Forza Horizon 6's PS5 Version Still on Track for 2026 Release, Playground Says

Forza Horizon 6 is still planned to launch on PS5 this year, despite not having a firm release date yet.

Playground Games has confirmed it still plans to release Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 this year, following rumors that it might be delayed. Nothing else was shared about the port, but the clock is ticking for this new version.

"If you’re planning your trip to Discover Japan on PlayStation 5, stay tuned!" Playground said in a post today. "Forza Horizon 6 will be releasing on PS5 later this year, and you can add the game to your Wishlist on the PlayStation Store to be notified of availability."

September and October are loaded with big releases like Marvel's Wolverine and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, but there is enough difference in the audiences for these respective titles for Forza Horizon 6 to still succeed. November, however, is a different story. Launching Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 in November seems like a death wish given GTA 6 is set to dominate the industry upon its release. GTA 6 is expected to have an in-depth car customization system and races in addition to all of the other features one expects from GTA, making it hard to imagine players choosing Forza over GTA.

December may be more feasible, though the GTA 6 hype will still be very high and a hot item for the holiday season. It's hard to say, but Microsoft and Playground don't have too much time to build up to the PS5 release. Forza Horizon 5 was a massive hit on PlayStation 5, despite coming to the platform very late, so players will be attracted to it regardless.

Forza Horizon 6 is one of the biggest games of 2026, which has been a very busy year for gaming. It's one of the best-selling games of the year and has garnered a ton of critical praise, including from IGN, which gave the game a 10/10.

"Technically, Forza Horizon 6 has not skipped a beat, and it runs like a titan," an excerpt from our review said. "Aesthetically, it’s the best-looking and best-sounding game Playground has produced to date, set in the most wonderfully realised map it’s ever crafted – full of dense, authentic details and stunning driving roads. It’s rewarding to explore, the campaign is well-paced with a great payoff, and I simply cannot stop playing."

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GTA 6 Will Launch Digitally at Midnight Around the World, So Of Course Fans Are Already Planning to Set Their Console Locations to New Zealand

Rockstar will launch Grand Theft Auto 6 at midnight local time in most countries on November 19 — meaning some fans are already planning to adjust their console region and play early.

Rather than offering a fixed time worldwide, the midnight local rollout means players in New Zealand will get a roughly 20-hour headstart on Mexico and elsewhere in Central America.

Of course, there are no GTA 6 discs to get started with early — even though Rockstar's long-awaited release will arrive as an entirely single-player experience. While pre-loading will be available, the game itself will not unlock until your timezone's allotted window.

Timestamps spotted on the PlayStation Store by GTAVice show 15 major release times for GTA 6 across the world's various timezones, beginning in New Zealand at 11am UTC on November 18, which is midnight on November 19 for our Kiwi friends.

If you're playing on Xbox Series X/S and want to adjust your console setting, this will be your earliest opportunity to play. If you have a PlayStation 5, this trick doesn't work — though you could technically play early with a separate New Zealand account, funded via a New Zealand gift card. (I guess this is one way GTA 6 actually plays better on Xbox.)

After New Zealand, the game's rollout then continues through timezones in Australia, Japan, India, through mainland Europe to the U.K., then to the U.S. — though at least here, all the country will get to play at midnight Eastern. So, if you're on the west coast, you'll get a few extra hours to play before bedtime (if you actually plan on going to sleep).

As a reminder, GTA 6 launches on November 19, just 72 days away. If you've preordered the game, you'll be able to start pre-loading from November 12, which is also when boxed copies (containing a digital download code) will ship. Rockstar is yet to say how much free space you'll need to get the game installed, but keep an eye on IGN for all of the details you'll need.

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Nintendo Developing New Smash Bros, Nintendogs, Mario Kart DLC With Star Fox, Leaker Claims

Nintendo is developing an all-new Super Smash Bros and Nintendogs, a notable leaker has claimed.

The details come from Malo932, who recently stated that Nintendo would hold two Direct presentations this week (correct), and who previously stated that a classic Star Fox, Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, and new Switch Sports would all be announced and launched this year (all correct too).

Word of a new Smash Bros. game is enormously exciting to the fighting game series' huge fanbase, though perhaps not a huge surprise considering how well Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold on Nintendo Switch (at 38 million copies, it is the console's third-best selling game, behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons). But one notable detail here is more surprising — that this is a new game, rather than a souped-up version of Ultimate. How the company plans to beat the Switch's hugely ambitious installment remains to be seen.

A fresh Nintendogs is another surprise, more than a decade on from Nintendogs + Cats, the franchise's last release back on 3DS in 2011.

Other claims made by Malo932, rounded up by Centro Leaks, include Mario Kart DLC coming next year featuring Fox McCloud, a new Star Fox Adventures game, a new Wario Land game, and a 2D Metroid. There's also mention of next year's widely-expected 3D Mario.

Many of these claims have subsequently been backed up by the more well-known Nintendo leaker NatetheHate, whose corroboration of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake made headlines earlier this year. NatetheHate has a strong track record of Nintendo leaks, and previously also reported the Switch 2's reveal date accurately. Now, the company appears to have a second prolific source of leaks on its hands, too.

Nintendo will likely have been "furious" to see Zelda: Ocarina of Time and other surprises leak over the past six months, two former Nintendo staff members previously claimed. The console maker relies on its ability to surprise fans as a large part of its marketing. Instead, fans now believe they have a good idea of the company's upcoming product pipeline well into next year.

How many of these titles will make it into this week's pair of Nintendo Direct broadcasts, however, remains to be seen. Nintendo will use this week to lay out its plans for the Zelda series' 40th anniversary, with a deep dive into Ocarina of Time and a peek at the upcoming live-action Zelda movie both widely expected. Beyond that? Well, we'll just have to tune in and find out. As ever, IGN will be reporting on all of the official announcements as they happen.

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Halloween: The Game Appears to Patch Out a Sex Minigame — and Players Think They Know Why

Halloween: The Game developer IllFonic appears to have patched out a sex minigame after a gameplay clip went viral.

The video game adaptation of the iconic 1970s slasher movie lets players have sex in a closet, but one video of this minigame featuring Samuel Loomis raised eyebrows given the character, who is in his fifties during the events of the game and is based on deceased actor Donald Pleasence’s likeness, can have sex with teenagers.

Halloween: The Game doesn’t actually launch fully until September 8, but those who bought the Halloween Deluxe Edition were able to play from this weekend, and it didn’t take long for players to notice the sex minigame.

The game includes a number of playable characters made famous by the Halloween films. Bob Simms (voiced by Nicholas Leung), Annie Brackett (voiced by Kaitlyn Robrock), Lynda van der Klok (voiced by Angela Carbone), and Laurie Strode (voiced by Chelsea Krause) are all playable civilians across single-player and multiplayer.

The character of Samuel Loomis is the main protagonist of the Halloween movies and is a “hero civilian” in the game. Loomis is the psychiatrist of series antagonist Michael Myers, and tries to prevent his patient from his murderous rampage.

In the game two players can hide in a closet. If you hide in a closet with another player already inside, you get a prompt to ask them out. If you do this and the offer is accepted, you get a button mashing minigame to raise a line on a bar as the camera shakes and the characters grunt. If both players keep the line in the right part of the bar for long enough, they'll fill up a heart and both characters get the “Stronger Together” buff. You don’t actually see the characters do anything.

LOOMIS FUCKIN LYNDA IN THE CLOSET? pic.twitter.com/NKYAyF6GYU

— Monto (@TheOnlyMonto) September 4, 2026

The video that went viral shows Loomis entering a closet in which 17-year-old Lynda is already hiding, then completing the sex minigame. You can imagine the Pleasance estate — if it wasn’t aware of the use of the actor’s likeness in this way before it probably is now — taking a dim view of the gameplay.

IllFonic has yet to comment (IGN has asked), but it released a hotfix this weekend hot on the heels of the game’s early access launch. The removal of the sex minigame is not mentioned in the patch notes. Here’s what IllFonic said:

The launch of Early Access for Halloween: The Game has been amazing so far and the team is so excited to finally be able to play the game with you all. Today we are rolling out our first hotfix for Halloween: The Game. This patch is primarily aimed towards addressing several crashes that have been occurring as well as a small list of other issues that the team was able to implement with this hotfix.

We are currently working on a bigger patch that addresses many issues and concerns that are being reported from the playerbase. We will continue monitoring conversations and bug reports from the community, and we greatly appreciate all your feedback. Thank you for all your love and support. See you in Haddonfield!

While IllFonic has yet to confirm the sex minigame's removal, Halloween: The Game players are now calling for it to be restored, perhaps with Samuel Loomis specifically prevented from taking part (if his inclusion is indeed the problem here). "Why did they remove it!??!?!?!?" asked redditor freetheree. "Me and my homeboy just wanna have sex in a closet? And we can’t???? Tf??????"

Some players now think they've missed out on what may go down as an early access exclusive sex minigame in Halloween: The Game.

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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Riot Co-Founder Calls League of Legends MMO the 'Grail' Quest, 5 Years After It Was Announced

League of Legends developer Riot Games is still bashing away on its MMO, which co-founder Mark Merrill recently described as the studio’s “grail quest.”

Riot announced its MMO five years ago, in August 2021. Since then it’s seen a number of changes and various high-profile developers exit the project. But speaking to Kinda Funny Games’ Greg Miller at PAX, Merrill insisted it’s still in the works.

“We know what players’ hopes and dreams are,” he said. “It’s just on us as a team, and can we succeed in the execution?”

Merrill said Riot jokingly calls the MMO the “grail” because “f**k it, many a brave knight are gonna die on the grail quest. But f**k it, it’s the grail, so let’s go.”

“That’s the mindset that we really try to cultivate. And that is hard to do at scale,” he continued. “But I think we’re doing a reasonable job. And I think the future’s incredibly bright.”

It’s fair to say Merrill’s comments were met with a healthy dose of skepticism, particularly from fighting game fans. Riot recently announced its League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO, ends active development at the end of this year due to a lack of players. It only released late 2025, so you can understand where this sentiment is coming from.

“They hyping up this MMO like they aren’t just going to shoot it in the face after six months cause it won’t be bigger than WoW,” commented X / Twitter user and fighting game community member sl0th.

“It’s gonna release at the same time as a FF14 expansion for some reason and they’ll kill it in three months because it didnt make a f***youillion dollars,” added Shinhua.

“Why would anyone be excited for anything they release when they fumbled 2XKO as hard as they did.” commented Gil. “No faith they can handle a MMO when that's 2x harder to please people.”

Will the League MMO actually come out? In January, former World of Warcraft producer Raymond Bartos joined Riot Games, giving fans renewed hope that the project will eventually see the light of day. The appointment came after the MMO was “reset” back in 2024, with Merrill stating at the time that Riot had gone back to the drawing board “some time ago.”

Concern grew in 2022 when then-executive producer Greg Street warned fans that there was “no guarantee” the League MMO would ship. The lead then went on to announce his departure from Riot in early 2023.

Two years ago, when he announced the development reset, Merrill said he understood fans' frustration at the lack of progress on the MMO, but insisted the time spent in the dark would “help provide space for the team to focus on the incredible amount of work ahead of them.”

“Remember, 'no news is good news,' as it means we're hard at work, pouring our hearts and souls into making something that we hope you’ll love," he continued.

Image credit: Riot Games.

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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Left 4 Dead 2 Dev Admits Valve Intentionally Leaked Its Own Trailer After the ESRB Blocked It from Release

Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek has a confession to make: Valve intentionally leaked its own Left 4 Dead 2 trailer.

The Half-Life and Portal veteran spilled the beans on the studio's past unconventional marketing tactics in a new video uploaded to his YouTube channel (via Ars Technica). Based on his recounting of the Left 4 Dead 2 incident, Valve "leaked our trailer ahead of time because" the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) "wouldn't let us release the trailer."

So, why are we just hearing about this now? Well, it's been a few years since any of this would have mattered.

"I think we can't get in trouble for that now. It was like 20 years ago," Faliszek said. "It's funny seeing leaked stuff now because, yeah, I don't think you can look for 'leaked Left 4 Dead 2 trailer' because it's just going to be lost."

Leaks can happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes companies are hacked and have their content spilled out onto the internet; sometimes someone says something they shouldn't, and sometimes materials are mistakenly published early. Most developers and publishers have their own process to ensure leaks don't happen, but in the case of Left 4 Dead 2, Valve saw opportunity.

The leaked footage in question appears to be the Zombie Survival Guide cinematic trailer, which maybe not-so-mysteriously appeared online in October 2009, one month before the launch of Left 4 Dead 2. It's a three-minute story video that lets survivors Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle loose to tear through hordes of zombies with chainsaws, guns, and more. Although it's quite violent, Faliszek didn't say exactly what the ESRB had taken issue with. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to matter much to Valve.

"Yeah, it originally got leaked because we had this with the ESRB, so that's why a lot of the language had to get toned down," he continued.

It all certainly seemed to work out for the best – at least for Valve. Left 4 Dead 2 went on to launch to rave reviews from critics and fans, including a 9/10 review from IGN. Although it never led to a third game (because of course it didn't), we found a lot to love about the multiplayer zombie sequel, calling it "one of the most distinctive co-operative titles out there" at the time.

For more on Valve, you can check out our list of the top 10 best games the studio has made. You can also learn about the recent leak that has fans digging through more than a decade of files.

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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Insomniac Clears the Air After Marvel's Wolverine Fans Confuse Lady Deathstrike for Psylocke

Insomniac Games has cleared the air after a new trailer for Marvel's Wolverine had fans confusing Lady Deathstrike for Psylocke.

If you thought the launch trailer for the PlayStation 5-exclusive video game would come and go without controversy, I've got bad news. Despite coming in at a little less than a minute and a half long, Marvel's Wolverine managed to kick up a storm of confusion online after fans spotted what they believed was a new character wielding a familiar-looking purple energy sword.

In comments across YouTube, Instagram, X/Twitter, and other social media platforms, you don't have to look too hard to find watchers questioning if the sneering villain featured in the launch trailer was Psylocke. Psylocke is an energy-wielding mutant who's been known to show up across various X-Men stories in the past, so when a glowing sword showed up in Marvel's Wolverine, many believed it to be a grand character reveal.

Well, it's not, and Insomniac has done its best to make that clear.

Deathstrike. #WolverinePS5 pic.twitter.com/koWhS5v3HG

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) September 5, 2026

The post above was published earlier today and labels the sword user as Lady Deathstrike. The PlayStation developer didn't outright say it's trying to quiet the noise that's emerged in the days following the trailer's reveal, but judging by the comments, many are shocked any clarification was needed in the first place.

"The fact it has to be stated is so crazy to me," one user said. "Larp monsters are everywhere."

"No that’s Psylocke, some guy told me and he’s for sure right," another user joked.

It really does seem to be the purple sword that's to blame here because, as some have noted, Lady Deathstrike looks nothing like Psylocke. The version of the character featured in Marvel's Wolverine doesn't exactly have a comic-accurate design, but her vest and hair do more to link her to Lady Deathstrike than the character many were making her out to be.

There's also the fact that Insomniac has talked about Lady Deathstrike being in Marvel's Wolverine before, with the launch trailer also being far from the first time we've even seen her in the game. For example, one early look at her new design arrived in July's Ain't No Hero trailer, while a GIF the studio posted on social media showed her looking down on viewers.

These aren't clips of her doing anything you'd expect Psylocke to do either. This version has been shown attacking Logan with Lady Deathstrike's instantly recognizable finger claws on full display multiple times. Why she's using that sword or where it came from remains a mystery, but whatever the reason, it's not because she's actually Psylocke. That's not to say that character isn't in the game at all; other X-Men regulars like Jean Grey and Sabretooth are confirmed to make an apperance. If Psylockie is in the game, though, Insomniac hasn't publicly said a thing about her.

Logan will at least take on Lady Deathstrike – not Psylocke – when Marvel's Wolverine launches for PS5 September 15, 2026. Meanwhile, the launch trailer actually arrived as part of a recent State of Play presentation from Sony, which you can catch up on here. For more, you can check out IGN's last full preview and our breakdown for the game's many, many suits.

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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