The MMO Defiance, which was shut down in 2021, is coming back to life. For anyone unaware, Defiance was a third-person shooter MMO from Trion Worlds that was developed as a tie-in for the Syfy show of the same name, with events and storylines running across the game and the TV show. It launched in 2013 as a paid game for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, before adopting a free-to-play model and continued to receive updates even after the TV show was canceled in 2015. A new version of the game, Defiance 2050, came out in 2018--but both games shut down servers in 2021. Now, Defiance is attempting a comeback.

Fawkes, a game company whose mission is "breathing life to old worlds and preserving their legacy," has announced plans to bring Defiance back following a deal with previous rights-owner Gamigo.

"Even though the TV series was discontinued in 2015 and Gamigo eventually closed the game in 2021, the memories of epic Arkfalls and immersive, post‑apocalyptic battles live on in your hearts," Fawkes said.

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Cobalt Blue DualSense controller

$54 (was $80) with promo code PLAY5

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Volcanic Red DualSense controller

$54 (was $80) with promo code PLAY5

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Sterling Silver DualSense controller

$54 (was $80) with promo code PLAY5

See at Lenovo

Lenovo might not be the first place you’d expect to find DualSense Controllers on sale, but it’s currently the best place to buy models in the Deep Earth lineup. Head over to the retailer and use promo code PLAY5 to get the Volcanic Red, Sterling Silver, or Cobalt Blue DualSense for PS5 and PC for just $54 (was $80). That makes them slightly more affordable than they were during Black Friday--so if you missed out on those deals and need an extra DualSense or two, now's a great time to pick up one of PlayStation's coolest models.

While Lenovo is advertising the promo code GAMEON, that one has actually inspired. But using promo code PLAY5 will still let you snag these premium designs for cheap, so make sure to apply the code before finalizing your purchase.

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Last July, SAG-AFTRA declared a strike against video game publishers over several issues, including pay and the lack of AI protections. That strike is now in its eighth month with no resolution in sight. According to the actors' union, the game publishers' unwillingness to bend on AI is why there's still no deal.

Via Eurogamer, SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and chair of the Interactive Media Negotiating Committee Sarah Elmaleh shot down reports that a deal was near and alleged that publishers hoped that the actors would turn on each other. While the duo noted that some issues have been agreed upon, the publishers' AI proposals fall far short of what the actors want.

"The last proposal the bargaining group made is still filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse," wrote Crabtree and Elmaleh. They went on to lay out the sticking points, such as proposals that all of an actors' past performances--including those outside of the video game realm--could be used by AI without protections. They also suggest that producers want the ability to use AI to recreate actors' voices in the event of future strikes.

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Paradox Interactive has launched its Chapter 4 expansion pass for Crusader Kings 3 on PC, the core content being the new Genghis Khan-inspired Khans of the Steppe expansion. The pass also includes other expansions as well, such as Crowns of the World, Coronations, and All Under Heaven, and is currently being sold for $44.

The Khans of the Steppe expansion is focused on Nomadic life and the rise of the Great Khan. In it, players will be able to manage their herds, migrate across regions, and establish dominance in the Great Steppe. The expansion will also let players learn more about Mongolian history, cultural events, and traditions. Khans of the Steppe is scheduled to release on April 28 and will cost $20 if purchased separately.

While Khans of the Steppe isn't available until next month, those who purchase the expansion pass can receive the Crowns of the World update immediately. It's a cosmetic-based update that gives players six crowns, four hairstyles, and two beards to customize their rulers further.

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It might look like Advance Wars. It might even play similarly to Advance Wars. But Warside is its own game, and it's coming out in roughly a month on PC: April 14. Meanwhile, a console release should be coming soon, too.

Publisher First Break Labs revealed Warside's release date in a new trailer for the game--seen below. As you can see, the turn-based title resembles Advance Wars, featuring infantry, tanks, and airplanes that can be moved around a tile-based map. The pixel art even shares similarities with the long-running Nintendo franchise.

Warside is touted as a "fast-paced, turn-based tactics game" and will offer a story campaign alongside multiplayer support. First Break Labs is also promising 14 playable commanders (possessing their own passive skills and powers), over 30 unit types, and a map editor.

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After launching the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT GPUs last week, AMD has now officially launched the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors. Early reviews are praising the components as some of the most powerful CPUs on the market--so if you’re piecing together a premium gaming rig, they’re likely a good fit for your needs. However, they’re bound to be a hot commodity, so if you find one in stock, it’s a good idea to pick it up while you can. The 9950X3D costs $699, while the 9900X3D costs $599.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D/9900X3D Restock Tracker Check stock at Amazon Check stock at Best Buy

These two CPUs are the successors to the popular Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which launched last November and quickly became the must-have processor for gaming and high-end development applications. The 9950X3D and 9900X3D aim to offer an even more well-rounded experience. The 9800X3D has been hard to find in stock, but if you want to save some cash, you can get the current No. 1 best-selling CPU for $480 at Amazon.

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Palworld developer Pocketpair has announced that cross-play will be added to the game in late March, and that it'll be supported on PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Mac. Additionally, the upcoming update will also "implement multiplayer between different platforms" and the ability to move Pals between worlds, according to the developer notes on Steam.

Cross-play has been one of the biggest player-requested features for the game since it first launched in early access, and back in January, Pocketpair confirmed that it would be arriving in 2025 alongside several other additions to the game. Improvements to world-object-placement and base Pals, new endgame content, and overall game optimization were also mentioned back then as part of several updates to Palworld ahead of its eventual full release.

Pocketpair also recently revealed that Palworld had crossed a major player milestone, as the game has exceeded 32 million players across all platforms it's currently available on, including Xbox's Game Pass and Game Preview programs. At the same time, Pocketpair has been involved in a legal dispute with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, with the two companies accusing it of infringing on several patents owned by them.

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Ubisoft is "horribly mismanaged" and has failed to inform the public about supposed conversations with Microsoft and EA regarding possible acquisition deals. That's according to the Ubisoft minority shareholder AJ Investments, which said in a memo that it might organize a protest at Ubisoft's office in Paris to help elevate its concerns and get attention.

AJ Investments CEO Juraj Krupa said in a statement seen by IGN that Ubisoft is "horribly mismanaged by current management." The investment group, which previously urged Ubisoft management to make drastic changes, said Ubisoft needs to disclose a "clear roadmap for recovery" amid "declining shareholder value, lackluster operational execution, and failure to adapt effectively to market trends."

Krupa went on to say that the private financial market platform MergerMarket carried a story that claims Ubisoft was talking to Microsoft, EA, and other companies about potentially acquiring unspecified franchises from Ubisoft. Krupa said Ubisoft management failed to disclose these discussions publicly.

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Similar to the Pantheon in structure, but not in difficulty, the Destiny 2 Rushdown mode is brand new for Guardian Games 2025. Players take on five bosses, each one more difficult than the last. There is no downtime or rally flags between bosses, so having a strong but well-rounded loadout is essential. You'll want to ensure your fireteam has good synergy, as well as good communication. Your performance directly impacts your score, so the faster you get through each encounter, and the fewer deaths you have, the higher your score will be.

Bosses are made up of encounters from campaigns, seasonal stories, and Exotic missions that can be tackled at Warm-Up, Standard, or Expert level. Standard and Expert level both feature modifiers that make each encounter more difficult, as well as revive tokens, so keep an eye on those to ensure you're not close to running out of them.

Using the flag to transport to the next boss

Using fewer revive tokens also contributes towards a higher score. While we'd recommend running Rushdown with a fireteam of friends, it does feature class-based matchmaking if you can't manage to put a team together. There is a timer, but completing an encounter extends it, and it doesn't add too much pressure. We completed our first run of all five bosses in a little over nine minutes on Standard difficulty.

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EA and developer Full Circle have reportedly implemented microtransactions into the closed alpha for Skate. That means any purchases made will most likely be refunded back into the game's digital currency as progress will be reset before the early access launch.

According to Insider Gaming, microtransactions became available with the latest update for Skate. They're called San Van Bucks and are utilized for cosmetic items in the sports game. EA and Full Circle are testing out the shop for Skate before it launches in early access this year.

The following message apparently greets testers for Skate: "To ensure we achieve these goals at early access we have enabled the option to purchase and use virtual currency (San Van Bucks) in our ongoing closed alpha playtest. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated in providing a great experience at early access launch."

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Fresh off of his hosting stint at this year's Oscars, Conan O'Brien came to South by Southwest this week to co-host a panel with Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries. O'Brien--whose previous gaming experience includes co-hosting the Clueless Gamer segments on his TBS talk show Conan and a cameo appearance in Death Stranding--jokingly suggested that he agreed to the SXSW panel for one reason only: to be in a Diablo game.

"The reason I flew from Los Angeles to be here was I want to be in the next Diablo," said O'Brien. "I would like to be a demon. Or maybe a necromancer... My wife, when she met me, thought I was a necromancer."

O'Brien went on to talk about recording his appearance for Death Stranding in Tokyo, which gave him a greater appreciation for how games are made. He also credited his son for showing him that there was more to gaming than he originally realized.

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There's an old myth in the theater world that Shakespeare's Macbeth is cursed, and any theatre company who tries to put it on will endure some sort of misfortune during the production. One area that hasn't been tested yet, though, is video games--until now, as upstart Specto Studio, led by a former theater director, has announced Hail Macbeth for consoles and PC.

Hail Macbeth is a third-person narrative adventure and an adaptation of the classic Shakespearean play, where players will assume the role of an "unseen force" guiding Macbeth through the story. They will work against what the official announcement calls "the witches," which are "embedded into the game’s UI, subtly revealing or obscuring information, shifting perspective, and distorting reality in ways that make players question the limits of their control."

Hail MacBeth concept artGallery

Unlike the original work, this version of Macbeth will be set in an alternate version of the 1990s, with castles, corporate high-rises, and “industrial ruins." The game's script, however, will retain the exact wording from Shakespeare's original work, and the studio has scanned real-world costumes and props into the game in order to "achieve a sense of lived-in reality."

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Diablo Immortal will receive another new class and crossover event this year according to Blizzard's newly revealed 2025 content plans for the free-to-play mobile ARPG.

The new class and event will all be part of a year-long series of updates and storyline Blizzard is calling the Epoch of Madness. Blizzard made a big deal about Diablo's return last year, but will now explore the aftermath of his defeat and the power vacuum left in his wake. Much of that will be setting up the rise of the Shardborne Albrecht, Diablo's former human host who has since been resurrected into a monstrosity all his own thanks to the power of the Worldstone.

Blizzard did not reveal what the game's new class will be, but it will arrive sometime this summer between July and September. When the new class does arrive, it will be the third class added post-launch to Diablo Immortal, joining the vampiric Blood Knight and the water-bending Tempest.

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Netflix's gaming VP Mike Verdu has left after being hired in 2021 to launch the platform's gaming initiatives. This is the latest shakeup for the streaming giant the streaming giant, which has undergone mass layoffs to its gaming division recently.

According to Game File, a Netflix representative confirmed that Verdu did leave the company. He was brought on to release new and ported mobile games to the Netflix platform for paying subscribers, and also lead internal game development.

Verdu went through several title changes during his time at Netflix. He started as the VP of game development, helping build the foundation of Netflix Games, including studios and publishing arms. He then got promoted to the VP of games, and rolled out cloud streaming tests to TVs and PCs in several countries.

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The Fool's Apprentice is an upcoming wizard academy management sim from developer The Planar Danse, and the studio has just announced the game's April 14 release date via a new trailer.

The Fool's Apprentice sees players step into the magical shoes of the aforementioned fool, training students in the magical arts--or just using them as test subjects.

The Planar Danse describes The Fool's Apprentice as "a wizard academy management sim where you--an obviously benevolent professor--must manage and cast spells on your many apprentices so that they might study the right spells… and perhaps even survive the researching process."

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Saudi Arabian-owned mobile developer Scopely has announced that it'll be acquiring Niantic's video game division, paying $3.5 billion for the developer behind Pokemon Go. Also included in the proposed deal--which was revealed several weeks back--are several other Niantic titles, like Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom. This is the No. 8 biggest gaming buyout in history.

"With Scopely’s full commitment, experience, and resources, we're going to make Pokemon Go the very best it can be--with incredible battles for thousands of Trainers at a time at our live events and new ways to connect to your friends and community, all while remaining focused on the excitement and experience of discovering Pokemon in the real world," Niantic studio leader Ed Wu said in a blog post. "We have invested to empower thousands of community leaders and ambassadors who lead millions of Trainers to play together in the real world, and Scopely is in full agreement that this highly-admired program will be a priority to invest in together."

According to Wu, the entire Pokemon Go team will be retained through this new partnership, and Scopely offered the studio a development environment that it found "extremely appealing". The acquisition will still need to pass regulatory approval conditions, and Pokemon Go social companion apps Campfire and Wayfarer will also be included in the deal. A Scopely spokesperson told GameSpot that the "Saudi Arabian government is not involved in Scopely's operations." However, it does own Scopely through the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

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2016's Warcraft movie is one of the highest-grossing video game movies ever. That money was largely attributable to China, and reviews of the film were not all that great. Despite that, Blizzard hasn't ruled out trying again to adapt its franchises to film or TV. In an interview, Blizzard president Johanna Faries said the short answer is that the company is "looking at everything" with regards to expanding its franchises.

"I can't share anything specific today... but we have a strong collective belief that we are Blizzard Entertainment, and not simply Blizzard Games or Blizzard Gaming," she told Windows Central.

"Our universes, our iconic IP can vector off into many interesting dynamic directions. We have to be thoughtful, responsible stewards of those franchises, right?" she added. "Not everything will fit, and execution absolutely matters. We do think about what we can do to show up for the entertainment industry, as broadly as we can describe, so Blizzard can continue to be a beacon of that sort of ... magic making, fostering joy."

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Video games have spawned tons of iconic mecha designs over the years, but there's something timeless about Metal Gear Solid's bipedal powerhouse, Metal Gear Rex. If you've ever wanted to own one--but don't have the billions in cash necessary to build a 1:1 replica--then this upcoming collectible from Megahouse is a nice alternative. The $170 figure launches November 2025 and preorders are available now.

Metal Gear Solid Variable Action D-SPEC Metal Gear Rex $170 | Releases November 2025

The Metal Gear Solid Variable Action D-SPEC Metal Gear Rex figure includes plenty of articulation and is packed with recognizable details like the iconic shoulder-mounted railgun, the radar dome, the animalistic "mouth" cockpit design. The figure also comes with two minifigures of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake, just in case you feel like reenacting the climactic showdown between the two brothers. Both figures are small enough to fit in Rex's cockpit section, and the Solid Snake figure includes a swappable spare arm that holds his MK 23 SOCOM sidearm.

Preorder at Entertainment Earth

If you'd like to add to your Metal Gear Solid collection, there are a few other nice figures to preorder right now. There's a new Figma action figure of Solid Snake based on his design from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The highly posable figure includes several accessories, like his SOCOM pistol and handy cardboard box disguise. Priced at $87, this will start shipping out in January 2026.

For something cuter, Good Smile Company is reissuing its Raiden and Solid Snake Nendoroid collectibles, which turn the gruff super-soldiers into cute chibi figures. The Solid Snake one is especially good as it comes with two head sculpts--a Nendoroid-style head with a dynamic bandana and an alternate head that makes Snake look exactly like his 1998 character model. Tubbz also has an adorable Solid Snake figure that reimagines the character as a floating rubber ducky.

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Act II of Destiny 2 Episode Heresy has brought with it a new surprise on the Dreadnought. Along with the whisperings of a familiar foe in players' ears, they will also take on a familiar challenge. The new activity, Court of Blades, is a boss-rush mode similar to the original Court of Oryx activity from Destiny: The Taken King. Here's how the Court of Blades works and what it can give players on completion.

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• Destiny 2 Court of Blades explained

Destiny 2 Court of Blades explained

The Court of Blades is an enemy gauntlet activity where players face an escalating series of enemies within a 10-minute time limit. As the activity progresses, there will be two bosses per phase of the activity--one small and one major. Upon spawning into the activity, players will need to each select an Augmentation from one of the two statues on either side of the room they enter. This Augmentation will provide different conditions throughout the fight that players will need to adapt to. These Augmentations will also stack, so multiple conditions can exist simultaneously.

Some examples of what can show up include Banish, in which players will need to find and defeat three Taken Wizards quickly or be teleported out of the room mid-fight to a dome-like area where they will need to fight a separate miniboss to escape. Another one is Sharpen, where players will encounter an invincible Knight with a shield that needs to be stripped away using the swords dropped by smaller knights. Keep in mind these objectives exist on top of what needs to be done to defeat the major bosses of each phase.

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Fields of Mistria's auto-petters are a new convenience that developer NPC Studio added in the farm sim's second major update. These automatically make all your farm critters happy--assuming they're in the same room as the statue. That sounds like a small benefit, but once you have a lot of animals, petting them individually can take a lot of time from your day. This Fields of Mistria auto-petter guide explains how to get the Animal Sprite Statue crafting recipe and make the tool yourself.

Fields of Mistria: How to get the Animal Sprite Statue auto-petter crafting recipeIt'll take a few seasons before you're ready to break down this wall.

Your first auto-petter and the crafting recipe to make more are sealed away in a cave you've probably passed countless times before. It's the blocked cavern entrance next to Errol's house in The Narrows, southwest of the museum. You need a new spell, Dragon's Breath, to open it, and getting that is no easy task.

Fields of Mistria rewards you with the Dragon's Breath spell as part of completing the Breaking the Fire Seal quest, which you also need to complete to meet Caldarus' human form, enter the Lava Caves and Deep Woods biomes, and unlock Water Sprite Statue sprinklers.

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