February 27 is Pokémon's big 30th anniversary of its original launch in Japan, and while details are slowly trickling in on how Nintendo and Game Freak plan to celebrate, TIME Magazine is already getting into the spirit.

The 96-page special edition issue of the magazine is coming out with three different covers, each featuring iconic pocket monsters from over the year - one cover depicts Mega Charizard X, one has Lugia and Ho-Oh, while the third shows off Rayquaza. You can purchase any of the three covers for $14.99 each on Amazon now.

Sonos currently has a President's Day Sale going on right now that takes up to 20% off sitewide, including a $200 discount on the Arc Ultra that drops it to $899. However, if that's still a bit rich for your blood, there's an even better going on right now. The certified refurbished Sonos Arc has just dropped in price to $449 with free delivery. That's half the price compared to getting the Arc Ultra on sale and an excellent deal for anyone looking for a Dolby Atmos capable soundbar.

Sonos refurbished products go through rigorous testing; they come with all accessories, manuals, and documentation and are reshipped in "pristine" packaging. Most importantly, Sonos includes the same 1-year warranty as buying new.

Sonos Arc Soundbar (Refurbished)

As part of the Dell President's Day Sale that kicks off this week, Alienware's only RTX 5090 equipped gaming computer sees its biggest discount (by far) of the year. The Alienware Area-51 Intel Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC starts at just $4,299.99 after an $1,150 discount with no coupon code or hoops to jump through. Arguably an even better deal is the Alienware Area-51 AMD Ryzen X3D Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC, which drops to $4,449.99. Both systems ship for free.

These are the best deals I've seen for an Area-51 RTX 5090 desktop and beats out 2025 pricing, despite the fact that RAM and GPU prices are on the rise. In fact, as of today, these are the lowest prices for an RTX 5090 prebuilt across all brands and retailers. Once these deals expire, they probably won't resurface for several months.

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC From $4,300

The Alienware Area-51 is Dell's flagship gaming PC. Unveiled during last year's CES, the Area-51 is a super-sized upgrade to the mainstream Aurora R16 system. The significantly larger chassis features more premium build quality and a redesigned cooling system with greater airflow. This is the only model that Dell allows you to configure with the hot and power hungry GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card (the Aurora R16 doesn't give you this option). The first wave of Area-51 systems featured Intel CPUs exclusively, with AMD X3D options released much later in November.

Depending on the configuration you choose, you're getting either an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F or AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB or DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Most of these specs are customizable. Additional system details include a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system for the CPU and a massive 1,500W 80Plus Platinum power supply that allows plenty of headroom for future upgrades.

The Core Ultra 7 is a good gaming CPU, but the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is better

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is an excellent processor that will perform well in both games and productivity tasks, thanks to its 5.3GHz max turbo frequency and 20 cores. You can also upgrade to the Ultra 7 265K for just $50.

However, if you want plan to get this rig specifically for gaming, then the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is considered to be one of the best gaming processors and outperforms any Intel or AMD non-X3D chip in games thanks to AMD's 3D-V-Cache technology. For only $150 price premium, it's worth the upgrade.

Although the 9800X3D is an absolute speed demon for gaming, it only has eight cores. If you regularly use your PC for non-gaming applications that benefit from as many cores as possible, then you can upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-core processor, which doubles the core count while offering similar gaming performance, for an additional $250.

The RTX 5090 is the most powerful graphics card ever

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although with this generation Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in hardware-based raster performance. If you want the absolute best performance for your gaming PC, there is literally no other option from any other brand.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

The Dell Presidents Day Sale offically kicks off this week. Traditionally, this has been Dell's best sale during the early part of the year to score a big discount on both Alienware gaming PCs and laptops. Prices on prebuilts have risen in 2026 because of the increased demand for RAM and GPUs, so if you're looking to upgrade now, you don't want to miss this opportunity to get a new system without an egregious markup. All systems ship free and include a one year warranty. I will continue to add to this article as more deals go live closer to President's Day weekend.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,180

OLED monitors are getting more affordable with each passing month, and for the first time ever I've seen one priced at $350. Even more surprisingly, the deal is for a Samsung monitor. Amazon is currently offering the 27" Samsung G5 OLED gaming monitor for just $349.99 with free delivery. That's $200 off its $550 list price. This monitor also has a 3 year warranty that includes OLED burn-in coverage.

27" Samsung Odyssey OLED G5 Gaming Monitor for $349.99

Oscar-nominated racing blockbuster F1 is getting a sequel, producer Jerry Bruckheimer has now confirmed.

Speaking to BBC News today, Bruckheimer confirmed he was "working on a sequel," though did not share further detail on a filming schedule or plans for a release. It's unknown, too, whether F1 star Brad Pitt will return for the second film.

The quick confirmation comes as something of a surprise, just days after executives from both F1 and Apple TV hinted at the possibility of a F1 follow-up while simultaneously suggesting that any public confirmation was still a year away.

"Stay tuned," said Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali at an Apple TV press event last week. "We're going to tell you something more in the future. Never say never. But we need to digest more the success of this movie because it was something unique. And if you want to think of a new one, it has to be really, very, very good. Therefore, if this will happen, it will not be for next year. But maybe next year we're going to be here, and hopefully we have something more to announce."

Bruckheimer, who apparently didn't get that memo, today said he planned to be involved again — including in casting decisions. "I never worked with Brad Pitt before and it's really a thrill to work with Brad," he added, without confirming whether the Fight Club, Ocean's 11 and Troy star had yet been tempted back on board for the sequel.

Work on F1 2, or whatever it gets called, seems to still be in its early stages — and that's not surprising, considering the fact that the first F1 is still to see out its award season. Released last summer, the movie earned $630 million at the global box office and garnered four Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.

"F1: The Movie follows the sports movie playbook almost perfectly," IGN wrote in its F1 movie review, "finding ways to be just that much better at nearly every stage of its 156-minute runtime – creating a super fun racecar flick in the process that eventually finds its way to victory lane."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

A lengthy, 60-plus minutes Sony State of Play is heading our way this Thursday, February 12, and promises new looks at “third-party and indie games headed to PS5, along with the latest from teams at PlayStation Studios.” So, what upcoming games can we expect to see fresh reveals for and gameplay of? Well, here’s what we think is likely to show up, as well as a few out-there guesses.

Exclusives

Seeing as it's shaping up to be PlayStation’s biggest game of 2026, you’d perhaps have expected Wolverine to show up in Thursday’s stream. Well, a late spanner has been thrown into the works via Insomniac’s official X account, which claims that we won’t be seeing any more of its latest Marvel game until “Spring 2026”. Last time I checked, February was in Winter, so maybe we’ll have to wait a little longer.

Spring 2026.

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) February 10, 2026

At the last State of Play, back in September 2025, Insomniac Games gave us a first look at Marvel’s Wolverine in action. As one of Sony’s tentpole releases for this year, it certainly wouldn’t be a shock to see some more X-Men gameplay, as well as perhaps a release date for Logan’s latest adventure. Could we also catch a glimpse of Daredevil, who has been teased to be making an appearance, too?

PlayStation Studio’s first big exclusive of the year comes in the shape of Marathon, Bungie’s extraction shooter, which will be looking to emulate the success of last year’s Arc Raiders. It’s been a bumpy road for the Destiny developer, such as a plagiarism scandal and poor reception to its alpha, but this week’s State of Play will be one of the last chances for it to convince players to hop into its world on March 5.

Later in Spring, we have Saros, Housemarque’s follow-up to Returnal, which will be dropping on April 30. We’ve seen it pop up regularly on recent State of Play streams, and it would make perfect sense to see it here, too, seeing as we’re only 10 weeks away from launch.

Another PS5 console exclusive is Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, the upcoming superhero fighting game from Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works. Due for release this year, the flashy-looking fighter suffered from an unfortunate leak earlier this week that revealed a few key details about the game, such as the size of its roster. It would not be a shock to see some of this information officially confirmed as fact on Thursday.

PS5 console exclusive Phantom Blade Zero is a hotly anticipated wuxia action RPG coming from Chinese developer S-Game. The lead character is called Soul, so you can probably guess what genre this project borrows heavily from, too. It’s all looking very impressive, and maybe we’ll get yet another look at it in action this week ahead of its September 9 launch.

Then there’s the freshly revealed Horizon Hunters Gathering, yet another spin-off of the mechanical monster-hunting series created by Guerrilla Games. A 3-player live-service co-op action game, it's getting its first playtest at the end of this month, so, again, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we were to get a further look at some gameplay in this State of Play.

Unveiled at The Game Awards, 4:Loop is a PS5 and PC exclusive that appears to infuse some roguelike elements with the co-op shooting of games like Helldivers and Left 4 Dead. That makes more sense when you consider that Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth is behind the project, working with Bad Robot Games, the video game wing of film director J.J. Abrams' production company. No release date has been given yet, but playtesting will start soon, with maybe a timing for that revealed at this State of Play.

One exclusive that we don’t think is coming this year, but would certainly love to see more of, is Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The Last of Us and Uncharted studio’s upcoming sci-fi action-adventure has gone very quiet since its initial reveal back at the 2024 Game Awards. So, is it time for a deeper look into what this new world has to offer? Let’s hope so.

As for what the other PlayStation Studios are up to, your guess is as good as mine, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect one or two surprise reveals or updates. This State of Play stream is over an hour long, after all, so surely there’s something brand-new in there? Perhaps a look at the next project from God of War developer Sony Santa Monica, or a look into the world of Ghost of Yotei: Legends from Sucker Punch? Maybe the time is right for a first sighting of Gran Turismo 8, or an update on the development of Haven Studios’ Fairgames — if we don’t see this one soon, we’ll really start to get worried about it. Then there are two of Sony’s most creative studios, Media Molecule and Team Asobi. We’ve certainly been waiting a lot longer for a follow-up to Dreams than we have Astro Bot, but you never know what’s been going on behind those doors...

Multiplatform

Will we see GTA 6 at this Sony State of Play? No. I will eat my whole fist if we do.

There are a fair few other exciting games that we wouldn’t put body parts on the line for in terms of their likelihood, though. Resident Evil Requiem is imminent, so now seems like as good a time as any to show us one last slice of Leon Kennedy action before the big day on February 27. Sticking with survival horror, Konami has curiously announced a Silent Hill stream will be taking place just two hours after the State of Play. Is this a signal that a more in-depth look at a new Silent Hill game will be at that show, following its reveal just minutes prior as part of PlayStation’s stream? Perhaps this week is when we’ll see Bloober Team’s remake of the original in the series, or – more likely – our first proper look at the Annapurna-published Silent Hill: Townfall, which was first announced in 2022 and has been MIA since.

Back at Capcom briefly, and you can likely expect to see something from one of, if not both, Pragmata and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Final Fantasy 7 remake director, Naoki Hamaguchi, recently teased that Square Enix will “share more updates than ever before” about the project this year. Does that mean a potential reveal of the third part in the modernised RPG trilogy will happen at this State of Play? Or could we get an Intergrade-style bridging chapter as DLC for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?

But, before we get too sidetracked, let’s stick with games closer on the horizon, such as Hitman developer IO Interactive's 007 First Light, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight from Warner Bros. Games. Both are coming this May, and their respective developers could share further info on Thursday. Before those, though, March will bring with it Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss’ ambitious open-world action-adventure that looks set to push the PS5 to its limits. No stranger to a trailer, we can likely expect it to turn up here, too.

As for later in the year, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra recently shifted out of its original window of early 2026 to “beyond early 2026”, so your guess is as good as mine as to when we’ll be playing Amy Hennig’s Captain America and Black Panther in World War 2 story. Legendary PlayStation hero Lara Croft will be returning in a “reimagining” of her original game, titled Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and Finnish developer Remedy is back with another entry in its connected universe, Control: Resonant. Also announced at The Game Awards was the pleasantly surprising Star Wars: Galactic Racer from the makers of Burnout and Need For Speed that is scheduled to drop in 2026. All of these are possibilities.

As for indies, outside of the announcement of a PS5 version of Hades 2, there are a few destined for PlayStation that I’d personally love to see more of on Thursday. Namely, Beethoven & Dinosaur’s coming of age story Mixtape, old-school cartoon-inspired shooter Mouse P.I. For Hire, and Japanese convenience store sim inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories.

What game are you most looking forward to seeing more of at this week’s Sony State of Play? Let us know in the comments!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

Amazon's been a great place to find discounts on video games lately. Hidden among the retailer's selection of PS5 deals at the moment is Battlefield 6, which has dropped to $39.88 (see it here). It's not just the PlayStation version that's seen a price drop, though. Xbox fans can also scoop up it up on Series X for the same price (see it here).

Overall, this is a 43% discount for each platform, which is some great savings to make a move on. According to price tracker camelcamelcamel, it's also just a few dollars away from both PS5 and Xbox Series X's lowest price at the retailer of $35, so why not grab it now if you've been itching to drop in?

Battlefield 6 (PS5/Xbox Series X) for $39.88

Playground Games gave us a first look at gameplay from its Fable reboot earlier this year in January’s Xbox Developer Direct, and among its viewers was the series’ original creator, Peter Molyneux.

IGN recently spoke to the former Lionhead Studios developer in anticipation of his new God game, Masters of Albion, and took the opportunity to ask for his thoughts on what he saw from this new incarnation of Fable.

“When I was watching the Fable trailer, I just felt myself tearing up”, reveals Molyneux. “I know that I could probably be slaughtered for saying that, but I am someone who cries frequently, and I felt incredibly emotional, and the reason I felt emotional was: F*** me. This thing that we created, it's going to live, it’s going to carry on. This world, which we loved creating so much, and other people loved, has a life.”

“And for me, the saddest thing would be to see it diminish, which is one of the reasons I'm really going back to God games. So that was the overall emotion. I thought it was really smart of them to retell Fable 1 rather than have the burden of continuing the Fable story. I loved seeing some of those references. I thought it was super smart to have the kid’s family turn to stone. I thought that was really smart. And so those were all the plus points.”

But… there’s always a but. Although there was plenty that the series’ original creator enjoyed in Playground’s grand unveiling, it didn’t completely hit the nail on the head for Molyneux — with the game's tone and visual design not quite to his tastes.

“I mean, if I was critical, which I think you want me to be, there was a slight antiseptic feel about it," Molyneux states. “But I mean, they've got months and months to build in that character and almost that dirtiness that you want in the world. I never thought Fable as being clean and all the angles being sharp and defined. It's more chaotic. It's more what Old England probably used to be, which was not straight lines, the place, it's more crinkling, and all the buckle belts on people are ridiculously large, and the boots and the hands ridiculously large because that is part of the character. So there’s a little bit more of that character, which I would probably foolishly and ridiculously ask for.”

But these minor quibbles with the current aesthetic certainly aren’t getting in the way of Peter looking forward to getting his hands on it when it arrives later this year. When asked if he plans to play Fable, he replied: “Absolutely. For sure. Not as someone looking for the flaws and faults, but as someone who truly loves and adores that universe.”

I, too, cannot wait to jump back into the fairy tale world of Fable. You can check out all of the latest updates on Playground’s upcoming fantasy RPG here, including how it plans to utlilise a surprising storytelling technique from The Office, and how you’ll be able to marry each and every one of its 1,000 NPCs.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

Masters of Albion, the new God game from 22cans, may well be “the culmination” of legendary developer Peter Molyneux’s career to date, but we may not see its end for many years to come — due to it being the first part of a planned trilogy.

“So this is an epic,” Molyneux tells IGN. “We are thinking about three epic chapters, I suppose you'd call them. Then what we'll be releasing into early access will be chapter one, and it's going to take us quite a few years to get to chapter three.”

“But this chapter one, it has a story. It starts as a classic story of a hero coming and finding his power. There was an adversary who was doing something awful. There was a confrontation. It's a classic. This first chapter is a classic beat of that narrative story. There's going to be love, loss, hate, and betrayal in that first episode of the story. So it is a complete game. We are just thinking bigger rather than, right, this is the game. That's it. We've always been thinking about this bigger story.”

It’s ambitious, a word that has followed Molyneux around for much of his career, whether that be the technologically driven Project Milo, or the experimental Curiosity – What's Inside the Cube? While some of these projects may not have fulfilled their initial promise, many of the British developer’s games have become favourites over the decades. Not least, Fable, of which Molyneux compares in narrative structure to Masters of Albion.

“If you think of Fable, there was Fable 1,” says Molyneux. “We were always thinking when we were thinking of Fable; right, we want time to move on a lot, and so the next issue of Fable is hundreds of years in the future. We thought of that before we even finished Fable 1.

“Whereas something like Black & White, we didn't really think beyond Black & White 2. So when we came to Black and White 2, that felt a little bit clumsy because there wasn't a continuation. So Masters of Albion will finish on a huge… well, I can't say anything. There is a hint in the gameplay trailer at the very end.”

The best laid plans are all well and good, but Molyneux is also fully aware that for two more chapters of the Masters of Albion series to be made, there needs to be both hunger from its audience, and the financial heft to do so.

“My overall desire is that Masters of Albion just brings joy to people,” Molyneux continues. “And if it brings joy to people and there are enough people, we'll definitely be going forward with Master Albion 2 and 3. But you need money to do this.”

Masters of Albion will be released on Steam on April 22, 2026. Do you plan on playing it? Let us know in the comments below. For more, you can check out more details on the god game, or read about what made watching the new Fable’s gameplay reveal so emotional for Peter Molyneux.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

“It's all allowing players that freedom,” says Peter Molyneux. “And that's what we've been exploring with Masters of Albion.”

The god game thrives on freedom, and, arguably, is nothing without it. No one knows that better than Peter Molyneux. The lead developer of landmark god games such as Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White, he’s returning to those roots after years away with Masters of Albion, a self-declared “culmination” of all his work to date that blends those god game greats with other milestones from a long career that also birthed Fable.

Freedom very much is the word I heard most often when speaking with Molyneux recently. His upcoming project, developed at his studio 22Cans, is not only inspired by his own vaunted library, but also by modern masterpieces that have reframed our understanding of player freedom.

“I look at the true greats, things like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom”, Molyneux reveals. “I wouldn't dare to say that our games are anywhere close to as good as those games, but I'm inspired by the fluidity, the seamlessness of those experiences. You're not going through level-up screens. It is just seamless. I'm really inspired by that.”

The latest two Zelda games are heralded for how reactive their versions of Hyrule are, and how their systems beg to be experimented with. You can see a similar ambition in the latest gameplay trailer for Masters of Albion, which showcases the numerous ways you can interact with the world of Albion. You can approach from many different perspectives, from the more traditional city building and infrastructure management layer, to RPG-esque missions full of sword and shield combat, to running the rule over its open world via a massive hand that floats over your townspeople as if The Addams Family’s Thing has risen to deity status.

“The hand really is the star of the show”, says Molyneux. “Giving players the ability to reach into a world, to manipulate things, to move things around, to combine things in ways that we may have never thought of is incredibly alluring for me and really fascinating to experiment with. And the interesting thing is, the more we develop this idea and the more we create it, the more other ideas come around the hand. There are some real surprises in that thing.”

The hand, of course, has played a starring role in Molyneux’s Black & White games, but revisiting the concept has allowed 22cans to add a number of new surprises. Among them, I’m teased, is the ability to contort its four fingers, thumb, and palm into whichever shape you choose, and each and every occupant of Albion will react expressively to that. I’m not saying that you might want to raise only your middle digit up when confronting a tiny person who refuses to behave the way you’d like them to, but you do really want to, don’t you?

There are other, more playful ways to annoy your devoted townsfolk. Want to make a laughing stock of one of your villagers? Then have him parade around the streets dressed in armour made of sausages, created through the detailed factory system that allows you to substitute chainlink for chains of pork. This playfulness and sense of humour are things we’ve come to expect from Molyneux’s games, but crucially, all of these quirks play into Masters of Albion’s world systems, too.

Not only a flicking off device, the hand also plays into the surprisingly deep city-building side of things. This isn’t your standard “drop a mine near a valuable source of ore” situation, but one that lets you express yourself in the architectural design and colour of your buildings. While a snap-together block building system allows you to create towers and factories and housing complexes of your own design, be aware that your arrangements have consequences, including shifting your moral alignment — something familiar to any fan of the Black & White series. But there will also be other, more surprising consequences that evoke the odd systems of Lionhead’s Fable days, such as the rather ominous-sounding arrival of a housing inspector…

Molyneux explains that choices like colour and shape can cause a property inspection, and while he’s careful not to spoil the consequences of a failing grade, it sounds like something worth avoiding.

”You want to be careful that you don't trigger the housing inspector, because when [he] comes and he doesn't like that you've created a slum where everyone's packed together… he does not like that sort of stuff,” he teases.

While things like the housing inspector will take time to occur in-world, Molyneux also wants to ensure that there’s instantaneous fun to be found in designing towns and individual buildings. He’s doing away with the genre staple construction timers, instead getting straight into the buffs and nerfs each new block might bring.

“I love playing city-building games, but I always get frustrated that I have to build a mine here and that's it,” Molyneux states, clearly frustrated by the time spent waiting for resources to start flowing. “[In Masters of Albion] you can build anything you want, anywhere you want, and it works immediately. There are no wait timers. If you've got a farm and you've got a mill and you've got a factory, you can say, ‘I'm just going to put them all into one building’ and you can make this thing that looks like Howl's Moving Castle with all these workstations for your workers, and it will work as you are building it. You don't have to wait for bricks to come to build it. I really want it to feel more like Lego than anything else, that immediacy of what you are building.

Like Howl’s Moving Castle, there’s nothing rooting you to the spot. “You could go back to your original town, which is Oakridge, and you could say, ‘Do you know what? I'm going to move the whole of Oakridge to Wyrmscar, so I'm going to have everyone live in Wyrmscar.’ So this all comes back to god games being about freedom.”

But that freedom also needs direction, and that’s where Masters of Albion’s story comes into play. Launching into early access on April 22 will be chapter one of a planned trilogy, for which a full “epic” story is planned. While tales will play out in the world as you (literally) build it by hand, it appears the main thrust of its narrative structure can be found when Masters of Albion morphs more into a Fable-like shape, as you possess its heroes and venture out on RPG-like quests, slashing enemies down with a sword or turning them to dust with magic.

“One of the things that we haven't done a good job of explaining is that there is a narrative story”, admits Molyneux. “It’s a huge epic story that winds through the entirety of the game. You saw a couple of times in the gameplay trailer that when the gold scroll was clicked on, that's a quest. If it's a gold scroll, it's on the golden line. It's a story quest. If it's a silver scroll, it's an optional quest.

“And all those quests, they give you more stuff”, he continues. “They may give you one of the currencies in the game, they may give you more blocks that you can build with, they may give you more parts that you can design things with.

“You'd be travelling through a land in Fable, and you'd see a chest, and you go and open that chest,” Molyneux explains. “We've got that in here. You can go and open a chest just like in Fable, you can stumble upon a scene that is playing out, and you can get involved in that scene. And so we've been inspired by the open-world nature of Fable 2 and Fable 3.”

Masters of Albion does sound ambitious, but ambition is something we’ve learned to take as a given from Molyneux’s work over the years. Whether these many complex, intertwining systems all come together and work in harmony is, of course, yet to be seen. I’m hopeful, though, because without big swings like Masters of Albion, genres such as the god game would be left to stagnate. That’s something Molyneux is highly aware of, due to the complex nature of their conception.

“It's very hard, in my experience, to sit down and say, ‘Right, I'm going to design a god game.’ Because so much of it is the visceral feeling of connecting these gameplay systems together. It is a very frightening design process that you'd think, ‘Oh, I wish I could just make a first-person shooter. I know what a first-person shooter is.’ It's a terrifying development process to make a god game.”

Masters of Albion will be released into early access on April 22, 2026, and is available to wishlist now on Steam. For more, check out how 22Cans plans for Masters of Albion to be a trilogy, and Molyneux’s emotional reaction to watching the gameplay reveal of Playground Games’ upcoming Fable.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

HBO's Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, has quickly become one of this year's best shows. Thanks to its heavier focus on levity and wholesome moments (it's not without its predecessor's violent moments, though), interest in the show's source material has skyrocketed since it premiered in January.

The Hedge Knight graphic novel adaptation, the first of George R.R. Martin's three Dunk and Egg short stories, is currently sitting at #3 on Amazon's Comics and Graphic Novels charts, even outselling Absolute Batman Vol. 1. The second book, The Sworn Sword, is at #7, while The Mystery Knight has yet to break the top 100.

Following the Spider-Man and Cyclops action figures, a new Marvel character is making its way into the S.H.Figuarts and TAMASHII NATIONS Gamerverse line-up: Wolverine. For those who can't wait to add Logan into their collectible collection, this figure is now available to preorder for $99.99 with a release date of September 25 this year.

That's still quite a ways away before it's officially released, but don't wait too long to get a preorder in if it's caught your eye. Figures like these can sell out fast, so it's always worth getting an order in ahead of time.

Preorder S.H.Figuarts Gamerverse Wolverine Action Figure

Similar to the other figures in this lineup, the Wolverine action figure is close to six inches tall. He comes with some great interchangeable parts as well, including different faces that show gritted-teeth or him shouting. Alongside that, claw parts are included for both of his fists, of course, and he comes with a backdrop sheet that shows off his Fatal Claw move from Marvel vs. Capcom, which you can see below.

Honestly, there's truly no better time to pick up this action figure, what with the new Wolverine game from Insomniac coming out later this year. Again, if it's caught your eye, now is the time to get a preorder in before it sells out.

If you're on the hunt for even more action figures to grab right now, both Hasbro and Mattel have some exciting releases lined up. To keep up with the Marvel fun, Hasbro has revived its classic Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars toy line, and for those who have Masters of the Universe on their mind this year thanks to the upcoming film, Mattel has revealed a new lineup of Masters of the Universe movie toys for fans to check out.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Marvel's Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games has set expectations ahead of tomorrow's big State of Play broadcast from PlayStation, as anticipation mounts for a fresh look at its upcoming Wolverine game.

Sony's State of Play show is due to air tomorrow, February 12 at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK time, and run for at least 60 minutes — suggesting PlayStation has plenty up its sleeves.

But will we get a new flash of adamantium during the showcase? Perhaps not. Overnight, Insomniac Games has posted on social media to lay out when we'll next see more of Marvel's Wolverine — seemingly ruling out any big reveal this week.

When asked "when more info" by a fan, Insomniac Games' official account has now responded: "spring 2026."

With spring not due to start for another month, that answer seems decisive. Still the news is perhaps surprising, considering the fact that Insomniac appeared to drop a pretty obvious hint at Daredevil being in the game only last week, and the fact that this month's leaked PlayStation Plus games apparently will include Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 (which would have been a nice chaser to a new Wolverine trailer). But perhaps Sony is instead planning a dedicated Marvel's Wolverine State of Play to show the game in the months to come?

Sony's last major State of Play broadcast, held back in September 2025, finally treated fans to a proper reveal of Wolverine gameplay, at least. The game is likely PlayStation's biggest first-party launch of the year — and, of course, we're already tracking all of its Marvel Easter eggs. As a reminder, Wolverine currently sits with a vague-ish launch window for the second half of 2026 — though when this will be narrowed down further, we'll just have to wait and see.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

It was just yesterday that I published a 10/10 review for Logitech's new X2 Superstrike mouse, which earned our top gaming mouse recommendation for its responsive inductive clicks and unique haptic feedback, layered on top of the same shape and fundamental components as the already-excellent Superlight 2. Today, I woke to see Redditors had already spotted Chinese brand Ausdom has replicated the mouse with a new variant of the G03 V2 Ultra, which costs around £60 – £100 less than the new Logitech flagship.

While the aesthetics are nigh-identical, with the same two-tone design, calibration marks in the button corners and wordmarks along both sides, the actual shape and internals are still quite different.

The always-useful Eloshapes reference shows that the G03 Ultra has a distinctly taller profile, despite similarities elsewhere, and the internals are far more ordinary. There's a PixArt PAW 3950 sensor, rather than Logitech's higher-rated Hero 2 sensor, and traditional mechanical microswitches under the left and right mouse buttons.

I expect it to take some time for other brands to copy the haptic inductive trigger system (HITS) pioneered by Logitech that makes the X2 Superstrike worth buying in the first place. That timeline could be accelerated for companies that aren't as concerned with avoiding the infringement of Logitech patents, as major brands are obliged to, but coming out on the same day would still be a bit of a surprise.

And Logitech does expect other brands to copy its inductive sensor and haptic feedback combo. Representatives of the brand at its Swiss offices told me they see HITS as a game-changing feature for competitive gamers on the same magnitude as wireless, which was used by just a single Counter-Strike pro in a 2019 tournament – and every finalist in the same tournament five years later.

That's a huge claim, but it's certainly backed up by my first-hand impressions – and Logitech's account that they accelerated development of the mouse when pro players using early prototypes started to win tournaments.

It'll be fascinating to see if Logitech's predictions turns out to be true, but for now the message is clear: don't be fooled by a mouse that looks like the new hot ticket item but doesn't come with any of the same tricks. It might still be a great mouse, but that secret sauce is still tightly bottled up.

It’s pretty safe to say that generative artificial intelligence has become a divisive issue within the games industry and wider player community. As the technology becomes more prevalent, companies and studios are being pushed to offer clarity on their use of it. Within the past few months alone, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has faced significant backlash against its use of generative AI, and RuneScape studio Jagex has promised no AI will be used for any assets a player can “touch, hear or feel.”

ZA/UM, the developer behind Disco Elysium and the upcoming Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, has offered its view on the issue, and it’s a pretty simple one: “No AI.”

Talking to IGN, ZA/UM’s head of studio, Allen Murray, offered his perspective on the situation: “I think about the world right now, where everybody's dealing with AI in a creative space, and what I see is there'll be a hunger for this singer-songwriter in a cafe. I want a really human experience, right? I don't want a computer-driven creation.”

“I think we'll see more of that,” he continued. “There's always this desire for storytelling and something created by humans that has meaning, that you can relate to. And so I think there'll be a resurgence in that.”

When pushed to clarify the studio’s stance on the technology, Murray gave a simple statement. “No AI,” he said. “As a stance, we don't use it.”

Jim Ashilevi, writer and VO director at ZA/UM, added, “It's all just us being messy and human all the way through. And if it's embarrassing, and if it's not as polished as it would be if you went and used AI or whatever, that's fine. Because all we really care about is just being ourselves, basically.”

“You can feel it when you play our games,” continued Ashilevi. “You can see and feel the fingerprints of real human beings when you exist in those worlds and when you read the stories that we like to tell. I think there's a certain rugged and kind of unpolished quality to the kinds of stories and worlds we like to create.”

Artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) were not particularly prevalent during the development of Disco Elysium, but during the creation of Zero Parades they have risen to become a major force in the world of tech. Google’s new “Project Genie” AI tech has demonstrated a (very limited) ability to create playable worlds based on simple prompts, while Sony has patented AI systems that create podcasts hosted by PlayStation characters and an assist function that can help players overcome challenges in video games. Not every creative is convinced though, with Rockstar’s co-founder Dan Houser suggesting that AI is akin to “when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease.”

ZA/UM’s vision for its new RPG is rooted in traditional development processes, through which it hopes to create a story about “what it means to lose everything and then keep going regardless.”

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is in select theaters now.

Half the fun of watching guerrilla productions like Jackass or Borat is the thrill of a flimsy artifice couching publicity stunts as if they’ve been pulled off “for real.” The camera, visible or otherwise, follows eager protagonists who ensnare an unsuspecting public into infantile shenanigans – a tradition dating back to the 1948 debut of TV prank show, Candid Camera. In the most technical sense, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie exists in that same vein, making it a delight to watch with an audience. However, it’s also a time-travel movie incorporating footage from earlier versions of the concept, forcing the story to twist around itself with head-spinning proficiency, leading to one of the most absurd, laugh-out-loud comedy films in years.

How exactly do you employ a sci-fi conceit while blurring the lines between real and unreal in a mockumentary where messing with actual people is the point? If you’re Canadian comedians Matt Johnson and Jay McCaroll, who play fictional avatars of themselves and enact hare-brained plans to get hired at a music venue, well…you just do. The result, born from the duo’s against-all-odds creative ethos, is a jaw-dropping blast that constantly raises the same core question as Alfonso Cuarón’s 3D space scorcher, Gravity: “How the hell did they make this?”

For the uninitiated: The legacy sequel, directed by BlackBerry director (and Matt and Mara actor) Johnson, follows his and McCaroll’s short-lived Viceland TV show from 2017-2018, Nirvanna the Band the Show, itself a sequel to their independent web series Nirvanna the Band, which ran from 2007 to 2009. You don’t need to have seen either one to watch the new movie, since it opens with footage they shot on cheap handycams in 2008, introducing us to the duo’s core dynamic: A hyperactive, fedora-sporting Johnson ropes the more laid-back McCaroll into trying to score a music gig at Toronto bar & restaurant the Rivoli under the copyright-skirting moniker, “Nirvanna the Band.” This is despite them never having actually written a song, or even contacted the venue’s management. After a mini-episode’s worth of buffoonery, the film skips forward to 2025 and finds the makeshift musicians in a state of arrested development. Johnson – who behaves largely the same, but has put on some weight – is still trying to convince a now-haggard McCaroll that his next plan will actually work, at the risk of a potential creative schism.

This (re)introduction to the characters also serves to convince new viewers to stick around for the ride. It’s hard not to, when Johnson’s latest ploy involves the publicity stunt of parachuting off Toronto’s iconic, nearly 2,000-foot-tall CN Tower, a scheme whose absurd logistics are funny enough until, shockingly, we actually see Johnson and McCaroll con their way up to the top of the structure for real. This dizzying feat – shot by off-screen comrades with hidden HD cameras – doesn’t go exactly as planned (in reality or in the fiction), but it’s pulled off with enough panache that any computer-generated seams are completely invisible, buying loads of goodwill from anyone who might still need convincing.

Nearly 20 years into trying and failing to play at the Rivoli, McCaroll is at the end of his rope. However, Johnson’s ultimate, galaxy-brained ploy is yet to come – traveling to the year 2008 by turning the pair’s RV into a Back to the Future-style time machine fueled by a long-defunct Canadian novelty drink. Before they know it, the duo finds themselves in an earlier version of downtown Toronto populated by Goth fashion, billboards for The Dark Knight, and – most impressively of all – younger, wide-eyed versions of themselves, accomplished through a combination of body doubles, ingeniously-edited archival footage, and meticulously recreated sets. The scenes where the older and younger pairings almost come into contact, combining old and new footage shot nearly two decades apart and skillfully spliced together, are a fist-pumping triumph.

The movie’s mischievous plot involves not only fetch quests to try to return to 2025, but the hilarious horrors of alternate timelines and even stranger publicity ploys whose staging blurs the lines between fiction and reality. All the while, the story’s emotional core pivots around the now forty-something Johnson and McCaroll coming within inches of their past selves, and in the process, reflecting on this timeline’s Obama-era, iPhone 3G optimism – not to mention the limitless promise of being able to self-distribute video content for the first time. This is in sharp contrast to their many regrets and failures during the intervening years. Much like the recent Jackass Forever, it’s a prank film about the passage of time, told with the same scrappy DIY sensibility as the original web series, albeit with Johnson employing more crash zooms and rapid movements to emphasize both comedic and dramatic moments.

Will this peek into the past finally convince McCaroll that he’s better off without his over-enthusiastic, man-child bestie? In Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, quite literally anything is possible, including the production improvising entire plot developments around a real shooting outside the home of Toronto rapper Drake. It’s ambitious and audacious, to say the least.

Each roguish set piece remains grounded in the emotional dynamic of its leads, who – despite their jejune conduct and sensibilities – imbue these broad, middle-aged-loser versions of themselves with genuine pathos. The movie’s mockumentary style, whose aesthetics are hilariously adjusted for each era, harbors both the daring realism of an elaborate hoax as well as the gooey “aw, shucks” melodrama of two men realizing how much they need each other. It’s a pitch-perfect medley of styles and a nonstop hoot with a crowd.

No Man's Sky's next big update, Remnant, is here, introducing something developer Hello Games has "been wanting to give players since the very beginning": a gravity gun.

Called the Gravitino Coil, the powerful anti-gravity module for your multi-tool will turn the sci-fi game into "a physics playground," allowing you to "grab large objects and fling, toss, or carefully carry them around the world." It can also be used as a ballistic weapon, allowing you to grab sentinels or heavy objects, turning them into projectiles.

We'll now also be able to collect and recycle the salvage and debris found on planets, turning them into "highly prized" resources, and construct new trucks, tipping flatbeds, and haulers to transport resources back. By carefully sorting and depositing the materials you find — being careful not to accidentally blow yourself up with the "highly volatile" stuff, of course — you'll reap "great rewards."

"You can work alone or join a salvage crew with friends," Hello Games explained. "It creates this really fun and tactile new loop of searching for wrecks, loading trucks full of cargo and hauling across the alien landscape to industrial yards to gain new loot and rewards."

There's also other rewards up for grabs, as well as vehicle parts, a steampunk armor set, and vehicle customization to "create bespoke tracks and haulers for your needs."

Last but not least, there's a new limited-time community expedition on the way, where players can band together to clean up and salvage materials like a space-age trash collection crew.

"Last year was a big year for No Man’s Sky. Even we struggle to know how we pulled off so many large updates last year — Worlds Part II, a Switch 2 release, and Voyagers in the same year, interspersed with smaller but significant updates in Relics, Beacon and Breach," said Hello Games boss, Sean Murray. "As we head into our 10th year post release, our small team is excited for our first update of the year.

"2026 represents 10 years since we launched, and I couldn’t be prouder. For any game to reach such a milestone is a privilege. It wouldn’t be possible without your continued support and we genuinely appreciate it."

Despite being almost a decade on from launch, however, No Man's Sky recently celebrated its best-ever player numbers, following the launch of its Breach and Voyagers updates last year. The Breach update lets players salvage wrecks, unlocking new ship-building parts along the way, while Voyagers added multiplayer ship crew capabilities and skydiving, among many other features.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

To me, and I’m sure many others, the Pokémon franchise as a whole has always been “cozy.” Set in a (mostly) idyllic world with cute best friends who are always by your side, how could it not give you warm fuzzy feelings at least occasionally? We’ve had some relaxing Pokémon games over the years, but we’ve never quite had a game that embraced this secondary cozy aesthetic fully into its gameplay–until now, with Pokémon Pokopia. I played the first hour of Pokémon’s first life-sim, and the sheer amount of discovery to be made hooked me. I also played Pokémon Pokopia in multiplayer mode in a more developed world, plus, I learned more straight from the developers.

Pokémon Pokopia begins with a Ditto waking up after a long, undefined slumber. It remembers its trainer in its hometown, with the nameless narrator commenting, “You look so happy with your trainer petting you!”

Aw, that is so sweet, and so sad–Ditto’s trainer is nowhere to be found, and that’s Ditto’s–(you, the protagonist’s)–motivator. In a bid to try to find its trainer, Ditto transforms into a human that looks like its trainer the best they can. Enter the character creator, in which you get to choose between seven hairstyles, 28 haircolors, hats, clothes, and bags. No, you can’t just be purple, that wouldn’t be very human-like!

Shigeru Ohmori, the primary director of Pokémon games since 2014 and Pokémon Pokopia’s Concept and Senior Director, explained the thought behind making a Pokémon the main character and why it transforms into a human. “I wanted to create something where you can directly communicate with Pokémon,” Ohmori said.

Ohmori worried if they had a trainer as the playable character, as in the other mainline titles, it becomes the trainer giving orders to Pokémon, which they wanted to avoid. By keeping it all Pokémon, an atmosphere of friendship and teamwork is created.

There are two reasons Ohmori decided to make specifically Ditto the main character, too: one to benefit the gameplay, and another to benefit the story. Because Ditto can transform into other Pokémon and use their moves, it was the best option (I argue Mew could fit that bill too, but of course Mew wouldn’t have those adorable “simple eyes and slack mouth,” as Professor Tangrowth puts it.)

The other reason feeds the narrative motivations of Pokémon Pokopia. No one else knows what Ditto’s trainer looks like, so Ditto transforming into the trainer it misses is essentially asking the other Pokémon, “Do you know this human being?” Again, so cute, so melancholic, and I love it.

An Unobtrusive Tutorial

The tutorial, fortunately, is nicely integrated into what would be the regular flow of gameplay, and lets you start doing stuff outside its confines very quickly.

After meeting Professor Tangrowth, I found the Pokedex, and then found my first–then second–then third–Pokémon friend, expanding my abilities and how I could affect the world with each one, further enhancing my ability to create a wider variety of habitats to attract a wider variety of Pokémon.

Bulbasaur taught me the move Leafage, allowing me to create tall grass at will. Squirtle taught me the move Water Gun, so I could revitalize the dry ground and grass in the aptly named Withered Wasteland, the environment you start in. Charmander didn’t teach me a move, but instead taught me that you can ask Pokémon to follow you somewhere so they can perform an action based on their Specialty. In Charmander’s case, they lit a fire for me. As for other Specialty examples, Tiburr’s Build helps you build structures, and Bulbasaur’s Grow, makes plants grow faster.

Of course, to find more Pokémon, you need to make a variety of Habitats. The most basic habitat is four squares of tall grass, easily made by Leafage. You can also move objects around with Ditto’s ability to store and then spit-up materials, like, a Punching Bag. This is, canonically, the move Stockpile. Holding the collect button down actually makes Ditto continuously suck up anything around it, causing its face to hilariously and disturbingly resemble The Scream painting.

Other habitats include ones like the self-described “Boulder-shaded tall grass,” which attracts Fighting-type Pokémon like Timburr and Machop, and “Hydrated flower bed,” made of four flower beds placed beside–you guessed it–water. After a bit of time passes, a square in your new habitat may shake, indicating there’s a Pokémon there to meet.

Like the Pokedex for tracking Pokémon, there’s a Habitat dex for tracking habitats, and there are quite a number to discover!

Though I loved just experimenting, it isn’t all completely guess work. Occasionally, you’ll find a sparkle on the ground that’s a “trace of Pokémon” which gives you a hint about a yet-to-be-found Pokémon’s preferred habitat you haven’t discovered yet.

The Core Loop - All Pokemon All the Time

This cycle of attracting new Pokémon, learning new skills oivr discovering new specialties from them, then making more new habitats to attract even more new Pokémon, is the corest-of-core loops in Pokémon Pokopia, and is already incredibly engaging and fun without even considering the crafting and world customization you can do. This isn’t an accident.

“When thinking about development of the game, [the team] started thinking about the cycles of the user's motivation,” said Takuto Edagawa of KOEITECMO GAMES, Pokémon Pokopia Chief Director. “What the user wants to do, what they would want to start to do within the cycle. So, for example, filling up the Pokedex or creating more habitats, then that would create meeting more Pokémon.”

“Every single step in the game,” Edagawa continued, “The core of it is to be with the Pokémon, communicating with Pokémon. So wherever you go, there is always Pokémon… that is the largest difference compared to other [life sim] games.”

This core cycle that focuses on the Pokémon first and foremost is ingrained into the “main objectives” that propel the story as well. Just after meeting the Kanto Starters, you discover a decrepit Pokémon Center nearby. The PC there automatically launches the Poke Life Environment Improvement App, which dishes out both important tasks tied to progression, like increasing an area’s Environment Level or rebuilding the Pokemon Center; and smaller daily objectives, like collecting a certain number of sturdy sticks.

The stick collecting is self-explanatory, but to increase the Environment Level of the area, you must attract more Pokémon and improve their Comfort Levels. Again, another touch point with Pokémon.

Placing furniture a Pokémon wants within the bounds of its habitat–which you can see by pressing in on the R-stick–will increase its Comfort Level. Bulbasaur, for example, specifically asked for a bed, so I crafted a Straw Bed from leaves for them.

The Poke Life app rewarded me for my efforts with new unlocks and Life Coins. These can be used to buy a variety of things at the PC, like furniture, seeds, Pokémon hints, building recipes, and more. After increasing the Environment Level, Professor Tangrowth had more for me, too.

Multiplayer and More

There seems to be a lot more to Pokopia than everything I already talked about. I haven’t even touched on building buildings or what looks to be a huge number of collectibles–like Human Records, which included things like a diary that gave a glimpse of what Professor Tangrowth’s life was like with their human, and a document on Pokémon Greetings that taught me an emote!

The four-player multiplayer session gave me a look at a developed world, where Pokémon’s Habitat’s were developed so thoroughly they lived inside houses! The inside of the houses had furniture and decorations, like plushies, and the little town was manicured with sidewalks, fences, lamp posts, and even a stage.

My time with multiplayer was short, and I’m restricted from what exactly I can reveal, so I can’t say much more about it besides that it was fun. I can see friends ushering each other to stay on task, because it is just so easy to get distracted in Pokémon Pokopia, and that sounds like the best kind of hectic. (I was that friend in my group. I’m sorry!)

Edagawa said that, on average, depending on how you play Pokémon Pokopia, it will take between 20 and 40 hours to reach the “end” credits. But, that’s not really the main motivation to play Pokémon Pokopia–it’s to make a world to live with Pokémon. As for the post game, “There’s more things to experience after the end credits… I believe that players are encouraged to and will be motivated to continue to play the game,” Edagawa said.

There will also be motivation for players to log in intermittently. Pokémon Pokopia Producer Kanako Murata of The Pokemon Company said “When you play day-by-day, there may be something that, on a specific day, something special that might happen in the game.”

Considering how many hours some friends of mine have put into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I think they’re right, especially for those whose motivations are to create a unique place to live with Pokémon. For me, I hope Ditto and the crew learn what happened to create this apocalyptic, empty world, but regardless, I’m excited to restore it with my best Pokémon friends.

Pokémon's upcoming Dragon Quest Builders-like sandbox, Pokopia, isn't just a Pokémon-themed block-building playground. It has a main story that some are suggesting has some post-apocalyptic vibes to it, and according to the game's director, it can take anywhere from 20 to 40 hours to finish... with more to do after the credits.

This comes from our own interview with Takuto Edagawa, the chief director of Pokémon Pokopia. We asked about the approximate length of the game, and this was the response:

So for this game, the main motivation for this game is typically not to go to the end roll [credits]. The whole concept is to create the world with Pokemon and live with the Pokemon. However, as an average, it'll be about 20 to 40 hours, but it would really depend on how the players play the game.

There's more things to experience after the end roll [credits]. So it depends on what you mean by contents, but I believe that players are encouraged to and will be motivated to continue to play the game.

This fairly open-ended response isn't a surprise given what we know of Pokopia. It's a sandboxy sim where you, a Ditto transformed into a human shape, hang out on an initially deserted island and get to work building habitats to convince more Pokemon friends to come live with you. It's very similar to Dragon Quest Builders, which makes sense as the developer, Omega Force, also helped out on Dragon Quest Builders 2. In addition to the story component, we can imagine this will have some fairly open-ended gameplay as to what you build, where, and how, and its multiplayer components will likely give the game some longevity too. As a result, it makes sense that players would have a wide range of completion times based on how much they dig into the building mechanics both during and after the campaign.

We also got a chance to go hands-on with Pokopia, including its four-player multiplayer offering, and experience its cozy, mysterious world for ourselves. The game is planned for release on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5, 2026.