Publisher Square Enix revealed that a remastered version of its classic role-playing game Final Fantasy IX is due to launch for PCs and mobile platforms in Japan next year with an array of exclusive features and enhancements.
The Final Fantasy IX revamp follows up on the recent launch of a remastered Final Fantasy VII for PCs and the PlayStation 4 in North America.
Released for the original PlayStation in 2000, Final Fantasy IX marked a return to the series’ roots in terms of style and narrative themes. While its predecessors Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII shifted the series toward more realistic characters and settings, Final Fantasy IX instead evokes nostalgia for the 8-bit and 16-bit eras with more fanciful character designs and overt references to past Final Fantasy games.
Among other innovations, Final Fantasy IX introduced the Mognet in-game mail system, along with Active Time Events that give players a peek at what’s happening elsewhere within the game’s world at specific points during the storyline. Final Fantasy IX also includes a fully fledged collectible card game, Tetra Master, which pops up several times throughout the quest.
The new PC and mobile versions of Final Fantasy IX feature updated character models and high-resolution graphics, along with unlockable achievements and an auto-save option. Like the previously released port of Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix notes that the upgraded Final Fantasy IX will offer a high speed mode in addition to “several game boosting features.”
The updated PC and PlayStation 4 versions of Final Fantasy VII allow players to increase the game’s speed by a factor of three at any point, making it easy to speed through lengthy battles and story sequences. The revamped Final Fantasy VII also allows players to disable random battles and make their party members invincible during combat, eliminating the need to grind for experience and build character stats.
The revamped Final Fantasy IX will likely offer a similar set of features at launch. While a North American release for the remastered Final Fantasy IX has not been announced, a localization is likely, given that multiple Final Fantasy series remakes and remasters have hit Steam stateside in recent years. A release date for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IX remaster is not yet known.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.