UPDATE: IllFonic has provided IGN with the following statement, confirming the removal of the sex minigame:

"Players may have noticed that our latest hotfix removed the Two-Person Power-Up minigame. This was due to an unintended issue that allowed end game reinforcement characters to engage with the minigame, which was a major oversight on our part. We have more content and minigames coming in the near future but current focus is our attention on immediate game needs. Keep an eye on our socials for updates as they become available.”

ORIGINAL STORY: 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 psychiatrist of series antagonist Michael Myers, and tries to prevent his patient from his murderous rampage in Halloween. In the video game, Loomis is a “hero civilian.”

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

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:

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.

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.

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).