ENTERTAINMENT

God of War creator David Jaffe has slammed the series’ new side-scrolling spinoff Sons of Sparta for being “boring” and “an insult” both to fans of the series and its original creative team.

God of War Sons of Sparta was announced and then shadow-dropped on PlayStation 5 last week at the end of Sony’s big State of Play broadcast. A Metroidvania-inspired action platformer from indie retro developer Mega Cat Studios, Sons of Sparta is designed as a prequel to the original God of War trilogy, featuring a young version of Kratos and his brother as they train together.

In an initial YouTube video posted after playing an hour of the game, Jaffe made his frustrations with the project’s concept clear: essentially, that it was too different in tone from the original trilogy, despite his initial excitment to see a side-scrolling take on the series.

“This is the kind of game I’ve always wanted in terms of 2.5D God of War, super into it — but this, to me, is not what I was talking about. I bought this game, it’s a $30 game, I don’t like it, I don’t recommend it,” Jaffe began, before turning his attention to the executives at Sony who decided to greenlight the project.

“I wanted to make a video more about what are they thinking, like what the f*** were they thinking? It’s not a bad game by any means, it’s fine, it controls decently… but to me the more fascinating part of this is, why is this in existence? I don’t understand.”

After an hour’s worth of play, Jaffe said he couldn’t continue with the game as its characters kept “stopping over and over [to] talk and talk.” He added: “This is not God of War.”

“Let’s just make him some generic f***ing kid, like we’re watching a Kids WB TV show or something,” Jaffe continued on. “It’s probably some bulls*** writer going, ‘Oh people want to know why, how did people become this way?’ No one cares. It’s a dumb idea… [Fans] wanted something like Blasphemous, in terms of it’s violent, it’s bloody, it’s serious, it has the tone of the early God of the War games.

“If you pulled God of War out of it, and you just said, ‘hey, we’re making a game about this kid,’ most people would say ‘that doesn’t sound like a very compelling idea for a video game character,’ because it’s not.”

Final Fantasy Remake Part 3 director Naoki Hamaguchi has discussed the impact of expanding the platforms on which the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is available, insisting that going multiplatform “will not in any way lower the quality of the third instalment.”

In an interview with Automaton, via Eurogamer, Hamaguchi said both the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox versions of the game’s prior instalments “have been incredibly well received and generated a lot of buzz online,” but did note some community concerns.

“Both the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox versions have been incredibly well received and generated a lot of buzz online,” Hamaguchi said. “That attention has also made me realize how many people are worried about this issue. However, our decision to go multiplatform with the FF7 Remake series will not in any way lower the quality of the third installment.

“Our development structure simply doesn’t work that way to begin with… I suppose I’ll just have to keep saying it,” he said, laughing. He also stressed that because of the growing popularity of gaming on PC both in Japan and beyond, the game has been built with PC “as the foundation.”

“While PC gaming is gradually expanding in Japan, overseas growth has been even more rapid,” Hamaguchi added. “The market has broadened tremendously across both consoles and PC. The FF7 Remake series has sold very well on platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, so we develop assets with the broad PC market in mind. In fact, our 3D assets are created at the highest quality level based on PC as the foundation.

“When FFVII Rebirth launched, there was talk about how the PC version looked better than the PS5 version, and our philosophy will not change for the third instalment,” he concluded. “As our fundamental principle, we do not design assets to meet the lowest baseline. Instead, we create them for high-end environments first.”

Last month, Hamaguchi teased that the “core game experience is almost complete,” and while he “really want[s] everyone to play it as soon as possible,” the team has now moved on to “refining and polishing.”

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth‘s Queen’s Blood card game is making a “powered-up” comeback for the final chapter in Square Enix’s remake trilogy. Hamaguchi said he plans to double down on the card game when its next installment finally launches, promising to “expand” what was seen with its Rebirth launch.

We also recently learned that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake team actually considered resizing Cloud’s iconic Buster Sword to make it more realistic before deciding to stick with the original design, admitting “it was just too iconic” to change.

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.

Disney Lorcana’s new Winterspell expansion is out this week on February 20, but that’s not the only thing for fans to look forward to in the coming days.

As part of the 11th set’s rollout, the Lorcana team is also launching a brand new “Collection Starter Set” alongside the “Scrooge McDuck Gift Box” on March 13, 2026. Both are now up for preorder at Amazon and are priced at $29.99 each.

Warner Bros. is reportedly considering reopening talks with Paramount despite having already agreed to sell to Netflix.

Bloomberg reported that members of Warner Bros.’ board are debating whether to talk to Paramount again after the company amended its offer, which would be a superior deal to that already set in stone by Netflix. However, Bloomberg made it clear that no decision has been made, and Warner Bros. may end up sticking with Netflix.

Paramount’s latest offer would give shareholders extra cash for each quarter the deal fails to close after this year (about $650 million), and would agree to cover the $2.8 billion breakup fee Warner Bros. would owe Netflix if it walked away. However, it did not raise its $30-per-share offer, valuing the deal at $108.4 billion including debt.

This comes just two months after Warner Bros. told its shareholders they should reject Paramount’s takeover bid for the company, urging them to approve the Netflix deal instead. At the time, Warner Bros. hit out at Paramount, accusing it of consistently misleading its shareholders by saying its bid had a “full backstop” from the Ellison family. “It does not, and never has,” Warner Bros. insisted. Netflix, as you’d expect, welcomed the decision. “The Warner Bros. Discovery Board reinforced that Netflix’s merger agreement is superior and that our acquisition is in the best interest of stockholders,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO.

Netflix’s proposal has sparked a tough response from some members of Congress, and it is expected to face significant scrutiny under antitrust laws. Meanwhile, at least one HBO Max subscriber has already sued Netflix, claiming the deal threatens to reduce competition in the U.S. subscription video-on-demand market.

Warner Bros.-owned streaming platform HBO Max includes everything from Game of Thrones to Harry Potter, and James Gunn’s DC Universe to Barbie, and its content is expected to be added to Netflix if and when the deal goes through.

After its announcement, Netflix sent subscribers an email of reassurance amid concern over potential price rises. The email promised subscribers that nothing was changing “today,” and confirmed that HBO Max and Netflix would continue to operate separately until the deal closed. It did not rule out future price rises, but did promise that current membership plans would remain in place at least until the deal goes through. As for when that will be, Netflix has said it expects to close the transaction in 12-18 months — so, at the earliest December 2026, but it could be as late as summer 2027.

In an investor call, Sarandos struck a confident tone when asked about the deal’s chance of success. “We’re highly confident in the regulatory process,” he said. “This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it’s pro-creator, it’s pro-growth.” As part of the same call, Sarandos said Netflix would continue to release Warner Bros. movies in theaters for now, though expected theatrical release windows to shorten over time to become “more user friendly.” More recently, Sarandos committed to a 45-day window for theatrical movie releases once the deal goes through.

One report has claimed Netflix is particularly keen to obtain Warner Bros.’ vast content library as the streamer ramps up its potential to offer AI-generation tools and content in the future.

Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images.

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.

Hideki Sato, nicknamed the “father of Sega hardware,” passed away on February 13. Joining Sega in 1971, he worked on the design of all Sega consoles, including the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. The news was broken by Japanese game magazine Beep21 over the weekend on its X account in both Japanese and English. According to Japanese news media such as 4Gamer, he was 75.

An electrical engineering graduate, Hideki Sato began his career developing machines for amusement arcades, which included Sega’s first video game arcade machine, a Pong clone called Pong Tron (1973). A decade later, Sato would be helming Sega’s R&D department, where and his team designed every home console made by the Japanese company from the SG-1000 (1983) through to the Dreamcast (1998). Sato served as Sega’s President from 2001 to 2003 (the company’s final head before the Sega-Sammy merger / takeover), and left the company in 2008 after serving as a board member.

In its tribute to Sato, Sega’s official X / Twitter account said: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hideki Sato, who served as President of Sega from 2001 to 2003. Sega would like to offer its condolences to his family and friends. Starting his career with the development of arcade machines, Mr. Sato was instrumental in the development of iconic home consoles, including the SG-1000, SC-3000, Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast. His leadership helped lay the foundation of Sega, and his contributions had a significant and lasting impact on the entire gaming industry. We will always remember his contributions to our company, and all of us at Sega extend our deepest condolences as we honor his memory.”

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hideki Sato, who served as President of SEGA from 2001 to 2003. SEGA would like to offer its condolences to his family and friends. Starting his career with the development of arcade machines, Mr. Sato was instrumental in the… pic.twitter.com/rxOZJ1o3Kt

— SEGA (@SEGA) February 16, 2026

Tributes poured in for Hideki Sato from Japanese game journalists, game developers, and Sega fans. Japanese tech journalist Ittousai recalled telling Sato before an interview about how as a child he would save up his pocket money to buy the latest Sega console, in the hopes that “this time we will win” the console war. “A truly refreshing smile lit up his whole face, and he said ‘we didn’t win!,’ and shook my hand like a comrade-in-arms — a happy memory for this Sega fan.”

Ittousai noted that sometimes the tone of Sato’s comments about some of Sega’s bumpy console launches could sound cold and detached when written in print. Soundbites about the company’s lack of preparation (incidents like the disastrous surprise launch of the Sega Saturn in the U.S.), for example, lost the warmth and self-deprecating humor in which they were delivered. “Yet, the way he spoke about his life’s work with such joy and passion — including that time when the Sega Genesis was briefly on top in North America (albeit with strict assertions that it was ‘only in that time and place’) left a dazzling impression on me as a professional.”

Japanese game designer, localizer and producer Roppyaku Tsurumi, who started out his career at Sega (where he designed and produced Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker for the Sega Mega Drive and Master System), recalled that “it was Hideki who got me a job at Sega.” He recounted that as a student, he went to Sega to report on System 24. “We were chatting excitedly about hardware, and Mr Sato (who was head of that division at the time) immediately called someone over from HR and I was offered a job. He was a hearty and straight-forward good guy.”

As well as Sonic, Sega consoles brought arcade hits and innovative first-party series like Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Shenmue, Space Channel 5 and Jet Set Radio into homes. What was your favorite Sega console?

Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.