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What to Expect From Xbox in 2026

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Well, I can confidently say one thing about being “the Xbox guy” at IGN: it’s never boring. Granted, it is often frustrating , depressing , weird , and occasionally shocking . But there’s almost never a dull moment. So went Xbox’s 2025. As I looked back on last year’s version of this column , I found that I got plenty of my forecasting right, a few things wrong, and there was some stuff I could’ve never predicted . And so as I look ahead to Xbox’s 2026, I will once again expect the unexpected – but I’ll also dig into everything we can reasonably surmise about what could maybe, possibly be the last full calendar year of the Xbox Series generation before Microsoft seemingly gears up to release a console/PC hybrid . The thing is, a month ago, this piece would’ve been a heck of a lot easier to write. It would’ve been all about Microsoft’s Big Four – Halo, Gears of War, Fable, and Forza – all returning in the same year for the first time in over a decade(!) to deliver Xbox’s biggest an...
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Physical Copies of Largely-Forgotten Star Wars Racing Game Are Selling for Hundreds on eBay, Following Reports the Title Allows You to Jailbreak PS5

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Physical copies of Star Wars Racer Revenge are suddenly selling for over $300, as word spreads that an exploit in the game can be used to jailbreak PlayStation 5 consoles. Recently-completed eBay listings for the PS4 re-release of Star Wars Racer Revenge show multiple copies selling for $300 or more over the past 24 hours — with prices only increasing. On December 31, more than a dozen copies of the game were sold through eBay priced between $80 to $166. On January 1st, a further 11 were shifted, with prices ranging between $180 and $364.50. And now, dozens more copies have been listed for sale — with prices currently around the $300-$400 mark or even higher. Why the sudden rush to buy boxed copies of a Star Wars racing game for PlayStation 4 that launched back in 2019? Well, Racer Revenge's code is reportedly crucial to fire off a new method of jailbreaking PlayStation 5 — essentially unlocking the ability to play illegally pirated games — when the game's physical disc ...
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Fan Wins Ridiculous 8-Hour Boss Battle With 10,545 Successful Parries and No Dodges

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Eight hours and more than 10,000 parries later, a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 superfan is being praised for beating one of the game's toughest bosses in frankly ridiculous conditions. Underpowered but undeterred, Reddit user Recordbreaks has posted a screenshot showing that they beat the super strong Duollistes boss after managing 10,545 successful parries — which feels like more than I've completed in the entire game. The encounter took eight hours, two minutes and 36 seconds, during which time Recordbreaks says they "took one break maybe for about 5-10 minutes" in order to go get snacks, then "went back to it." Added to Clair Obscur last month as part of the game's highly-anticipated farewell update , Duollistes is housed within the new Endless Tower location. This area hosts a series of bosses that are designed to provide some of the toughest challenges in the hit role-playing game, though they still shouldn't take the average endgame pla...
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'Backtracking Development Again Was Out of The Question' — Nintendo Says Metroid Prime 4's Open World Hub Was a Victim of The Game's Lengthy Development

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Nintendo has said it was unwilling to backtrack on the design of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond's controversial open world hub despite seeing "changed" attitudes to open-world games, as the project had already been rebooted once already. The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 blockbuster launched last month to mostly positive reviews, but also a broad swathe of criticism specifically for its annoying supporting characters and bland open-world desert hub where you ride around rather aimlessly on a motorbike. Now, in an interview with Famitsu (translated via ResetEra / Nintendo Everything ), the Metroid Prime 4: Beyond development team has revealed that it struggled balancing Nintendo's desire to experiment with open-world gameplay with the Metroid series' core exploration, and ultimately had to stick to its original plan for the game rather than risk delaying it any further. "At the start of the project, perhaps due to the influence of The Legend of Zelda: Breath...
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Deus Ex Lead Actor Says 'The People in Charge Are Psychopaths,' as Wait for New Game Continues

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Deus Ex lead actor Elias Toufexis has branded the franchise's owners as "psychopaths," as the wait continues for a new entry in the dormant stealth action series. In a post on X, Toufexis laid out his work schedule for 2026, which he said included Bungie's upcoming shooter Marathon and three unannounced projects. Of course, this tease prompted Deus Ex fans to suggest that at least one of these mystery projects was a long-awaited new Deus Ex sequel — something Toufexis was quick to shut down. "...no Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths," Toufexis wrote. Toufexis has been vocal in support of a new Deus Ex game materializing over the years, though it has now been a decade since the arrival of 2016's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided . Developed by Eidos Montreal, the game arrived on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to positive reviews. But rather than develop a follow up, the next few years saw Eidos Montreal put to work on Square Enix's fa...
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The Biggest Games Coming in 2026

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Happy new year, or almost new year, or just… whatever time it is when you’re reading this. For me, it’s the very tail end of 2025, and what better time to take a look ahead at some of the games coming out in the new year? Here are 2026’s biggest game releases Before we get into it, just a heads up that this is by no means a 100% comprehensive guide to all the games coming out in 2026, as many of those haven’t even been announced yet. Also, as always, release dates are subject to change - I made something very much like this exactly a year ago in which I told you that GTA would be the biggest game of 2025… assuming it came out in 2025, which it didn’t. So, this is true in our regular monthly game release updates, but it’s especially true when we’re talking about games that are 11 months away, or games that don’t have release dates yet. January On January 15, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a new lease on life, and also a new mortgage to pay off when the beloved debt, yard work,...
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Score Persona 5 Tactica for $10 Today at Best Buy

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2026 is a huge year for Persona, with the series celebrating its 30th anniversary. If you've yet to catch up on the series, now is the best time to do so. Beyond the standard mainline games , Persona has seen spin-offs here and there, but Persona 5, in particular, has seen a suite of them. Persona 5 Strikers from Omega Force is actually set after the events of Persona 5, and the recently released Persona 5: The Phantom X brings many new characters into the fold. However, the most interesting spin-off is arguably Persona 5 Tactica , a strategy-based spin-off that is similar to XCOM. If you've yet to check out this game, Best Buy has a great deal to pick up a copy for only $10. Persona 5 Tactica for $9.99 Persona 5 Tactica falls in line with the story of Persona 5, with the game actually taking place during the base game. One day, the party is transported away to an alternate reality called a Kingdom, and these worlds are where Tactica takes place. DLC was also made availa...
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