Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir says his "only regret" when it comes to the Ryan Gosling-fronted movie adaptation is not managing to squeeze in one particular scene from the 2021 novel.

While appearing as a guest on science-based podcast StarTalk, Weir, who produced the flick, recalled how he and the movie's writer, Drew Goddard, "fought" to keep the moment in which the government sets off nukes in Antarctica in an effort to speed up global warming in the face of the dying Sun.

"We just didn't have time for it because the runtime was going so long," he explained, adding that he thinks Goddard did "a fantastic job" with his big screen take. "But there's a scene in the book where they set off a bunch of nuclear explosions in Antarctica to make an entire ice shelf fall into the ocean." The idea, Weir went on is "that it will melt and release all the methane, which is greenhouse gases, so that Earth will retain more of the heat that it is getting from the Sun. So, they're like, 'We need some global warming.'"

Given that Project Hail Mary comes in at a bladder-testing 156 minutes, it makes sense that there wasn't room for everything on the page to be brought to life. That said, there are moments in the film that weren't actually present in the source material; like Gosling's protagonist Ryland Grace teaching Eridian children on their home planet or glimpses of a present-day Earth in which entire oceans are frozen.

"We see the beginnings of it in the book," Weir said of the dark development. "They're starting to have problems, and a lot of their problems are caused by the amelioration techniques they're proactively doing. Things are going to get worse, but then we're gonna need that heat."

For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.

Lego is asking what you're doing in its swamp with the first ever Lego Shrek sets, and honestly, I'm impressed.

Two kits have been announced to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary, and these Lego Shrek sets come in a couple of unique flavors: a full display model with over 1,403 pieces and a smaller, more affordable trio of BrickHeadz figures. While the latter is fun, the for-adults display piece is what really caught my eye. It combines Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots for a surprisingly feature-rich diorama taking place in the ogre's signature swamp. It looks fantastic; it certainly gives the best Lego sets a run for their money.

Story developing...

YouTuber-turned-movie-producer Jacksepticeye has revealed more about his role behind the scenes on the Bloodborne R-rated animated movie.

"I'm not under any illusions that we should change too many things or mess stuff up. It's my job to keep it in that tone, vibe and atmosphere. That's what it's all about: the atmosphere of those games is second to none," Jacksepticeye, real name Seán William McLoughlin, told IGN, of the adaptation of FromSoftware's Gothic Soulslike classic, which sees a Hunter fight his way through the crumbling, beast-ridden city of Yharnam.

McLoughlin continued, "I'm approaching it as a fan of [Bloodborne], not as like, 'I want to make a thing to make money.' That's not my M.O. I know the fans out there are very passionate about Bloodborne."

But there hasn't been a wholly positive response to the creator's producing gig in the upcoming Bloodborne project, with a handful of memes and social media messages voicing their displeasure at A Big Name attaching themselves to something they care deeply about.

"I've seen memes of people posting pictures of me [saying] I'm ruining the franchise," McLoughlin admitted. "I think they're really funny – but it shows how into Bloodborne they are and how passionate they are about it."

Bloodborne was unveiled at this year's CinemaCon, with McLoughlin quickly taking to Reddit to reassure wary fans that he aims to make the movie the "best" adaptation possible.

To prove his Yharnham street credit further, he took to YouTube to stress his fandom stretched beyond a superficial admiration for the game.

"I live and breathe FromSoftware games," he said. "But Bloodborne specifically is my top-tier, highest echelon of game. I have a tattoo of the Hunter's Mark on my body. I have giant statues of the Hunter and Eileen behind me. I have a tiny lamp of the Messengers behind me because I absolutely adore this franchise. Bloodborne is like the thing I wake up and play video games for. It is the top of the top. It is the most exciting thing ever to be able to announce this."

No wonder, then, Jacksepticeye has admitted to feeling "all the pressure in the world" to get this right.

Bloodborne is currently undated, though we do have a guide to other upcoming video game movies should that pique your interest.

Update: Shortly after this article was published, Crimson Desert received a hotfix, solving "an issue where certain owned mounts were not appearing in the Quick Slot, preventing them from being summoned," so it sounds like players' beloved dragons are back.

Amusingly, the hotfix also irons out "an issue where pets would eat wood or ore gathered with a logging axe or pickaxe" – perhaps they were just hungry. Other changes include a fix for a bug where "stamina would recover when sheathing and unsheathing certain weapons while sprinting," and crashes that "could occur while dyeing or changing customization." You can read the full patch notes here.

Original story:

Crimson Desert's latest patch brings with it some massive and welcome additions to the open-world behemoth, but one bug sneaked aboard the update and accidentally deleted many players' legendary mounts. Pearl Abyss promises you won't need to wait too long to ride your dragons again, though.

As bought to our attention by Twitch streamer Ramez, one notable bug that snuck into Crimson Desert's 1.04.00 patch causes lots of players' legendary mounts to go entirely missing, "including your dragon if you had one." Some players online report that certain legendary mounts, like Rokade, are seemingly unaffected by the culling, while other mounts are just nowhere to be seen.

Developer Pearl Abyss quickly jumped onto social media to note it's "identified an issue where certain owned mounts are not appearing in the Quick Slot, preventing them from being summoned." The studio promises it's "currently working on a fix and will do our best to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

The new Crimson Desert patch is almost certainly the game's biggest update so far – it's practically overflowing with new difficulty modes, pet types, home layouts, bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and an essential feature that finally lets cats perch on your shoulder for much longer. With so much good stuff included, it's maybe unsurprising that a few bugs also came along for the ride too.

In the meantime, while you're missing your dragons, you can try to find the new pet birds that just got added. They're almost as cool and they both have wings, except you can't ride the poor birds and their lifespans are about 400 times shorter.

Crimson Desert players keep losing boss fights to a haunted book that forces you to read it over and over again: "I'm gonna blow my top."

Mewgenics co-creator Edmund McMillen says there are details about the cat breeding tactical roguelike that nobody has found yet.

Over two months since release, Mewgenics is still my choice for the best game of the year so far, and it's going to take something extremely special to unseat it from its cat turd-covered podium. Personally, I've put about 120 hours into the game and still feel like I won't be seeing the end of it for a while yet, but given how popular it's been and how many hours some have put into the game, everything about it must be out there now… right?

McMillen took to Twitter to marvel, "It’s crazy that at this point there are still aspects of Mewgenics that people haven’t figured out yet," and when pressed whether he meant from the lore or gameplay front, the game director explained, "Both, but more lore than gameplay."

Of course, some will undoubtedly take this as a challenge to find out anything and everything about the game. McMillen is no stranger to elaborate secrets; just look at some of the bizarre unlock requirements in his other famous roguelike, The Binding of Isaac. Namely, The Forgotten, which required an elaborate multi-step quest that took place across the whole game, allowing you to unlock the character during the final area of your run.

Of course, this also invites players to datamine the game to find out things that were supposed to be hidden, which is exactly what happened in The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, much to McMillen's dismay.

While you're here, why not check out the best roguelike games

Stats don't lie, and it sure seems like if Jennifer English is involved in a game, it's got a better chance of becoming an awards darling. Having contributed to Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, she has a knack for being involved in Best Game winners at the British Academy Video Game Awards, and one of her cohorts is starting to believe in her magic.

IGN asked English about her being involved in three of the last four big BAFTA Games winners. "I think I've just been very, very lucky," she says, laughing. "I've been very, very lucky."

She might be bashful, but a pretty clear trend is emerging in the work she takes on. Nonetheless, she believes it's just the universe working in mysterious ways. "We're just putting it down to coincidence," she states.

For someone with only 11 video game credits to her name thus far, English has become incredibly prolific. Beyond her big three as I've mentioned above, she's been a part of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, and Bungie's new FPS, Marathon, among others.

Even though they're not all critical or commercial successes, that's a solid list of projects.. However she's picking her opportunities, it's clearly working out for her, and her peers are noticing. Rich Keeble, who voices Monoco in Clair Obscur, is willing to work with her in just about anything at this point.

"I am starting to believe it, yeah," he says, when asked about the Jennifer English effect. "I'm happy to follow Jennifer English into every other job she does. It does seem like a sure thing."

Beyond Marathon, English's voice will be in Tides of Annihilation, an upcoming action-RPG from Eclipse Glow Games. There's no release window yet, but we'll see how it stacks up to her existing RPGs. No pressure!

Surrounded by layoffs, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Lune actor hopes the next game from Sandfall sticks to what made its debut RPG a hit: "Value the amazing people who made this"

Heads up, true-believers, as a couple of Hasbro's first Marvel Rivals action figures are now up for pre-order.

After being shown off earlier this month in a reveal-packed livestream, the initial wave of Marvel Rivals action figures (Moon Knight and beefcake Punisher, as I'll lovingly call him) is available to pre-order from Hasbro Pulse and Amazon as we speak. Both come with a host of game-accurate accessories and enough articulation to make them highly posable on your shelf, and they should drop onto your doorstep by September. While I still think their fellow action figure Jeff the Land Shark is a shoo-in for our best toys list, I still appreciate these guys; they look like they've strutted off the screen.

The other Marvel Rivals action figures will be up for pre-order soon, but some will take a while longer to arrive than others. Venom and Jeff the Land Shark should be available for pre-order on April 29 at at 1pm ET on Hasbro Pulse, Amazon, and the rest, but Spider-Man and Luna Snow aren't going to be up for pre-order until May 13, 1pm ET.

Even so, Marvel fans are eating good right now. An awesome X-Men '97 Cyclops visor just got shown off, for example, and an eerily accurate Jessica Jones and Daredevil two-pack based on Born Again just become available as well.

What are you going to pick up, if anything? Shout about it in the comments below.

• See all Marvel Legends action figures at Amazon

For more must-have collectibles, why not drop in on our guide to the best Lego sets?

The upcoming Switch 2 game Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is giving players the kind of freedom that's usually best left out of Nintendo's most child-friendly franchises. Gestures vaguely at the internet's cursed Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream ships.

Previews for the newest platformer featuring everyone's favorite green dino went live earlier this week. Yoshi's watercolor adventure looks expectedly gorgeous and innocent and cuddly, but one thing you might not expect is that players can seemingly name most of the platformer's NPCs.

VGC's Andy Robinson named one smiley flower Mr. Brexit and dubbed another mousy character Geezer, for example, and I'm sure the millions of Switch 2 owners out in the wild won't dream of calling Shy Guy anything worse, right? Right?

We don't need to look much further than Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream as evidence, a life sim that's as powerful a meme generator as its older sibling thanks to how players can create any Miis in their twisted little imaginations, and lock chibi Jennifer Coolidge in a room together with Naruto Uzumaki. Even in the demo, folks truly pushed the lack of dialogue filter to the limit, too, to the point that one former Nintendo PR lead, Kit Ellis, said that the company "might be rethinking their approach to this in the game based on what they're seeing." Nothing changed in the full release in that regard, but the lack of sharing functionality has remained firmly in place.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book doesn't offer quite the same level of control over characters, but I'm both excited for and dreading the day when players share clips of Yoshi interacting with critters named, say, Twelve Cigarettes or Edgar Edgeworth.

Whether the new Yoshi game has a content filter is unclear, but at least in the preview build, the game lets you see name recommendations from other players' systems, making restrictions of some kind seem pretty likely. If my time in online games has taught me anything, however, it's that gamers can get through any filter with enough creative spelling.

GamesRadar+'s Yoshi and the Mysterious Book preview said the platformer has "this lovely quality of experimentation that has long been part of Nintendo's best games."

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto wants to keep The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's Princess Peach backstory changes canon in Nintendo's future games.

Ahead of today's 1.0 release of Shapez 2, its lead developer acknowledges that his first attempt to launch an answer to Factorio didn't go quite as smoothly as his second. The sequel has already secured thousands of overwhelmingly positive reviews during its 20 months in early access - but for the first Shapez, Springer admits that "everything that you should do" for a successful launch, "I ignored."

Unsurprisingly, Springer's journey to creating his own factory sim series started with Factorio. Annoyed by the hordes of insect enemies that plagued his carefully laid-out conveyor belts, however, he decided to build his own game. Planned out as a hobby project made solely in Springer's free time over just a few months, the game that would kickstart the Shapez series was initially made with "no commercial intent" whatsoever.

To release the project, Springer turned to indie platform Itch.io, where positive sentiment pushed it to a featured spot on the front page. Buoyed by that success, he considered publishing it on Steam as well, but Shapez wasn't "ready" for a full release yet. Early Access was the obvious solution, but that's where Tobias hit the series' first major roadblock: "I filled out the accreditation and everything, and then Steam rejected my store page around five times because they said 'we don't like the reason why you're going into Early Access'."

Any game releasing into Early Access on Steam has to justify that decision to both Valve and its players. When it came to Shapez, the company said that none of the four different descriptions Springer wrote about his development plans could "fully explain what a customer can expect from your app." Eventually, he got so annoyed by the process that in June 2020, he simply unchecked the Early Access box; "We're going to do full release, I don't care."

That gung-ho approach to release meant that Shapez had only 3,000 wishlists at launch, and little of the pre-launch background work to help it succeed. "Basically, everything that you should do, I ignored," Springer admits. Shapez was saved from relative obscurity by a streaming community that latched onto it, eventually driving more than a million sales. But even that didn't entirely pave the way for Shapez 2. Springer went back to freelance work, and even ran a Mexican restaurant for a while before he came across a funding project from the German government, "which basically allowed you to fund half of the development costs" of a new project.

With financial backing from the government and ideas about how to expand on the "very tight" gameplay loops of Shapez 1, Springer built up his team to 15 people, and after about two years of work, released Shapez 2 into Early Access in 2024. After the series' clumsy start on the platform, it's been a huge hit - 700,000 sales so far added to the original games' 1.3 million copies shipped to push Shapez beyond the two million mark, and Springer thinks that's likely to grow substantially with 1.0. While games like Satisfactory and Factorio might be the genre juggernauts, he argues that his team is extremely well-established in the factory sim genre by virtue of being "the only company that has shipped more than one factory game." An astonishing commitment to player feedback - the sequel's art style was chosen in a community vote - helped make Shapez 2 "the top-rated game in the genre" for a while as it sat at a 98% positive rating.

But there's a touch of irony to what is perhaps the biggest driver of Shapez 2's Early Access success: Springer's philosophy on what an Early Access launch should actually look like. "The game needs to be fully playable," he says, "it needs to be bug-free, it needs to have everything it's going to have." Too many players, he believes, are still wary of the Early Access label from the program's early days, when many projects were abandoned long before they were finished projects. Nowadays, he says, a game's fate "is 90%, 95% determined by the version of the game that you shipped the first time to the public." That's why "internally, we treat early access as 1.0," and why Shapez 2's upcoming 1.0 release could actually be considered its 2.0 version instead. For a series that was kickstarted by being thrust, somewhat unceremoniously, into the Steam ecosystem, such a dedicated approach to the Early Access ecosystem might seem unlikely, but even two million copies later, Springer remains quietly confident in his philosophy: "It's worked well, I think."

Mortal Kombat 2 is on track to double the opening weekend of the first movie at the box office when it hits the big screen in two weeks.

The sequel is predicted to make between $40 million and $50 million at the US box office when it opens on May 8 (via Deadline).

The first movie's opening weekend brought in $23.2 million back in 2021, which is still fairly impressive considering it also had a day-and-date release on HBO Max as part of Warner Bros. COVID release strategy. The movie went on to make $84.4 million worldwide against a $55 million budget (it wasn't quite as well-received by critics, though, and holds a score of 55% on Rotten Tomatoes)..

Simon McQuoid is back in the director's chair for round two, with Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada returning to the cast list.

They're joined by some new faces, too: Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, and Adeline Rudolph as Kitana. "Especially when I first read the script, it felt very much like the intertwining of two worlds. You have Earthrealm and then you have Edenia and Outworld," Rudolph said of the movie last year. "Kitana's storyline feels very much interwoven into Johnny Cage's story, and they go in and out of each other throughout the movie."

Mortal Kombat 2 arrives in theaters on May 8. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other best upcoming video game movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

It seems like the scale of The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender leak might be bigger than we realized after the film debuted in Letterboxd's "popular this week list". Full-length copies of the animated sequel have been making the rounds online, and it seems that users have started to log their watch on the community filmlovers' platform.

While Letterboxd states that reviews and ratings are not yet available for the film, 52,000 users have said they've watched the upcoming movie. This means it's been trending on the platform alongside new releases like Lee Cronin's The Mummy, The Drama, and Netflix shark thriller Thrash.

The leak began slowly with a Twitter user releasing two-minute clips from the film before a full-length, HD version was released by another user. Paramount has been removing clips online, but it seems viewers have still been able to get hold of the upcoming movie.

The film, which is a follow-up to the beloved animated series, was due to get a theatrical release. However, earlier this year, Paramount confirmed it would be pivoting to a Paramount Plus release for the movie instead.

One of the film's animators has commented on the leaks, sharing their disappointment over the situation. Julia Schoel wrote on X: "We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that we’d get to celebrate all of our hard work in theaters just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on Twitter like candy."

The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender is still due for release on Paramount Plus on October 9. Check out all the other upcoming movies you should add to your watchlist this year.

Disney and Lucasfilm may have released the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu last week, but the studios still have a few more clips up their sleeves. And in a new TV spot, little Grogu finds himself in a rather sticky situation. Literally.

The promo, which is doing the rounds on Twitter, shows Grogu venturing around a forest-type area with a group of Anzellans, AKA the tiny aliens that were first introduced in The Rise of Skywalker. But the puny pack soon get themselves into a bit of trouble when Grogu wanders to the edge of a swamp and a gross-looking fish creature gobbles him up. Luckily, the beast spits him back out pretty quickly. Phew.

The TV spot arrives just days after Jon Favreau revealed the first full scene from the movie during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The footage showed Grogu alone on the Razor Crest, as Pedro Pascal's bounty hunter gets caught up in a high-speed chase with a car full of Stormtroopers. As Mando tries to get to Grogu, he instructs the littlun to start up the ship. He doesn't have much luck operating the heavy machinery, though. Will the green guy ever catch a break?

The footage above may be just the tip of the iceberg as to how much danger Grogu will face in the new Star Wars movie. The film has been described as a "story of love and loss," and in the first trailer, we hear Jabba the Hutt warn Mando that he won't always be there for Grogu. Now we are really worried.

Set after the events of The Mandalorian season 3, the duo's big-screen adventure picks up with 'em as they join the fight to protect the New Republic following the fall of the evil Empire. As well as Pascal, The Mandalorian and Grogu features franchise newcomers Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver.

The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters on May 22. For more, check out our guide to the best Star Wars movies, and keep up with all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows on the way.

The Boys season 5 is continuing full steam ahead as we get closer and closer to that highly anticipated finale.

But, fans of the superhero satire are feeling disappointed by the latest installment of season 5, episode 4.

"In a final season, we shouldn't have an episode that leads nowhere. It started off strong and with an interesting plot, but being the last thing we'll see from the series, this episode felt like nothing at all…" said one fan on Twitter.

"I've enjoyed it, but I've felt like the roller coaster stopped in this episode," agreed another fan.

"In summary, the V1 isn't in that lab, end of the summary of this chapter where nothing happened," is another fan's take.

"I had the same feeling this was just a transitional chapter that set things straight and laid the groundwork for what's coming," says another person.

"I liked seeing that Soldier Boy isn't a one-dimensional dumbass, but we already knew that from the third season. The plot advances little, which could be more acceptable if there were greater internal development of the characters, which happened between little and nothing," says someone else.

But, not everyone agrees. "I don't know why people still don't get it and expect every episode in the final season to be nonstop action and be masterpieces," says one fan.

Another fan has pointed out everything that does happen in the episode: "-Annie came back -Frenchie and Kimiko broke up -Soldier Boy ended up traumatized and depressed -Homelander knows that Butcher no longer has the virus -development for Annie -they already know who has the rest of the v1 -Homelander's weakness (enriched uranium)"

In the episode, the Boys, Homelander, and Soldier Boy head to Fort Harmony, but Bombsight has taken the V-One elsewhere already. So, the episode ends in a similar place to where it started – but, as fans point out, plenty of things have changed over the course of the runtime. You can read more in our The Boys season 5, episode 4 recap.

The Boys season 5 continues weekly, and you can keep up to date with our The Boys season 5 release schedule. For more on the show, check out our The Boys season 5 recap.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida says he doesn't see any proof Sony is abandoning PC releases, but says day-one PC launches aren't a great idea, anyway.

Speaking in an interview at Powerhouse Museum's ALT. Games Festival (via Respawn First) Yoshida says, "When I was working on the game development side, first-party at PlayStation, from a strategy standpoint, we are [sic] not allowed to bring our AAA games to other platforms like PC."

The first major first-party PC release was Horizon: Zero Dawn in 2020 – which was released almost a year after Yoshida stepped down as president of SIE Worldwide Studios. He explains: "As the game development scale and investment became larger and larger, it makes sense for me that in [the] PS5 generation they started to move their big games to PC."

Yoshida continues: "Some vocal small number of consumers complain when they see the PlayStation first-party games are ported to PC, but I do not think that really affected adoption of PlayStation hardware like PS5 in any way.

"Releasing games on PC after a couple of years must have helped recoup the investment of these big budget games and help the team and company to reinvest that money into their new games."

However, Yoshida comments on the timing of these releases being a major factor. "If they were releasing new AAA games on day one on other platforms, I don't think that's a good strategy for a platform holder like PlayStation."

Recently, a rumor emerged that Sony is reportedly ending PC ports of single-player PlayStation games like Ghost of Yotei, something that Yoshida says he's seen no "proof of them changing the strategy" but notes that "if they are changing, it's going to be interesting how they are able to maintain the investment on the big-budget games on the first-party side going forward."

There's a bit of speculation that Sony's decision could be due to rumors that the next Xbox is set to be a PC-based device like a Steam Machine, and Microsoft being able to say 'you can play Uncharted on Project Helix' probably isn't a look that Sony is too keen on, especially considering how long it took it to pull the trigger on an Xbox release of Helldivers 2.

Former Microsoft exec and Blizzard boss completes Death Stranding 2: "Hell of an experience."

Street Fighter fans had better keep their eyes peeled while watching Paramount Pictures' upcoming adaptation, as the cast reckons there are around 100 Easter eggs for them to spot.

In a new interview with Fandango, Noah Centineo, who plays Ken Masters in the movie, explained that "a big part of [the] film was trying to infuse as much of the gameplay" as possible. It crams it all in, the actor promised, from catchphrases and signature moves to nods to "hidden levels".

"We tried to put so many Easter eggs into this movie. I don't know what the number's at, it feels like it might be at like, a hundred at this point."

"It's gonna blow people away," Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, who stars as Balrog, added. "[The fans] will understand it and have a nostalgia to it, 'cause they played the game so long ago. It's already a part of their lives."

Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the new action-packed flick new won't be the first time Street Fighter fans have seen Ryu and co. brought to life. Back in 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme played Guile in a feature-length outing, opposite Kylie Minogue's Cammy, and Ming-Na Wen's Chun-Li. In 2009, 20th Century Fox unveiled spin-off Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, with Smallville's Kristin Kreuk in the lead role. Both were received poorly by critics, with the latest only making $50 million at the worldwide box office.

In this film, Andrew Koji (Gangs of London) plays Ryu, while Callina Liang, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, and David Dastmalchian round out the supporting cast as Chun-Li, Akuma, Guile, Dan Hibiki, and M. Bison, respectively.

Street Fighter is set to release on October 16, 2026. For more, check out our ranked list of the best video game movies of all time.

Questions of the impact the current memory crisis will have on the PS6 release date have been swirling since those sticks started creeping up in price. Whether Sony will have enough inventory to see it through the current generation is one thing (and with PS5 price increases it seems they do not), but how these soaring costs fit into the launch of a completely new device is another entirely.

Many suggest a holiday 2027 launch window for Sony's new console, while others point to the memory market only stabilizing in late 2028 (Chosun Biz, via TechPowerUp). Some say the latter will have a devastating impact on PS6 launch plans, others say it doesn't matter at all. As with every rumor mill in the years leading up to a new generation, it's likely both parties will end up wrong in some respects - but here's what we know so far.

The 2027 brigade

This camp is lead by popular leaker Moore's Law is Dead, who posted that Sony's production schedule has them entering mass manufacturing on the PS6 in mid 2027, heading towards a holiday release window. The channel also suggested that Sony would likely absorb increased memory costs during this time, rather than back down on other contracts.

We can't forget that that information is six months old at this point, though, and newer reports don't paint such an optimistic picture.

New (and old) arguments for 2028

Back in February, Bloomberg published its report on the impact of the memory crisis. Within lies the pin to the PS6 release date grenade that's been making waves for the last couple of months; the statement that "Sony Group Corp. is now considering pushing back the debut of its next PlayStation console to 2028 or even 2029."

It seems that, yes, the ever-increasing price of RAM is going to have an effect on the new Sony system. Even if the brand does as MLID expects, selling consoles at a loss to ensure market position, they would be doing so in 2028, not 2027.

That might not even, technically, be a delay.

Way back in 2023, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard and essentially put us on the road to the darkest timeline. During those proceedings, though, the brand published its expectations for the timeline of the next generation. Speaking of sharing custody of the Call of Duty franchise, Microsoft's filings claim that "this term would in any case go beyond the expected starting period of the next generation of consoles (in 2028)."

If Microsoft isn't expecting the next race to start until 2028, Sony has even less of a reason to rush for a 2027 release date, despite its own filings referencing next year as a starting point. Reacting to the CMA's Issues Statement on Microsoft's Activision purchase, Sony stated that "Microsoft has offered to continue making Activision's games available on PlayStation only until 2027."

When is the likely PS6 release date?

There's more evidence for the PS6 hitting the market in 2028 than 2027 at this point, but we're still at least a year away from anything concrete. That's a long time in as turbulent a market as this.

What does it mean for you? Better keep that PS5 dust-free, because Sony fans are likely going to be sticking with the current generation console a little longer than maybe initially anticipated.

It also means the Steam Machine has a chance to snatch up a good deal of the install base before Microsoft and Sony bring their big guns to the living room. While the PS6 has been rumored to massively outperform Valve's device, high price tags and uncertain release dates are easily enough to counteract any gains in ray-traced tasks.

While we wait for the next generation, we're rounding up all the best PS5 accessories, including the best PS5 headsets and best PS5 controllers.

After launching the MCU with his 2008 movie Iron Man, it's understandable that director Jon Favreau would have been sad to see Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark die at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Favreau even went as far as to call up Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo in an attempt to try to change their minds on the matter. However, he now admits that they ultimately made the right decision.

"I talked to the Russos, I said, 'I don’t know if people are gonna like… I don’t know, it’s really going to impact people because they were kids that grew up with that character," admitted Favreau on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "But I have to tell you, it was handled so well by them. And Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Robert did such a wonderful job acting, and I think it added a poignancy to it. I think they did a wonderful job. I was wrong."

Avengers: Endgame hit screens in 2019 and ultimately put an end to the MCU's Avengers team we had grown to love, hence the film's title. However, the biggest shocker came right at the end, when Iron Man sacrificed himself to save his fellow superheroes and destroy Thanos once and for all. Stark used the six Infinity Stones and 'snapped' Thanos and his army into oblivion, also killing himself in the process.

Not only is this one of the most iconic scenes in MCU history, but it was also the end for one of Marvel's most beloved characters, who had been on screen for over ten years. Even Favreau got emotional when he watched the film. "I was choked up," added Faverau. "Even though it’s a movie, those people, those characters, have been part of my life for so long."

Favreau looks back on the Iron Man franchise with great fondness. Not only did he helm the first Iron Man movie, but he also starred as Stark's chauffeur, Happy Hogan. Faverau says that was the "smartest thing I ever did" as that recurring role "put my kids through school.”

However, that moment didn't mark the end of Downey's Marvel career, as the star will return in Avengers: Doomsday, but not as Stark, as comic-book villain Victor von Doom. Favreau added that he is "excited to see" Downey take shape as the elusive villain in the upcoming movie.

Avengers: Doomsday hits cinemas on December 18. For more, check out our guide on how to watch Marvel movies in order, and keep up with upcoming Marvel movies heading your way.

It's been a while since we've had any kind of tease for Mass Effect 5. Last year's N7 Day gave us some concept art, and a job listing in January of this year at least made it clear the game was still in development. When questioned about the lack of updates, a lead on the space RPG simply says the team's too busy right now to do any promotion.

Michael Gamble, a project director and executive producer at BioWare, responded to a fan asking why there hasn't been a drop of Mass Effect 5 news since November. "Just busy workin'," he says. "Not a lot of time for tease [sic]."

Responses don't get more succinct than that. The developers on the next Mass Effect have their heads down on the upcoming game, and there just isn't much resource left for any kind of teasing or promotional trail. I respect both the candor and the prioritization.

When we might get more information is anyone's guess. N7 Day, held on November 7 every year to commemorate the series, is always worth keeping an eye on, though with expectations appropriately in check that we might get crumbs.

Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards are the next most likely candidates if there's an announcement or trailer to show. Mass Effect 5's first trailer closed out the latter in 2020, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a Divinity-level publicity stunt if or when the franchise returns to the event.

Concrete details have been scant. Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer, the voices behind female and male Commander Shepard, respectively, are both eager to return to the iconic role, but it's unknown if they or anyone tied to the SSV Normandy will be coming back. We'll see what emerges in the coming months.

The Mass Effect TV show reportedly goes through rewrites to make it "more appealing to non-gamers," and I'm hoping it follows Fallout and not Halo in that direction

After reaching over 27 million players with a roguelike that popularized an entire subgenre, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is now working on a whopping 15 projects at the same time.

"We're working on 15 PROJECTS, not 15 games," the developer clarified in a tweet following a few internet misquotes, "this includes VS, DLCs, free updates, our published games, etc."

Poncle went more in-depth about its expansive plans in an interview with The Game Business, where chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio announced that the breakout, auto-battling, bullet heaven roguelike Vampire Survivors has amassed 27 million players. In fact, the game's been such a big success that the company is now opening studios in Japan and Italy to fuel those aforementioned 15 projects.

That ambitious pipeline includes more Vampire Survivors spin-off games, not unlike the recently released (and dangerously moreish) deckbuilder Vampire Crawlers. Sapio explains it's an opportunity to use the "famous Vampire Survivors IP to experiment in new genres."

But after the hit game went viral, outside developers apparently approached Poncle for collaborations as well, which is how Warhammer Survivors was born. Auroch Digital is developing the game using the Vampire Survivor Engine, and Sapio says this is because Poncle itself didn't have the expertise to make a Warhammer 40k game and do it justice: "If we have knowledge of the IP, we will [make the game] ourselves. But a lot of times we don't."

Not everything Poncle touches has a survivors-ish flavor, though. Elsewhere in that 15-project plan are two entirely original games in development, Sapio reveals, alongside the free updates and mammoth DLCs you'd expect from the company.

Still, 15 projects is an ambitious workload for any company, big or small, but Sapio promises the developer isn't biting off more than it can chew with its numerous collaborations, updates, spin-off games, and originals. "We don't want to be AAA or AA," he explains. "We're efficient with costs. We don't take useless risks. We invest in people. So, with 15 projects, one can fail, one can go good, and you balance that." Essentially, the gigantic hits make up for the games that flop.

New card-based Vampire Survivors game is "hopefully the first in a series of spinoffs," but the roguelike's dev is also "working on something" related to a proper sequel

With it being set between Stranger Things seasons 2 and 3, it's hard to imagine Stranger Things: Tales From '85 matching its predecessor's 10-year run. It might have a few more chapters up the sleeve of its Hellfire Club tee, though, says showrunner Eric Robles.

"I think it's a little bit of both, you know?" he tells GamesRadar+ when we ask whether they imagine the show will return to plug more gaps in the future, or if they'd want to explore doing more of a What If? thing. "I can't predict how big this thing can grow. Like, it might become something that everybody wants more of, and then we'll just continue to grow and see where it goes from there. I'm happy to do that. We're all happy to do that, because I feel like we've only just started creating this world that's becoming its own thing."

"The more ownership that we have as, not only the filmmakers, but as a community of people who enjoy this," he continues. "Then we can start to kind of branch out and keep growing."

'Keep growing' is an appropriate turn of phrase given what Tales From '85 is about – and, specifically, what happens right before the season 1 finale cuts to black. Since Eleven closed the Gate to the Upside Down, there aren't any Demogorgons running around Hawkins in January 1985. Instead, the kids find themselves up against some ferocious flora. Warning! The rest of this article contains spoilers for Stranger Things: Tales From '85.

After realising that new substitute teacher Mrs. Baxter wasn't intentionally trying to create monsters with her plant-reviving serum, and that her thieving boyfriend Dan was wanted to steal her scientific glory rather than unleash the botanical beasties, The Party manages to kill the Queen and stop it from opening another gate. As everyone settles back into their quiet lives rightside up, the scene cuts back to a slain creature in the Upside Down, as a flower grows out of its back, glows blue, and sprouts a Demogorgon head and screeches. A sign of what's to come, perhaps?

"We do have fun plugging a couple little holes throughout. You know what I mean? As we're kind of going through, we're just kind of like, 'Oh, that's a cool little Easter egg that we can do,'" adds Robles. "So I think we kind of service both at the same time. I think as long as people don't try to put us in a perfect box and just enjoy the ride, I think you're gonna have fun on the adventure."

Stranger Things: Tales From '85 is streaming now. For more, check out our picks of the best Netflix shows for some watchlist inspiration.