerful weapon at your disposal is often a flashlight, which cuts through darkness and allows you to safely navigate out of harm’s way. Also, it’s smart that Lethal Company’s flashlights both hold a limited charge and can potentially attract unwanted threats when turned on or off, forcing you to be tactical about how and when you use them. To conserve light during one session, all four of my crewmates huddled together and took turns walking in front with a single flashlight, guiding all of us toward the exit like we were a delightfully doomed version of Scooby and the gang.

Lethal Company’s constant tension is partially due to its low-fi graphical style, which obscures details and makes everything look like it was rendered on a PlayStation 1. That’s a double-edged sword – especially when low-resolution art, inelegant character animations, and chunky monster designs work against its otherwise gripping atmosphere. Sometimes, what would’ve been a scary moment rapidly devolves into a less welcome kind of comedy when a creature glitches through the geometry of the map. That’s a shame, because the way Lethal Company blends built-in voice chat into its 3D-positioned audio system makes it deftly effective as a survival game with rich horror elements – everything from stomping monsters to the terrified screams of your teammates to a rusty door jarring itself open somewhere down the hallway behind you is all skillfully attenuated to up the spooky ante.

During Capcom's special Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase yesterday, we not only learned the release date for the hotly anticipated sequel action role-playing game, but we also learned it will be the company's first $70 game.

The PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam standard editions of the game are all listed at $70 USD, with the deluxe edition being priced at $80.

Over the last three years, video game publishers and companies have slowly been adapting the "Triple A" video price bump from $60 to $70. Up until now, Capcom has abstained from selling games with this new price point with the release of titles like Street Fighter 6. Now, it's looking like the company will finally test the waters with the release of Dragon's Dogma 2 on March 26, 2024.

This news comes months after Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto revealed that he thought the price of video games were "too low" while speaking at the Tokyo Game Show in September. During the event, Tsujimoto said increasing the price of games would be a “healthy option” for the industry.

"Development costs are about 100 times higher than during the Famicom era, but software prices have not gone up that much,” Tsujimoto told Nikkei. "There is also a need to raise wages. Considering the fact that wages are rising in the industry as a whole, I think raising unit prices is a healthy option for business."

Tsujimoto went on to argue that an economic slump wouldn't prevent people from purchasing pricier games: “Just because there’s a recession doesn’t mean you won’t go to the movie theater or go to your favorite artist’s concert. High-quality games will continue to sell,” he said.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is the latest in a slew of games with a $70 price tag. Prior to Dragon's Dogma 2, Nintendo and Microsoft respectively released Starfield and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for a cool $70. Other $70 games released this year include titles like Forspoken, Dead Island 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and Wild Heart.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is slated to release on March 26, 2024, on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Steam.

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN.

Sons of the Forest will officially leave Early Access and launch its v1.0 on February 22, 2024. Furthermore, X-Men and Quantum Break's Shawn Ashmore will be joining the cast to voice Timmy as the team works to "expand his role in the game and story."

Sons of the Forest developer Endnight Games shared the news on X/Twitter alongside thanking everyone who played the game in Early Access.

"Hey Everyone, Sons Of The Forest v1.0 will release Feb 22, 2024 with Shawn Ashmore voicing Timmy as we expand his role in the game and story," Endnight Games wrote. "We thank everyone who has joined us in Early Access and are super excited for what we have in store for v1.0 and beyond."

For those unfamiliar, Timmy LeBlanc is the son of Eric LeBlanc, the protagonist of The Forest who crashed with his father on the island where the game takes place and was quickly kidnapped. One of the main goals of the original game was to rescue Timmy. Without spoiling anything, Timmy is back in Sons of the Forest and obviously has a bigger part to play.

As for Shawn Ashmore, he is no stranger to video games as he has previously voiced Tim Breaker in Alan Wake 2, Conrad in The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and Jack Joyce in Quantum Break. And that's in addition to him playing Bobby Drake/Iceman in the X-Men franchise, Lamplighter in The Boys, and more.

Sons of the Forest entered Early Access on February 23, 2023, and tasks players with finding a missing billionaire on a remote island that also happens to be home to cannibals and other horrific dangers. This sequel is once again an open-world survival horror simulator and can be played solo or with friends.

In our Sons of the Forest Early Access review, we said it is "already a strong survival crafter sequel that takes all the things The Forest did so well and does them a little bit better."

"Exploring a huge, beautiful, deadly island through the changing seasons is a treat on its own," IGN's Leana Hafer added. "The new base building mechanics could entertain me for days without ever touching the main story. And to top it all off, we have smarter and more unsettling enemy behavior paired with thoughtfully improved combat. It's already great, and it's still in Early Access. With some healthy performance optimization and shining up of an impactful but sloppy ending, it could become incredible."

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.

If you have yet to purchase either a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S, there is never a better time than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Both systems have received massive exclusives in 2023, further bolstering their offerings. A great entry point right now is the Xbox Series S, which happens to be on sale with the new Starter Bundle. This bundle is only $249 at Walmart, which is 17% off its usual price of $299.99. These kinds of Cyber Monday deals don't last long, so get it while it's still discounted!

Grab the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle for Only $249

• Also at Amazon - $249

The Xbox Series S Starter Bundle includes everything you need to get started in the Xbox ecosystem. Starting off, the bundle includes the Xbox Series S console - packing 512GB of storage, so you might want to look into additional storage in the future. You'll also get your standard Xbox controller in Robot White. And the last thing included is a 3-month voucher for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, essentially saving you another $50 on top.

Overall, this bundle offers a great starting point if you're not the owner of an Xbox or PlayStation yet. It's the cheapest entry into either ecosystem, and the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate voucher will allow you to take full advantage of the Xbox content offerings. Three months of Game Pass will take you into early 2024 and cover releases like Persona 3 Reload or Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Walmart has many other deals you don't want to miss from Cyber Monday. For example, Xbox Controllers are discounted at the moment. You can always use an extra controller, so this is definitely worth checking out, especially if you want to combine it with the Starter Bundle. For more deals, check out our Walmart Black Friday 2023 roundup.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition will officially become available to Netflix members for no extra cost on Apple's App Store, the Google Play store, and in the Netflix mobile app on December 14, 2023.

Those who can't wait to jump into Grand Theft Auto III - The Definitive Edition, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - The Definitive Edition, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The Definitive Edition can pre-register today to get ready for December 14 and play as soon as they are available.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition had a bit of a bumpy launch, but it has since been patched to fix bugs, textures, and much more.

In our Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition review, we said there was "no question that the three games in this GTA Trilogy are all-time classics, but they’ve unfortunately been remastered with a ham-hand instead of a Love Fist."

"New features are slight and only partially implemented, visuals are mixed, performance is inconsistent at best, some content is missing, and bugs and glitches abound. In its existing state, this collection of three classic GTA games is far from being considered definitive; it’s defective, disappointing, and surprisingly disrespectful to both the legacy of the games themselves and their many legions of fans," IGN's Tristan Ogilvie added.

December looks to be a big month for Grand Theft Auto fans, as it will also see the much-anticipated arrival of the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6.

The addition of these three classic Grand Theft Auto games will bring Netflix's gaming library to over 80 titles, and all of these games are available to all Netflix subscribers without any ads, in-app purchases, or extra fees.

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.

Free Radical Design, the Timesplitters studio that was reformed in 2021 to create a new entry in the franchise, reportedly faces a potential shutdown in December 2023.

As reported by VGC, this decision may be part of company-wide cuts at Embracer Group and could happen as soon as December 11. The fate of Free Radical Design has yet to be made public, but sources told VGC that Plaion, a subsidiary of Embracer Group, recently addressed the matter in a company email.

"As we move through the consultation process and face the potential closure of Free Radical Design on 11 December 2023, I want to express my gratitude for your commitment and the remarkable work you’ve done and still keep doing,” wrote Plaion VP, Worldwide Studios & Talent, Lars Jannsen. “This is a challenging time for all of us but especially for you, and our focus is to support you as much as we can during this transition.”

It was then noted by VGC that Plaion will be "required by UK employment law to consult employees for a minimum of 30 days before making any redundancies, including exploring ways of avoiding them." This could mean the studio could be acquired by a third party before it is simply shuttered.

Unfortunately, it appears many of Free Radical Design's employees have already indicated they are looking for new work. This includes over 55 of the studio's 100 staff members on LinkedIn saying they are seeking new opportunities.

This news follows Embracer Group's confirmation that it has laid off 904 staff, or 5% of its workforce, since its $2 billion deal that was reportedly with the Saudi government-funded company Savvy Games Group fell through. It also warned more layoffs could be on the way, and this could be one of the studios sadly impacted.

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.

“You awake and find yourself in a parallel dimension. The year is 2032. All you can remember is that you’ve been participating in some kind of experiment that went horribly wrong.” Well, that and the words, “The Muller-Powell Principle.” That’s right, in this new sci-fi puzzle thriller from Three Dots Games, you must find a way back home and figure out the only thing you can remember, The Muller-Powell Principle. For those of you excited to experience the game’s puzzling multiversal glory, it’s just released today, November 29th 2023, on Steam!

In The Muller-Powell Principle, you play as Harry Herman, a scientist working for a company called Delta Laboratories. At Delta, Harry studies the possibilities of interdimensional travel and its unknown capabilities. His project’s sole purpose is meant to benefit humanity, but in a recent experiment just before the events of the game, something horrible occurs. After the accident, Harry wakes to find himself in a parallel dimension in the year 2032 and must now hop from dimension to dimension in order to uncover his past and, hopefully, return home to his rightful universe.

The Muller-Powell Principle is filled with platforming puzzles, futuristic tools, a variety of environments to discover and explore, and a mysterious antagonist. And what’s more, those puzzles, tools, and environments may change based on multiple playthroughs due to the player’s actions during the story (which also lead to several different endings).

One of these futuristic tools at Harry’s disposal is the Portable Energy Manipulator, extremely useful in solving puzzles throughout the game. Once found the Portable Energy Manipulator allows Harry to absorb any type of energy from the environment. This includes light, heat, radiation, and more. Absorb heat from a fire to melt glass, blind security cameras with a beam of light absorbed from a lamp, even freeze physical objects in place by draining different force fields. Eventually, you will be able to harness the device’s full potential by harvesting quantum entanglement energy, allowing Harry to open rifts in space-time to travel between dimensions.

Passing from dimension to dimension will allow you to uncover a multitude of worlds throughout the game, from an all-encompassing scientific base to a destroyed planet inhabited by creatures afraid of sunlight. These parallel dimensions are littered with puzzles and with each successive world you visit, you will uncover and reveal the mysterious connections between them all and the dark truth that has been hidden from Harry about Delta Laboratories.

The storyline of The Muller-Powell Principle is non-linear, which means that depending on the player’s choices and actions throughout the story, multiple branching paths will lead to alternate endings. Will your focus be to solve what is hidden about the “Principle” or will you seek only find a way to help Harry return to his home dimension? Find out today when The Muller-Powell Principle is available to buy and play on Steam right now!

Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus games for December 2023 are LEGO 2K Drive (PS4 and PS5), Powerwash Simulator (PS4 and PS5), and Sable (PS5).

As revealed on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be made available at no extra cost to PlayStation Plus subscribers on December 5.

LEGO 2K Drive combines open world racing with extensive customisation as players can build their perfect car piece by piece. Driving around the world of Bricklandia, racers must complete with rivals and overcome the competition to win the coveted Sky Trophy.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "LEGO 2K Drive is a wild and whimsical all-ages kart racer with an incredible custom vehicle creation tool that’s just about worth the price of admission alone."

Powerwash Simulator offers something very different, and is literally and figuratively all about releasing pressure. Players fire up a power washer and blast away every speck of dirt on various levels in surprisingly satisfying gameplay. It even has some wild and wacky collaborations with the likes of Final Fantasy, Back to the Future, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

This one earned a 7/10 from IGN. "Powerwash Simulator's simple yet therapeutic style of gameplay provides an enjoyable way to chill out across its numerous generously sized levels," we said.

Finally, Sable is a coming of age tale of discovery through exploration across a strikingly rendered open world desert, as players are encouraged to go on a deeply personal journey across an alien planet. We also gave this one a 7/10, saying: "Sable is a beautiful, minimalist voyage that’s hindered by bugs and bland puzzles."

These three games will be available at no extra cost until January 1, while last month's games — Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Mafia 2: Definitive Edition, and Dragon Ball: The Breakers — leave the service on December 4.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Starfield is a game designed to be replayed via its New Game Plus system, but 33 times seems a bit excessive. Not for one player, who in the process of replaying Bethesda’s sci-fi space game over and over again has encountered a surprisingly cool interaction they hadn’t seen before.

Starfield spoilers ahead!

First, some background. As IGN’s guide to Starfield’s New Game Plus explains, the game lets you loop over and over again via multiverse shenanigans. Once you beat the main story, you can start a new game that puts you back near the start of Starfield with new story permutations, new dialogue options, and even at least one new main mission to complete. As IGN’s Simon Cardy wrote around Starfield’s September launch, New Game Plus is one of the game’s most intriguing concepts, if you get lucky.

And get lucky is exactly what happened to X/Twitter user and Starfield superfan @NikoMueller, who after travelling through 34 multiverses (33 New Game Plus runs) finally decided to “settle down”. But… surprise! Awaiting the silent protagonist at Constellation HQ was a fully voiced version of the player character herself.

After traveling through 34 multiverses (NG+33) I finally decided to settle down.

Why?

I met myself from the 1st universe handing over the artifact to constellation. 😱

And you won’t believe it but I convinced ME to join my crew. 🤩#Starfield is the greatest game ever made! pic.twitter.com/gEBDo8DeRC

— Niko (@NikoMueller) November 28, 2023

If you encounter this New Game Plus variation you’ll get to see some fun interactions between the player character and their multiverse self, as well as other main characters in the game. According to NikoMueller, the alternate version of their character has the same stats as they did from their first playthrough, and has plenty of questions herself. Well you would if another version of you just walked through the door, wouldn't you? (No, it does not appear to be possible to romance yourself.)

So, what’s going on here? As you arrive at the The Lodge in this variation you find a version of you already exists in this universe. You'll be able to talk to yourself and explain that you're Starborn and what you know about the Artifacts. While the you that's currently in this universe doesn't really want to help out, you can convince them to team up with you and recruit yourself.

This is a known New Game Plus variation (players discovered it soon after Starfield came out in September), but it seems a rare one, and given the greeting you get from Constellation when you return to The Lodge appears to be random, it’s impossible to guarantee this particular interaction will be your next one.

It had been thought that all Starfield’s New Game Plus variants had been discovered, but some players are still soldering through the game on the hunt for new twists, however unlikely they are to be hidden somewhere.

Starfield enjoyed a record-breaking release, becoming Bethesda’s biggest ever launch with more than 10 million players. Bethesda has updated Starfield a number of times since. The latest patch, 1.8.86, added DLSS Support and the ability to eat food on sight. The studio already has a Starfield post-launch story expansion pack in the works, called Shattered Space, and development chief Todd Howard told IGN in an interview ahead of the Starfield Direct that Bethesda plans to release “a lot” of add-on content for the space exploration game.

However, Starfield is currently Bethesda’s lowest-rated game on Steam, where staff are responding to negative reviews.

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

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam comes out in 2025 on Nintendo Switch, Level 5 has announced.

The game’s official website is now updated with the new release window, alongside a brand new trailer showing off the hotly anticipated adventure.

"Professor Layton and the New World of Steam"
is sheduled to release in 2025!

The latest trailer gives footage that Professor Layton and Luke are trying to solve a puzzle!

Click here to see the full video → https://t.co/ot0DBAK507#ProfessorLayton #L5vision pic.twitter.com/LHkhPmDHsU

— Layton Series (@LaytonSeries) November 29, 2023

The website also includes a new description of the game:

This game depicts the world one year after the events of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.

The story takes place in Steam Bison, America.

There, the power of highly advanced steam engines has ushered in a new world, greatly surpassing even London’s technological development.

Due to a mysterious incident in Steam Bison, a new adventure for Professor Layton and Luke begins.

There are character bios, too:

• Professor Layton: Hershel Layton, Professor of Archeology at Gressenheller University. On the side, as an authority on riddles, he has worked with Luke to unravel mysteries all around the world. Since Luke has left for America, he has been acting on his own.
• Luke: Luke Triton, Professor Layton’s self-proclaimed first apprentice. Due to family reasons, he is living in the United States. His love of riddles remains unchanged, and thanks to his innate creativity, he keeps solving everyday mysteries around town. He has gained some popularity as “Detective Luke.”

What’s interesting is Level 5 lists Professor Layton and the New World of Steam as coming out in 2025 on Nintendo Switch. Nintendo is expected to launch its next-generation console, perhaps called Nintendo Switch 2, at some point in 2024. Will Professor Layton and the New World of Steam also launch on that console? If it’s coming out in 2025, you’d expect so. It’s worth remembering, though, that Nintendo has said it will continue to release games for the near seven-year-old Switch into 2025.

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam is the 10th entry in the Layton franchise, and the eighth starring Hershel Layton himself. We haven't seen the good professor in a starring role since 2014's crossover with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The last proper Layton game was Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy, which was a 3DS release in 2017 and a Switch port in 2019.

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