If you needed more proof that Weapons director Zach Cregger has the credentials to make a new Resident Evil film, look no further than his play history. According to a reporter, Cregger has already completed the latest game in the franchise twice.

Deadline writer Destiny Jackson shared a photo of herself and Cregger on X, with the caption mentioning that she "talked to him about Resident Evil Requiem (he said he beat it twice already!)." Jackson remarked in a reply that Cregger "said the scariest one is RE [Village], he noped out."

I fulfilled a lifelong dream of meeting the whitest kid I know! Zac Cregger & talked to him about Resident Evil Requiem (he said he beat it twice already!) ♥️♥️♥️ I’m so happy. pic.twitter.com/7CYkywFoPv

There was little doubt that Cregger is a fan of the series--in an interview, he called himself "someone who has played I don't know how many thousands and thousands of hours of Resident Evil" and promised that his film "lives in the world" of Resident Evil 2 and 3.

Actor Jessie Buckley took home the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, and now the developer behind a game she starred in is celebrating her achievement for the movie Hamnet.

Buckley played the starring role of Kate Wilder, an investigative journalist, in The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me.

"An amazing award season for Jessie," going on to mention how she also won the top acting awards for actresses at the BAFTAs, Critics' Choice, Golden Globes, and Actor Awards. "Congrats!" developer Supermassive said. "She'll likely need a new trophy cabinet."

Punch the monkey, an adorable macaque born last July in Japan, captured the world's attention recently. He was abandoned by his mother and rejected by his community, only to find solace and comfort in a $20 orangutan plush toy from IKEA. His story tugged on the heartstrings of people worldwide who felt bad for the little guy and wanted him to find companionship.

He eventually did, and Punch's prospects are seemingly better now. But Punch still lives in a zoo--the Ichikawa City Zoo--and that's not sitting well with everyone. A new video game, Zoo Fighter, has players taking on the role of Punch and ... punching bullies away with his fist or a swift kick. Knock out 100 and Punch gets to go to a sanctuary, instead of a zoo. And that's the point of the video game.

"This game is a love letter to all animals doing a bid at the zoo. Animal sanctuaries are often better for primates than zoos because they put the animals' well-being first instead of public display," reads a line from the game's description. "They offer larger, more natural spaces and rescue animals from neglect or captivity rather than breeding them," the description goes on. "The focus is on lifelong care and less human interferecne, giving primates a safer, less stressful place to live."

Nintendo loves to build on what it has already created. Donkey Kong Bananza, a game that mixes 3D platforming with freeform destruction, began as a prototype that built on ideas featured in Super Mario Odyssey, and the prototype featured a Goomba with giant fists.

Super Mario Odyssey’s Luncheon Kingdom, among other areas, featured breakable structures scattered throughout the environment. These objects could be smashed into pieces using many of the special abilities Cappy gave Mario. Nintendo producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara explained how that mechanic eventually helped inspire the creation of Donkey Kong Bananza during a talk at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week.

After Odyssey was complete, Kurihara put together a simple prototype using assets from the game. He strapped two giant fists onto a Goomba to test how it would feel to smash through walls and even grab debris from those walls to throw. You can see our rendition of what that may have looked like above.

Games industry veteran Jeff Kaplan, the former Blizzard boss who is now making a new FPS called The Legend of California, has shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence in gaming.

Speaking to Lex Fridman, Kaplan said the technology, as it exists today, is "mostly a hot mess" when it comes to trying to integrate it into development pipelines.

He said AI may have a role to play in game development, but in its current state, he feels it's "overconfident in what it tries to deliver."

Weeks after his detainment by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), fighting game community member Ludovic Mbock is going home after being granted a low bond at a hearing.

According to Mbock's friends and family in a GoFundMe update post, around 20 people were in the courtroom at the hearing, with over 20 other people showing support online. "The judge was clearly moved," the post read. "Everything he said was in favor of Ludovic." Per Aftermath, Mbock was moved to facilities in Louisiana and then Georgia during his detention.

Friends and peers quickly took to social media to celebrate, with one post from fighting game community member Fem!Shep noting that Mbock's team is "optimistic" about a forthcoming hearing set for May.

If Donkey Kong Bananza is a game all about destruction, then the feature that allows for the most destruction could arguably be the best part of the game. According to a developer who worked on the game, the most destructive transformation for Donkey Kong might have gone too far, but that isn't a bad thing.

Speaking to Game Informer at GDC, Donkey Kong Bananza programmer Tatsuya Kurihara spoke about DK's Elephant Bananza transformation, which lets the primate inhale a large volume of destructible terrain and store chunks of it to throw. "I think we can agree the most destructive transformation is the Elephant Bananza, and honestly speaking, it probably went too far," Kurihara said. "But at the same time, it's fun, it feels good. And that's what matters most."

It's hard not to agree with that sentiment--the Switch 2 game practically invites you to wreak as much havoc as possible, and if you want to strip an entire layer of all its terrain, sucking it all up with the Elephant Bananza is the most efficient and satisfying way to do so.

Prime Video has announced a price increase for the subscription service, and it means the best way to watch Fallout--or anything else on the service--will soon be more expensive.

What we're talking about here is the ad-free version of Prime Video. Currently, it costs $3/month extra to watch content without ads. Starting April 10, however, the fee is going up to $5/month extra, and the tier is being re-branded as "Prime Video Ultra" (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Prime Video Ultra includes access to 4K/UHD streaming--and paying the $5/month extra is the only way to get this. Additionally, Prime Video Ultra supports up to five concurrent streams, which is up from three. Subscribers can also download up to 100 titles at once, up from 25.

Patrick Söderlund, the head of Arc Raiders studio Embark, has once again defended how the studio uses AI and revealed that the game now has fewer AI lines after the team re-recorded some parts.

Like Embark's previous game, The Finals, Arc Raiders uses an AI-powered text-to-speech system. A lot of people took issue with this, and Söderlund has now clarified how Embark pays the actors and revealed that Arc Raiders has removed AI voice lines since launch.

"We pay our actors for all time spent with us in the booth and continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game," the developer told GI.biz. "For select usage, we also pay them for the approval to license their voices through text-to-speech for lines that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience, mostly ping system audio."

Data firm NewZoo's annual PC and console gaming report reveals an interesting fact about Roblox and Minecraft players: They're far less likely to engage with popular AAA titles like Ghost of Yotei or Assassin's Creed: Shadows because they aren't too picky about realistic, lifelike graphics in games.

"I think there's been a shift in the last 10 years where the idea of chasing graphics has kind of faded and now you see the most popular games on the planet are not the most graphically high-fidelity games," NewZoo director of consulting Ben Porter explained at GDC (via gamesindustry.biz).

Per Porter, Roblox is leading the pack when it comes to massively popular but visually underwhelming games.

Despite being in development for over five years, almost all of Crimson Desert's pre-release footage has been from its PC version rather than consoles. Considering that this open-world fantasy is only a few days away from release, players have been understandably wary about that. Now, new console footage of Crimson Desert has been shared, but only from the PlayStation 5 Pro.

Digital Foundry has shared its early impressions of Crimson Desert on PS5 Pro, and for the most part, it sounds very promising. The video notes that the game's visual modes--optimal, balanced, and quality--all performed well, with only some occasional hiccups including PSSR upscaling artifacts.

Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter told IGN that developer Pearl Abyss offered the PS5 Pro preview without any restrictions. He added his primary concerns about the game have centered on its CPU demands.

Hawked is the latest casualty of the live-service gaming market, as the studio behind the Fortnite-like shooter has announced that it'll be pulling the plug on its servers later this year. Developer My.Games has already disabled all in-game purchases and payments, and the current Renegade Pass will be extended until September 7.

"It was a great hunt, and we are grateful to every Renegade who joined the journey: exploring the jungles and ruins of X-Isle, chasing Caravans and Relics, solving puzzles and uncovering mysteries, battling VEKTR, and simply enjoying the adventure together," My.Games wrote in a blog post. "We are closing this chapter to focus on new challenges ahead."

Servers for Hawked will remain operational until June 9 for PC players, while the deadline for console players is September 7. After those dates, the game and its online services will be permanently retired. First revealed in 2022, Hawked launched for PC a year later and then made its way to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2024. The core loop of Hawked saw teams of up to three players race to collect and extract Artifacts from an island known as X-Isle, using the unique skills of one of several "Renegade" characters.

Late last year, CD Projekt Red celebrated the fifth anniversary of Cyberpunk 2077, one of the company's best-selling games. But if players were hoping that more Cyberpunk 2077 content was on the way, the publisher dashed those hopes by noting that no more DLC or expansions are planned.

CD Projekt Red made the pronouncement on the official Cyberpunk 2077 X account in response to a fan asking for more. "We have no plans for additional DLCs or expansions," wrote CD Projekt Red. "If anything changes, we will inform you all!"

We have no plans for additional DLCs or expansions. If anything changes, we will inform you all!

Earlier this week, Cyberpunk 2077 was added to Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Premium. Near the beginning of the month, Epic Games' Fortnite teased a new Cyberpunk 2077 collaboration. CD Projekt Red is also selling a Cyberpunk 2077 5th Anniversary Collector's Set, for the hardcore enthusiasts.

Microsoft's AI-powered Gaming Copilot assistant is coming to current-generation Xbox consoles later this year, the company announced at the Game Developers Conference.

The announcement was made at a GDC talk featuring Xbox's gaming AI partner group product manager Sonali Yadav and gaming AI general manager Haiyan Zhang. Gaming Copilot is already available in a beta form for the Xbox PC and mobile apps, as well as ROG Xbox Ally devices. Per GamesRadar, Yadav stated that Microsoft will "continue to bring it to more services that players are playing."

Players can ask the Gaming Copilot chatbot for advice and guidance via text or voice about the game they're currently playing, or ask for game recommendations from the store or Game Pass. The AI assistant reads and connects to Xbox profiles, so players can also ask specific questions about their play history, achievements, or subscriptions.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is coming to theaters in April, and it's expected to have a massive opening weekend. Early tracking data suggests the movie could earn $160 million in the US alone for its first weekend, though this includes a five-day period covering the Easter weekend.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases on April 1, so the five-day tracking period covers Wednesday through Sunday of that week. The numbers were supplied by Deadline.

2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, for comparison, made $204.6 million over its first five days and $146.3 million for its Friday-Sunday three-day window. That movie also released over the Easter weekend, and it was the second-best Easter-weekend opening in the US for any movie, only trailing 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million).

Want to know when the next Genshin Impact update is? Sticking with a regular six-week schedule, we rarely need to wait for the next livestream to know when a new version is releasing, but livestreams give us more than just a release date, as they're also a great source of official banner and event information.

Each new update for Genshin Impact brings new banners to pull on, events to take part in, and there's usually a main storyline or character quest to sink hours of our time into as well. Not to mention all the updates we get for Miliastra Wonderland, Genius Invokation TCG, and more. The current update is version 6.4 (Luna V), the next will be version 6.5 (Luna VI), and this page explains everything we know about both the current and next updates in Genshin Impact.

• When is the next Genshin Impact update?

The next Genshin Impact update will be on Wednesday, April 8 if it sticks with the usual six-week update schedule. This will be version 6.5 (Luna VI). Although this date is technically guesswork for now, it's highly likely Genshin will update on this day, as not much gets in the way of its regular updates. However, for official confirmation, we'll just have to wait until the version 6.5 livestream.

The new season of Netflix's live-action One Piece series has just sailed into town, dropping anchor and delivering a new take on the acclaimed manga. Like the season before it, this new batch of episodes only covers a tiny portion of the manga series that has been running for 28 years, and if you're looking to see where the series is headed next, then you might want to grab the source material for some entertaining reading--or better yet, some cool merchandise that isn't buried on a faraway island. Fortunately, you can save quite a bit on these paperbacks and collectibles, as the Crunchyroll Store is offering big discounts on One Piece manga, merch, and more--but only until March 15, at 11:59 PT. There are quite a few items eligible for Crunchyroll's sale, so to help you find the best discounts, we've rounded up dozens of our favorites in the lists below. And if you're looking for even more deals, be sure to check out Crunchyroll's big manga sale, which is also happening this weekend, and sees most in-stock manga releases discounted by 30%.

Looking for some stylish One Piece clothing? The Crunchyroll Store has several T-shirts and long-sleeve tops available, or for something flashier, you can check out this stylish jacket inspired by the Strawhats visit to Egghead Island.

• Black Beard short sleeve T-shirt -- $15 ($30)
• Devil Fruit Athletic long-sleeve shirt -- $17.48 ($35)
• Jolly Roger cap -- $17.49 ($25)
• Kikunojo Kimono Symbol Crew -- $30 ($60)
• Luffy Straw hat -- $17.49 ($25)
• Nico Robin Checker hoodie -- $27.48 ($55)
• One Piece x Dim Mak - Luffy Egghead Jacket -- $136.49 ($195)
• One Piece x Dim Mak - Sanji Egghead Button Down Shirt -- $56 ($80)
• One Piece x Dim Mak - Luffy Hoodie -- $45 ($75)
• Zoro+Sanji+Luffy T-shirt -- $24 ($30)

You can also add some great collectibles to your shelf, ranging from action figures to attention-grabbing diorama pieces.

Crunchyroll is hosting a big sale on thousands of manga titles, giving fans a chance to save 30% on popular series and rising stars in the print scene. You won't want to dawdle on this promotion either, as it ends March 15 at 11:59 PT. While plenty of traditional manga paperbacks have gotten big price reductions, it's the deluxe editions and box sets where the discounts shave a substantial amount off the regular price for these collector's editions. Crunchyroll is also offering free shipping in the continental US for orders of $75 or more.

Some of the best deals in Crunchyroll's sale are for Deluxe Edition manga releases. While every publisher has their own standard for what qualifies as a "deluxe" release, generally, these are far better than your average paperback. While standard edition paperback manga offers a pocket-friendly format, the books also use lower-grade paper and print quality, and often include no extras. Deluxe Editions, on the other hand, offer a larger format so you can better see the art, as well as higher-quality paper and hardcover binding for a more premium look and feel. Many also include extras, such as interviews with series creators, bonus illustrations, and more.

As Xbox has continued to stumble in recent years, the future of the console has been in question. Most recently thanks to the "This is an Xbox" campaign, which tried to paint just about every piece of consumer electronics with a screen as a potential Xbox, despite there being two actual, dedicated Xbox consoles that we imagine Microsoft would be interested in selling. Whether or not Microsoft would even make a successor to the Xbox Series consoles was in doubt until newly-anointed Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma confirmed via X that the system is indeed in development, as well as offering up its code name--Project Helix. She also confirmed that it will play both Xbox and PC games and "will lead in performance." Even with this announcement, though, the future of Microsoft hardware is still in doubt.

In this post, we're rounding up everything we know about the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, and what that console might look like. Keep checking back for more as we update this post as new information comes to light the closer we get to an eventual release date--sooner rather than later, we hope.

• Project Helix Release Date Speculation

Microsoft hasn't revealed an expected price range or release date for Project Helix, but we can make some guesses given the current market situation and some things Microsoft higher-ups have said. We're right in the middle of a huge shortage of RAM and SSD storage, and memory prices have doubled and worse across the market. This will affect both when Microsoft can release the console and what price point they can release at.

Season 2 Reloaded is live in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, bringing the brand-new Paradox Junction map to Zombies mode. Paradox Junction is set on Treyarch's iconic Nuketown map, and it features the Blundergat Wonder Weapon originally introduced with Black Ops 2's Mob of the Dead map. In this guide, we'll show you how to gather the barrel, sealant, stock, and hammer parts needed to build the Blundergat Wonder Weapon, as well as how to upgrade it to the Sundergat.

• How to find all parts for the Blundergat Wonder Weapon

The Blundergat is a craftable shotgun Wonder Weapon in Paradox Junction, and the weapon parts can be obtained in any order. You can skip around this guide and collect them however you choose, but we'll be explaining this in our recommended order.

The four parts are as follows: