It's a big day for Ubisoft's The Division 2, as the game has joined the Xbox Game Pass library alongside the debut of its new expansion, Battle for Brooklyn.

The Division 2 is available via Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. People who subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate get a perk in the form of the free EMS outfit, which itself includes five EMS-themed items.

The Division 2 comes to Game Pass just as the game's seventh year of live service begins with the Year 7 Crossroads update. This season is all about nostalgia, with new modifiers and gear that are callbacks to the original The Division, Ubisoft said. Year 7 also includes a range of quality-of-life improvements, including better onboarding for new players.

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Assassin's Creed Shadows update 1.0.5 is now live and, as detailed in the patch notes, brings major improvements to the game's parkour as well as not one, but two, unexpected crossovers.

The first crossover is with the asymmetrical multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight. A free Dead by Daylight-inspired quest has been added to Assassin's Creed Shadows that will see Naoe investigate a strange presence attacking the people of Harima. The patch notes state that players will need to "master unique mechanics and confront a formidable otherworldly threat" to complete the event, after which they will be rewarded with a free trinket and banner. Dead by Daylight cosmetics will also be available in the game's store.

As for the second crossover, it's with indie sensation Balatro. A Balatro-inspired trinket for Naoe and an amulet for Yasuke, both called "Winning Hand," have been added via the update. The items sport a legendary perk that has a chance to trigger a random affliction effect on combo enders. Ubisoft, however, isn't simply giving aways the new item. The patch notes state players will need to "work together to figure out how to get it" but doesn't offer any other clues, so let the hunt begin.

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A film adaptation of BioShock is currently several years into development at Netflix, and while details are still relatively sparse, we do know some of what's going on behind the scenes.

First announced in February 2022, Netflix's BioShock movie does not yet have a release date, but more details are beginning to emerge regarding the production. If you're interested in the current state of the film--which first entered production over 15 years ago--would you kindly keep scrolling for a detailed breakdown of everything we know about Netflix's upcoming BioShock adaptation?

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• When does the BioShock movie come out?

When does the BioShock movie come out?

Currently, we've yet to even see a trailer for the film, and Netflix hasn't announced a release date.

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Earlier this month, NetherRealm Studios released Mortal Kombat 1: Definitive Edition, a digital-only package that includes the base game, the Khaos Reigns DLC expansion, and two rounds of fighter packs. Players took it as a sign that MK1 wouldn't be getting any more updates, and bombarded NetherRealm for continued DLC support. Now, NetherRealm has confirmed that Mortal Kombat 1's reign is coming to a close.

"We are hearing players' requests for continued game support of Mortal Kombat 1," noted the game's official account on X. "And, while we will continue to support Mortal Kombat 1 through balance adjustments and fixes, there will not be additional DLC characters or story chapters released from this point on."

In a later message, NetherRealm acknowledged that fans may be disappointed by the news, before adding that the devs need "to shift focus to the next project in order to make it as great as we possibly can."

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Level-5 has revealed that Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time will be a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title, and that players who already own the game on Switch 1 will be able to upgrade for just $2.59.

Compared to the Nintendo Switch version, Level-5 states that Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition will feature reduced load times, improved visuals, and a higher frame rate. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is set to retail for $62.58, reflecting the fact that a Switch 2 Edition upgrade pack from the Switch version will cost $2.59.

This is significantly cheaper than the paid upgrades for other Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games, as the upgrades for one like Kirby and the Forgotten Land will cost up to $20. The caveats to all of this is that the Digital Deluxe Edition will only be available for Switch, not Switch 2, and that several Switch 1 games are getting free upgrades for Nintendo's new console.

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Billy Madison (4K Blu-ray)

$45

Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Walmart

Adam Sandler has starred in dozens of comedies, but most of his best films released in the back half of the '90s. Despite being responsible for some of the most beloved comedy movies of the past 30 years, the vast majority of films starring Sandler haven't received 4K Blu-ray releases. But maybe the floodgates will open now that the film that put him on the map in 1995 is getting a 4K Blu-ray edition for its 30th anniversary. Billy Madison returns to school on July 29, and you can watch his quest to become a scholar in 4K by preordering a copy at Amazon or Walmart.

After reading about the 4K Blu-ray release, you can check out the long list of Adam Sandler movies on Blu-ray that we compiled below.

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Square Enix has confirmed that Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake will launch on October 30, and added Nintendo Switch 2 as a platform.

Last November, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake was released, reimagining the NES classic in the same visual style as games like Octopath Traveler 2 and Triangle Strategy. Before that had even launched, Square Enix had teased that the first two games in the Dragon Quest series, which chronologically take place after Dragon Quest 3, would be getting the HD-2D Remake treatment next and released together in one bundle. GameSpot has gone hands-on with these remakes and called them "a stunning marriage of classic pixel art and modern touches."

Previously confirmed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, this upcoming remake is now slated to release on Nintendo's new console. It's the third Square Enix game confirmed for Switch 2, following Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. It will cost $60 across all platforms, although it's worth noting that the Switch 2 physical version will come on a Game-Key Card and require a download to play.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been one of 2025's biggest successes so far, and it's now sold more than 3.3 million copies. What contributed to the game's big success? No doubt a number of factors, including its lower price and smaller scope, according to publisher Kepler Interactive.

Kepler's Matthew Handrahan told GI.biz that Expedition 33 "really respects the player's time;" it's not a game that offers size for the sake of size. "It gives them plenty to do, and it gives them plenty of satisfaction, but it isn't arbitrarily 500 hours of gameplay," he said. "It's impactful because it's scoped correctly. […] It doesn't have any sense of bloat or extraneous things that are put there just to make it larger and larger and larger."

Handrahan went on to say he believes "brevity should be more of a virtue in gaming," adding that "something can be better by being shorter."

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Patch notes for Monster Hunter Wilds' latest update are here, and some of the game's least popular weapons are getting some welcome buffs.

Update 1.011.00 will arrive May 27 at 5:30 PM PT for all platforms, clocking in at 9 GB for PlayStation 5 players, 4 GB for Xbox Series X|S players, and 5 GB for those on Steam. While the star of the update is the previously announced Street Fighter 6 collaboration (which includes Akuma as an NPC, special quests, and new cosmetics), the patch also includes a number of balance changes to weapons.

Most notably, both the Light and Heavy Bowguns are receiving some substantial buffs, as are the Hammer and Hunting Horn. For the bowguns, various ammo types are seeing a damage increase, as well as an increase to the number of hits when using Dragon Ammo. There are other smaller adjustments too, with the only nerf to come out of the Bowgun changes being a decrease to Elemental Ammo damage.

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Nacon has reacquired the rights to publish games based on the FIA World Rally Championship, also known as WRC, following EA and Codemasters' decision to pause development on WRC racing games.

Previously known as Bigben Interactive, Nacon actually held the publishing rights to WRC games between 2013 and 2022, releasing a new WRC game almost every year over the course of that decade. Following the release of 2022's WRC Generations, EA obtained the rights to the WRC license and granted them to Codemasters, a racing game developer that EA had acquired years prior. EA and Codemasters went on to release EA Sports WRC in 2023. In April, EA and Codemasters announced that they would no longer develop WRC video games, resulting in several Codemasters developers being laid off.

In the wake of that announcement, Nacon decided to reobtain the development and publishing rights for WRC. It now holds the exclusive PC and console game and esports rights for WRC from 2027 to 2032. A press release confirms that Nacon will create "an all-new WRC game series, aiming to deliver an immersive experience that faithfully reflects the reality of the championship and meets the expectations of both rally enthusiasts and new players."

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Uncapped Games has announced that it is ceasing development on Battle Aces, a fast-paced real-time strategy (RTS) spearheaded by a former StarCraft 2 developer.

This decision was announced on Battle Aces' website. The only real reasoning Uncapped Games provided for the cancellation was that "the returns from early testing were not strong enough to support continued development." In the announcement, Uncapped Games went on to thank the community. "We’ll always be proud of what we built, and the community that formed around Battle Aces," the studio's statement explains. "While the game’s journey ends here, the connections, ideas, and memories we have shared will remain with us forever."

Battle Aces was first announced at Summer Game Fest 2024 by Uncapped Games, a subsidiary of the Tencent-owned LightSpeed Studios. Its game director was David Kim, a designer who worked on StarCraft 2 at Blizzard Entertainment, and wanted to make an RTS that stripped back much of the complexity and unit micromanagement common in the genre. Battle Aces matches were short, as players could quickly spawn units and issue simple commands to outflank their enemy and ultimately destroy their base.

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The Last of Us boss Neil Druckmann has spoken up to say he would sign a petition to make a Crash Bandicoot movie, but that's all he can do since his company, Naughty Dog, does not own the franchise. While Naughty Dog created the Crash series, which debuted in 1996, the series is now owned by Microsoft following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Druckmann told Indie Wire that Naughty Dog never owned the Crash series, and any possible Crash movie would need Microsoft's approval. "I will direct your question to Phil Spencer, head of Xbox. Ask him to make a Crash Bandicoot film," he said. "Look, I'll sign that petition. I'm in full support."

There has never been a Crash movie, but given the surge in popularity of video game properties these days in Hollywood, some are speculating that it could happen. That remains to be seen, but Spencer himself has said it wants to make more TV shows and movies based on its stable of franchises.

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Dragon Quest has not been as ubiquitous as Final Fantasy in recent years, but the two series are intertwined in the history of defining and formalizing Japanese RPGs. And just as the Pixel Remaster remakes of Final Fantasy have given players a fresh and modernized way to reexperience history, Dragon Quest is aiming to give players a dose of history with the Erdrick Trilogy--the first three Dragon Quest games, remastered across two packages. Dragon Quest 3 was a treat, and now DQ1+2 will round out the set with Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake. Despite my affection for retro RPGs, early Dragon Quest is a relative blind spot for me, and after a little hands-on time I'm eager to play each of them to completion.

For starters, the games are a stunning marriage of classic pixel art and modern touches. I hadn't realized how much better Square Enix's "HD-2D" aesthetic had become in recent years. My impression from the Octopath Traveler games and the tactics game Triangle Strategy was still that HD-2D tends to be fairly muted and muddy. As much as I enjoyed those games, the art style didn't wow me. Dragon Quest 1+2, on the other hand, applies the structure of HD-2D to a much more vibrant world. The color palette and saturation feels reminiscent of 8-bit classics, which makes the beautiful sprite artwork pop.

This package includes both the first and second Dragon Quest games, which are rudimentary by today's standards, but that's also what makes them so endearing. The very first Dragon Quest game was a very early blueprint for the series, featuring just one hero character taking on the legions of slimes and monsters to overcome evil. The second game is a bit more reminiscent of early Final Fantasy games, with party members that come and go as the story demands. Even then, though, the options were set by default to give you direct control over the main hero and let the other party members move autonomously.

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Many major game companies are using artificial intelligence for game development and other initiatives, and now EA and Take-Two have issued warnings to investors about reputational risks.

Bloomberg noticed that the latest 10K filings from both companies included disclaimers about AI risks. EA's filing, for example, mentions that the company is integrating AI "tools and technologies" into its development and business processes, noting that doing so "might present social and ethical issues."

If EA fails to manage these issues appropriately, it could lead to "legal and reputational harm," and for consumers to "lose confidence in our business and brands."

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HBO's The Last of Us series just wrapped up its second season, and viewership across all platforms for the finale reached 3.7 million people. That's down 30% from the 5.3 million viewers for the Season 2 premiere in April (via Variety) and down 55% from the 8.2 million viewers for the Season 1 finale in 2023.

Importantly, these figures count the number of viewers for their Sunday night showings alone. Many people cannot or choose not to watch new episodes on the nights they air. Some people also wait for the entire run of episodes to debut before watching so they can binge-watch an entire season quickly.

Season 2 is doing better than Season 1 overall, with HBO reporting that Season 2 has reached 37 million average viewers per episode compared to 32 million for Season 1. This counts viewers after 90 days on all platforms.

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The Witcher 3 brought Geralt of Rivia's story to a fitting conclusion in the Blood & Wine DLC. Now that the game is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, the developers behind Witcher 3 have confirmed that they always intended Geralt's adoptive daughter, Ciri, to take the lead in The Witcher 4.

In the new issue of PC Gamer (via GamesRadar), The Witcher 3 devs stated, "It was pretty early on we realized that [Blood & Wine] is where it ends, and also pretty early on, we knew that we wanted to work with Ciri later on. Even like 2014, it was already an idea floating around the studio that she's next. In Witcher 3, Geralt is just helping out… he is there for her. So it was pretty clear we want her as the next... main character."

Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle recently defended the choice to put Ciri in the lead and denounced the idea that doing so was "woke."

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There's no shortage of interesting games to play these days, but the sad fact is that a lot of them get buried by bigger releases. Fortunately, you can give these quirky titles a chance, as Fanatical is hosting a new sale that puts 17 games in the spotlight and only costs $12. As usual, each game listed below is supplied as a redeemable key for Steam. Proceeds from the sale will go toward the Into Games initiative, a non-profit organization designed to help budding developers in the UK learn the skills they need to enter the industry.

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Most of the games are Steam Deck-compatible as well, so this makes for an affordable way to pump up your on-the-go gaming library. Some of the highlights here include Worms Revolution, a colorful entry in the turn-based strategy series about cartoonish invertebrates wielding a devastating arsenal of weapons against each other, and Call of the Wild: The Angler, is a stunning fishing game.

There's even a treat here for fans of the second-best cat in cartoon strip syndication--first place obviously goes to Heathcliff--the Monday-hating grouch, Garfield. Overcooked is also a great co-op game to try out, as it involves a team of players doing their best to run a restaurant and fulfil increasingly absurd orders for hungry customers.

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This is what you might describe as a no-brainer: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 maker Sandfall Interactive plans to make another video game. However, the developer isn't saying exactly what that next title might be, though noting there are already "great ideas."

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Sandfall chief operating officer and producer François Meurisse discussed the developer's future. "There will be another video game, for sure," Meurisse said. The executive wasn't ready to announce specifics necessarily, which makes sense considering Clair Obscur launched only just over a month ago. But he did say the team's experience from making the RPG will be beneficial going forward.

"Plus the team has grown up, has acquired new skills throughout production," said Meurisse. "Many of them were junior when we started. We learned to work together. So I can't wait to get to the next project, because we'll start from a more efficient position than when we started the company five years ago. And that [comes] with higher expectations as well, so it will be challenging. But I can say that we have--and Guillaume [Broche, Sandfall CEO and creative director] in particular has--great ideas for the next game."

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Pokemon Go's Might and Mastery season is winding down, but the next season is just around the corner. Beginning June 3, the mobile game is kicking off its Delightful Days season, which will introduce another batch of new Pokemon, several new Gigantamax forms, and more.

Over the next few months, more Pokemon originally from the Galar, Hisui, and Paldea regions (the settings of the Pokemon series' eighth and ninth generation games) will arrive in Pokemon Go. Yamper, Hisuian Lilligant, Tatsugiri, and more Pokemon will be available for the first time, while other monsters from the aforementioned regions--like Charcadet, Frigibax, and Galarian Ponyta--will appear in the wild and as Research Breakthrough encounters.

More Gigantamax Pokemon are also coming to the game. Gigantamax forms of Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon will make their debut during a trio of events leading up to Pokemon Go Fest 2025, while Dynamax forms of Hatenna and other Pokemon will appear in Max Battles throughout the season.

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PlayStation has revealed this month's batch of free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers. All PS Plus members will be able to claim several freebies starting June 3: NBA 2K25, Alone in the Dark, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Destiny 2: The Final Shape (the Destiny 2 expansion will be available starting May 28). If you haven't claimed May's PlayStation Plus free games yet, make sure to do so before next Tuesday.

The next era of Destiny 2 kicks off in June, but in case you missed it last year, you can grab The Final Shape to experience the end of the Light and Darkness saga for yourself. The Final Shape was a thrilling adventure that wrapped up the first decade of Destiny, introduced the new Prismatic subclass, and dropped a ton of new weapons into the game's loot pool. You will need Destiny 2 to play it, but the base game is free-to-play.

Sports fans can shoot some hoops in NBA 2K25, but you might want to watch out for some especially egregious microtransactions in this year's edition. The core experience still looks and feels great, but it is tarnished by various pay-to-win systems.

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