The Lord of the Rings will always hold a place of honor in Magic: The Gathering. At a time when Universes Beyond crossover cards were confined to limited Secret Lair drops like The Walking Dead, or preconstructed Commander decks like Warhammer 40K, The Lord of the Rings introduced the first-ever tentpole Universed Beyond expansion with Tales of Middle-Earth in 2023.

Now, Tolkien's high fantasy world is returning to Wizards of The Coast's tenured trading card game in August with The Hobbit, the prequel story to the LOTR trilogy. After seeing a handful of cards at a pre-MagicCon Las Vegas press preview earlier this week, we suspect Magic's return to Middle-Earth will be as impactful as the first one.

(NOTE: There may be some cards revealed during the Preview Panel that were not shown to press during the press preview.)

Ask any Magic: The Gathering player what the most disappointing set of the past 12-18 months has been, and the Spider-Man set from September 2025 will often be the first or second choice. A mishmash of popular and obscure characters (Spider-UK? Huh?), inconsistent mechanics, and a subpar limited environment doomed Peter Parker's first foray into the MTG world.

The next set on the 2026 schedule, however, is Marvel Super Heroes, and Wizards of the Coast hopes to prove that Spider-Man was an exception, not the rule. After the set's brief appearance during the Preview Panel at MagicCon: Las Vegas, the jury is still out, and we're starting to become concerned.

During a press preview of the Preview Panel (yes, a preview of the preview) earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast showed off cards from the next three upcoming expansions: June's Marvel Super Heroes, August's The Hobbit, and October's in-universe Reality Fracture. Of those three expansions, we were shown over 20 cards and pieces of art from The Hobbit, 18 cards/art pieces from Reality Fracture, and just five new cards/art pieces from Marvel Super Heroes.

When IO Interactive and Sony announced a 007 First Light PS5 controller inspired by the game, people quickly pointed out that the controller's design looked like it was meant to evoke James Bond's trademark barrel logo. Except it didn't really, and it turns out that was by design.

Art director Rasmus Poulsen told Eurogamer that what IO was trying to achieve was to reference "more how the UI of the game feels."

"So rather than simply making a franchise stamp, it relates to our product, in the sense that it has that UI sense--and then it has more of a, dare I say, 'Sun' flavor, referring back to the title," he said. "So there's some things about light and shadow that we wanted to play with."

The upcoming Battlefield movie is reportedly attracting a bidding war, and now the names of the five studios said to have submitted bids have emerged in new reporting.

The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony, Universal, and Netflix have all submitted bids to acquire the package. Christopher McQuarrie, known for his work on the Mission: Impossible series, is reportedly set to write and direct, with Oscar-winner Michael B. Jordan on board as a producer and possibly the star.

The report did not include any further details on the bidding, including fees or other deal particulars that could be in play. In any event, a bidding war is no surprise, as The Hollywood Reporter said the package was set to become the "biggest bidding war of the year" among Hollywood studios.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a big departure from the tried and tested format of past Lego adaptations, with this adventure pulling from a wide and storied history of Batman and letting it loose in a large, open-world Gotham City. It's looking like an ambitious title that helps explain its higher-than-expected PC requirements.

Perhaps the most eye-catching line in the PC requirements for Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is for system memory. Even for the minimum requirements, you'll need at least 16GB of RAM to help support the game's open world. While that might not have been an issue a year ago, the ongoing RAM crisis driven by the needs of AI data centers makes that a very expensive upgrade if you're still stuck on 8GB.

It is, however, good to see that the highest tier has managed to stick to 24GB, after developer TT Games managed to reduce it from 32GB after some outcry. Outside of memory requirements, you'll likely not need an extremely modern rig to have a good time in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. Even recommended specification don't require graphics cards with more than 8GB of VRAM, which is a rarity for many modern game releases. You'll also only require CPUs from two or three generations ago, which is nice to see as well.

Prominent industry leaker NateTheHate has asserted that a Star Fox game for Switch 2 is still in the works, despite Nintendo not announcing it in April as was previously reported.

Replying to a user on Twitter (via GamesRadar), NateTheHate said, "I do not doubt the game's existence. Several outlets/people have spoken on the game beyond me, as well." He admitted that the timing he had heard for the announcement, however, appears to have been wrong, though it's possible plans had changed internally at Nintendo.

As said several days ago: I do not doubt the game's existence. Several outlets/people have spoken on the game beyond me, as well.
Timing for reveal was off the mark & wrong. That's a miss by me.

Star Fox has seen a resurgence in public attention via The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, in which Fox McCloud made an appearance despite there never being any crossovers between the two franchises in their respective games.

Roblox's stock price took a dramatic hit today, May 1, following the company's latest earnings report during which it said new user growth slowed due to the recently released age-check changes. The company also massively decreased its upcoming revenue projections.

Although Roblox's average daily active users jumped by nearly 34 million compared to the same period last year and total hours engaged surged by 43% year-over-year, "bookings growth decelerated" compared to 2025. Additionally, Roblox was banned in Russia in December 2025, and that had an impact, the company said. What's more, management said Roblox's growth was tempered by "greater-than-expected headwinds" related to the new age-check system. New user acquisition was slowed, too.

All of this, combined with a revised download revenue projection for the year of about $1 billion, apparently spooked investors, with Roblox's stock sliding by more 18% today, bringing the company's shares down to around $46. This is down from a 52-week high of about $150.

Season 3 Reloaded is live in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, bringing the brand-new Totenreich map to Zombies mode. The map is set within a Norse fishing town from the WWII era, and the design and story elements definitely take inspiration from Norse mythology. Totenreich also features the brand-new Jotunn Star Wonder Weapon. In this guide, we'll show you how to collect the hidden pieces needed to craft this unique melee-style Wonder Weapon.

• Jotunn Star Wonder Weapon

The Jotunn Star Wonder Weapon can be acquired by completing a hidden in-game quest, which we walk you through in the steps below.

Subnautica 2 and 007: First Light, both of which release this month, were not made using generative AI technologies.

First Light art director Rasmus Poulsen told Eurogamer that it was decided based on a "combined discussion between core executives" at developer IO Interactive that the team would not use generative AI for the James Bond game.

"I think it's a large discussion. I'd rather not dive into the details, because it's complicated," Poulsen added.

Alysa Liu stole the show at the Winter Olympics this year, becoming the first US women's skating gold medalist in more than 20 years. After the Olympics, Liu said she wanted her own Fortnite skin, and while that hasn't happened yet, Fortnite is adding a new emote based on her performance at the Olympics Exhibition Gala.

The Stateside emote, as it's called, is available now for 500 V-Bucks. As you can see in the video below, it's an impressively faithful recreation of Liu's performance

The Stateside Fortnite emote is based on Alysa Liu's performance at the Winter Olympics Exhibition Gala pic.twitter.com/YRTdzZEs75

In February, Liu told USA Today that she would love for Epic to create a Fortnite skin based on her. "I would buy it!" she said.