Meccha Chameleon, the New Hide-and-Seek Paint Game, Reaches 2 Million Copies Sold

Viral hide-and-seek paint game Meccha Chameleon is celebrating 2 million copies sold with the launch of a new map later this week.

Developer lemorion_1224 announced the sales figure update with a post on their Steam page. It's a quick thank you to the fans who have found the game, promising to gift them a new map at some point in the next few days.

"2 million copies sold! Thank you so much!" a version of the statement posted to X/Twitter said. "A new map will be added in the second half of this week!"

The party game, which lets players blend into environments by painting their bodies, released June 9 on PC via Steam. A separate Steam post from June 13, just two days ago, thanked fans for helping it reach 1 million copies sold.

There's no denying that it's a strong start for the latest entry in the trend of multiplayer games known for their unique gameplay and low price point. Many online refer to this genre of game as "friendslop," and it's clear this particular brand of slop is one players will keep coming back for. SteamDB recorded Meccha Chameleon as having a peak of around 20,000 concurrent players on June 10. Its all-time peak, reached just hours before this story was published, now sits at 132,154.

"The way you hide is a bit special," an official description for Meccha Chameleon says. "Paint your pure white body to blend into the stage. Just like a chameleon. The hiding spot, the pose, and above all, your artistic skills are the key! Deceive the Seekers' eyes with a mimicry that would even surprise a chameleon."

While details on that new map haven't been revealed quite yet, Meccha Chameleon's premise means any new location could potentially generate hours and hours of more time for players to spend hiding from and seeking their friends. It's unclear how long lemorion plans to keep updating the game with new content, but updates have rolled out consistently since launch. IGN has reached out for comment.

The most recent update, version 1.2.2, launched today. It made adjustments to reduce motion sickness while playing as the Hunter and added a key to hide the "Missed Enemies" ranking. For more on friendslop games, you can see what the developers behind Gamble With Your Friends had to say about their recent success.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

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Microsoft Has Reportedly Shut Down South of Midnight Developer Compulsion Games

Microsoft is reportedly planning to shut down South of Midnight and We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games.

Kotaku reports that the layoffs may total more than 90 staff, just months after the Canadian studio was advertising jobs for a new IP. Microsoft has yet to comment. Compulsion Games also developed 2013’s Contrast.

In an update, Kotaku said one source indicated Compulsion leadership is in "negotiations" with Microsoft over the studio’s fate. It is not known where these negotiations may lead. IGN has asked Microsoft for comment.

The news comes just hours after it emerged that head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O'Connor had left Microsoft after decades at the company.

South of Midnight, an action adventure game set in a fictionalized American Deep South, launched in April 2025 and while it was well-received by critics, it failed to find a significant audience. It launched on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in March.

Just last week, new Xbox boss Asha Sharma warned of a company "reset" that most took as a signal that Microsoft planned big layoffs and studio closures. One analyst told IGN "the studios most exposed are brilliant for prestige and rotten for the spreadsheet." Microsoft was then said to be speeding up development on new The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Halo games as it considered restructuring or even spinning off its gaming branch.

Sharma's ground-shaking memo revealed that Microsoft's gaming business currently has a 3% accountability margin (assumed to mean profit margin), which is down year-on-year. "Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue," Sharma said.

Following the release of the memo, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said "there's more monetization of Xbox games happening on YouTube" than at Xbox, adding the Xbox team needed to figure out how to "innovate both in hardware, as well as in the games, going forward in an economically viable way."

"No one can accuse Microsoft of not having invested for the last 25 years," Nadella said. "Now, we have to turn this into a sustainable business that delivers what is fundamentally one of the best sources of entertainment, still."

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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Director Confirmed for Upcoming Dead by Daylight Movie

The upcoming Dead by Daylight movie will be helmed by Icelandic film director Thordur Palsson (The Damned, The Valhalla Murders), using a screenplay from Alexandre Aja (director of Never Let Go, Crawl, and Piranha 3D) and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (the writer of three films in The Conjuring series, and both Aquaman films).

The news was announced during the Dead by Daylight 10th anniversary broadcast, with Blumhouse founder Jason Blum and producer Stephen Mulrooney joining Palsson on stage.

"For me, the main thing is capturing the feeling of playing Dead by Daylight," said Palsson. "The main thing is I want to capture the feeling of looking over your shoulder. I want to capture the dread, the tension, the fear of what's waiting for you in The Fog."

"I love horror that stays with you after it's over, and that's the cinematic experience we want to bring to the big screen for you guys."

Iconic locations like The MacMillan Estate and Greenville will feature in the film, which is expected to begin shooting in 2027.

The film adaptation of Dead by Daylight was first announced back in March 2023, though it was clarified at the time that the project was only in its initial stages and the search for a screenwriter and a director had only just begun.

Developed and published by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive, Dead by Daylight is a one-versus-four online asymmetric multiplayer survival-horror game, famous for its long list of crossovers with existing horror films, TV shows, and games – including Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Child's Play, Hellraiser, Scream, The Evil Dead, Alien, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and many, many more. Oh, and also... Nicolas Cage.

Dead by Daylight was first released on PC in 2016, but has since found its way to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

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Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary Broadcast: Everything Announced (Updating Live)

As months of teases come to a head, Behaviour Interactive is ready to unpack major reveals with its big Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary Broadcast, and we're here to gather all of the highlights.

Through ups, downs, and steel beams named Jim, Dead by Daylight has survived 10 years as not only an endlessly mutating asymmetrical horror game but also an enormously popular multiplayer game in general. Since its original release on June 14, 2016, Behaviour has injected a collection of original Killers and Survivors, as well as an ever-expanding roster of licensed collaborations that have seen franchises like Child's Play, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Resident Evil, Saw, Silent Hill, Alien, Five Nights at Freddy's, and many, many more enter the fray.

As Dead by Daylight rolls out the welcome wagon for the long-awaited debut of Friday the 13th Killer Jason Voorhees, fans are hoping to see Behaviour celebrate its birthday with potential announcements for more licensed content and that previously teased visual update. While we wait for the show to start on Twitch and YouTube at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET, keep refreshing this page to see everything announced at the Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary Broadcast.

Developing…

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

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Pokémon North America International Championships Moving to Chicago in 2027

After three years of calling New Orleans, Louisiana the home of the Pokémon North America International Championships (NAIC), the ever-growing tournament and event is moving to McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois in 2027.

The news comes out of the closing ceremonies today at Pokémon NAIC in New Orleans. Though New Orleans has been “fantastic” in many ways, Chicago may be even better, said Chris Brown, The Pokemon Company’s (TPCi) Director, Global Esports and Events Producer. “It’s a world class city.”

When planning events of this scale, TPCi looks at a few important factors: geographical accessibility, room for growth, and, casually speaking, vacationability. “Chicago checks all the boxes,” Brown said in a group interview.

As far as geographical accessibility goes, New Orleans has direct flights from 55 different airports around the world from four different countries, according to FlightConnections.com. Chicago, on the other hand, has the largest airport in the United States, with direct flights from 281 airports spread between 49 countries, also according to FlightConnections.com.

“We have 48 countries and regions represented this weekend [in New Orleans], for example.” Brown said. “So having that accessibility is vital now for a show of this scale.”

Pokémon NAIC has been growing each year in every way, and surpassed TPCi’s three-year attendance goal in just two years, with attendance up more than 150%. This year, every kind of entry badge sold out. Brown explained that while the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans is one of the largest in the world, booking enough of that space simultaneously is a challenge considering that it’s so in demand by other events.

TPCi actually discussed whether they would shrink the competition aspect to add more fan experiences in New Orleans, but ultimately, first and foremost, this event is the international championships, so Brown wanted to make sure they serve that audience first.

...they want to treat both groups, competitors and fans, equally.

“Chicago, for us, lets us grow the space,” Brown said. “We want to grow the competition, we want to grow our fan programming.”

That’s a goal in general for TPCi’s events–they want to treat both groups, competitors and fans, equally. Last year, TPCi announced a major move toward this by pairing their first-ever PokémonXP fan celebration with the upcoming 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, California this August.

I asked Brown if Chicago would be the home for the Pokémon North America International Championships for the foreseeable future, but he didn’t have an official comment on that for now.

I can, however, tell you that TPCi had a three-year contract with the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, and that Brown said that moving the Pokémon World Championships around yearly is “really, really hard to do” and “for an event organizer, the best thing you can do is hold the same show in the same location at roughly the same time. Like that's the organizer's dream.”

Chicago is also currently home to the annual Pokemon GO Fest in May, as well as the Pokemon Fossil Museum, a temporary exhibit at the city’s Field Museum. As of now, the Pokemon Fossil Museum is set to move on before next year’s NAIC.

The closing ceremonies at this year's NAIC also revealed the 2026 Pokémon World Championships promo cards, some merch, and two different Pikachu plush.

Casey DeFreitas is IGN's Deputy Editor of Guides and has been catching 'em all since the beginning. Find her yapping about all sizes of monsters on her on socials @ShinyCaseyD.

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Super Mario Bros. Copy Sells for Record-Breaking $3 Million at Auction

A copy of Super Mario Bros. just sold at auction for a record-breaking $3 million, making it the most expensive video game of all time.

Heritage Auctions announced the sale Friday, confirming that the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) 9.6 A++ copy of the Nintendo game that kicked off Mario's platforming adventures had passed the previous $2 million record set in 2021. It's also nearly double the price someone paid for a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 that same year.

As noted by Heritage, this is the earliest confirmed sealed copy from Super Mario Bros.'s second production run, which featured a very specific gloss sticker upon its release in early 1986. That makes this a 40-year-old item that appeared almost out of nowhere – and in great shape.

"It is only appropriate that the most significant video game in the world should bring the more impressive result in the history of the hobby," Heritage consignment director for video games Evan Masingill said in a statement. "The remarkable back story — it was just discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle, meaning it has not been touched for nearly 40 years — makes the result even more impressive."

In its description of the item, Heritage refers to the $3 million PSA 9.6 A++ copy of Super Mario Bros. as "the holy grail of video game collecting," and it's easy to see why. Bolstering its incomprehensible price is the pristine condition recorded by PSA, as well as the fact that it is in the best shape of three known sealed copies from the same run. The others sport a grading of Video Game Authority (VGA) 80 and Wata 9.4 A++. The $3 million collector's item is also the first sealed copy to appear in a public auction.

As a comparatively small but still neat bonus, the buyer was also awarded a launch edition NES Control Deck console. It's the unopened hardware that came bundled with the aforementioned copy of Super Mario Bros., though it's not exactly worth $3 million on its own.

For more on the world of collecting, read about a Fortnite copy that sold for $42,500 just a few months ago. You can also read about a Superman comic book that sold for $6 million in 2024, and another that sold for $9 million in 2025.

Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

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Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser Says There’s No Right Way to Play an Open-World Game

Dan Houser doesn’t care that much if you get all the way to the story credits on his games, as long as you’re having fun in the worlds he’s created. “If someone enjoyed a game, that's great,” the Rockstar co-founder and Grand Theft Auto/Red Dead Redemption writer said at a panel at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on Saturday. “If you can’t finish a story, but you loved it in other ways: Great, I don't care. I mean, I would like it if you finish the story because I spent ages on it.
If you enjoyed it, that's enough for you.”

Houser’s longtime creative partner Lazlow — who founded the multimedia studio Absurd Ventures with Houser after leaving Rockstar in 2020 — also sat on the panel, adding: “We also love burying very deep Easter eggs and games. Sometimes they take one or two years or longer for players to discover. I mean, we love burying stuff so deep that sometimes three or four years goes by, I'm like, ‘Maybe this makes it too hard to find.’ And somebody finds it and then it blows up on Reddit, and we're like, ‘Yay.’” Just earlier this year, Red Dead Redemption 2 players discovered a spiderweb mystery that had gone unnoticed for seven years since the game’s release.

“The whole point of an open world game is we provide guides,” Houser said. “We want you to experience the story. Our goal was always — from GTA 3 onwards — to try and get more and more people to finish the story. And the numbers went up and up; they used to be pretty level.
But ultimately, that's up to the player. The players enjoy being in the world, mucking around, doing whatever they want to do, messing with the systems. The most fun thing about the game isn't any rubbish we write, it's the systems that we make.

“[What’s] always gonna be the most fun is being in this world, seeing what happens when you jump off this building, when you punch that person, you drive that car, when you interact with this thing, or that thing, whatever way,” Houser continued. “That's always gonna have a sort of magical quality to it, and we are on some level on the story side, just the icing on the cake.
We can't be precious about what they do. We can encourage them to play it the way we want them to play it. But we have to give them agency.”

Lazlow also spoke to the difficulty of creating fleshed-out satirical worlds that, when they’re crafting them, seem patently deranged until reality catches up to their fiction. (It's something that The Boys also recently dealt with in its fifth season).

“We would set out with a massive list in every game of all the media that we wanted, be it a phone that you can disappear into, just like you do in the real world,” Lazlow said. “I mean, we're basically like an in-house ad agency because there would be a billboard for a brand, you'd hear a radio commercial from the same brand. You can see a TV commercial for the same brand, and then you get a pop-up on your phone for it, but it's all got to be this hyper-ridiculous satire that also speaks to the tone of that place and the vision that [Houser] has for how he wants you to experience that world.”

Lazlow specifically recalled creating GTA 5’s Jock Cranley: “The thing that became difficult as the projects took longer, is making ridiculous characters, brands, products, situations so that the world doesn't catch up with you. I remember we had a politician that we came up with in GTA that was an ex-stuntman who was running for governor, and a Hollywood guy, and he came out with this campaign ad saying that he hates the elderly, he hates crippled people, he hates the military. We're like, ‘Ha ha ha ha, this kind of crazy shit will never happen in real life.’”

Since its founding, Absurd Ventures has released the comic series American Caper via Dark Horse Comics, and the novel A Better Paradise along with an audiobook adaptation. An animated series of shorts, Absurdaverse, first premiered at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, and an unnamed AAA open-world sci-fi action-adventure game set in the A Better Paradise universe is in development with South Korea’s Smilegate as publisher.

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