Former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has explained that the company shut down Japan Studio in 2021 because its games didn't "drive console sales." He goes on to say that if you love the company's "creative games," then support the former developers by playing Slitterhead and Ratatan.

During his keynote speech at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Yoshida says that he is frequently asked about PlayStation's closure of Japan Studio. "Players from around the world have said that it's unbelievable that Sony would shut down Japan Studio," he says. "Japan Studio released loads of games, creative games, didn't it? At that time I was saying something similar."

Japan Studio is responsible for some of the best and most innovative games in PlayStation's history. Ape Escape, Shadow of the Colossus, Siren, LocoRoco, Patapon, Gravity Rush, Astro Bot, and many more games come from the talented teams at Japan Studio. Essentially, if you fondly remember a PlayStation game with an ingenious hook, it was probably made there.

"At that time, as the head of development, I was worried about [Keiichiro] Toyama [creator of Silent Hill] and the other Japanese developers at Japan Studio," Yoshida says. "But while they came up with a lot of creative ideas, the games they made weren't big in scale. What we call AA games are a perfect fit for the PlayStation Vita, but we were slowly shifting to AAA on the PS4 and PS5, and sometimes it's difficult to scale up like that."

Despite the creativity of Japan Studios Vita and VR games, sales were poor compared to other PlayStation behemoths. Sony then decided to put its bets on AAA games. "As a company, PlayStation wanted to drive hardware sales with games like God of War and Uncharted, because that's the kind of game that's in demand," he says. "It's hard for Japan Studio to launch a new series on console."

He finishes by urging people who loved Japan Studio to continue supporting the developers who worked there. "Toyama also had a number of ideas which weren't able to be greenlit before Japan Studio shut down," he explains before encouraging PlayStation players to try his new game Slitterhead, and Patapon creator Hiroyuki Kotani's latest game Ratatan.

Even former PlayStation chief Shuhei Yoshida doesn't know why Bloodborne hasn't been remastered or released on PC: "It's a complete mystery."

The director of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is looking into adding a challenge system to the pirateventure, like the one Assassin's Creed Mirage eventually got, but he's not promising anything just yet.

Asked about bringing back a series feature that let fans replay missions with new challenges and requirements, in an interview with JorRaptor, game director Richard Knight says he thinks it "would be awesome."

Assassin's Creed Mirage actually got a post-launch update with the same challenge system last year, which offered unique challenges for contracts and black box missions. One challenge might have disabled Eagle Vision for the entire mission or asked you to slide a hidden blade into your main target while going undetected - they were essentially cool modifiers that gave mission replays some extra spice.

"We've looked into this one quite a bit," Knight adds. "I can't promise anything on it just because it exists in Mirage, but it doesn't exist in the modern Anvil [Engine]. So, it's like new tech, right? They do have a solution. We do roughly see how it works, but it's going to take time to understand if it's something we can build or how long it would take."

Part of Knight's desire to add tougher mission constraints and replayable challenges to the stealth game comes from his time on the Hitman titles, a series renowned for those sorts of open, free-flowing, flexible assassination sandboxes. "You know, personally, as someone who used to work on Hitman and has played a lot of Hitman and likes seeing the speedrun timer on screen, I think it's a very interesting way to play a game," he explains. "But, yeah, no promises on that one."

Seeing a similar system implemented into Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't entirely impossible. Ubisoft confirmed that a New Game Plus mode is on the way, and the team apparently have a bunch of other DLC ideas as well.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance

A new God of War game starring dad of war Kratos is already in development at Sony Santa Monica, and it's set to tie in to the events of the upcoming God of War Laufey quite deeply.

Speaking during a San Diego Comic-Con panel attended by GamesRadar+, Sony Santa Monica creative lead Cory Barlog seemingly slips up and mentions that he was recently chatting with "the director of the next Kratos game earlier this week about all the different things that are going on - oh, f***, did I just announce the next Kratos game?"

The Kratos-led God of War game didn't receive a title, an estimated launch window, target platforms, or any firm details, but Barlog did offer some light information: "Kratos is in another game immediately after this [that] directly connects to the events of the Laufey game, but don't say anything about it to anyone," he quips. "The franchise is going in some amazing directions"

"Everything we are doing in the Faye game is a continuation of what came before and to set up and expand what comes next," he adds. "Phranque [the gelatinous cube] has been around since the beginning. It's interesting to see how to build this world out. Everything in the game is setting up for something so amazing."

Just don't expect that next game to drop anytime soon since the studio is still finishing up God of War Laufey, which was also announced to be coming on February 16, 2026. The upcoming PS5 game follows Faye, Kratos' lover and Atreus' mother, who finds herself stuck in an afterlife full of some very hostile gods and visions of her god-killing husband. The game has apparently been in the studio's plans for nearly 10 years, though it intends to also "always tell stories about Kratos."

Sony Santa Monica confirms "God of War Laufey will be available on disc" despite PlayStation's war on physical

Quickly following an action-packed reveal a few short months ago, PlayStation has put a concrete release date on God of War Laufey: February 16, 2027.

Sony Santa Monica creative head Cory Barlog announced the PS5 exclusive's new launch date at a San Diego Comic-Con panel, which was followed by a short and sweet clip posted to PlayStation's official social media that shows a brief golden logo. While God of War Laufey is available to wishlist now on the PlayStation Store, pre-orders and pricing information aren't yet available.

For those out of the loop, God of War Laufey is the first game in the bloody action series to not have main man and titular god-killer Kratos in the driver's seat. We instead follow the wife he lost before God of War 2018's introduction, Faye, as she travels an afterlife for the gods and potentially bumps into deities her lover once butchered. (Awkward.)

PlayStation debuted the game with a lengthy look at its epic opening and aerial combat just earlier this summer, perhaps making a release date of next February quite surprising. And, yes, the studio is also working on a Kratos-focused game coming sometime after.

Despite Sony planning to axe physical disc production the following year, developer Sony Santa Monica have confirmed the game will launch on a proper disc, not a code-in-box.

Next February is also shaping up to be another scarily packed month for new games. God of War Laufey is joining a crowd of blockbusters hoping to find refuge after GTA 6's huge impending launch, which includes Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (February 12), Persona 4 Revival (Februay 18), and Xbox's Fable reboot (February 23).

God of War's Cory Barlog has been planning Faye's story for a decade, says Laufey director, and her actor has "had to keep this under wraps" the whole time

Once you give players an ability, you really can't control how they use it. People can do whatever they like with a photo mode, as the devs behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced have discovered due to the amount of feet pics they've seen.

"There's just nothing like having one million or two million players playing a game at once that you can't replicate. The feet pics were very surprising," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "That's kind of what photo mode is there for – to take really interesting, sometimes unusual, photos."

I'm not surprised – internet loves doing things for the bit, and bizarre, slightly lewd photographs emerging from a new Assassin's Creed game is the exact kind of tomfoolery that goes over very well.

But I'm far too innocent for such things, because my most in-depth experience with photo mode was in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. I loved swinging around and making fake comic book covers. I've made dozens of them across the three installments.

Obviously, that's the wrong line of thinking. Pictures of Spider-Man are out, pictures of feet are in, apparently. "I never would have expected that one," Knight adds.

I have to imagine someone on the team thought it was a possibility, but what are you going to do? Restrict people's creativity? You've got to just let people do what they do, that's the real adventure of life.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance.

PATCH NOTES: v24.09.2026 – Nintendo should have been taking a victory lap this week, following the release of Splatoon Raiders on July 23. At a time where discussion should have been focused entirely around the latest Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, attention on the platform holder's activities has been divided between two ongoing legal battles.

What's going on with Nintendo this week?

• The first Splatoon spin-off launched as a Switch 2 exclusive
• A patent infringement lawsuit hit a new roadblock
• Request was made to dismiss a class-action lawsuit

Why is this happening now?

• The legal system works in weird and mysterious ways
• Nintendo has been embroiled in a dispute with Pocketpair for two years
• Two battles on the same week as Splatoon Raiders is bad timing

Meta Shift

This should have been a straightforward week for Nintendo. After a year of anticipation, Splatoon Raiders finally arrived, giving the Switch 2 one of its most compelling first-party exclusives. At any other time, this delightful spin-off – a confident shift away from the multiplayer focus that has otherwise defined the franchise – would have dominated the conversation for days.

Instead, Nintendo spent the Splatoon Raiders launch window fighting legal battles on multiple fronts. Attention was repeatedly diverted by fresh developments related to the ongoing legal dispute against Palworld developer Pocketpair, as well as a new court filing in a US class action lawsuit over the impact of tariffs.

While none of these stories are directly related, they do provide a window into one of the challenges Nintendo faces in 2026: launching platform-defining exclusives while simultaneously fighting to defend its business priorities in courtrooms all around the world.

Known Issue

• Another strange twist in the Palworld lawsuit

The biggest distraction from Splatoon Raiders' release week was undoubtedly from Japan, with a new development from a patent dispute adjacent to Nintendo and Palworld developer Pocketpair's ongoing legal battle. Nintendo has been attempting to patent the 'in-game monster-capturing system' popularized by Pokemon, which the Japanese Patent Office has rejected.

This decision has prompted Nintendo and the JPO to enter into a pretty extraordinary back-and-forth of counterarguments that, frankly, are well worth your time if you have it to spare. While this fight isn't at the center of the legal battle with Palworld, it certainly doesn't help Nintendo's case at all.

Patent disputes are difficult to follow at the best of times, but that's why this story was so essential – it illustrates just how complex these types of legal proceedings can become, and how entertaining it can be when they boil over in public.

• And then there was the tariff lawsuit

Just as players started to lock into arguments over whether it's even fair for Nintendo to test the strength of gameplay patents in this way (hint: enjoyers of Palworld 1.0 would say that it is not), a legal story with some spice emerged from the United States. This may have flown under your radar, but Nintendo is actually engaged in legal battles over tariffs.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit earlier this year over what it alleges was an "unlawful imposition of tariffs" by the US. This prompted two individuals to file a class action lawsuit against Nintendo; the pair claim that if Nintendo is owed refunds on collected tariffs, then so too should be consumers who purchased Nintendo products at increased prices.

Nintendo bit back hard, suggesting that players were "free to abstain from purchasing the product or seek out competing products" and that they got "exactly what they bargained for and paid for." Ouch.

Patch Notes Summary

• One company, three conversations

Nintendo spent the Switch era cultivating an image that it was consumer-first and software-focused. To see three separate conversations kickstart within days of each other – one about a platform exclusive, one around Japanese patent law, and the other around US consumer litigation – has created the impression that Nintendo's priorities are now being pulled in different directions.

Lawsuits and legal filings landing the same week as Splatoon Raiders is unfortunate – the courts work to their own schedules, not to the hype cycles we spend our lives following. But the diverting of attention in this way has been fascinating to witness.

Nintendo will have plenty of other moments to celebrate this year, with Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Duskbloods all expected to land. Whether they will also converge with ongoing legal disputes remains to be seen, but one thing's for certain: Nintendo needs to pull the focus of players back to video games and away from the courts.

Still, regardless of all the legal drama that has (admittedly) been pretty entertaining to watch from afar, I'll be spending this weekend diving into Splatoon Raiders. What about you?

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Even Ubisoft seems surprised you all wanted classic-style Assassin's Creed back this bad. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has sold 3.5 million units in 14 days, already beating the publisher's internal sales projections for the full year.

"The strong launch of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in early July by Vantage Studios is an encouraging proof point" of Ubisoft's new corporate structure, CEO Yves Guillemot says in the company's latest financial report. That same restructuring has also cost numerous developers their jobs, including many of the very people who brought Black Flag Resynced to life.

Black Flag Resynced is the first Assassin's Creed game to reach over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. According to Ubisoft, "this translated into a historical proportion of sales for the franchise on PC, led by the US and Chinese markets."

As part of today's financial report, Ubisoft announced net bookings of €256 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year, "down 9% year-on-year and slightly above guidance." Notably, that does not include any boost from Black Flag Resynced sales, which launched just after the start of the second quarter. Instead, those first quarter revenues were "driven by a record performance for Invincible: Guarding the Globe," an idle RPG for mobile.

Clearly, though, Ubisoft expects investors to be pleased with the performance Resynced is going to show next quarter. "The game is the highest-rated Assassin's Creed title since the original Black Flag, and we are very pleased with the praise it received from players," Guillemot continues. "Two weeks in, the title has already exceeded the annual expectations we had. I would like to warmly thank the teams whose talent and dedication brought it to life. This launch illustrates the enduring appeal of the Assassin’s Creed brand, as well as the early benefits of our ongoing transformation and commitment to delivering very high-quality experiences."

Ubisoft CEO says ditching physical games "helped" PC gaming, and PlayStation ending discs won't "disturb" the industry much anyway.

It's always fun to see what lurks just below what we can see in a video game through datamining and the like. You can find remnants of ideas that hit the cutting room floor, or perhaps suggestions of what's to come in DLC. A lead developer on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced respects the curiosity, but asks we don't put much stock in what's uncovered.

"Many games get datamined, it's very clever, I understand," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, says in an interview with JorRaptor (below). "Sometimes these are for assets that don't even exist yet, and sometimes they're placeholders that were done three years ago."

For projects as big as the Black Flag remake – or any triple-A game, really – all sorts of little curios and oddities tend to sneak into the finished product. Perhaps it was easier and faster to just cover something up than to take it out entirely, or, as Knight suggests, there was the kernel of an idea that didn't pan out, but you can still find a little marker, left however long ago in the game's past by god knows who.

They make for good discussion around the game's development, but holding people who worked on it to account for them is difficult. If they're placeholders, the devs genuinely might not remember what the point was, and if they're hints at what's coming, nobody will be allowed to talk about it yet.

Naturally, this comes up because JorRaptor asks about costumes that have been found in the game's innards. Multiple get-ups for Edward drawing on several entries from the storied franchise have been discovered, leading people to believe they indicate what's coming.

Knight is saying nothing, however. "This is my way of saying I don't actually know," he responds, remaining coy. "I can't spoil it because I don't know."

He does say whatever comes, the team will "support the brand legacy." Take that however you like.

If you're yet to set sail in the remake yourself, be sure to read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games in the series.

Despite having only just been revealed, it's already proving hard to buy Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figures. Namely, I've seen one sell out already even though it's only been available to pre-order for a few hours.

With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to track where you can currently get your hands on these toys. I've already gone on record about how good I think they are, so I'd say they're well worth grabbing - and from what I've seen so far, speed is of the essence if you want to buy Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figures. Link is selling out fast, for example (perhaps going back to the shrine for another 100 year nap).

Broadly speaking, Princess Zelda and Ganondorf are relatively easy to find in the US right now; they're both available via Amazon. However, I'm only seeing Link at Walmart. As for the UK, it's a little trickier. The action figures aren't widely on sale yet, and have all sold out at Hasbro Pulse. That leaves Amazon UK as the only option right now.

Where to buy Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figures in the US

Where to buy Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figures in the UK

• See all the latest action figures at Hasbro Pulse

If you want more cool collectibles, don't miss the best toys or the best Lego sets. With summer in full swing, it's also worth dropping by the best water guns!

Lead developers of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse have spoken about the process that led to the creation of Rose Belmont, the game's protagonist. Initially, they didn't have a specific gender for the protagonist in mind, but after developing the story, they wanted to base it around the strong bonds between mother and daughter.

In an interview with Famitsu, as translated by GamesRadar+, director Yukiko Hokao explains how the process of developing Belmont's Curse began without a specific protagonist in mind. "At the start we hadn't decided that the protagonist would be a woman," she says. "While we were building the world and the story, we thought the role would best suit a woman, and it was decided that it should be Trevor Belmont's daughter."

She goes on to explain how the original concept for the game had the protagonist's mother die before the beginning of the game. After discussing the game's world with Motion Twin and Evil Empire, it was agreed upon that the main character should be a woman.

Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi expresses how the game's world didn't feel right for a male protagonist. "For example, if this story featured a male protagonist, we'd have to consider the type of world depicted, and I think that could be cool," he says. "However, for this story, it was naturally decided that a female protagonist would be the best fit."

Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille further explains how the protagonist's gender fits into the game's themes. "Particularly, considering her mother Sypha's curse would be inherited by her daughter, there's a bond between parent and child," he says. "There is a strong connection between the two, and it gives her a clear motivation to avenge her mother's death and face her cruel fate. From this, the protagonist became Rose Belmont, and the role was best suited for a woman."

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse wants you to find the "joy" in the difficulty and it won't be "simple or easy": "That's not Castlevania."

I honestly think Hasbro getting the license to make Legend of Zelda toys is the best thing for fans.

Now, listen: I appreciate the concern about corporate giants scooping up IP so we're left with a monolithic industry run by big names. The company isn't perfect, either, so don't mistake this for blind loyalty. But Hasbro winning the license to make Legend of Zelda toys has me excited nonetheless – and it's all thanks to a galaxy far, far away.

As you probably know, Hasbro is a behemoth in the field – it has numerous companies under its belt, from the creators of Furby to D&D's Wizards of the Coast. One of these is an imprint called Hasbro Pulse, which focuses on high-quality action figures and replicas for adults based on Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, and more. Hand-to-heart, I think it produces some of the best toys around – and it just got its paws on Legend of Zelda, as revealed by its first action figures based on the series. That means fans are in for one hell of a treat.

For starters, Pulse's action figures are absurdly detailed (often using face scans of the actor in question) with premium deco accompanying a host of accessories and multiple points of articulation for more realistic poses. However, they don't come with a premium price. The six-inch Star Wars Black Series range starts at around $27.99 per figure through Hasbro Pulse, for example, and you can usually get them for significantly less at the likes of Amazon after launch. The same has proven to be true for Legend of Zelda, and considering how good they look, I don't think $28 for Link or Zelda is bad.

Yes, Ganondorf is pricier at $43. But we saw the toy in person at SDCC so can confirm it's about two or three times the thickness of the others – so that higher cost does make sense in context.

What really excites me are the replicas, though. Hasbro Pulse is also responsible for a wealth of roleplay items such as lightsabers (including my all-time favorite, the Darth Vader Force FX Elite Lightsaber), helmets, and even masks from the Marvel universe. I've found the vast majority of these to be truly excellent thanks to a host of neat interactive features, quality build materials, and impressive weathering that makes them look as though they've been stolen from a movie set. If you take that care and apply it to the Legend of Zelda universe, we'll be truly cooking. We'd get Master Swords and Hylian Shields like this replica that made us weep with pure Zelda fandom joy, sure, but that also opens up the floor to Majora's Mask or accessories like the hookshot.

Crucially, both action figures and replicas will be much easier to get hold of than anything else we've had before. Existing Legend of Zelda toys are hard to pin down and often expensive due to being out of print. Hasbro's equivalent, on the other hand? Judging by how widely available its other products are, they'd be easy to find.

Of course, there's plenty of other Hasbro-related possibilities to get excited about. Hasbro is responsible for a wealth of board and card games including Magic: The Gathering, for instance, so a crossover seems inevitable. In much the same way, I'd be surprised if a Zelda supplement of some description didn't appear in the Hasbro-owned D&D down the line. But despite all that, it's the action figures or replicas that excite me most – and that's all thanks to how good Pulse's Star Wars gear is.

For more cool collectibles, don't miss the new Lego Star Trek Enterprise Bridge from the original series or the recently-revealed, playable Lego Donkey Kong Arcade set.

Shigeru Miyamoto says that Nintendo will have to be more proactive in creating new characters, but has to be careful about it.

One thing Nintendo has continuously gotten stick for over the last decade or so is the tendency to rely on legacy series for its games. And while there have been more attempts at bringing something new to the table than many give it credit for (remember Codename S.T.E.A.M.?), a new IP – especially before 2015 or so – was a bit of a rare sight for Nintendo. However, Splatoon has proven that the sauce is still there, and has gone on to be one of Nintendo's premier franchises in its 11-year lifespan.

Speaking to Famitsu (via Nintendo Everything), Miyamoto says that "it’s good to create new characters," but the company has to be "strict in judging whether they’ll really work globally."

There have been a few, let's say, out-there titles in Nintendo's library that use pre-existing characters but almost feel like they belong to a different franchise (for example, Wario Master of Disguise), and Miyamoto admits that this happens at the company. "Even during the development of Splatoon, there were times when we thought, 'If the characters are going to be like this, wouldn’t it be better to just use Mario?' And then, when we came up with the prototype for the Inklings that are out there now, we realized, ‘With these, there’s no need to use Mario.'"

Aside from Nintendogs, the last new franchise Miyamoto was listed as coming up with the original concept for was Pikmin in 2001. He explains, "It’s been 25 years since I arrived at Pikmin, which was the result of my own pursuit of a globally appealing character, so we need to be more proactive to create new ones." However, don't expect it to come from Miyamoto, as he says, "I’ll leave that to the younger generation," which he did with Splatoon.

Shigeru Miyamoto admits Nintendo's been pumping out "a lot of remakes" as Ocarina of Time approaches, but says most people stopped playing the original games within 5 years anyway.

The Rockstar Games Workers Union has had its first meeting with Rockstar management after seeking recognition, confirming that "it was a step in the right direction."

Last month, it was revealed that Rockstar developers in the UK were seeking official union recognition – something which would give the union the right to negotiate with employers at GTA 6 developer Rockstar on behalf of its members regarding things like employment conditions. Rockstar agreed to meet with the union reps, and now, the union has shared an update on Twitter.

"We had our first meeting with Rockstar management!" a new post from the Rockstar Games Workers Union states, confirming that, as it stands, Rockstar has requested negotiations before agreeing to the union's voluntary recognition.

As for how things went, the RSGWU says: "It was a step in the right direction. We were able to make the case that workers' voices need to be heard and that we can collaborate to achieve this." Crucially, it adds, "we managed to secure a roadmap for a speedy negotiation process."

Next, the union says, "we will now look to agree on the 'bargaining unit' – the list of workers that the union can represent."

Although the union is seeking voluntary recognition, that isn't its only option. "If negotiations over a voluntary recognition agreement hit a wall, we will pursue statutory recognition, which legally obliges an employer to recognise a union once it represents a significant proportion of the workforce," it explains. And, although it doesn't share numbers, it sounds like the RSGWU is pretty big. In fact, it's "already the biggest game studio union in Europe."

With that said, there are benefits of voluntary recognition – as the RSGWU writes, it'd mean "anything can be written into the agreement document."

In this case, the union wants "no crunch" – ensuring that overtime is "always paid" and aiming for "a stronger process" to avoid crunching in the first place – as well as pay transparency, flexible working options, "a commitment to no layoffs," and to make it so no one's job can be "replaced with AI."

Crunch is a big part of this for the devs. One anonymous dev who recently spoke about the goals of the union alleged that "crunch is prevalent enough that the company built into our contracts, as standard, an opt-out of the Working Time Regulations."

For now, it seems we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out. Last year, Rockstar Games was accused of union busting after over 30 employees – who were allegedly either current union members or planning to organize one – were fired. Rockstar claimed at the time that "we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies. This was in no way related to people's right to join a union or engage in union activities."

"There is a magic to what Rockstar does," former GTA 5 dev says ahead of GTA 6, "I just wish they could do it at a lower human cost."

Mario and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto says that the games that resonate the best with players aren't made to chase profit or global appeal.

Speaking to Famitsu (via machine translation by VGC), Miyamoto is asked why he thinks Nintendo's games have global appeal on the scale that they do. The Mario creator recalls the many times he's been asked how a "mustachioed middle-aged guy" became the best-selling game franchise of all-time, and admits he has wondered the same thing, but that the key may be that he was introduced alongside fun games.

And that may be the key, because if you really think about it, there is something kind of weird about video games' most iconic character not being a space marine or some sort of superpowered animal, but instead the guy you hire to fix your shower. But Miyamoto explains that when Nintendo comes up with new game ideas, the developers start with the fundamental ideas instead of looking at the current market trends.

However, that isn't to say those trends aren't taken into account, but starting from that point isn't the right way to go about it. The same goes for developers who seek to make a better version of the games they love. He explains that if a game is remembered for being unique, it'll end up making an impact on people.

Miyamoto also adds that he dislikes terms like "recouping costs" or "depreciation," adding that if you are constantly asking, "Will this make money right away?" you won't be making something unique or with broad appeal.

"The people funding these projects are doing it to make a fortune, so why celebrate things like ‘we recouped our investment’ or short-term profits?" He says. "To me, if you’ve burned through the talents of so many people just to achieve that, that feels like a massive failure."

He explains that when people at Nintendo ask what they should do, his number one piece of advice is to turn their idea into something that showcases they were the one who created the game. This has proven to be a great thing for many Japanese developers; you know when you're playing a game directed by Hideki Kamiya, Masahiro Sakurai, or Hideo Kojima simply by playing it, and Miyamoto bringing his own experiences into projects is how we got games like The Legend of Zelda and Pikmin in the first place.

Shigeru Miyamoto admits Nintendo's been pumping out "a lot of remakes" as Ocarina of Time approaches, but says most people stopped playing the original games within 5 years anyway.

Hasbro has pulled back the curtain on its first Legend of Zelda action figures during San Diego Comic Con 2026, and they're based on one of the most beloved games in the series.

Three toys will lead the line-up next year; franchise hero Link, villain Ganondorf, and Princess Zelda herself. All of them are inspired by the versions seen in Tears of the Kingdom, and they come with a host of accessories drawn from that game (including the broken Master Sword hilt for Zelda and a Hylian Shield for Link). All three Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figures will be available for pre-order later today. They should release in Spring 2027.

Produced by company imprint Hasbro Pulse (which is known for highly detailed action figures and replicas based on everything from Star Wars to Marvel), these Legend of Zelda toys stand at around six inches tall and feature multiple points of articulation for more realistic poses.

Hasbro Pulse has a reputation for creating impressively screen-accurate figures, and these don't disappoint. They certainly rival some of the best toys in terms of attention to detail. Actually, the thing that impresses me most is how they capture the cel-shaded design of the video game perfectly; they're surprisingly close to their on-screen counterparts. That's not easy to pull off without striding headfirst into the uncanny valley.

Am I a little disappointed we didn't get classic Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf to kick things off? Yeah, but Tears is a phenomenal game that's widely beloved with its own excellent designs, so I can't say it's too much of a blow. Plus, I'd be astounded if we didn't get more old-school Legend of Zelda action figures down the road. This isn't gonna be a one and done situation thanks to how broad the licensing deal is.

Indeed, this is just the start. As revealed last week, Hasbro has the license to produce all kinds of toys and games based on the series. Seeing as Hasbro Pulse creates props like helmets and lightsabers, I wouldn't be surprised if we got replicas based on Zelda mainstays like the Master Sword or Majora's Mask at some point.

What do you think about these figures? Will you be pre-ordering them? Let us know in the comments.

For more toy-related goodness, you'll want to believe you have space in your collection for this Lego X-Files set.

Yo dawg, I heard you like Grand Theft Auto, so I put multiple GTA games inside your GTA. That's probably what the modder behind the GTA multiverse was thinking, because he made it possible to quite literally jump between 3, Vice City, and San Andreas at will.

I'm not exaggerating, either. The creative mind in question is known as Dryxio, and he put up a video demonstrating his digital creation. Starting on Grove Street, the home of CJ in San Andreas, he's confronted by three portals: one going to a spot in the middle of 3, another to somewhere in Vice City, and another taking him to a different location in his current game.

He uses an assault rifle to show that what we're seeing is fully interactive. You can shoot through these portals at NPCs visible on the other end, as if it were a regular window. Stepping into one then places you in the shoes of the other protagonists, either Tommy Vercetti or Claude, and you can continue playing as normal through that particular installment.

It's truly a technical marvel, and in the YouTube comments he provides a bit of insight on how he did it. "All three games run inside the same process, sharing one Direct3D device," he writes.

"Each portal is a live GPU texture, the other game is actually running behind it, it's not a video or a captured window," he adds. "Walking through swaps which engine has control and the others keep running."

What he's saying is that all three games are literally running at the same time, and each instance of jumping through a portal transfers you over to that installment seamlessly. The modification isn't available publicly yet, but I'd advise following him for updates if you're keen to try it.

He's been modding Grand Theft Auto games for some time, with other videos on his channel for a San Andreas map editor and a filter for giving any clip the aesthetic of the 2004 classic PlayStation 2 release. This sets a pretty high bar for where he could go next. Can't believe we got all three PS2 GTA games running simultaneously before GTA 6.

GTA 6 probably won't include any cut content, says GTA 5 producer, even though Rockstar snuck "unannounced" game's missions into GTA 4

Leads working on Castlevania: Belmont's Curse have spoken out about how it will continue the series' tradition of challenging difficulty, while allowing players ways to mitigate it through level ups, exploring alternative paths, and if none of that works for you, difficulty settings.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Belmont's Curse's producer Tsutomu Taniguchi describes how people might mitigate the difficulty by using the game's mechanics. "People might find the game difficult if they can't win a certain battle, but there are always numerous alternatives," he says. "There is also a level up system so new players and those who are not good at action games can still play. That's always been a part of the series."

Though there are ways in-game to negate the difficulty, there are also settings that deal with potential issues more directly. "For those who still feel that it's difficult, there are settings that adjust the level of difficulty in the options menu," he continues. "Whether someone is good at action games or not, there should be a setting that will leave as many players as possible satisfied."

However, the game's director Yukiko Hokao wants to emphasize that Belmont's Curse will still have the challenge the series is known for. "We didn't want it to be a simple or easy game," she says. "That isn't Castlevania. Looking at early games in the series, I think there is a kind of joy in making progress steadily through a difficult game."

Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille also weighs in with how fairness is at the core of the gameplay. "We also placed a big emphasis on gameplay being 'fair,'" he says. "We're confident that the level of difficulty will satisfy existing fans, and by removing barriers for new players it should be easy for them to get into the game as well."

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse was made to enlighten players who "love Metroidvanias" but have "never played a Castlevania game," Konami lead says.

After recently winning the license, Hasbro has teased its first Legend of Zelda action figures with a couple of iconic accessories – and these suggest which game the toys will be based on.

In a cryptic Instagram post that suggests "The hero's journey begins tomorrow," Hasbro Pulse (creator of the Star Wars Black Series line, e.g. some of the best toys in the biz) showed off miniature versions of the Master Sword and Hylian Shield that will presumably come with its first Legend of Zelda action figures. That in itself isn't a surprise; it stands to reason that a version of franchise hero Link with his most recognizable weapons will be front and center. However, what's interesting is the design used here. This Hylian Shield uses the same aesthetic introduced in Skyward Sword and continued through Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, suggesting that Hasbro's initial wave will be based one of those games.

If I had to guess, I'd assume we're getting Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom Link as our first Hasbro Legend of Zelda action figure. It'd certainly make sense; both games were wildly popular and are very much in the public zeitgeist, so it'd be logical to use them as the basis for a brand-new wave of toys.

There is another possibility, of course; that Nintendo has carried over the Skyward Sword shield design to its Ocarina of Time remake, and these action figures are based on that new game. I doubt it, though. We've not seen anything of the remake beyond a teaser trailer, so I'm not sure we'd get our first look at the revitalized character designs via these action figures.

What do you think we'll get from Hasbro's first Legend of Zelda action figures? Shout about it in the comments.

For more collectibles, don't miss the best Lego sets - our guide includes the must-have Deku Tree kit.

Splatoon Raiders producer Seita Inoue and director Yoshihiko Ito have discussed why the team chose to focus on a spin-off game rather than the series' next mainline entry, and basically, it's just because they wanted to. One of the big draws of developing the single-player spin-off, Splatoon Raiders, was that it allowed them to work on something different after 11 years of developing multiplayer games.

In an interview with Nintendo, Inoue discusses how the team wanted to work on a different type of project. "We’ve been going full speed ahead for over 11 years since the series’ launch, developing and updating three titles along the way," he says. "We thought it might be interesting to create something with a slightly different approach to gameplay, where you can really savor the action on your own."

Despite the team's pivot to a single-player game, Nintendo hasn't given up on Splatoon's multiplayer roots, with Inoue hinting that Splatoon 4 will be the next step for the team.

"One of our motivations for developing this game was our desire to create a new entry point into the series by releasing these non-competitive elements not just as a secondary feature, but as a standalone spin-off," he explains. "That said, we will continue to develop competitive gameplay going forward."

Ito previously worked primarily on Splatoon's single-player Salmon Run mode, so it makes sense that he would lead a Salmonid-based spin-off.

"Originally, around the time our work on updates to Splatoon 3 was winding down, we were exploring whether we could develop a single-player experience that players could dive into to their heart’s content, leveraging the gameplay of Salmon Run," he says.

With how frantic the attacks during Salmon Run are, the team started discussing using it as a way to leverage the Switch 2's power.

"We'd discussed developing the next Splatoon game for Nintendo Switch 2, and that being the case, we thought we could really take advantage of the system’s performance," he explains. "This prompted various experiments, such as ramping up the number of Salmonids for the 'ultimate multitasker' experience, where a single player battles them all."

Splatoon Raiders review: "Smartly translates Squidling vibes into a looter shooter I keep coming back to, even if some repetition grates"

One fan-favorite feature in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has seemingly been patched out of the game, and players are begging Ubisoft to restore it.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced lets you toggle Edward's hood on and off with a quick press of a button while you're exploring the world, and until recently, it was also possible to do so at the most cinematic moments – during leaps of faith.

"In case you didn't know, you can toggle your hood while doing a leap of faith, and it looks awesome!" reads one Reddit post from 11 days ago, which was met with enthusiastic replies like "this is too damn cool!"

And apparently it really was too cool, because it's no longer in the game. "Did Ubisoft remove the ability to toggle your hood while sliding and leaping?" questions a more recent Reddit post shared after the game's latest patch, adding: "It was so cool, why did they patch that out? Is it just my game? Please tell me it's just a bug."

Unfortunately, it's not just their game. "Same for me. Heartbroken," reads one reply, as a fan on Twitter observes: "Ubisoft removed one of the best features in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced."

Looking through the patch notes for last week's title update 1.0.4, there's nothing that explicitly states that the option to toggle your hood while performing a leap of faith has been removed – I can't help but wonder if maybe it was tied to one of the more generic sounding changes, like "fixed various clothes clipping issues" or "fixed various character clipping issues." That, or its removal was a total mistake. Either way, though, folks are certainly making their disappointment known.

"PUT. IT. BACK," begs one fan, directly tagging Ubisoft. Another asks: "Pls put it backk it was a cool feature!!"

Whether Ubisoft listens remains to be seen, but the team has definitely been taking feedback on board. Game director Richard Knight recently confirmed that the team is working on an option to hide Edward's blowpipe, noting that "the feeling is mutual."

While you're here, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players have spotted a mysterious German cathedral they believe to be linked to Ubisoft's upcoming new mainline entry Assassin's Creed Hexe, in a part of the game that features landmarks from other entries in the series.

Replacing the modern day segments from the original game, Black Flag Resynced features various Animus Rifts, weird pieces of terrain that allow Edward to see alternate realities. For example, one of these rifts shows Edward the life he could have led if he'd kept his promise to his wife and returned home within two years.

However, one of the later rifts isn't about Edward as much as his ancestors, as he walks through an area featuring buildings from every "period two" game. We see structures from Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage, and Shadows, all of which are part of the Animus Hub, alongside a mysterious cathedral that points to the setting for the upcoming Hexe.

Some fans believe the building to be an old version of Würzburg Cathedral, a site which has been rebuilt many times over the years. Not only is the Bavarian city of Würzburg the location of one of the largest and most brutal witch trials in history, but it is also the setting proposed in a previous leak, adding more fuel to the rumor's roaring fire.

Very little is known about Assassin's Creed Hexe aside from the fact that it will be set during one of history's many witch trials. However, given that Hexe is the German word for witch, we're thinking it's more likely to feature sauerkraut than Salem.

While this doesn't confirm that Würzburg will be the setting for Hexe, the hints are certainly mounting in favor of the German city being the next Assassin's Creed hot spot.

Assassin's Creed Hexe setting potentially leaked as a witchy German city, and Ubisoft fans think it's "the best possible outcome."

Splatoon Raiders has some serious questions to answer. Can a series that became popular through an exclusively PvP experience really work as a solo game, despite dipping its toes into the ink via add-on modes previously? Moreover, can it work as an offline loot shooter of all things? Can that still feel like Splatoon? Although you'd be forgiven for betting a hundred squid against it, the answer to all of the above is "yes".

For reasons that are happily never explained, you find yourself working as a mechanic for the band Deep Cut from Splatoon 3. One injury-free crash later, you're all stranded on the Spirhalite Islands, which are littered with treasure. There are also lots and lots of Salmonids to fight while you're looking for it, and… that's all you need to know, really. The first 10 minutes or so are frustratingly stop-start, as the game constantly pushes tutorials in your face in case this is your first videogame, but once that's behind you the game flows nicely.

Raid raid don't tell me

This is a Nintendo loot shooter, with the emphasis usually on 'Nintendo' rather than 'loot shooter'. The fundamental idea of this being a solo entry in the genre is unusual in itself (and if you're confused about the game's marketing stressing the single-player nature while also cheerily pointing at multiplayer, I'll get to that in a bit). Unexpectedly perhaps, avatar customization isn't a huge aspect. You can, of course, tweak your Octoling or Inkling appearance to an extent, and there are a bunch of outfits to unlock, but you won't face a constant barrage of fashion choices.

Most levels take the form of either a mini explorable island, or a series of small battle arenas, the latter of which must be completed within a time limit. Both follow the basic Splatoon rules. You move faster while in squid form travelling through the ink fired from your own weapon, you can swim up inked vertical surfaces, submerging yourself in your ink slowly refills your tank, and enemy ink slows you down. There are various gadgets to equip, and a member of Deep Cut will accompany you with an ultimate attack to charge up – but nothing beats using the weapon in your hands to take out your foes. The satisfying pop-pop-pop-pop noise that you can somehow feel as ink builds up on an enemy until they burst is present and correct, and somehow, never gets old.

It's just as well that combat works well, because it makes up the majority of the experience. The dungeons (such as they are) are nothing but combat, and the islands send you off to defeat waves of enemies that protect shiny blue rocks you need to mine. It's simple, but never dull. In fact, while Splatoon Raiders works great as something to play for extended sessions, it also works perfectly for a more casual dipping in and out approach. Generally speaking, a single raid can be finished in five minutes or so, and the intensity of enemy waves means that it never feels overly brief.

Weapons don't exactly rain down upon you, but they drop often enough for you to be changing fairly regularly. The selection could have been better, though; once higher-level enemies start appearing in raids, anything that isn't rapid fire quickly becomes less and less viable. I was never a fan of the vaguely dirty-sounding Slosher in the first place, for example, and it's certainly not up to the task of dealing with intense waves of enemies here.

That said, Nintendo is keen to accommodate a wide variety of players. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, and you're allowed to bounce between them however you like. I found that the middle option was pretty much perfectly weighted, but if you're after a softer or more demanding experience, Nintendo has you covered.

You can play with up to three friends locally or online, but the philosophy primarily driving the multiplayer aspect of Splatoon Raiders is to treat it as another way to mitigate the difficulty. Before choosing to start a raid, you can select 'call for help' to trigger matchmaking, and up to three other players will join. At the end of the raid – whether successful or not – your merry group is disbanded. Similarly, once you reach a certain level you can choose to 'go help', and be randomly matched with somebody looking for a hand. Good luck keeping track of other players in the pastel-colored chaos once you're there, though.

This approach to matchmaking may rub some the wrong way, but I like it. The idea of people randomly, briefly coming together to overcome a tough challenge before they each disappear like Batman is a neat one (it's not entirely altruistic of course, choosing to 'go help' has extra rewards involved for success). In practice though, it's more of a lottery than it should be. Say what you like about SBMM (and I'm sure that you do), but it would come in handy for Splatoon Raiders. I've been on both sides of a situation where the 'help' that arrives is at a level significantly lower than the person calling for it.

Some very silly embargo restrictions prevent me from adequately discussing the experience after a certain point. What I can safely say, however, is that reaching character level 40-45 represents significant disruption to the flow of the game. There's no fundamental change to the experience, but the challenge gets something of a rocket boost around the time you're likely to reach this level. That suddenly means you'll need to grind XP in previously explored areas and multiplayer to an extent that wasn't required before. Upgrading and customizing weapons and gadgets is simple and effective enough to remain enjoyable, but ultimately, just a few more islands would have kept things consistent up until the end.

Splatoon Raiders was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2, with a code provided by the publisher.

Grab a friend and hop into our best co-op games recommendations.

Stellar Blade for Nintendo Switch 2 has been rated by the ESRB, suggesting the handheld version could be getting a release date soon, and the rating suggests you won't need to worry about another Dispatch-like censorship situation.

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is probably still a while away yet, so anyone looking to catch up on the original Stellar Blade who somehow missed out on its PS5 and PC releases over the last two years will presumably be looking forward to the Nintendo Switch 2 release of Shift Up's action game. The port was announced during the Nintendo Direct around Summer Game Fest time with a generic "2026" release date attached.

Obviously, a release date has to be on the way soon given that we're over halfway through 2026, but we now have a bit of evidence that suggests it could be imminent. The ESRB has rated the Switch 2 edition of Stellar Blade, and would you believe it, it's almost exactly the same as the rating for PS5 and PC. The game is still rated M, and the only difference is the removal of "also includes In-Game Purchases" from the blurb.

Earlier this year, Dispatch, the beloved superhero title from former Telltale Games devs AdHoc, released on Switch 2. The game featured sexually explicit content, and when it finally arrived on Switch 2, the option to leave this content uncensored was unavailable. Nintendo and AdHoc both said it wasn't their choice, but the situation remained unclear. AdHoc did eventually release the HR Violations Pack, but this still didn't fully uncensor the game.

Given that Stellar Blade is an especially violent game and one that doesn't shy away from sexualisation of its main character Eve, some wondered if it would share a similar fate on Nintendo's platform. However, from the sounds of things, the content will remain the same on Switch 2, with the ESRB rating promising "cutscenes and battle sequences depict close-up images of impalement, dismemberment, and decapitation," as well as "breasts that jiggle during combat," and most shocking of all, "the word 'sh*t' appears in the game."

So for those of you who liked Stellar Blade, or are looking to try it out the Switch 2 edition, you'll seemingly be getting the same game as everyone else. Too bad it won't make the story or combat any more interesting though, but Shift Up says the sequel should be a bit more substantial on that front.

Stellar Blade boss admits he "struggled" with its boring main character, but going into Blood Rain "realized that players can fully immerse themselves even in a character with a strong, distinct personality."

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse producer Tsutomu Taniguchi explains that he proposed the development of a new game in the series after reading comments from Metroidvania fans who'd never played a Castlevania game.

Castlevania may be the one half of the genre name, but according to Taniguchi, many self-professed Metroidvania fans admit they've never played any games from the franchise. In an interview with Famitsu, he spoke about how development of Castlevania:Belmont's Curse began from this revelation.

As translated by GamesRadar+ Taniguchi says, "I was a fan of Castlevania long before I started on this project. Since joining Konami, I kept seeing people on social media and in fandoms saying that they love Metroidvanias but they've never played a Castlevania game. They might have seen the anime, but they'd never played the games."

Taniguchi realized that while Castlevania has good brand recognition, it doesn't mean that everyone has had the chance to play the games. "I started to think about what I could do about this as both a Konami employee and a fan," Taniguchi says. "So we began by porting old games to collections to create a way for people to play previous works."

Castlevania has received three larger game collections: 2019's Castlevania Anniversary Collection, 2021's Castlevania Advance Collection, and most recently 2024's Castlevania Dominus Collection. Despite the wide range of series games distributed across these collections, the series' most popular entry, Symphony of the Night, hasn't been part of a collection since the PSP's Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles and its update 2018's Castlevania: Requiem.

"We also wanted to build more ways for new players to experience Castlevania, like the [Dead Cells] DLC I mentioned previously," Taniguchi continues. "Of course, I also wanted to see something new, so I proposed Castlevania: Belmont's Curse."

Fans have waited 12 years for a new Castlevania game, but Belmont's Curse is an even greater gift for swine like me who have never played the series

Rockstar probably isn't planning to slip any sneaky cut content from its previous games into GTA 6, says GTA 5 producer John Ricchio, though the developer has done it before.

Ricchio tells Kiwi Talkz about Rockstar's approach to cut content in a recent interview, "If the tech is fundamentally the same, or similar enough, you can sometimes plop it in as like, 'Hey, let's just see how this works.'" Ricchio specifically remembers Rockstar adding "some" missions from a cancelled, unannounced game into GTA 4, "which was kind of cool."

"So there's the notion like, 'Hey, this idea is cool. We should keep this idea going.' I think that 100% happens," Ricchio says. But "when it comes to actually, like, lifting scripting or a code into a new game, that depends a lot on how much the tech has changed."

Still, even when Rockstar devs could borrow intriguing concepts from previous games, they might choose not to. Ricchio explains, "In a lot of cases, there's almost never – you're usually not limited by ideas, right? Like there's always tons of ideas. The more creative folks you got, you got tons of ideas."

"I haven't seen a huge need to go back and pull from old stuff unless something was just really cool," Ricchio continues, "and people really want to bring the idea forward."

But what if I want to learn if Bully's cut Tie Headband Punk could turn his life around among GTA 6's Leonida beaches? "It's possible," says Ricchio about Rockstar adopting cut content, but "I don't think it's very common unless you're doing a fast-follow."

GTA 5 had "so much" cut content, including minigames that were almost "completely done," former Rockstar dev says: "They'll throw out entire levels."

An unofficial Castlevania: Symphony of the Night PC port has finally emerged from its crypt, but it's based on the Xbox 360 edition of the game rather than the original.

Recompilation efforts have made a big wave in the industry over the last few years, and so far – a few outliers like Sonic Unleashed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 notwithstanding – have mostly focused on the fifth generation of consoles, with most of the all-time N64 classics having brilliant PC versions available right now. Super Mario 64 was the first time I'd heard of it happening, but impressive ports for Banjo Kazooie, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask have been big hits among fans.

When it comes to iconic games from the fifth generation, there's far too many to mention, but one of them is undoubtedly Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – the reason that genre is called Metroidvania and not just Metroid-like.

And would you look at that, the newest game to join the long line of recompiled PC ports is Symphony of the Night. NocturneRecomp was released by birabittoh (thanks Time Extension) earlier this month, and ends an almost 30 year wait for a PC port.

However, it's not the PS1 original, the Saturn version that featured exclusive content, or the PSP release with a new translation that was later adapted for its PS4 port. Instead it's the Xbox 360 edition from 2007, which is the version I first played the game on and still has the iconic intro voice acting, so not a bad version at all, but a hindered one. It lacks the CG cutscenes and ending theme from Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater singer Cynthia Harrell.

Of course, you'll need to have dumped your own copy of the Xbox 360 version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to use it, but considering that version is still readily available on the Xbox Store (and backwards compatible) that shouldn't prove too difficult.

With that said, you could just play it on one of those consoles if you have it, but thanks to the power of modders, the prospect of restored Saturn content potentially coming to the PC port is certainly exciting, alongside those CG cutscenes.

Fans have waited 12 years for a new Castlevania game, but Belmont's Curse is an even greater gift for swine like me who have never played the series.

Assassin's Creed Hexe is a mystery. The follow-up to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is so unknown that all its fans have to go on is a Blair Witch-style logo and a series of high-profile departures that threaten its very existence. But what you, the uninitiated, may not know, is that there's a pattern running through the entire series that gives away a lot more about the upcoming Assassin's Creed game than you might think.

Since the beginning of the series, every mainline Assassin's Creed protagonist has taken it in turns to be either a Nerd or a Bastard. The former are those characters who are steeped in the Creed and all it stands for; stoic, stalwart, disciplined. The latter are those who use their skills as much for their personal amusement as anything else. Taking down Templars might be their duty, but it can also be good fun - and it won't necessarily get in the way of a good time once the Bastard is off the clock.

If you're not prepared to take my word for it, I'm happy to show my working. I've enlisted the help of GamesRadar+'s cabal of AC experts to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and while there are a few grey areas (and while we're not counting games like Rogue, Liberation, or Freedom Cry), my theory holds up.

History lesson

We start with a nerd. When we first meet Altair Ibn-La'Ahad in the first Assassin's Creed, he's embedded deep within the Brotherhood and its teachings, at a time when its mission seems critical to his homeland's survival. He is calculating, serious, and entirely absorbed in his task. It's a collection of character traits that make him the proto-nerd, especially when you compare him to his immediate successor.

Jumping ahead to Assassin's Creed 2, Ezio is almost the opposite of Altair. Brash, arrogant, getting in street brawls and fleeing over rooftops just for the fun of it. Admittedly, his revenge quest puts a little bit of a dampener on that, and Ezio definitely mellows over time, but you get the sense that he's having fun and prepared to toy with his prey a little more. You don't fist-fight the pope and not end up with some kind of bastard status.

AC3's Connor is a huge nerd who, in fighting for his homeland in a manner similar to Altair, seems to barely crack a smile throughout his entire story. That's in marked opposition to his pirating grandad in the series' fourth instalment; Edward Kenway is a massive bastard, who is doing everything for the money and is barely an assassin for most of Black Flag. He's not interested in the Creed, wishing instead to get rich quick and hopefully have a good time while he's at it.

AC Unity is a personal blind-spot, but I'm reliably informed that Arno is a big ol' simp, who does pretty much everything he does in his game in the uncomfortably chivalric pursuit of a girl. Across the channel, Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Evie and Jacob are a little harder to place in contrast. Evie seems like a nerd, and Jacob is hard to classify as a bastard because he's such a himbo, but his pursuit of vibes-based gang violence and presence as a slightly bigger character than his sister makes Syndicate a bastard game.

From there, it's on to the modern era. Bayek kicks things off by bringing the stoic, desert-dwelling attitude of Altair back to the series in Assassin's Creed Origins. Alexios and Kassandra then immediately reject that vibe in Assassin's Creed Odyssey in favor of fighting and *ahem* sleeping their way across the Mediterranean. Much like fighting the pope, having a signature move based on the movie 300 is definitely a bastard-signifier. The religious Norse underpinnings of AC Valhalla mean that even though Eivor is prepared to have a good time demolishing monasteries, they're too nerdily obsessed with the gods to gain bastard status. But then Basim throws up an issue.

Assassin's Creed Mirage once again features a Creed-steeped desert environment, where Basim is a bit of a nerd as a fledgling Hidden One in ninth-century Baghdad. But overall, the presence of Loki within Basim as established in Valhalla means that he honks bastard status, giving way for Naoe and Yasuke to be big 'ol nerds whose Japanese background all but requires them to be extremely dedicated, serious figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Back to Edward for Black Flag Resynced, and the bastard/nerd pattern holds up into 2026.

Yer a Wizard

All that brings us to Hexe, which by every metric I can consider looks like another major win for my pattern. Granted, we don't know much about its narrative, but many signs point to its tone and setting. Eagle-eyed fans pinned the Assassin's Creed Hexe setting to the 17th Century Wurzburg Witch Trials in Germany, and subsequent leaks have made that prediction more likely.

A game with Hexe's witchy theme was always likely to feature some nerdiness. Craft of all kinds, whether or not it was associated with magic or even medicine, requires devotion to learning and precision, which means a driven, academic protagonist seems likely. A community under threat draws comparisons to Connor and Altair, both massive Assassin nerds. And if setting can play a major part, as it did with Bayek, Naoe, and Yasuke, 1600s Germany in the grip of a religious fervor seems likely to prove a setting where the kind of flippancy that makes for a good bastard is not looked upon kindly.

Clearly, there's every chance that Hexe bucks the trend, but it certainly doesn't seem likely to offer up some carefree hero based on everything we've learned about it so far. The only thing that could disrupt my pattern is the rumored remake of an early Assassin's Creed game. If Altair returns just before or just after Hexe, that'll be two nerds in a row. I'll just have to pray for a post-Hexe Ezio remaster to keep my immaculate theory intact.

Explore the best Assassin's Creed games ranked in order of greatness, from the RPG era to spin-offs.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced game director, Richard Knight, hopes people are still playing his remade pirateventure by the time GTA 6 comes out this November.

Modern Assassin's Creed games have typically had surprisingly long legs with Ubisoft supporting titles such as Assassin's Creed Shadows and Odyssey for months or sometimes even years after their initial release dates. There aren't any concrete plans for a Black Flag Resynced roadmap just yet - at least, not one that's been made public - but an extensive post-launch tail is looking ever more likely.

Asked about whether Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced would be supported for at least a year, Richard Knight tells JorRaptor that he "can't say anything officially," but the suggestion "doesn't feel like a crazy bet" because "we definitely need to support the game."

"We need to, you know, fix bugs," the game's lead explains. "Sorry for anyone running into bugs, uh, they hurt - they're painful for us, too. And we do want to add some quality-of-life stuff. So, I mean, it's a pretty reasonable guess." So far, those quality-of-life updates include an upcoming New Game Plus mode and a toggle to hide Edward's blow pipe.

The Black Flag Resynced director didn't put a proper timeframe out there, but he did ask fans to "please play us when when GTA 6 comes out," perhaps suggesting us seafarers will get something new before the year ends.

DLC plans are also not official but not too outlandish, either. "I know some folks on the team have DLC ideas," Knight says, though whatever comes next will be more focused on Edward Kenway's story. Don't get too excited about a possible Freedom Cry redux, then.

The day-one Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced DLC everyone said they hated has earned Ubisoft nearly $1 million, analyst estimates

A former Rockstar Games producer says the famed studio is careful to scrub cut content from its game files in an effort to avoid accidentally shipping anything it doesn't want the public to lay eyes on, and we can thank the GTA San Andreas Hot Coffee scandal for that.

For context, more than two decades ago, GTA San Andreas and Rockstar Games found themselves in the middle of a scorching scandal. The open-world game maker at one point developed a sexually explicit minigame for 2004's San Andreas, but eventually decided to scrap the idea before launch to avoid getting slapped with an 'Adults Only' rating that would keep the game out of most US retailers.

But instead of outright bleaching the minigame off the game's files, the GTA San Andreas devs simply made it inaccessible to players. That didn't stop the modding community from finding the hidden code come launch, enabling the so-called Hot Coffee minigame, and then kickstarting a wave of legal backlash against Rockstar. The controversy got so loud, the studio had to reissue a version of the game devoid of Hot Coffee.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz, former Rockstar Games lead producer John Ricchio said the scandal made the studio much more careful about how it handles cut content. "One of the things after Hot Coffee, obviously having things on the disc is dangerous," he explains. "You don't want to necessarily have stuff on the disc that people can find."

Ricchio goes on to say that Rockstar now puts in "a huge effort" to "strip everything that is not included out of the game," and ensure that unintended content doesn't accidentally ship, even if it's hidden in the game's code.

On the topic of cut content, Ricchio shares that it's not very common for Rockstar Games to reuse scrapped ideas in future games. An exception is GTA 4, which actually includes some levels that originally began life in a different unannounced and eventually-canceled game. Transferring code or scripting tools just depends on how much the tech has changed from game to game. Maybe don't expect GTA 6 to include anything left on GTA 5's cutting room floor, then.

Former Xbox boss says GTA: San Andreas and its infamously NSFW Hot Coffee minigame "signified a maturing of the industry" and put games "on par with movies and music"

Ubisoft developers had to rebuild most of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag entirely from scratch to make this year's swashbuckling remake, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, because the original 2013 code was largely unusable for a 2026 game.

Black Flag Resynced is a pretty faithful reconstruction of one of the best Assassin's Creed games ever made, but even though the remake sticks to the original's story and open-world structure very closely, the team at Ubisoft were still essentially making a brand new game.

Speaking to JorRaptor about the project's development, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced game director Richard Knight put it in simple terms: "Quite frankly, it's a brand new game."

"We can't use the code from the original," Knight explains. "I mean, it's nice to think about, but what was it built on, you know, Windows 2000? Like, it was a long, long time [ago]. Not that bad, but the codebase and the tech is so completely different that we use the original as reference. Sometimes we can occasionally pull an asset as a placeholder or something to model the new stuff. But mostly we just look into the code to see how things work, to look into the data, to see how certain things worked, to learn some of the secrets. But we effectively have to rebuild."

Some of Black Flag Resynced's more dramatic changes - the revamped combat, the graphical overhaul, the new narrative content - were always going to require more work. But even when the remake stays faithful, the team simply weren't able to lean on archival code.

"There's lots of systems for this game that we just rebuilt, and partly to be the best case version of whatever it was before, but also because we needed to," Knight adds. "So, when you go fresh sometimes that gives you the ability to make changes." (By the way, you can get a deeper look at the differences with our guide on all changes in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.)

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs already "have DLC ideas," lead confirms, but that doesn't mean Freedom Cry is coming: "It's definitely a game we remember"

Rockstar Games' open-world adventures almost always try to one-up their predecessors, at least in terms of sheer size, and that's not a pattern one former GTA 5 developer anticipates will change when GTA 6 finally blasts onto the scene.

John Ricchio, a former producer on everything from GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption to Max Payne 3, was recently asked about whether he'd even want to be part of the studio ahead GTA 6's imminent launch.

"I think the fact that every single time they do a GTA, it's ludicrously bigger than before is like something that I think about," Ricchio says in a chat with YouTuber Kiwi Talkz. "Like, I can only imagine the size of GTA 6. Like it must be monstrous. Or if not monstrous, it's probably way more detailed."

That's an expectation he has based on Rockstar Games' track record so far. As he notes, GTA 5 was "significantly bigger than GTA 4," which itself was much bigger in many ways than the original Red Dead Redemption. "Even between GTA and RDR, they were continually growing the size of the world," he adds. And while the ballooning scope adds extra wrinkles for the development team, "it really does make you feel like you're in a place."

Circling back to the question, Ricchio then laughs and says, "I'm pretty happy that I'm not on GTA 6. Not that it wouldn't be cool to work with those people… but it is really difficult, and it's a hard period of your career when you're working that hard on something." Despite the hard work, seeing how excited people get over his work is "magic" and "so rewarding" for Ricchio.

GTA 6 is on track for "the strongest pre-order campaign ever recorded" and up to $5 billion in sales by "the end of launch week," analysts say

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at Ubisoft are, technically, currently running a community treasure hunt throughout July with three secret pirate troves ready to be torn open. But it's not the challenge Ubisoft anticipated – fans are way too good at playing pirate, having already dug up all the loot in a matter of days.

Ubisoft introduced the community hunt only last week on July 11, writing in a Twitter post, "We've heard word that 3 chests lie hidden across the Caribbean, each containing a unique bounty. We'll drop a new clue every Friday of July! Remember... No pirate sails alone. Work together, crack the clues, and claim the treasure." But there really wasn't any need for patronizing – pirate-tronizing? – advice. Black Flag Resynced players have already dug up all the gold they could. (Spoilers ahead for pirates who want to work out Black Flag's community event on their own! Argh!)

The first buried chest is located at coordinates (421,939), and rewards players with 4,000 Reales – this is the classic treasure hunt reward, a fat mound of money. The second chest located at (501,168) is a little more dramatic: it includes the legendary Uncrowned Prince rapier and legendary Guardian Beast Figurehead. One player on Reddit seems to have discovered it on a lark, writing in a post, "I think I stumbled onto some more items." They did, indeed.

Then, there's the third and final community chest, which contains the biggest prize of all. Found at coordinates (28,293), this bounty includes the legendary Aveline Figurehead and rare Explorer Outfit originally found in the Assassin's Creed Black Flag from 2013. Resynced players initially fretted that the exceedingly rare outfit in red and white – traditional Assassin's Creed colors – hadn't been brought over from the original game. But, as content creator Synth Potato puts it on Twitter, the Reddit user -Holliday was blessed with "genuinely insane luck" and discovered the Explorer Outfit waterlogged at the bottom of the ocean.

"I glanced at my map after taking a naval contract and just how the area looked on the map peaked my interest enough to go check it out," -Holliday explains in a Reddit thread. "Dropped anchor and jumped off, I immediately seen air bubbles and could not believe my eyes once I spotted what was inside. I was honestly briefly shaken with excitement since I knew it was highly sought after and didn't believe anyone had found it yet."

"You just ruined it for Ubisoft," replies another Reddit user. "I love it."

Ubisoft confirms on Twitter that, "We were going to reveal a clue for this community chest on Friday but your treasure hunting skills are too great." That's too bad for Ubisoft, but a pleasant indication that fortune favors the Black Flag fans.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – now known as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – was such a tightly-guarded secret within Nintendo's corridors that the vast majority of employees only found out about the game's existence along with the fans.

Nintendo of America ex-marketing and PR leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang (formerly the director of social media marketing and original content, and senior manager of creator relations and original content, respectively) recall that the open-world sequel was perhaps the most top secret project in all of their years working at the company, courtesy of a recent YouTube video.

Ellis says the sequel held a "higher level of security than anything else" he's ever worked on, and "less than 10 people probably at Nintendo of America" knew about the game before its similarly shadowy reveal trailer during the Nintendo Direct at E3 2019 – one that didn't even come with an official title, release window, or gameplay glimpse attached.

"I had to do all of these teams' jobs in secret, and when this [the reveal] happens, feed them this thing and tell them what to do with it," Ellis, one of the few people who did know about the game's existence before its reveal, says. "For example, the social team, who I was overseeing at the time." Ellis didn't usually create social media content for the publisher's various channels or write press releases and whatnot, but in this case, he did because the rest of the team had to remain in the dark.

That also means that for many Nintendo employees, including Yang, their first time finding out about the sequel came when they watched the Direct stream live together. Although Yang had already seen the rest of the presentation in advance, the trailer's appearance at the end came as a complete surprise.

"We popped off," Yang says. "That was the first time I've had a surprise at Nintendo in all of my, at that point, 12 years or something... It was crazy." The duo also remember that it was the first and perhaps only time Nintendo had ever kept a secret from that many staff members so close to a project's reveal.

Before E3's eventual demise, Nintendo would also screen their presentations for the media before they went live for the rest of the world. The version of the Nintendo Direct that the press saw and that Nintendo employees rigorously prepared was missing that final One Last Thing moment.

I can't say I'm entirely surprised, either – Breath of the Wild was the game that ushered in the Nintendo Switch era and it very quickly became one of the most lauded games of all time. For good reason, I might add. It's still one of the best Switch games ever, and funnily enough, also one of the best Switch 2 games so far thanks to some very sweet technical improvements. No surprise that it's follow-up carried so much hype, then.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says Zelda: Breath of the Wild was "the first open-world game that actually delivered on the promise of an open world."

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players beg Edward to put his pipe away, Ubisoft has confirmed it's looking into it.

The remake of the title many people consider the best Assassin's Creed game is unsurprisingly pretty well liked, with it being the fourth-highest-rated game in the series – it even saw the biggest Steam launch in the series' history. But the biggest complaint with the game itself – well, aside from the gross $80 DLC and it being briefly unplayable over the first weekend on PC, but those aren't as funny – has been Edward's pipe.

For whatever reason, the blowpipe weapon in Assassin's Creed Black Flag has been moved for its Resynced return. As far back as months before the game launched, fans picked up on the weird positioning of the weapon, and players have been asking for a toggle to make the blowpipe invisible until you need to use it.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor, Richard Knight – game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – acknowledges the complaints about the weapon. When JorRaptor mentions that players are looking for a way to hide it, Knight explains, "I'm not sure this is official yet," but "one of our most senior programmers is working on it right now." He adds, "The feeling is mutual. I have a feeling it's coming soon."

As for why it wasn't there from the get go, Knight says: "I wish it was just a magical feature that just was there the moment it started, but it's just because of the way characters are set up." He explains, "Somebody has to do setup to make this specific part of the character just disappear only when this specific setting is enabled, which you know we need to do."

So while nothing is "official" yet, you can rest easy knowing you'll be able to have Edward sans blowpipe soon.

If you're yet to set sail in Ubisoft's new remake, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review.

Rockstar Games' open worlds are humungous affairs full of things to buy, shoot, collect, rob, and do. Although with games as lush and extravagant as Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5, it might surprise you to learn that Rockstar Games is actually quite restrained, and the developer cuts a lot of content before passing the finish line.

That's according to former GTA 5 producer John Ricchio, who recently told Kiwi Talkz about how the Grand Theft Auto developer trims the fat on its mammoth games. "There was so much stuff in GTA, particularly GTA 5 – oh my god, there was so much stuff that was like done," he says in the interview. "Like, minigames that were completely done and ready to go, except for like animation, right?"

Minigames were allegedly binned because "the animation team were getting destroyed," and there was "so much animation work to do to bring everything to the same level" in a game as large as GTA 5 "that we had to cut stuff that was otherwise completely done." There simply wasn't enough time on the calendar to have everything meet the same level of quality.

Ricchio was often told by fellow developers that sweeping cuts are just "'a thing that happens, you know, because the game is so big – GTAs are always gigantic.'" Rockstar leaders wouldn't hesitate to bin larger parts of the game, either: "They'll throw out entire levels and they'll throw out entire things because they don't have enough resources to get everything to the same level."

Major cuts were sometimes "hard to deal with" for the dedicated developers who had been working on features or levels or minigames for a "really long time," especially when everyone on the team was happy with the cut work. "It wasn't like they went into DLC or anything… They just disappeared," Ricchio adds.

But he also acknowledges that such cuts are part of working under a "large production" like Rockstar Games, and it's sometimes for the best. "Every decision can't be made by everyone," he says, and when a developer's headcount stretches as wide as Rockstar's, there'll inevitably be decisions that not everyone will agree on.

According to another ex-developer, an entire single-player Agent Trevor DLC was abruptly scrapped after the dizzying success of GTA Online. Rockstar Universe also lists all of the games' supposed cut content, mostly based on glimpses of features from old trailers that never made it into the finished product.

GTA 5 is still selling millions a year, letting Rockstar do whatever it wants with GTA 6: analyst estimates 1.8 million just on PS5 in 2026.

Surprise! The official PlayStation YouTube channel has randomly dropped a new trailer for Marvel's Wolverine with some notable story and character reveals, and as you might imagine the community is – wait, what's that? Oh, the comments are absolutely flooded with anger about Sony's decision to end physical discs, to the point where hardly anyone is actually discussing the content of the trailer.

The trailer seems to effectively be an extended cutscene, but it does have some meat for fans to chew on. We see Wolverine chasing a photo of himself and Jean Grey through an array of battlefields, suggesting that their relationship will be a central part of the story. More surprising is that Sabretooth – who we've seen appear in previous footage – seems to be teaming up with Logan. We've also finally got confirmation that Lady Deathstrike will appear in the game.

But if you scroll through the comments on YouTube, you won't see much discussion about those facts. Instead, you'll see messages like "We want physical games," "WE WANT PHYSICAL GAMES!" and "WE WANT PHYSICAL GAMES!!!!" Others are chiming in with comments like "That disc is going to look awesome," "This is gonna be a day one buy on physical disc," and "Can't wait for my PHYSICAL COPY."

Marvel's Wolverine will indeed be released on a physical disc, something that the devs at Insomniac confirmed in the wake of news that GTA 6 would be a digital-only launch. Since then, Sony announced that there will be no more new PlayStation games on disc as of 2028, so it seems Marvel's Wolverine is likely among the last of a dying breed.

Analysts expect that Sony "will not reverse" its decision to kill discs despite the backlash, but boy – that backlash is loud on the official PlayStation YouTube channel. It's not just a response to a big, first-party title like Wolverine, either – every single new trailer uploaded to the channel is inundated with the same sorts of comments supporting physical media.

Non-Sony devs are certainly taking notice. Eat Pant Games, the New Zealand indie studio behind adorable platformer Teeto, posted a harrowing recap of seeing 400 comments under the game's release trailer, only to find that they're all about physical discs. Teeto is a small enough release that it's only happening digitally for now, but the devs are hopeful that could change in the future: "WE CAN HAVE BOTH."

Despite some reports to the contrary, Sony hasn't been shutting off comments in response to the backlash. Trailers for titles like Instant Sports 2 are flagged as family-friendly content on YouTube, which means comments are turned off automatically – presumably to protect kids from the horrors of gamers who are mad about Sony's efforts to hasten the death of physical media.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games is "the latest attack on our diminishing rights," leading digital rights group says: "The end goal is to turn the customer into a renter."

Yesterday, one of the most vibrant (and visually stunning, might I add) indie games of the year released – and now, just one day later, it's proving to be one of the most impressive launches of 2026 yet.

In case you've not heard of Denshattack! (yes, exclamation mark and all), It's a colorful mashup of Tony Hawk and Jet Set Radio vibes. Players take on the role of a… erm, train, riding through a dystopian Japanese cityscape. The gameplay is fast, fierce, and refreshing, giving folks almost no time to take a breath between rails – in the best way possible.

Steam ratings support this, too, with "Very Positive" reviews so far. In fact, it's under the "Popular New Releases" page on Valve's platform, and it's currently sitting in the list of the top 10 best-selling games right now, too.

That's not all, either – as a Reddit roundup of Denshattack! reviews highlights, critics are enjoying the action-packed indie gem as well. Data over on Metacritic shows it's got an average score of 88, placing it on the website's list of "Best Games This Year," right behind Resident Evil Requiem.

Denshattack! Review Thread from r/Games

Developers have evidently caught wind of their new release's rapid success now, too, with one amusingly commenting in the review thread. "HI DEV HERE WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING," their reply reads, with a cute little ":D" at the end. It's wholesome, and fans' responses are even more so.

"You made an awesome game," exclaims one player. "Buying it cuz it looks great, and as a bonus, my 3-year-old will love watching it."

Others echo this sentiment, with somebody loudly typing, "YOU'VE MADE A PIECE OF ARCADE ART, MY FRIEND!" That they have, anon. That they have.

It's clear that the Steam Next Fest demo from earlier in the year helped draw attention to Denshattack! as well, with fans reporting that they "loved the demo" and are buying the full game after playing it. You love to see it – or, at least, I certainly do.

If you're interested in hopping on the wild ride that Denshattack! has to offer, it's currently going for $17.99 over on Steam with a 10% discount in celebration of its release.

Need something else to look forward to? Here are the best new games coming this year and beyond to wishlist now.

GTA 6 is expected to draw the highest pre-order figures in video game history, a new analyst report finds, and could top $5 billion in global sales by the end of launch week.

Newzoo released a dedicated analysis of GTA 6 pre-orders tabulated so far. Estimating around $180 million in combined digital sales across the first week in the US and the top five European markets, the firm concludes that Rockstar's long-awaited open-world epic is on a course for "the strongest pre-order campaign ever recorded." (Reminder: there are no real physical copies of GTA 6.)

These six markets represent roughly 69% of lifetime console players for GTA 5, Newzoo adds. Gaming demographics have shifted a bit since GTA 5 was released approximately 37 years ago, but this is still a solid base for GTA 6 estimates. Estimating uncounted regions, week-one pre-order sales may have been as high as $260 million.

"Placed on the sales curve GTA 6 is likely to follow, that puts it on pace for $3.3 - $5.2 billion in cumulative global sales by the end of launch week," the report reads. This is quite a large range, but even the low end would be monolithic – factors higher than Rockstar's estimated development budget.

This range exists because Newzoo is using this $180 million start as the base for three different models: the "brand-new IP," the "sequel with performance uncertainty," and "the proven sequel - a known quantity." GTA 6, obviously, "will most closely resemble the proven sequel curve," which sees more linear growth and less of a "hockey stick" spike associated with new IP.

"Massively anticipated each release with a tried and tested formula," Newzoo says of such games. "The audience is aggregated, loyal and established. They don’t need to ‘wait and see’, so a higher share of the total revenue is booked early in the pre-order window."

Splitting the difference a bit, "GTA 6 is on pace for $4.5 billion in sales by launch week (roughly 51 million units at an assumed $88 average selling price)."

Newzoo also (correctly) skewers "social media reports" suggesting Rockstar had already raked in billions in revenue through GTA 6 pre-orders. Such figures were bafflingly repeated by a Rockstar union representative, who claimed the company can "easily afford" to meet union demands after "reportedly" earning $3 billion in pre-orders. Rockstar's pot of gold is beyond question, but you've got a better shot at a snowball fight in Hell than any unreleased premium game selling upwards of 30 million copies in a few weeks. Not even GTA 6 can eat the mountains and drink the seas.

Addressing claims GTA has "done a billion dollars in pre-orders," the report adds, "This is absurd. Given how pre-order curves look, nothing ever has and nothing ever will in the near future."

GTA 5 producer John Ricchio reckons GTA 6 is skipping PC at launch, not because Rockstar doesn't care about the platform, but because consoles had to be prioritized.

Hacker behind GTA 6 leak that cost Rockstar $5 million reportedly awaiting retrial after being released from secure hospital.

Of all the games I've never played, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag may be the most celebrated. I've heard praise aplenty for its enticing sailing mechanics and roguish protagonist Edward Kenway, but I've never felt the desire to explore Ubisoft's take on the Golden Age of Piracy – at least, not until I saw the first trailer for Resynced.

The remake's announcement was received with huge excitement, so much so that even a landlubber like myself, who has never really clicked with Ubisoft's back catalog, was caught up in the frenzy. So when I met Kenway's actor, Matt Ryan, I took the opportunity to ask him if I should play the original or begin with this new iteration. "Start with Resynced," he said, and so I did, and I can say with glee that it's the best Assassin's Creed game I've ever had.

Running down to Cuba

In play, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is as gorgeous as it is gripping. Tearing across the cruel yet comforting waters of the Caribbean, I'm in awe of the multitude of things to do: battle enemy vessels, lay siege to forts, harpoon sea creatures, drop anchor at some new shore; or simply bond with my ship's many animal companions (Albert the Monkey is my best friend).

The result of all these activities is hours feeling like minutes, with no amount of time ever enough to slake my thirst for more adventure – and I say this as someone who normally gives up on Ubisoft games before the 10-hour mark. Why has Resynced hooked me so easily? It starts with the location.

The Caribbean is one part of the globe I can't imagine myself visiting. Not for lack of desire, to be clear, but a deficit in funds. Travelling isn't cheap, so the beauty and history of this area of the world will likely always remain a mystery to me, Black Flag Resynced provides a welcome alternative.

Boasting a beautiful map brought to life by Spanish architecture, Mayan ruins and tropical beaches, there's few games as pleasurable to play tourist in than Ubisoft's latest pirate entry. I have a similar relationship with the Like a Dragon series, taking in the streets of Kamurocho or enjoying an arcade in Isezaki Ijincho as if I'm simulating a vacation instead of concerning myself with any plotlines.

In fact, so great is the joy of simply existing in Resynced, I relish doing the open-world-checklist-style side quests on offer, something I usually ignore in favor of pursuing the main narrative threads. Instead of sailing after my destiny, I'm uncovering treasure chests like I'm in The Goonies, or tinkering with ancient puzzles like Nathan Drake.

Riches and reputation

Now, while there is no doubt equally as much pleasure to be found in the original Assassin's Creed 4, I can't imagine I'm missing out by playing Resynced instead. Some content has been cut, and we're a fair few years on from the rose-tinted Xbox 360 era the original game launched in, but playing on PS5 I'm having just as magical a time as I was led to believe I would.

The visual overhaul is magnificent and I can see how big an improvement it is because my mind's eye isn't clear of nostalgia. The character movement is slick, and the settings menu gives options to adjust the free-running/parkour experience for a more nuanced feel. Add to all this the fluid open-world structure with an impressive lack of loading screens, and it's hard to imagine any version of this game from two console generations ago could contend with it.

And yet, I still believe it could. The enjoyment I get from Resynced has me eager to play more games from the franchise. I want to try Altaïr's story, see Ezio's trilogy through to the end, and find out what AC3 has to offer before eventually setting sail in Ubisoft's first version of the Caribbean. Sure, I'll likely struggle with aged parts of the older game, but something tells me it'll be worth the effort. Whether I stay the course I can't know yet, but the desire to try is a sign of Resynced's quality.

All that's left to say is thank you to Matt Ryan. His encouragement has resulted in hours of fun listening to sea shanties, swordfighting with soldiers and cuddling with Albert. Here's to the rest of my voyage.

Players have had just seven days to enjoy Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and talk of DLC is already starting. The devs have notions about how they'd like to carry on Edward's story and the world of the Caribbean, but don't expect to see a redux of the Freedom Cry expansion just yet.

"I know some folks on the team have DLC ideas," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "We need to balance those out with our future, and then updating the core game."

Knight calls Edward "our focus" and the "heart and soul of the original game," and Ubisoft is keeping that aspect at the forefront. "Maybe there could be more to tell there too," he comments.

You'd think Freedom Cry, the spin-off DLC from Black Flag, would be a natural evolution for Resynced. But since the protagonist and setting differ, focusing on Adéwalé in Saint-Domingue marks a departure from Edward.

"I can't really say anything as to a Freedom Cry," he adds. "We've got our hands full with this game right now. Freedom Cry, it's not a small thing either."

He mentions the devs are "still figuring out" what to prioritize at the minute, since there are all the post-launch fires to put out, and whatever additional plans are already in place for the coming months.

Assassin's Creed games are always among the bigger releases in any given year, and Black Flag Resynced is one of the more hyped in recent memory. The original's a fan-favorite that still holds up, and getting to hop back out on the seven seas is something plenty of us are jumping at. Freedom Cry would be an added bonus, and Knight understands the yearning for it.

"It's a game we remember," he says. "It needs some modernization work. These are just things we consider; I really don't know the future beyond supporting Black Flag Resynced."

The terrible weather in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is fixed in a new patch that also adds hints for a notorious boss fight

The hacker charged with breaching Rockstar Games to pull off 2022's infamous GTA 6 leak has reportedly been released from the secure hospital where he was being held as he prepares to face a criminal trial later this year.

Arion Kurtaj – a member of hacking group Lapsus$ who allegedly pulled off the enormous Rockstar Games hack in a hotel room using an Amazon Fire Stick, mobile phone, and hotel TV while on bail for a different hack – was deemed psychologically unfit to stand trial back in July 2023. In December 2023, over a year on from the incident which Rockstar Games stated had cost it $5 million to recover from, it was reported by the BBC that the then-18-year-old would spend life in a secure hospital unless he was deemed to no longer be a danger by doctors.

According to a Bluesky post from BBC News cyber correspondent Joe Tidy, Kurtaj's circumstances have now reportedly changed. Kurtaj is "out of the secure hospital he was sent to and now in a normal prison awaiting retrial," Tidy reports, adding that he "will face a conventional criminal trial in November."

Back in December 2023, a judge reportedly determined that Kurtaj was a risk to the public because of his skill and desire to commit cybercrimes, with a mental health assessment stating that he "continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated."

Shortly after the hack took place, Rockstar said it was "extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way," but said, "we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects."

Even so, as well as apparently costing the company $5 million to deal with, Rockstar later told the court that the incident had taken up thousands of hours of staff members' time.

While you're here, be sure to catch up on everything we know about GTA 6 so far.

Hasbro has locked in a new licensing partnership with Nintendo to produce The Legend of Zelda toys and products from 2027 (quick, someone play the treasure-chest-opening sound effect).

Although it's still early days, the first reveals will come in just a few days; three 6-inch figures are going to be revealed during San Diego Comic Con, which takes place between July 23-26. However, these Legend of Zelda toys aren't just going to be limited to action figures. By the sounds of it, this deal includes all kinds of products – and because Hasbro produces everything from plushies and roleplay replicas to tabletop games, it's possible that Link and co will join the best board games as well as the best toys.

Hasbro's president of toys and board games, Billy Lagor, says that the “Legend of Zelda franchise has captivated fans through its deep lore, unforgettable characters and enduring sense of discovery [for decades]. By combining Nintendo’s iconic storytelling with Hasbro’s leadership in action and role-play, we’re delivering toys that invite fans to play, explore and forge their own epic adventures."

Considering how few and far between Zelda toys have been up until now (they're largely limited to the Nintendo Store or replica items from the likes of Paladone at Amazon), this is likely to be encouraging news for fans who'd like to see more Legend of Zelda merch based on the franchise. I'm not concerned about quality, either; Hasbro is responsible for everything from the incredibly detailed Marvel Legends action figures to high-quality helmet/lightsaber replicas from Star Wars The Black Series, so it has a track record.

Hasbro is also a giant in the industry with access to some of the world's biggest IP, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that we'll see high-profile crossovers in the not-so-distant future. It owns the organization that makes the best Nerf blasters, for example, so I think we can count on a tie-in Zelda blaster at some point. In much the same way, it also heads up Wizards of the Coast – the organization that makes D&D and Magic: The Gathering. Whether fans of those games would want a Zelda tie-in is up for debate (it's a fierce argument right now, with MTG head designer Mark Rosewater saying fans must adapt or "walk away" if they don't like Universes Beyond), but it's now a possibility at least.

It's certainly been a fruitful year for Hasbro so far; just a few months ago, the company announced that it had gained the Harry Potter merch rights (which makes an MTG crossover feel inevitable). In addition, it recently got the license to produce KPop Demon Hunters toys as well.

For more cool collectibles, don't miss the best Lego sets - which includes Legend of Zelda models, no less.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says that while GTA 6 will be monumentally huge, devs need to do more to appeal to people who don't care about the biggest AAA games.

Speaking to Kotaku, Layden says that for a potential PS6, iterative hardware that promises a bit of a higher framerate or better ray tracing isn't going to cut it, and that console makers need the software to justify spending money on a new console. "I think we’re already kind of limiting our reach just because of the games we’re building now. I mean, variety and range seem to be narrowing," Layden says, singling out popular genres like "a zombie apocalypse game, or it’s a space marine game, or it’s guys with really long swords and not much armor and dragons."

"Of course, Grand Theft Auto is going to be like an asteroid piercing the atmosphere and hitting the gaming universe with great force and power." Layden says, adding, "But there are a lot of people in the world who really don’t care about Grand Theft Auto, the non-gaming community."

He explains, "We talk about how big we are, $220 billion, $250 billion industry, but our social impact is the reverse. Everybody has a favorite song. That’s probably the least revenue-generating entertainment category, music, compared to gaming and film and television. But yet it has the widest impact."

Layden says, "gaming, it’s huge on the revenue side of things, but it’s a very select group that are doing it. We’re getting more money from the same people all the time and not necessarily bringing in new people into the experience."

He adds, "If these people who aren’t in the gaming experience have already said 'we don’t care about Call of Duty, we don’t care about Grand Theft Auto, we don’t care about Gran Turismo,' doing more of those same games is obviously not going to appeal to those people either."

Layden continues, "We need to bring out more games for more people, which means actually you have to have more people making games and in different places and different experiences. I want to find out what games from Uruguay look like and what kind of game designers we have in Bulgaria."

Granted, Layden's tenure as head of PlayStation was when Sony's first-party output began to focus on the cinematic third-person action game style that permeates its output today (or rather, did before Jim Ryan and Herman Hulst's live service pivots). And with the closure of the likes of Japan Studio, I think it's pretty unlikely Sony's output will be much more diverse in the future.

GTA 6 faces potential $35 million fine if Rockstar doesn't comply with online safety laws that mean Australians would need ID to play.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced made some notable changes to the original game's weather system to make storms more dynamic and realistic – but they've also gotten annoyingly frequent. Thankfully, that's one of the key changes in title update 1.0.4, which also includes a wide array of bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Title update 1.0.4 will go live at 7am PT/10am ET/3pm BST on July 16. The update is 2.44 GB on PS5, 2.7 GB on Steam, 3.71 GB on Ubisoft's PC launcher, and a whopping 15.35 GB on Xbox Series X and S. You can check out the full patch notes on Reddit, but there's no doubt the big highlight is the weather.

Ubisoft has "fixed the issue where the weather never becomes foggy" and "tweaked weather system balancing to increase the proportion of sun and clear skies." That'll come as a great relief to the players who've been complaining about the weather from the start, since the storms have been rolling in with alarming frequency, cutting short shanties and preventing you from using your fastest sails.

But there's one other tweak that catches my eye: "During the battle with El Tiburon, it might be unclear for some players on how to break his defense," Ubisoft admits. "We have added hints for players on how to break it." That is a highly specific issue that you'd hope would've been addressed through pre-release testing, but hey, this is why it usually pays to wait for a few patches.

There are other, more substantial content updates on the way a little further down the line, including a New Game Plus mode. The devs are also taking a look at potentially restoring some of the combat options that were cut for Resynced, though it's not yet certain when or if that's actually going to happen.

If you're wondering how much you've got left to play of Resynced, check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag mission list.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players quickly noticed that our old pal Edward feels noticeably better to play in many ways but has also forgotten some of the techniques he had several years ago. Game director Richard Knight says some elements of the original game's combat system were left out in the remake because they were of lower priority compared to finalizing the core action, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're gone for good.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor (thanks, PC Gamer), Knight explains some of the triage involved in much of game development. "During development, if you looked at Edward, he's so powerful right now, he's got so many tools," he recalls. "So we prioritized core combat because we needed to nail that."

Edward's ability to source throwing weapons has been heavily discussed. Knight touches on this as an example of a non-essential mechanic for the remake. (There was also quite a bit of chatter around the removal of hidden blade combat in favor of Edward's dual swords.)

"Something like the throwing weapons, while it's cool, it's just like, he already has 10 ways to kill somebody," he reasons. "Given the cost to reinvent the feature and rebuild it from the ground up with today's characters and rigs and animation and all this, there's just a lot more that goes into it.

"So it was just lower priority for us. I don't have anything to share on this one yet, but we're definitely listening. I read all the good and the bad feedback."

Knight stresses that he "can't make any promises" regarding combat updates or reinstated features, but does say, "We're listening to the community. We're interested in what people want the most." Throwing weapons seem to be near the top of the list, but as Knight says, would likely require quite a lot of work to add in. Of course, that probably won't stop modders from bashing a version of this together themselves.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is getting New Game Plus, and while Ubisoft isn't ready to say exactly when it's launching, this feature is a high priority for future updates.

YouTuber JorRaptor asked about New Game Plus in an interview with game director Richard Knight, and while the dev couldn't say much about the option, he repeatedly emphasized that it's currently in production.

"Well, this is the one thing I can say: Yes, we're working on that right now," Knight says in the interview. "For sure. It's one of the first things. Partly because Shadows has already built their version, so it's considered a low-risk feature for us. We're still doing the work, so I can't promise exactly a day or anything, but we're definitely working on this one. It's just such a natural thing."

Simon Lemay-Comtois, associate game director of Shadows, "did the hard work" of introducing New Game Plus, Knight jokes, which does give the Black Flag Resynced team "something to look at" when implementing it. But "our games are not exactly the same," Knight explains. "We have different challenges in terms of how that works. We can't skip to the hideout, necessarily. But we're looking into it."

Asked if Black Flag Resynced will have additional rewards for New Game Plus similar to Shadows, Knight says: "If it's up to me, yes. There's still production discussions about what we can do and how much time it takes. Every item we make needs a model. Sometimes it needs cloth sim. All sorts of things."

In other words, it sounds like this iteration of New Game Plus is still pretty early in the design phase. Knight adds that, in his opinion, the "more exciting" part of New Game Plus is simply stomping early-game foes with late-game power, but it sounds like those sorts of details are still being ironed out.

And, again, that also goes for the release date. "I really can't promise anything – just to say it's at the top of the list of things," Knight emphasizes. "There's a lot of things. Some are harder than others, but it's something we definitely want to get done."

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced's underwater levels draw praise, dev says those responsible are "being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve."

The Black Flag Resynced Isla Providencia location is a Mayan temple island that the Nassau Warehouse treasure map leads to. The problem? The Animus doesn't let you go there unless you've completed a particular quest in Black Flag Resynced's main story, resulting in a forced desynchronization if you attempt to sail the Jackdaw to the island's shore. So, to help you reach Isla Providencia and complete the relevant treasure map, I've explained how to unlock it and where the buried treasure is below.

How to get to Isla Providencia in Black Flag Resynced

Isla Providencia is a Mayan Temple island on the southern border of the map, southwest of Kingston, at (487, 23). To gain access to the island, you need to play through almost two-thirds of the main questline to get to the Vainglorious Bastards quest – you can check out the full Black Flag Resynced mission list here to see how far along you are.

Complete this short and simple sailing quest and you'll then be spat out on Isla Providencia for the next mission called 'Mutiny'. Once you complete this mission, you can travel to and from Isla Providencia as you please.

Black Flag Resynced Isla Providencia treasure location

Now that you've hopefully made it to Isla Providencia, you can dig up the buried treasure. You need to head to the three palm trees clustered together near a small rocky outcrop along the beach at (487, 11).

The dig spot is right in front of the middle tree, so follow the button prompt to rip the chest from the sand, bagging you the Govenor's Outfit – one of many Black Flag Resynced outfits – and 2,000 Reales.

Note that you can dig this treasure up during the 'Mutiny' quest or you can come back to Isla Providencia later to dig it up. While you're this far south, you may also want to look for the Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest and clear out all the chests in the Black Flag Resynced Anotto Bay smuggler's den.

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If you were paying attention to audience reactions to God of War Laufey, you likely noticed the ever-predictable objections to a female-led spin-off. You know the type to complain, and they're as laughably pathetic as ever. Deborah Ann Woll, the voice of our eponymous protagonist, was asked for her take, and she's simply unbothered.

While she was signing at Florida Supercon, a fan asked Woll about misogynistic backlash, recording her response for TikTok. "I mean, genuinely, I thought I was going to be much more affected by it," she explained.

"One, I'm not on social media, so that helps," she continues. "And two, I don't know, I feel totally unbothered because I just know it's great. Like, it’s okay if it’s not your cup of tea, but in no universe is it bad."

We don't have much to go on at present, but what's available about God of War Laufey paints a strong picture. For a start, the game is developed by Sony Santa Monica, the same studio behind the mainline God of War series. This more or less guarantees the same flowing, weighty combat, gorgeous visuals, and solid writing of the last two Kratos-led, triple-A releases.

And then we have Laufey herself, who'll be a breath of fresh air compared to the literal decades we've had of grumpy, old Kratos and his blades. The concept of God of War Laufey being a narrative parallel to the first game, as Laufey explores the afterlife, assisting her child and widowed partner, is also a strong one, and I'm fully expecting to get choked up while playing and mutilating whatever demons get in my way.

Is the gelatinous cube kind of weird? Sure. But in context, it'll probably be fine. It's not the first time we've all been sold on a simple cube in a major video game, is it?

Sony Santa Monica confirms "God of War Laufey will be available on disc" despite PlayStation's war on physical.

Black Flag Stalking Zones appear on certain Assassin Contracts as an additional challenge option to earn a little extra money. The trouble is Black Flag Resynced never actually says what a stalking zone is, leaving you to work it out for yourself. Fortunately, the answer is simple and, if it seems weird, remember this game is technically 13 years old and it all goes back to how they did things in the old days...

How to assassinate someone from a Stalking Zone in Black Flag

A stalking zone in Black Flag Resynced is just any bush or grass that hides you. If Edward appears with a white outline, you're in a stalking zone. As you can see from the shot above, it's a very technical distinction leaving Edward very obviously sticking out while completely concealed.

The reason for this is that it's a throwback to the original game where stealth wasn't actually optional, and was instead only triggered by entering specific areas like tall grass and bushes. This stalking zone system was introduced in Assassin's Creed 3 and a dedicated crouch button didn't actually arrive until Unity. So, adding a crouch button is one of the more notable changes in Black Flag Resynced.

Confusingly, you can also get Assassin Contracts where the challenge is to do it from stealth. In those cases you can do it from corners, overhead branches etc - anywhere where you're hidden or undetected, including stalking zones. However, the stalking zone criteria only works from bushes and plants that give you the white outline. There are 30 of these murdery side quests, forming quite a big chunk of the Black Flag Resynced mission list, so you'll be looking for the right spot plenty of times. And, if you have your heart set on completing them all, that will play into how long it takes to beat Black Flag Resynced.

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The Black Flag mission list features 51 main missions in total, including 8 new ones made for Resynced specifically. There are also around 61 side missions across things like Assassin Contracts, Officer Quests, collectibles and so on, bringing that grand total up to roughly 145.

That breaks down roughly like this:

• 51 main missions
  • 6 side missions
    • Former Glories
    • Mayan Mysteries (16 missions)
    • Damn Fine Gear (16 missions)
    • Blackbeard's Treasure
    • Captain Stede Bonnet
    • Art Lover
  • 11 Officer Quests
  • 30 Assassin Contracts
  • 15 Naval Contracts

Of course there are some semantics involved here. Damn Fine Gear is a mission, to complete 16 other missions, so I've counted that as 17. There are also various other things to do in the world - like the 12 Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps, 10 Forts you need to destroy, or the 26 Sea Shanties to chase and collect and so on. Those I haven't counted and instead have focused on the map marker objectives you can find and tick off. Obviously, what you do go after will affect how long it takes to beat Black Flag Resynced too.

Here's how that all breaks down below

Black Flag main missions

There are 51 main missions in Black Flag, an increase from the original game thanks to 8 new quests added to the original 43. These missions are spread across 12 sequences, with the new content unlocking at the end of Sequence 11.

Black Flag side missions

There are multiple side missions and objectives to find and complete in Black Flag, which are listed below. However there are six general side quests, some of which group together into longer mission chains:

1. Former Glories - upgrade everything at your Great Inagua mansion.
2. Mayan Mysteries - Complete all 16 Black Flag Resynced Mayan Stones and collect the armor.
3. Damn Fine Gear - Get all four Black Flag Resynced Templar Keys and unlock the armor.
4. Blackbeard's Treasure - Find the X on the Black Flag Resynced Blackbeard's Treasure map (new for Resynced).
5. Captain Stede Bonnet - Find Stede Bonnet's ship and crew (new for Resynced).
6. Art Lover - Find 30 pieces of art for the Butler at your Great Inagua mansion.

Former Glories and Art Lover are basically collectible missions, as are Mayan Mysteries and Damn Fine Gear, technically - albeit with more to them than just collecting things. Captain Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard's Treasure are new mission that expand elements of the original game's plot and the respective characters.

Let's take a look at everything in a little more detail:

Officer side missions

There are five Black Flag Resynced Officers you can unlock. Two are mandatory unlocks as you progress through the main campaign but three have their own mission chains with 11 missions in total:

Templar Hunts

The mission Damn Fine Gear includes a series of Templar Hunts - a sequence of 16 assassin missions you can undertake to get the Black Flag Templar Keys needed for one of the Black Flag Resynced Outfits in the game. There are four hunts, all consisting of four missions each, that are accessible in the quest log on the map page:

Assassin's Contracts

Once you've completed the mission Overrun and Outnumbered with James Kidd you'll unlock 30 Assassin Contracts. These are found scattered around the various towns and settlements, marked on the map with a skull icon, where you'll find a pigeon coop that you collect contracts from. These all involve killing a specific target, often with a bonus challenge like doing it from stealth, or using a specific weapon to get extra Reales.

Naval Contracts

There are 15 Naval Contracts you can take on, starting with one called the A Spanish Plague in Great Inagua which unlocks the rest. That in turn is unlocked by completing This Old Cove. These are a selection of boat based combat missions that see you battling and boarding various vessels and gathering certain cargos.

Mayan Stelae

There are 16 Mayan Stelae to find, each of which involves a small visual puzzles to reveal a stone. Collect them all and you'll get the Mayan outfit which includes a trinket that repels bullets. Technically these are introduced once you complete the mission Overrun and Outnumbered with James Kidd, who introduces you to them. But you can find them out in the world and start solving them before that.

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