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Helldivers 2 has surprised-dropped on the PlayStation Plus catalog alongside a major new update and the long-awaited Warhammer 40,000 crossover Warbond.
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members can now download and play what Sony called “one of the most popular PlayStation 5 games of all time” as a new addition to the Game Catalog on-demand library. Helldivers 2, which launched early 2024, still holds the record for the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever.
“Players continue to recognize the value of PlayStation Plus and an ever-evolving Game Catalog with strong content specially curated for the PlayStation community,” said Mary Yee, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sony Interactive Entertainment. “With the addition of Helldivers 2, a game that has already been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, we’re further strengthening the value of PlayStation Plus and creating more opportunities for members to discover and engage with exceptional games.”
The PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on-demand library currently also includes The Last of Us Part I, God of War Ragnarök, and Ghost of Tsushima.
Sony said today that as of August 9, 2026, Helldivers had seen more than 22.9 million players across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.
“The expected influx of new players through PlayStation Plus “provides an opportunity for newcomers to experience the game’s dynamic cooperative gameplay alongside longtime players, helping to further broaden an already passionate player base,” Sony added.
We’ve got all the details on the Helldivers 2 x Warhammer 40,000: Castellan’s Creed Legendary Warbond, as well as today’s major patch, update 7.0.0., dubbed Devoid of Liberty (check out the patch notes here). This new horror-themed narrative arc introduces “the first signs of a nightmarish threat emerging from a mysterious void in the galaxy.”
The opening chapter will send players toward the void as mutated Illuminate organisms begin appearing across the battlefield. As the story unfolds, the void will warp everything it touches, leading players into a new biome and transforming familiar foes into hideous new forms, Sony added.
It’s a busy time in the world of Helldivers, with the film adaptation from Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions scheduled for theatrical release on November 10, 2027. Jason Momoa recently exited the project.
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.
Doug Cockle, the voice behind The Witcher’s Geralt, has hit out at AI platforms that feature his voice, saying he’d sue them if he could.
Speaking to Polygon, Cockle called AI replications of his voice “the bugbear of my life,” and expressed concern at the technology being used to make Geralt say awful things, which might then mislead some into thinking Cockle had actually provided the voice.
“If I had the power, the money, and the influence, I would sue every single AI platform out there with my voice on it. I would sue them into the ground,” he said.
“More than money or anything else is that they could make Geralt say horrible things. They could make Geralt a racist. They could make him a misogynist. They could make him have political views that are absolutely horrific.
“I’m being a little bit passionate about this, but it is the bugbear of my life at the moment. There are people behind these voices. They’re not just digital imprints.”
Cockle has been a vocal critic of generative AI, telling IGN in 2023 that he was worried about people using it for nefarious purposes.
"AI is inevitable and developers will use AI. We are not 100% sure exactly what that means," Cockle said at the time. "They're already doing it in various ways, filling in background, NPC voices, and things like that, which is unfortunate because those voices were all human beings at one point, and the voices are all modelled on human beings. So they have taken someone's voice, put it into their database, digitized it and are using it to say things that the individual never said. There's something unethical about that and so there's a lot of debate going on."
Cockle was contacted by an AI company a few years ago who wanted to upload his Geralt voice to its database. "And I said no, and I still say no. But that's not because I don't like AI," he said.
"It's because I think with voice actors, particularly with voice actors who do main character roles, it is a reality that people are ripping our voices off. That's happening. It's happened to me on multiple occasions. I can't even police it because I would spend all my time policing this stupid stuff."
Even if people are using the voice with good intentions, like genuine fans making Witcher mods, it directly impacts voice actors, Cockle added. "Every time somebody does that, they're effectively robbing me of income, and not just me, any other voice actor who they do it with. We're all watching our voices get used in ways that we would rather they weren't."
It's when those using AI do have illicit purposes that it gets really scary though. "This is the bit that we really don't like about AI, is that if they can do it for things that are just commercially questionable, then they can do it with things that are politically or ethically bad," Cockle said.
"Somebody could use AI to produce something racist using Geralt's voice, using my voice, or just something against anything that most normal people think is good. That's where the AI gets dangerous. Fake news, false news, false opinions. We're seeing it with politicians now. People are putting things out there. So AI is not the problem. It's the people using AI."
Cockle continued: "It's changed a lot as well, because when The Witcher 3 came out, I don't think that people playing games, not that they weren't interested, but they didn't really think about who was voicing these characters. It wasn't something that was of great interest. But I've watched over the years, it has become more and more interesting to players and to fans who the people are behind these voices, and that's a fantastic thing. But it also means that those voices are much more personalized. It's not just Geralt. That is my voice."
Video game voice actors previously called out AI-generated explicit Skyrim mods, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate voice actress Victoria Atkin called AI-generated mods the “invisible enemy we're fighting right now” after discovering her voice was used by cloning software. Paul Eiding, the voice actor behind Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid series, also condemned its use.
The issue was raised again today when it emerged that Saber Interactive, the company behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, had used ChatGPT for taxi game Rideshare Stimulator — although it denied replacing an actual human writer with the tech.
The question is, can voice actors actually do anything about it? In July last year, video game actors voted to end a year-long strike over AI protections, with about 2,500 members of U.S. union SAG-Aftra involved in the action against 10 of the biggest companies in the industry, including Activision and Electronic Arts. In a statement released after the vote to end the strike, the union said a new contract secured "consent and disclosure requirements for AI digital replica use."
That, however, doesn't prevent anyone from using the established AI platforms to create fake videos featuring well-known video game characters saying and doing pretty much anything they want.
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.
Saber Interactive, the company behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, has denied it replaced a writer with ChatGPT, but admitted its new taxi game Rideshare Stimulator uses AI "by necessity."
Rideshare Stimulator hit the headlines this week when it was confirmed that the game's reveal trailer featured several deliberate jabs at Borderlands boss Randy Pitchford. These jokes were acknowledged by Rideshare Stimulator's publisher Saber Interactive via its CEO Matt Karch, who does not seem to be a big Pitchford fan.
But in highlighting Rideshare Stimulator and its cheeky jibes, Saber Interactive also invited criticism from a former writer on the project, Stella Sacco, who claimed she was "replaced" by ChatGPT by Saber while working on the Rideshare Stimulator project at development studio Unigine.
"I didn't even see this had been announced," Sacco wrote in a post on social media. "I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development. All the passenger voices were AI too. Either they changed direction at some point or they're not disclosing it on Steam."
In a follow-up post, Sacco shared a screenshot of a Facebook status dated December 2023, in which she stated: "I got replaced on one of my games at work. With ChatGPT."
Saber Interactive has since denied this claim, though stated that Rideshare Stimulator does use AI in some form for its passengers, as the game's free-ride mode features an "infinite" number of characters. That said, the publisher has insisted that no writer had been replaced, and that the game's "story" had been penned by humans.
"Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game," Saber said in a statement to PC Gamer. "In fact, Saber's staff of writers has tripled since 2023. Rideshare's story was written entirely by real people.
"The game will also feature an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite. We are firm believers in using AI tools to improve or enhance gameplay experiences and improve NPC behaviour as we have done since Saber was founded in 2001. As the industry has continued to contract, Saber continues to hire. None of our 3,000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI."
Sacco, however, has hit back again — and blamed Saber boss Karch directly for the decision to take her "off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates."
"If they changed plans in the intervening years, that's great," Sacco told PC Gamer, "but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn't once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game." IGN has contacted Karch for comment.
While Rideshare Stimulator is yet to launch, there's no sign yet of any AI disclaimer for the game on its Steam page, something that is mandated by the platform's rules. We'll update if we hear more. The Steam forum for Rideshare Stimulator is packed with complaints, with many calling for an AI disclosure on Valve's platform.
"I don't see AI signified on the Steam page. Don't lie to your customers," one person commented. "Putting both the studio and publisher on my ignore list," another said. "It's one thing to make a game out of stolen work. It's another to not even have the decency to tell people. I'll spend my money elsewhere."
"Regardless of what truths lie in the story, I as a consumer and enjoyer of video games do not want, nor do I accept products that utilise generative AI slop," one person added. "I want my video games to be made by humans, to support the industry of artists and talented people, not to perpetuate the human culture theft machine, not to perpetuate the ever rising costs of gaming hardware, not to perpetuate the swathes of environmental damage caused by the AI bubble.
"Saber, as a publisher, you have received a good amount of money from me for Mudrunner, Snowrunner, Expeditions and Roadcraft, but while you continue down this path you will receive no more."
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has spoken for the first time about his surprise addition to the WWE 2K26 roster in June, saying it was his idea and the DLC did quite well actually. But don’t expect the high-powered CEO to appear in GTA 6.
Zelnick was quietly added as a playable character in WWE 2K26 during the game's third season content update, complete with a full entrance with unique commentary alongside 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra, which is quite the licensed song to get for any video game.
The 69-year-old gaming executive weighs in at 165 lbs and holds an in-game rating of 77, which might be fair enough given Zelnick has been called "America's Fittest CEO.” In 2018, aged 61, he was said to be working out 10-12 times a week. He founded his own private workout club known as The Program, and he’s written his own wellness book, Becoming Ageless: The Four Secrets To Looking and Feeling Younger Than Ever.
Here is Strauss Zelnick's full entrance that includes a new entrance animation and "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, and no, you cannot use the song as it's exclusive to him. #WWE2K26 pic.twitter.com/csDpfu0oFH
— 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖘™ (@WhatsTheStatus) June 3, 2026So, when I got the chance to interview Zelnick following Take-Two’s most recent financial report, amid questions about the decision not to sell GTA 6 on a disc and talk of how streaming might just save gaming, I squeezed in a question about how he became a playable character in the company’s WWE game.
Zelnick confirmed he asked for it to happen, so it was his idea, and he performed motion capture for it. “How it came about? I asked,” he said. “I wish I could say that there was huge popular demand internally and externally, but that would be a lie. I asked and then I went on the soundstage and I did motion capture and we all had fun with it. But no, this was a rare moment where I said, ‘I think this would be fun. Let's do this.’ And everyone's like, ‘Okay.’”
But why would Zelnick want to do this in the first place? “Because I love the title and I loved WWE, and I thought it would be funny for insiders and maybe fun for some consumers,” he explained. “And I think it got exactly the expected response. And by the way, a lot of people played it, as it turns out, it did very well. But the online response was sort of like, ‘Huh?’ Which I think I deserved.”
The inevitable follow-up question was: if Zelnick is a playable character in WWE, does that mean we might see him in GTA 6 when it comes out this November?
“You will not,” Zelnick said, putting that one to bed immediately.
In a previous interview, I had asked Zelnick about Take-Two’s WWE video game franchise, which is successful but lags behind the enormous popularity of its NBA series. He told me WWE 2K could "double or triple" the size that it is now.
“I do think there's ongoing opportunities to improve the quality of the game," he said. "I do think that we can give consumers more of what they want. And I know our team at Visual Concepts always wants to do better. We're never in the business of patting ourselves on the back. We believe that arrogance is the enemy of continued success. And I think that title could be double or triple the size that it is as long as we delight consumers, and as long as we give them something new and not expected that's consistent with the brand that they love. That's our job.”
Maybe Strauss Zelnick being a regular playable character will do the trick.
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.
Kingdom Hearts 4 news looks set for later this week after Disney confirmed the details of its Kingdom Hearts panel at fan convention D23.
A livestream of the ‘DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS panel at D23’ will be available on August 15 at 4.30pm PT / 7.30pm ET / August 16 at 12.30am UK time. Disney said it will offer a “behind-the-scenes look at the making of the games,” but it’s who’s on the panel that has fans excited for what is now expected news on Kingdom Hearts 4.
The panel guests are Nana Gadd from Disney & Pixar Games, Tai Yasue from Square Enix, Haley Joel Osment, who voices Sora, David Gallagher, who voices Riku, and Renée Johnson, who is behind the Disney character voices.
With a panel like that (Yasue is believed to be co-director of Kingdom Hearts 4), you’d like to think we’ll get something on the hotly anticipated sequel.
Kingdom Hearts 4 made a surprise appearance at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct to reveal a first look at gameplay years after the game itself was announced. Just as the presentation was starting to wind down, Sora showed up to tell us what it will be like to wield the Keyblade once more.
In a separate post, Square Enix confirmed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will launch simultaneously for PC via Epic Games Store and Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, as well as Nintendo Switch 2.
"A new installment in the action role-playing series developed and published by Square Enix, Kingdom Hearts 4 gives fans a look at some of the characters that protagonist Sora will meet in the mysterious city of Quadratum," an official description for the game said. "Sora will once again journey to realms, where new figures cross his path and new powers awaken his next chapter. Kingdom Hearts 4 will be available at launch on Nintendo Switch 2."
Square Enix first revealed Kingdom Hearts 4 at the franchise's 20th anniversary event all the way back in 2022. At the time, an on-rails gameplay segment showed Sora battling a skyscraper-sized Heartless in a city that shared little in common with most of the dreamlike world Disney is known for. There had been next to no announcements since.
There is still no release date or even window. Will we get both at D23?
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.
Primary Portal Games
World of Warcraft
Sturmgrenadier is more organised, more active, and more structured than most guilds you would come across in WoW. We believe this gives us a distinct advantage in being the best guild we can be for our members, because everyone knows where they stand, and are treated equally. Players with negative attitudes will not be tolerated. That means that there is no epeen measuring, no belittling of other players, and no trolling.
EVE
EVE Online is Sturmgrenadier’s longest-played game, with over 16 years of continuous influence throughout New Eden. Traditional hallmarks of our gaming syndicate; organization and leadership, have propelled our in-game history to include participation in many of the defining moments of EvE gameplay.
New World
New World is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing video game by Amazon Game Studios set to release in May 2020. Set in the mid-1600s, players colonize a fictional land modeled after British America in the Atlantic Ocean. Players scavenge resources, craft items, and fight other players.
Coming Soon!
Game is in early Alpha/Beta.
Join us and get involved early!
Other Games we PLay
