The Communications Workers of America, the union representing QA testers at ZeniMax, announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract with Microsoft. If implemented, this contract will be one of the first to go into effect at one of the big AAA game publishers.

Last month, the union voted to authorize a strike in response to challenges to the contract negotiation process; this agreement would avoid a strike from being carried out. In a press release, CWA shared that the agreed contract would grant ZeniMax employees significantly increased protections and would raise pay across the board. It would also implement guidelines on the use of AI, restrict "arbitrary dismissal," and create processes to ensure that QA testers adequately receive credit in video games that they contribute to.

QA testing has been a hotspot of unionization efforts in the games industry, some of which have been targeted with union-busting efforts. At ZeniMax, the QA testers' union represents around 300 employees and has been fighting for several years for this contract. In response to the agreement, Jessee Leese, a QA tester and union representative at ZeniMax, stated, "Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity. Organizing unions, bargaining for a contract, and speaking with one collective voice has allowed workers to take back the autonomy we all deserve."

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EA confirmed this week that it had canceled its upcoming Black Panther game and closed its developer, Cliffhanger Games. A new report provides more context and background as to the situation surrounding the game's cancellation and what the game was aiming to be.

Bloomberg reported that the Black Panther game recently passed a development milestone, and the project was gaining momentum. However, sources said EA executives were upset that the game was still in pre-production after almost four years of work. After a portfolio review from EA management, the company reportedly chose to axe games in development for an extended period of time without making sufficient progress, and this included Black Panther.

Also canceled in this process were multiple titles at Apex Legends and Titanfall studio Respawn, including a new Titanfall game, according to previous reporting.

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Minecraft Trading Card Blaster Box (36 Cards)

$15

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Minecraft Trading Card Mega Box (72 Cards)

$35

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Trading card manufacturer Panini has been making official card sets for Minecraft for a few years now, but its latest collection is garnering more attention from Minecraft fans than earlier releases. Most major retailers are either sold out of 2024 Minecraft Trading Card products or limit sales to brick-and-mortar stores. But you don't need to browse the trading card sections at Walmart or GameStop, because Amazon just stocked Panini's two major Minecraft card boxes sold in retail stores. These might not be available for very long once more people find them, but as of May 30, you can get Minecraft Blaster Boxes for $15 and Minecraft Trading Card Mega Boxes for $35.

The 2024 Minecraft Trading Card set features over 200 cards, including rare inserts celebrating the franchise's 15th anniversary, and foil cards that are exclusive to the Blaster and Mega Boxes that Amazon just stocked.

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When the Call of Duty Season 4 update arrived this week for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, players quickly noticed that some multiplayer lobbies did not display player levels and level icons. Some theorized that Activision did this on purpose to help prevent people from quitting lobbies if they noticed they were going up against a group of high-level players. But it turns out this was only a bug.

Activision's Call of Duty Updates account confirmed that the developer is investigating a bug that is causing player levels and level icons to fail to appear in lobbies. "Thank you for your reports! We are actively investigating this issue," Activision said on the game's Trello board.

Some of the other known issues for Black Ops 6 multiplayer include theater mode being temporarily disabled due to an issue loading replays, lobbies showing the wrong platform icon next to a player's name, and the Winner's Circle failing to appear in some cases on Stakeout. Another known issue is that players who call in a Dreadnought may get stuck in a state where they're unable to crouch or slide.

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First revealed at 2022's The Game Awards, BioShock writer-director Ken Levine's upcoming narrative-driven RPG, Judas, is still shrouded in mystery. Developed by Levine's new studio, Ghost Story Games, Judas was almost immediately labeled as "BioShock in space" by fans. But as the game's launch draws closer, it's become clear that although Judas certainly draws inspiration from the series that made Levine a household name, it's not just BioShock with a futuristic coat of paint. Judas has its own identity.

While the details are still relatively sparse, trailers, preview events, and developer interviews have painted a much clearer picture of what players can expect from Levine's latest creation. If you're interested in decoding this enigmatic RPG, keep scrolling for a breakdown of everything we know about Judas, from plot details to gameplay features and everything in between.

Table of Contents [hide]

• When does Judas launch?

When does Judas launch?

Judas was originally slated for a March 2025 launch, but March came and went without a peep from Levine and the developers at Ghost Story Games.

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After nearly a decade of anticipation for the next installment of Dragon Age, the latest sequel, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, unfortunately failed to reach EA's expectations. Subsequently, the game's developer, BioWare, laid off staff members and became considerably smaller. Now, one of the voice actors from The Veilguard is sharing her dismay about the backlash against the game from people who she says wanted to see BioWare fail.

Alix Wilton Regan--who voices the female Inquisitor in both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard--recently told IGN that she loved the game and she suspects that The Veilguard's haters were intentionally trying to bring it down.

"I feel absolutely devastated for BioWare as a studio that they got such mixed reactions to the game," said Wilton Regan. "I personally thought it was a really strong game. I thought it was just BioWare being more BioWare. I also think a lot of people kind of wanted to see it fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail, either because they're just really bad people on the interne--of which there are unfortunately many, as we have discovered... "People were attacking the game before it was released. It's ridiculous. How can you judge a game, a book, a film, a TV show before it's actually released? You can't. It's an idiotic stance to take."

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Season 4 is live in Call of Duty: Warzone, and the big update added the new Overlook point-of-interest to Verdansk. This new location also comes with a brand-new Easter egg to complete, which will reward you with some of the best gear in the game. Here we guide you through the steps needed to complete the Overlook Safe Room Easter egg.

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• How to open the Overlook safe room

How to open the Overlook safe room

The Overlook is a massive new skyscraper located in Downtown Verdansk. This building is a hot spot for landing in Season 4, and there is a lot to explore here, but there is a secret safe room that can be unlocked for tons of rewards.

To complete this for yourself, you want to search the Overlook for pool balls and keycards. It's best to land at the bottom of the Overlook and go inside. The roof is a hot spot, but if you have teammates, you can also send someone to check the roof spawns.

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The Executor is one of the six default classes in Elden Ring Nightreign, and it's unlocked automatically for all players after they complete the tutorial. If you've played previous From Software games, especially Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, then you'll immediately recognize the gameplay the Executor utilizes to defeat its foes.

However, this also means the Executor features a fairly high skill ceiling, requiring players to understand all of its abilities and strengths to use properly. Below, we'll go over the Executor class in its entirety and offer the best build for it in Elden Ring Nightreign. Make sure to also check out our class tier list for Nightreign to see exactly where the Executor falls compared to the other classes.

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• Executor class overview in Elden Ring Nightreign

Executor class overview in Elden Ring Nightreign

The Executor is a close-range melee class in Nightreign that uses a katana by default. The class focuses on swift and deadly attacks with the sword to deal massive amounts of damage up close to any enemy. The primary skill for the Executor is Dexterity, as you'll rely on your weapon speed and accuracy to inflict a majority of your damage.

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Mario sports and racing games bring out the weirdest behaviors from the Mushroom Kingdom's zany characters, and Waluigi is a prime example of this. The animation team for Mario Kart World must have had a field day with Luigi's lanky nemesis, as displayed by video footage of a Mario Kart World demo capturing something that might be easy to miss during gameplay.

In a video on X posted by user Mr. Duby, Waluigi gets a Coin Block item, which grants the player coins upon hitting it. But as seen in the video, Waluigi makes the unconventional decision to kick the Coin Block upwards.

Waluigi hits coin blocks with his FOOT?! pic.twitter.com/MK6jYW5zNv

— Mr. Duby (@misterduby) May 29, 2025

It's a rather impractical, yet impressively flexible move. Say anything you want about Waluigi, but he's anything but boring. Traditionally, Mario and friends hit coin blocks with their fists, but Waluigi seems to want to go out of his way to showcase his impressive limberness.

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Former Rockstar developer Leslie Benzies is launching a new game, MindsEye, in June. Naturally, people are connecting the game to GTA, which Benzies worked on while at Rockstar. Benzies has now reacted to the phenomenon of people comparing MindsEye to GTA, saying it only makes sense, but also asking fans to judge MindsEye for what it is.

"There's always comparisons, and I think that's how humans work," Benzies told GI.biz. "As kids, we're taught to put a triangle into a triangular hole, and a square into a square hole. I think we do that for the rest of our lives, and we like to describe something new as 'it's X plus Y, with a bit of Z in there'. It makes things easy for us. It's maybe humans optimizing the way we communicate."

These comparisons serve MindsEye and developer Build a Rocket Boy well in some respects and poorly in others, he said. To make his point, Benzies recalled a quote from musician Dave Grohl who said when he formed Foo Fighters that no one cared about the new band; they only cared about Grohl's previous band, Nirvana.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 4 is now live, and fans have quickly noticed new in-game advertisements pushing players to buy its premium battle pass, bundles, and weapon blueprints.

As part of the Season 4 update and highlighted by Charlie Intel on X, advertisements for the battle pass and other bundles now appear when creating a class (probably the menu players spend the most time in) and on the game's Events tab. Additionally, advertisements for weapon blueprint bundles now appear in the weapon select menu--a constant reminder of what players might be missing.

Why these ads were added four seasons into Black Ops 6 instead of earlier (or preferably never) is unclear, but it's easy to see why players aren't exactly thrilled about them. For starters, it's not like the battle pass isn't already featured very prominently, as it has its own dedicated menu tab and there are frequent reminders for players to claim rewards and upgrade to the premium version.

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HBO's The Last of Us is a big success, and part of the reason why is the efforts undertaken by showrunner, writer, and producer Craig Mazin. Given the immense popularity and critical reception to the show, some might wonder if Mazin would want to take on another video game adaptation next. He doesn't. But if he did, he joked that GTA 6 or Candy Crush could be good fodder.

Speaking to Scifi Now, Mazin said he is "never going to" adapt another video game, saying The Last of Us is "my video game swangsong." But if he were to give it a shot, he said he'd be "tempted" to try to adapt GTA 6 as a TV show because "I'm a masochist and I just think that would be like 19 seasons of TV."

"But then also part of me thinks, 'Oh, no, don't do that. Do something else. That's almost no story at all. Go ahead and try and do Candy Crush…!'" he added.

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Rebellion Developments has revealed the release date for Atomfall’s Wicked Isle Expansion. Dropping June 3, this story-based DLC will send players to a new location called Midsummer Island. Once there, they’ll have to contend with new enemy factions--including infected druids who use severed heads like lanterns--strange fauna, and more while exploring story threads that could lead to alternate endings for the main game.

Midsummer Island will seemingly be a tough place to explore thanks to its close proximity to the Windscale Nuclear Plant; the level of infection is higher there than Atomfall’s other environments. Thankfully, fans won’t be thrown to the radioactive wolves without some form of help. New weapons like the Blunderbuss shotgun will be available on the island. There will also be new skills to unlock, items to craft, and an upgraded metal detector to find. Essentially, players should have enough tools to stave off death for a long as possible.

Atomfall has proven to be quite the survival game. Featuring an interesting mission structure, challenging combat, and unique RPG elements, it easily stands out amongst the genre’s best. That said, given the conclusive nature of its campaign, the Wicked Isle Expansion significantly increases the prospect of venturing back into its post-apocalyptic environments.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, and to mark the occasion, CD Projekt Red has announced that the RPG is getting a major new feature. Cross-platform mod support is coming to the game's PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S versions later this year. Mods have been available on PC for a long time, but this is the first time they're coming to console.

"For the first time, creating, sharing, and enjoying mods for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be easier and more accessible than ever," the developer said.

A FAQ about this has more details, like how this is a free service provided by mod.io. As such, players will need to have or create a mod.io account and link it to their CD Projekt Red account to use cross-platform mods, at least on console. Existing modding services on PC will remain supported. PC players will not need to use mod.io to upload or download mods for The Witcher 3.

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People love to categorize games. It used to be pretty easy. You had your platformers, shooters, sports games, and RPGs. Then we started saying things like "metroidvania." Fast-forward to today, and burgeoning genres and new ideas led to phrases like "deckbuilder roguelite," "strand game," and "soulslike." These labels are useful to get a quick idea of what a game is, but it gets complicated when you're confronted with something like Hell is Us. I played three hours of Rogue Factor's upcoming title at a recent press event in Montreal, and I walked away thinking it defies easy categorization.

Set in the early 1990s in the fictionalized hermit nation of Hadea, players assume the role of Remi. He was born in Hadea and re-enters the country after years abroad in an effort to learn about his past and find his parents. It seems like he could have picked a better time to do this, as Hadea is currently being torn apart by both a civil war and a phenomenon called the Calamity, which has resulted in the appearance of otherworldly, violent creatures.

As Remi, players will quickly acquire tidbits of information that start to flesh out the story of what happened to his hometown and family. Conversations with NPCs frequently offer up relevant information that is tracked in Remi's datapad. The "investigation" tab of your datapad starts out very basic, with only a few broad threads to follow. Before long, those threads branch out until the investigation tab is a web of leads and mysteries. For players who love piecing together disparate events until a mystery becomes clearer, the early hours of Hell is Us should be very enticing.

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Elden Ring Rightreign, the standalone multiplayer spin-off of the popular RPG, is out now and it's already putting up impressive stats. On Steam, the game reached more than 300,000 peak concurrent users right after launch. It reached 315,593 players to become one of the top five most popular games on Steam based on player count, only surpassed by free-to-play games PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2.

Nightreign is also the No. 1 best-selling game right now on Steam. Player data for Xbox and PlayStation is unknown, but the game has reached reached 2 million players so far overall.

It's possible Neightreign isn't done climbing, as player counts historically peak on weekends as people have more free time for their hobbies. We'll report back with a new peak concurrent count if Nightreign breaks its current record of 313,593. The record was actually achieved on May 29, which is when the game began its global rollout.

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It will be a while before new adventures set in the worlds of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 land on your console, but thanks to a new book bundle deal from Humble Bundle, you can score a selection of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 graphic novels and art books for cheap with The Witcher X Cyberpunk 2077 Book Bundle. The deal offers multiple pricing tiers, starting at just $1 for a collection of classic Witcher comics and up to $25 for the full 25-item bundle. Like other Humble Bundle deals, a portion of all sales is donated directly to charity, and for this bundle, Humble has partnered with the UK-based charity SpecialEffect that helps make video games more accessible for people with disabilities.

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As mentioned above, the starting $1 tier gets you The Witcher: Classic Collection, which compiles comic book short stories first published in Poland from 1993-1995 featuring wonderful art by Boguslaw Polch. This is one of the earlier adaptations of The Witcher author Andrezj Sapkowski's work, and it also includes an original story based on one Sapkowski's unused ideas.

The next tier on this deal will cost you $12, and in addition to The Witcher: Classic Collection, you'll also get three volumes of The Witcher comic series published by Dark Horse Comics and two Cyberpunk 2077 graphic novels, Cyberpunk 2077: XOXO and Cyberpunk 2077: Kickdown.

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Last year, a story broke that Microsoft was working on prototypes for an Xbox handheld console that could potentially compete with Valve's Steam Deck. However, a new report suggests that Microsoft is putting aside its ambitions for a dedicated Xbox handheld, at least for now.

According to Windows Central, Microsoft is shifting its priority away from its Xbox handheld to focus on improving the gaming performance of Windows 11 on third-party handheld devices including ASUS' Project Kennan. The report notes that Microsoft still has ambitions of releasing its own handheld and it's developing additional technology towards that goal. But for the immediate future, that's not a priority.

There have been rumors about Xbox handheld consoles for the better part of the last two decades. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed that there were Xbox handheld prototypes in the past, none of which made it out of development.

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Nintendo has released more images showing the graphical update Pokemon Scarlet/Violet will be getting on the Switch 2, ahead of the new console's launch next week.

The screenshots, shared as a footnote on a Nintendo blog post about Pokemon Legends ZA, show the Paldea region populated by wild Pokemon, with the update making use of the Switch 2's enhanced processing power to increase the game's draw distance.

Water Pokémon shown in the graphics update

"You can now see Pokemon from further away, making them look even more vivid," the post reads. "With improved frame rates and other features, the movement is smoother, allowing you to enjoy your adventure comfortably."

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may not have been in the spotlight heading into 2025, but it's quickly proven to be one of this year's sleeper hits with more than 3.3 million copies sold since its release in late April. As the game has expanded to reach a wider audience, Sandfall Interactive--the developer behind the title--has received more specific requests from players including for a potential photo mode. And it sounds like that's something the devs want to see as well.

During an appearance on Final Fantasy Union, art director Nicholas Maxon fielded the question about a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 photo mode. While answering the inquiry, he revealed that a photo mode has been requested internally as well.

"It is very high on the list of things we want to do because obviously it's requested a lot, even internally people from the team just wanting a photo," noted Maxon. "It's a lot more work than some [...] stuff, but it's definitely something that we would like to do."

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