The Lord of the Rings and The Boys actor Karl Urban plays the role of Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 film, and now he's revealed some very blunt advice his children gave him after he agreed to sign on for the movie.

Speaking to IGN, Urban said he "definitely felt the pressure" to nail it as Cage, in part because he wanted to impress his boys. "I remember when I got cast, I said to my two sons--who I actually played the game with, which was my first introduction to the world of Mortal Kombat--and I said, 'Hey guys, I'm going to be Johnny Cage.' And they were like, 'Oof … Big fan base. Don't f**k it up,'" Urban said.

There are countless reasons as to why we play video games. For some of us, video games are a means to connect with others--a way through which we can participate in a community, or carve out time specifically reserved for nurturing our friendships. Some use games as means of escaping reality, while others appreciate the hobby's competitive, skill-based nature. However, far too few of us are using games for one of their most compelling purposes: to experience suffering.

Much like Black Tabby Games co-founder Tony Arias-Howard, whom I interviewed about this very topic, "I'm only half-kidding" when I say this. I recognize that, for many of us, times are hard and the very notion of playing something to suffer sounds unappealing, to say the least. And yet, as I recollect on all my favorite games and stories, it's the ones that challenged me emotionally--that led me through hell and towards catharsis--that occupy the largest recesses of my mind.

Through games, film, and various other forms of art, we are offered a relatively risk-free space to suffer--to delve deep in our feelings and reflect on loss, trauma, and perhaps even the parts of ourselves we'd rather turn away from. So why do we--and game developers, for that matter--all too often shy away from suffering despite knowing what rewards it reaps?

While fans wait for The Division 3, Ubisoft has just released a new The Division game on PC, and it's completely free. Following its release on mobile, The Division Resurgence is out now on PC in early access, and you can grab it now from Ubisoft Connect (it's not on Steam, however).

The RPG looter-shooter is set in New York City, the same setting as the first The Division game. Ubisoft said it opted for the early-access model to help do "technical testing" ahead of the 1.0 launch in August. The game supports cross-saves and cross-progression between the PC and mobile editions.

Resurgence features the franchise's PvPvE open-world Dark Zone area, while there is also a PvE campaign that Ubisoft says sheds more light on the events surrounding The Division 1 and 2.

Microsoft's decision to release more of its games on the PlayStation 5 has apparently led to a big windfall for the company, as a new report said Xbox games on PlayStation have made more than $650 million in gross revenue so far. This report from Alinea Analytics came out not long after new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said she and her leadership team, including chief content officer Matt Booty, would consider changes to the company's controversial multiplatform strategy.

The report said Forza Horizon 5, which came to PS5 in 2025, made up $323 million in gross revenue alone after selling more than 5.8 million copies on Sony's console. Sea of Thieves ranked second in terms of copies sold on PS5, reaching 2.7 million units and around $100 million in revenue. Oblivion Remastered was third, selling a reported 1.2 million copies on PS5 and generating $58 million in revenue.

Those were the only three Xbox games to clear 1 million in sales on PS5, according to the report, but Grounded ranked No. 4 with 770,000 copies sold and $24 million in revenue. The report did not include Call of Duty games, which are now owned by Microsoft following its buyout of Activision Blizzard.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie remains in theaters and continues to rake in money, but when will it be available to buy, rent, and stream from the comfort of your couch? We don't know for sure, but a new report, combined with historical precedent, suggests fans won't have to wait much longer.

According to When to Stream, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will come to premium video-on-demand (PVOD) on May 5, with a streaming date to follow sometime after as is customary. Universal Pictures has not confirmed the May 5 date as of yet, but it wouldn't be too surprising.

2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was released on April 5 that year, was released on PVOD on May 16, which was six weekends after the movie hit theaters. Six weekends after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's release on April 1 would be around the same time. Earlier this year, Universal Pictures announced a new policy whereby its 2026 film slate would stay in theaters for at least five weekends.

Greedfall: The Dying World developer Spiders has confirmed that it is officially shutting down. The Paris-based studio says that it is being liquidated, with operations ceasing immediately.

"We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated," the studio said in a statement. "This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years."

The shutdown comes in the wake of Spiders' parent company Nacon filing for insolvency after the majority shareholder in the publisher, Bigben Interactive, began experiencing financial difficulties of its own. The Greedfall: The Dying World DLC will still be released--through Nacon--and the Spiders Discord channel will be handed over to the community, the studio added.

It might still be the overwhelming favorite when it comes to PC gaming, but there's no arguing that Microsoft has allowed Windows to get worse and worse over time. It's accelerated a migration to Linux, especially with Valve's efforts to streamline gaming through continued work on Proton and SteamOS. Microsoft understands it's behind, and reportedly has a plan to catch up.

A report by Windows Central details what Microsoft is calling Windows K2. It's not a standalone version of Windows that is meant to replace Windows 11, but rather an initiative that will slowly roll out significant changes to the operating system in a bid to reclaim customer trust and overhaul many key aspects that have become pain points over the past few years.

Gaming is unsurprisingly a big focus for K2, with Microsoft reportedly acknowledging that SteamOS is now the benchmark it needs to aim for. The report doesn't go into detail, but mentions that Microsoft is looking to bridge the performance gap between Windows and SteamOS in two years, when comparing performance on identical hardware. That's a good target, especially considering how many of SteamOS performance wins are coming from Windows games running through Proton's translation layer--something that is meant to traditionally negatively impact performance, not improve it.

Nintendo is well-known for the aggressive protection of its brands, and the YouTuber behind the popular series of "PokeNational Geographic" videos claims to be on the receiving end of copyright strikes from the company.

According to the creator of the video series, Elious, his channel has been hit with dozens of copyright strikes by Nintendo of America, and he only has a few days left until it is deleted. Because of the multiple strikes issued against 20 of his videos and YouTube's three-strikes policy, the channel is set to be deleted from the platform in a week. As for the videos in question, Elious has been producing short nature documentaries featuring Pokemon, using original custom-made animations.

"I have seven days until my channel is deleted," Elious explained in a video on a different channel. "Nintendo of America has copyright striked so many of my videos. They've done it multiple times now, within the span of 12 hours. "I'm downloading stuff of course--I have all the videos myself--but I'll never be able to post them again. And I'll never be able to use this channel again. Over 100,000 subscribers, over three years of making these animations, and it's all going to be gone in seven days."

Recently, Xbox owners have reported that some backwards-compatible Xbox 360 games are not launching properly on Xbox Series X|S, and now Microsoft has responded.

Xbox executive Jason Ronald said the team is investigating what he called a "rare issue affecting a small number of players" pertaining to launching Xbox 360 backwards-compatible titles on Xbox Series X|S. Specifically, players are saying they're getting a "Can't Connect to Xbox Live" error.

Ronald said people who have received this message should DM him directly to help address the issue.

PlayStation has revealed this month's batch of free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers. All PS Plus members will be able to claim a trio of freebies starting May 5: EA Sports FC 26, Wuchang Fallen Feathers, and Nine Sols. If you haven't claimed April's PlayStation Plus free games yet, make sure to do so before next Tuesday.

EA became the gold standard for soccer games with its FIFA series, but a few years back, it decided to branch out on its own with the EA Sports FC series. Just like the FIFA games, EA Sports FC 26 features an absurd amount of real-life teams, leagues, and players. The game also looks and feels great to play, and it's arriving just in time for the FIFA World Cup. As a bonus, PS Plus members will also receive an EA Sports FC 26 PlayStation Plus Icons Pack that can be redeemed until it leaves the subscription service next month.

We've seen a rise in video games that have a Wuxia flavor to them lately, and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers captures the energy of wire-fu and graceful swordplay inside of a souls-like frame. Set during the tumultuous final years of China's Ming Dynasty, players will master various weapons, battle terrible creatures, and uncover the truth behind a mysterious phenomenon known as Feathering and why it's mutating people into monsters.

It's the 30th anniversary of Pokemon this year, and to celebrate, Pokemon-themed versions of the popular Goldfish snack are on the way.

The limited-edition Goldfish packs are inspired by the Pokemon's original starters--Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu. The snacks themselves are shaped and colored to match the four Pokemon, and like in the game series, the aim is to encourage you to collect them all.

As for the Goldfish taste? It's the same cheddar Goldfish flavor. If you're interested in eating Pokemon, you cannot do that, but here are some Pokemon that, frankly, look delicious.

There's no shortage of Left 4 Dead-like games. It's become such a cottage industry that I once interviewed several teams making games inspired by it, to try to figure out what makes the game timeless and so inspiring to other studios. There have been many different takes on the co-op zombie horde-slaying experience, but the toughest, most unforgiving of them may be No More Room In Hell 2.

It's a game I've enjoyed in spurts since it first hit early access in 2024, but I've been waiting for the 1.0 launch before I really jump in for a bunch of hours. Now, that 1.0 launch draws near, with a summer release planned. But you can play it sooner than that--and for free.

No More Room In Hell 2 is offering a free weekend on Steam and the Epic Games Store, April 30-May 4, its second such event, taking place a year after the previous one. During the free weekend, you'll be able to jump into the new wave-based Survival mode, which challenges you and up to seven others on your team to survive three brutal rounds against the ocean of undead the game likes to send your way.

Electronic Arts is among the numerous game developers who are embracing AI in their development processes, and now CEO Andrew Wilson has commented further on the controversial topic.

Speaking at the iicon event in Las Vegas this week, as reported by Game File, Wilson said he recently saw some internal EA data that said about 85% of the company's quality-assurance work is being done today alongside "some kind of machine learning or AI-driven algorithm."

This has not led to lower employment at EA for QA work, he said. "We hire more QA people than we ever have," he said. The executive went on to say that EA's QA teams are using AI for "the simple stuff." Related to this, he said EA has needed to hire more QA workers to check the work, which sounds odd, though we do not know the specifics of the situation. This follows on from a Harvard Business Review report that said early findings suggest that AI doesn't reduce work, it intensifies it.

Outside of a VR game that launched last year, it looks like the Thief series is on ice for now. So what's the next best thing? It might be a spiritual successor in the form of Thick as Thieves from veteran producer and Deus Ex creator Warren Spector's studio, OtherSide Entertainment. A single-player and co-op game that's all about the art of the steal, it's one of several new titles launching in early access next month, and it'll cost just $5 to get in on the ground floor.

Set in an alternate timeline and taking place in the city of Kilcairn, Thick as Thieves will offer an introductory campaign set across two dynamic replayable maps when it launches on May 20. The game will feature 16 missions and six pieces of gear to collect, and OtherSide is aiming to develop additional content based on player feedback.

One of the biggest talking points surrounding Rockstar's upcoming open-world game GTA 6 is how much it will cost, and now the top boss at Rockstar's owner Take-Two has weighed in.

Speaking at iicon this week in Las Vegas, Strauss Zelnick suggested the game will have a "reasonable" price, but he did not say exactly what it will be.

"Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery," Zelnick said, as reported by IGN. "How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got."

Game developers should embrace generative AI, according to The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomsazkiewicz. He said this in a new interview in which he also confirmed his upcoming new game, The Blood of Dawnwalker, used generative AI early in the process, but no AI-generated assets should be in the final game. He also said his studio Rebel Wolves wants to use AI to help support its existing workers, not replace them.

During a discussion attended by Eurogamer, Tomsazkiewic said Rebel Wolves used generative AI to create voices in the game "in the early stage" of development. He said an RPG like The Blood of Dawnwalker requires its developer to support multiple different languages, and this is "costly" and changes after initial recording can be "really expensive." Rebel Wolves utilized generative AI to hear NPC voices early in the development process to help team members determine if something is working or not.

If Rebel Wolves used real human voices at this early stage of development, and then realized a change was needed, that would be "really expensive" and not efficient game development, creating new pressure on the team, Tomsazkiewicz said.

Getting into Pokemon Champions can be daunting for casual fans of the series, seeing how seriously players take competitive battling. But the game's rotating rosters of recruitable Pokemon should make building a viable team much easier, as the latest roster update shows.

The new 2026 Global Challenge Special Roster was added to the game on April 24, and it'll be available until May 4. It has a smaller lineup of 31 Pokemon compared to the 229 Pokemon in the Regular Roster M-A that Champions launched with. Recruiting out of this roster will give players a better chance of getting Pokemon popular in the meta like Incineroar, which should provide an extra edge in competitive play.

As with any roster in Pokemon Champions, players can recruit one Pokemon for free every 22 hours--any additional recruitment until the reset will require Victory Points, and Quick Coupons can be utilized to shorten the waiting period.

Details on Resident Evil Requiem's upcoming minigame have begun to emerge, as Capcom has teased a mode that goes all in on action. The only catch here? You'll need to have beaten the game first before you can access it, Capcom says. If you haven't played Requiem yet and were planning to grab it purely for the action segments, now might be a good time to start working your way through the campaign.

"It's a minigame, and it's based on the battles in the main game," game director Koshi Nakanishi said to Japanese site Denfaminicogamer (via Google translation). "For those who have cleared the main story and are thinking, 'I still haven't had enough fun', I think you'll be able to enjoy this and go 'Whoa!', so sharpen your tomahawk and wait."

Producer Masato Kumazawa confirmed that the minigame will be unlocked after the campaign is completed for the first time. Requiem's two-protagonist approach was split between the game's traditional survival-horror gameplay that emphasized stealth and cunning, while the survival-action sections with Leon S. Kennedy draw from recent games like the remake of Resident Evil 4. In the first few hours of Requiem, Leon's sections are brief in comparison to Grace Ashcroft's missions, but once the veteran agent returns to Raccoon City, his style of gameplay dominates the second half of the game.

It is a weird time for sex on the internet. We live in both an era of extreme sexual permissiveness and constant restriction. Formerly niche fetish terms like "gooning" have reached mainstream usage. The advent of machine learning has made deepfake pornography more common than ever, to horrifying effect. The release of the Epstein files has revealed how pervasive sexual exploitation is. Yet, ID-restriction laws have been passed in the UK and Australia, and several US states have floated or passed similar laws. Dozens of sexually explicit games were banned from Steam and Itch last year, in large part thanks to payment-processor pressure. Tomodachi Life exists at this curious intersection between permissiveness and restriction.

In early community-made videos, Tomodachi Life players made their little Miis talk about lesbian sex, frotting, and other sexual acts and innuendos, taking advantage of the game's surprisingly lax text filtering. This is not the first Nintendo game to create room for such a community--in 2015's Splatoon, some players posted more explicit images and text in the early hours of the morning, when the game's kid-focused playerbase was less likely to see it--but Tomadachi Life's cutesy mundanity makes it an especially subversive space for horny posting.

One Bluesky user, baffled that the game lets her type "lesbian sex," laughs along with the strangely coherent conversation that follows (and several other copycat posts on Bluesky have followed that one). On Twitter, streamer Blake Jennings' Mii befriends "human Shrek" by discussing "clapping your booty cheeks." And multiple posts on both Bluesky and Twitter describe the game as "writing boobs on a calculator," and that feels like an accurate assessment. Making your grandma say "farting" may be tamer than making outright innuendos, but both driven by a similar sort of glee. The player is turning the game to their whims, and the game is letting them.

Pokemon Go's Steeled Resolve event is officially underway, shining the spotlight on various steel types like the debuting Orthworm. That isn't the only special Pokemon you can encounter in the mobile game right now, however. The event also brings back the elusive shiny Meltan.

This shiny mythical Pokemon only appears during special events, making it rare even among shiny Pokemon. However, finding one involves persistence and a particular item called the Mystery Box, which you can only obtain through some convoluted means. Here's a full breakdown on how to get the Mystery Box and catch shiny Meltan before the Steeled Resolve event ends.

• How To Catch Meltan

Unlike most Pokemon, Meltan doesn't normally spawn in the wild. Rather, the mythical Pokemon will only appear after you've opened the Mystery Box--a special item that you'll receive after you've linked your Pokemon Go account to Pokemon Home (or Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu or Let's Go, Eevee for Nintendo Switch).