The second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in April has been officially announced, alongside the news that two Ubisoft games will also be coming to the service in the near future. Most notably, it's been revealed that Assassin's Creed Origins will be joining Game Pass on cloud, console, and PC within the next 'two months'.

The new set of games announced for the second half of April includes Bugsnax, Unsouled, 7 Days to Die, and more. Plenty of other games already hit Game Pass this month, including MLB The Show 22, Cricket 22, Life is Strange: True Colors, Chinatown Detective Agency, and more.

Bugsnax is Coming to Xbox Game Pass

Originally a PlayStation timed-exclusive, Bugsnax is now making its way to Xbox and PC and will be available on day one via Xbox Game Pass. It will be available from April 28 on cloud, console, and PC.

Assassin's Creed Origins Will be on Xbox Game Pass Soon

Within the next two months, Assassin’s Creed Origins will be joining Xbox Game Pass for cloud, console, and PC. For Honor: Marching Fire Edition will also be coming to PC via Ubisoft Connect app, and you can upgrade to the Marching Fire Edition on cloud and console Game Pass.

MLB: The Show 22 Is Now on Xbox Game Pass

MLB: The Show 22 is now available on Xbox Game Pass. It launched on April 5 and hit the game subscription service on day one of release. Those on Xbox consoles can download and play the game right now, or if you prefer, play it via Xbox's cloud gaming service on your chosen device.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in April

• MLB: The Show 22 (Cloud and Console) — Available Now
• Cricket 22 (Cloud and Console) — Available Now
• Dragon Age 2 (Cloud) EA Play – Available Now
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (Cloud) EA Play – Available Now
• Star Wars: Squadrons (Cloud) EA Play – Available Now
• Chinatown Detective Agency (Cloud, Console, and PC) — Available Now
• Life is Strange: True Colors (Cloud, Console, and PC) — Available Now
• Panzer Corps 2 (PC) — Available Now
• The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (PC) ID@Xbox — Available Now
• Lost in Random (Cloud, Console, and PC) — Available Now
• F1 2021 (Cloud) EA Play — Available Now
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered (Cloud) EA Play — Available Now
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox — Available Now
• 7 Days to Die (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – April 26
• Research and Destroy (Console and PC) – April 26
• Bugsnax (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – April 28
• Unsouled (Console and PC) ID@Xbox – April 28

Best Xbox Deals Right Now: $5 Off Game Pass

You can also get 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $39.99 at Amazon right now, which is $5 off the asking price (this will also stack with your current membership). You can also get an Xbox Series X at Walmart right now, with some stock still available at the time of writing.

ICYMI: New Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks

If you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, you can access a whole slew of extra benefits with your subscription. This includes 3-months of Marvel Unlimited, 4-months of Spotify Premium, 3-months of YouTube Premium, Halo Infinite multiplayer cosmetics, and more.

Alongside these perks, you can now get a 30-day free trial for Paramount+, unlocking access to the opening episodes of Halo The Series. You can access your Ultimate perks via the Xbox Game Pass app on your phone, or on your Xbox console right now.

Everything Leaving Xbox Game Pass in April 2022

Here's everything that we know is leaving Xbox Game Pass this month. With MLB The Show 22 coming to the service, MLB The Show 21 makes way for the new game and will drop from Game Pass from April 15 alongside a few other games. Other games leaving this month include Cricket 19, Outlast 2, and more.

• MLB: The Show 21 (Cloud and Console)
• Rain On Your Parade (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Long Dark (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Pathway (PC)
• F1 2019 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Leaving April 30

• Cricket 19 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Outlast 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Secret Neighbor (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Streets of Rage 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Netflix's animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe features one of the most visually unique takes on the iconic franchise we've ever seen, so it's only fitting the series becomes the subject of Dark Horse's latest He-Man-themed art book.

Dark Horse has just announced The Art of He-Man and the Master of the Universe, a hardcover book giving fans a look behind the scenes of the new animated series. As with all opf Dark Horse's art books, this volume features concept art, character and creature designs, creator commentary and other material shedding light on the creation of He-Man's latest cartoon reboot.

Here's Dark Horse's official description for The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:

This exciting tome brings you an in-depth look at the newest incarnation of Masters of the Universe, bringing an exciting sci-fi twist to the classic series. Featuring a behind the scenes look at all of He-Man’s allies, the evil minions of Skeletor, and the strange, alien landscapes, creatures, and technology of Eternia! This volume also showcases the creation process behind all aspects of the show with never-before-seen material.

The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is priced at $39.99 and is slated for release on July 20, 2022.

This is the latest in a long line of He-Man art books from Dark Horse, with previous volumes covering the original Filmation animated series, the numerous action figures or even reprinting the mini-comics that originally established the lore of Eternia. Most recently, Dark Horse revealed The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation, based on the Kevin Smith-produced animated series.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe debuted on Netflix in September 2021. The show's second season recently debuted on the streamer in March 2022.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Elden Ring trolls are soft-banning players by dropping the game's secret underwear in their worlds. Yes, that's a sentence that exists.

The Deathbed Smalls - a scanty piece of equipment which is only obtainable through hacking - will seemingly soft-ban players for six months if picked up, meaning they can only play online with hackers.

Vice reported a recent spike of players experiencing this issue, with several Reddit users complaining about their accounts being quarantined after other players enter their world and drop the Deathbed Smalls.

This can be done with any item and, as Elden Ring's multiplayer encourages cooperation, players often drop powerful weapons and items to help their fellow Tarnished.

Picking up the Deathbed Smalls therefore appears fairly normal, but players are soon made aware of the risk when they receive a warning message from developer FromSoftware.

"Unauthorised tampering with the game has been detected," it reads. "If any unauthorised tampering with the game is detected, a quarantine penalty of 180 days will be imposed."

The Deathbed Smalls – an item apparently worn by Fia in the Roundtable Hold hub area but not obtainable by players – were first discovered in March. While it's a fully-fledged piece of equipment with its own description, stats and image, FromSoftware seemingly cut the unexpected lingerie from the final game.

It's not the only instance of players being soft-banned this way (though it's definitely less aggressive) as an infamous Dark Souls hacker appeared in Elden Ring and forced illegal items into players' inventories.

The Deathbed Smalls aren't the only bizarre secret to be found in Elden Ring, either, as fans also discovered a way to make the infamous Starscourge Radahn defeat himself and a hidden wall that only opens after 50 hits.

In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."

To make those choices with the best available information, check out our full guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

CD Projekt Red has clarified that half of its studio is working on the first Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, after sparking some confusion about the number of developers involved last week.

In a chart from its latest financial report (now updated), the developer originally stated the largest portion of its team was working on "other projects including the new game in The Witcher IP" but has since made clear that this is not the case.

CD Projekt Red's investor relations Twitter account raised the mistake and confirmed that "the biggest part of our team is currently working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion."

Unfortunately, there was an error in the legend to the chart which presented our team allocation in FY2021 presentation. Obviously - as was said during the call - the biggest part of our team is currently working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. Go to: https://t.co/Ut4Fu6MSOk

— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) April 16, 2022

Fans initially shared their disappointment when the developer wrongly said that only a small team was working on Cyberpunk 2077 going forward, as it appeared CD Projekt Red was already putting the 2020 release to one side in favour of its recently announced new Witcher game.

An expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 was announced before the game launched with myriad issues that resulted in it being pulled for some time from the PlayStation store, and CD Projekt Red confirmed in the same report that the paid update would now arrive in 2023.

You can see the original, incorrect team size chart in the tweet below:

No wonder it's gonna take so much time if Cyberpunk Expansion has less people than New Witcher Game pic.twitter.com/2fy4IPmLGp

— Piotr (@SirPaffel) April 14, 2022

The clarified commitment to Cyberpunk 2077 does mean that development on the upcoming Witcher game will be longer than it may have seemed, though this is unsurprising as it was only announced, with a single teaser image, in March.

Despite releasing a major overhaul of Cyberpunk 2077 in February that also marked the game's next-gen release, quest director Paweł Sasko commented last week that development was "far from finished".

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

With Magic: The Gathering’s new Streets of New Capenna set just over the horizon, IGN is excited to reveal the full decklist for its Obscura Operation Commander preconstructed deck. Alongside official first looks at all of the deck's new cards, I spoke with Wizards of the Coast senior designer Gavin Verhey to discuss its saboteur-focused design, the rise of Treasure tokens in Commander, and one of the deck’s breakout cards.

Like all five of New Capenna’s Commander decks, each based on a different one of its five demonic crime families, Obscura Operation contains 17 brand new Magic cards. It’s a White-Blue-Black deck lead by Kamiz, Obscura Oculus, with a strategy centered around using creatures that have a triggered abilities when they hit an opposing player – often referred to as “saboteurs.”

Flip through the gallery below to see all of the new cards alongside the full decklist, and read on just below that to hear Verhey talk about the deck itself and the increasing prevalence of Treasures in the format.

According to Verhey, this precon went through the most tweaks and changes of the five from New Capenna. “What we really wanted to capture was the feeling of the Obscura,” Verhey tells me, “and the Obscura in New Capenna can get in any locked door, they know all the secrets, and it was a great fit for Saboteurs.” That means you’ll be sneaking creatures past your opponents defenses to steal knowledge for yourself, frequently in the form of cards to play.

Verhey says a saboteur-themed precon is something WOTC has never actually done before. “We’re making plenty of Commander decks every year, and one of the things that we’re going to need to do to make that work is to try out different themes and find new and different themes to create.” In sets like new Capenna that have more than two precons, Verhey explains they generally try to make at least one of those decks a “slam dunk” in terms of what people already know and love about a color combination or strategy, but they also want at least one deck to be “a little out there,” both to keep things fresh and to potentially find new ground worth returning to later on.

But while Obscura Operation might be a little bit off the beaten path for a precon, one card in particular stood out to me as something we probably could have seen coming: Smuggler’s Share. This white enchantment (which can be seen in the gallery above) continues a recent initiative WOTC has been very open about, attempting to provide better card draw and mana ramp options to white – a color that has traditionally struggled with both of those things in the Commander format. Verhey says Smuggler’s Share is a card of his own design, and it strikes me as one we’ll see a lot of going forward.

“For Commander, we still need to find ways to have [white] be able to get card advantage and be able to get some amount of mana ramp in very white ways, and one way white can do that is by setting rules or taxing the opponent,” Verhey explains. To that end Smuggler’s Share doesn’t actually draw you cards unless your opponents do, and it doesn’t make you Treasure tokens unless your opponents are playing multiple lands (or cracking fetch lands) themselves. Even still, Verhey says “I think this card has a huge chance to shine,” comparing it to the likes of the Treasure-generating staple Smothering Tithe – though it’s a lot more “fair” than Tithe, by Verhey’s own admission.

The push to help white has been clear, but WOTC has also expressed a desire to make new Commander cards less generically powerful, instead fitting into more specific strategies so they don’t become auto-includes that homogenize the format. Smuggler’s Share struck me as a more broadly powerful design, and Verhey says that’s intentional (although it does depend somewhat on the decks you play against). “We love being able to try and make more narrow, niche cards that are targeted in a sense – the one place where we have been bending that a little bit is for white, just because white has lacked staples for a long time that are what it needs in Commander. So upping that a little bit is pretty meaningful.”

Gavin Verhey on Treasure Tokens in Commander

Speaking of Smuggler’s Share and Smothering Tithe, a hot topic amongst Commander players recently has been the power and prevalence of Treasure tokens in the format – something Verhey confirms is “a thing we're certainly talking about and evaluating.” Originally introduced in Ixalan in 2017, these artifact tokens that can be tapped and sacrificed for one mana of any color have since become a common mechanic that can (and often does) show up in any set. While they can be a great way to both ramp out big cards and more easily fix your mana, some players are worried they may be too powerful now that they are easy to generate en masse.

The Command Zone’s Josh Lee Kwai tweeted recently that maybe all Treasures should follow in the steps of two New Capenna cards and come into play tapped, so I asked Verhey for his thoughts on both that idea and the concerns at large. “[Treasures are] generally pretty fun, I find. Like a little bit of mana boost is enjoyable, so I don't mind Treasures coming in untapped most of the time. I think where it becomes the most dangerous is when a card is creating a huge blast of Treasures that come into play untapped.”

Most experienced Commander players probably won’t be surprised to hear Verhey’s example of this: Dockside Extortionist, a creature from Commander 2019 that can produce boatloads of Treasure, poetically blasting its own price on the secondary market to more than $60USD at time of writing. “I could definitely see a world in the future where we try and make the big blasts of Treasure come in tapped, and then the slower trickles or the one ofs come in untapped.”

Another lesson Verhey says they’ve learned is to be careful about things that reward you simply for having Treasures, as “it turns out Treasure is already very good to have around, so having gigantic powerful Treasure rewards can be a little dangerous.” A good example of this would likely be Revel in Riches, a black enchantment that simply wins you the game if you start your turn with at least 10 Treasures – a task that has gotten substantially easier since it was printed in 2017.

That all said, Verhey also points out that Treasures play an important role in Streets of New Capenna’s Limited formats too, which revolve around three-color archetypes. “It's a really great way to help you splash a third color or even a fourth color in some decks if you want to, so Treasure does have an extra bonus in Streets of New Capenna, which is pretty relevant.” That fixing angle could be part of why green is getting more Treasures this set as well – but, to that end, the card Bootlegger’s Stash already has certain members of the community bracing themselves for more explosions of Treasure around the Commander table.

Streets of New Capenna will officially release digitally on April 28 and physically April 29, with all five Commander precons available then. You can check out the card we previously revealed from the set here, or look back at a conversation with both players and Wizards of the Coast about the future of the game and its licensed crossovers.

Spoilers for The Batman below.

The Batman may have taken his time catching the Riddler, but one fan would have got there first.

Director Matt Reeves has confirmed that The Riddler can be spotted in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter Egg outside the Iceberg Lounge – a key hive of criminal activity in the recent Batman movie.

“Indeed, I can confirm,” he said via Twitter. “100%”

Indeed, I can confirm. 100% https://t.co/bryYms9t0x

— Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) April 18, 2022

A theory posted by one Batman fan places The Riddler opposite the nightclub – an absolutely incredible spot that places the Batman villain in the perfect spot for watching his targets. The Iceberg Lounge is run by Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot, who plays a key role in the film’s plot of city-wide corruption. And it looks as though The Riddler, played by Paul Dano, had his eye on him for a while.

“At exactly 31:55 into [The Batman] you can actually SEE Paul Dano’s Riddler in the window opposite the iceberg lounge,” said the theory. “Waiting, watching.”

The Riddler is presented as an intense, serial killer and was said to be inspired by the Zodiac killings by director Matt Reeves.

“The premise of the movie is that the Riddler is kind of molded in an almost Zodiac Killer sort of mode, and is killing very prominent figures in Gotham, and they are the pillars of society,” he said. “These are supposedly legitimate figures. It begins with the mayor, and then it escalates from there.”

Clearly, this is the kind of detail a meticulous serial killer type would be proud of.

And with The Riddler targeting most of Gotham’s corrupt elite, it’s no wonder he took up residence across the street from the seediest nightclub in town.

As for the specifics of why he was there, it looks as though The Riddler’s secret hideout was all part of his plan to target Gotham district attorney Gil Colson, played by Peter Sarsgaard. After all, Colson was brutally attacked by the Riddler in his car… outside the Iceberg Lounge.

The Batman is now available to stream on HBO Max with a blu-ray and DVD release coming next month.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

As the controversy over non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to rage, Blizzard’s President Mike Ybarra has denied the company is interested in pursuing blockchain technology for its games.

Ybarra was responding to a story from Video Games Chronicle reporting that a YouGov survey asked players about crypto and NFT products in Activision Blizzard games. This sparked speculation that Activision Blizzard itself was polling the players about the controversial technology.

Ybarra tweeted in response, “No one is doing NFTs.”

NFTs are unique digital items that are stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain. While Ybarra’s answer will probably give many players a sigh of relief, other game companies still believe NFTs are the future of gaming.

Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda ardently believes that adding blockchain technology to video games is worthwhile. He mentioned wanting to “provide incentives” to players who want to create interesting content that will “continue to evolve” using blockchain. Theoretically, this would allow content creators to own parts of the content created for the game.

Ubisoft has been one of the most vocal proponents of NFT games. The company introduced an NFT cosmetics system called Quartz which offers limited-edition cosmetics that can be re-sold for cryptocurrency on third-party marketplaces. Even after the fan backlash over Quartz, Ubisoft Strategic Innovations Lab VP Nicolas Pouard doubled down on the decision saying that gamers simply don’t understand the benefits of NFTs.

Sega initially seemed interested in NFTs, but has remained noncommittal, explaining that they would not implement NFTs if they were only seen as money-making schemes. The backlash from the gaming community has also kept Electronic Arts at bay, with CEO Andrew Wilson reversing a statement that NFTs would be important to gaming.

However, many in the gaming industry do not feel the same way. PlatinumGames executives Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya publicly called out Konami for their NFT motivations, seeing it as more profit-driven than anything. Inaba added that the concept of NFTs could be important in the future, but early attempts won’t benefit the gamers or developers.

In other Blizzard news, the company is scheduled to reveal the next World of Warcraft expansion soon. Blizzard is also set to unveil a Warcraft mobile game in May.

David Matthews is a freelance writer for IGN.

Super Mario Bros. anime The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is available to stream or download right now in 4k for the very first time.

A new restoration of the classic 1986 Super Mario Bros. anime is available now on YouTube, with a download available at the Internet Archive.

“This comes from a 16mm reduction print likely used for small, local screenings back in the day when it was released,” says the video description. “It's likely one of the, if not THE only surviving print in the world, and fellow fan Carnivol was able to get his hands on it back in 2016.”

Although the film has been available to watch online for years, this is the best version yet. This new restoration is clean, color corrected, and newly subtitled for the best possible experience.

“We were able to clean it up super nicely (although some scratches were unable to be completely removed),” the team explained. They spent months removing dirt, dust, and scratches. “Thousands of individual pieces of debris were manually removed for this restoration.”

Additionally, the audio has been recaptured using the VHS as a source.

“The VHS was originally released with 2-channel Dolby Surround, which is preserved in the audio capture here,” says Femboy Films. “This reflects most accurately how the film would have sounded in cinemas, as it was released with 4-channel Dolby Stereo there.”

There’s even a brand-new scan of the film’s original art books.

The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is an animated comedy adventure from 1986 that loosely follows the events of Super Mario Bros.

After escaping the video game world and finding herself in Mario’s world, Princess Peach seeks refuge from the famous plumbers. However, King Koopa (aka Bowser) is hot on her heels – desperately dragging her back to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mario Bros – now working in a grocery store for some reason – are lured into the Kingdom by Dumpling Dog (!?!) to rescue the princess and save the day.

And it’s about as crazy as it sounds. The film was written by Hideo Takayashiki and directed by Masami Hata.

Although it’s unlikely that we’ll be getting a reworking of this particular film, there are currently a record number of video game adaptations in the works. The upcoming Mario movie will star Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario alongside Jack Black as Bowser.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Five years ago Squirrel Girl portrayed by Milana Vayntrub almost made her TV debut before the series was ultimately canceled. Now, Vayntrub will be able to portray the fluffy-tailed Marvel superhero in a new official podcast series written by comic author Ryan North.

Variety reports that the six-episode SiriusXM podcast titled Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show will allow Vayntrub, best known for her work on the AT&T commercials, to flex her Squirrel Girl abilities. Vayntrub already voices the character in the animated Marvel Rising series.

The podcast follows Squirrel Girl, aka Doreen Green, as she settles into civilian life at Empire State University after having defeated Marvel villains like Thanos and Doctor Doom. Green starts up a new student radio show and with the help of her best friend Nancy Whitehead and squirrel-friend Tippy-Toe, Doreen is ready to offer the students of ESU advice.

The podcast will also include other heroes like Iron Man, SPider-Man, Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boi, and Brain Drain.

Squirrel Girl was created by Will Murray and Steve Ditko, but the character came to prominence in 2014 when Ryan North and Erica Henderson launched The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. The four-year comic run introduced the character, who has the heightened agility of a squirrel, to a new generation of fans.

The first episode of Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show is available now on all podcast platforms. For more Marvel goodness, check out IGN’s review of the newest Moon Knight episode and the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Jack Nicholson’s axe scene in The Shining is infamous, and now you can own that very bit of movie history. Appearing in some of The Shining’s scariest scenes, the axe is now up for auction at Gotta Have Rock and Roll Auctions with a minimum bid of $50,000.

Expected to fetch over $100,000, the axe is said to be in good condition and comes mounted as part of a display including images of the axe in action.

The Shining was one of Stanley Kubrick’s most successful films, with the axe featuring heavily in its climax as Jack Torrance (Nicholson) stumbles through a snow-covered maze after his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd). Most famously, Jack uses the axe to smash through a wooden door in pursuit of his wife, Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall. He also uses the axe to kill Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers).

But this isn’t the only version of The Shining’s infamous axe. A hard foam copy used during production for health and safety reasons during long shots recently went up for sale for $58,000. It’s unknown whether the axe currently up for auction is one of these hard foam copies or a wooden-handled version.

However, the wooden handled prop previously sold for a staggering $211,000 back in 2019. For clarity – the foam version was used during production while Torrence roamed the halls of the Overlook Hotel, with the wooden handled version used only during close-ups such as the pivotal and now iconic scene with Shelley Duvall.

It’s unknown whether the wooden version which sold in 2019 was the one used by Nicholson to break through the door on screen. IGN has reached out to Gotta Have Rock and Roll Auctions or clarity.

Warner Bros. originally produced dozens of hard foam copies for use during filming, but only a handful are now thought to remain. Elsewhere, Ben Stiller is looking to pick up the axe as he eyes the leading role in a stage adaptation of The Shining.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.