Ubisoft's open world pirate game Skull & Bones will reportedly be released on November 8, after years of troubled development.

As reported by Eurogamer, industry insider @ALumia_Italia shared on Twitter (below) that a release date had been found amid an apparent Xbox Store entry, also listing a plethora of DLC packs for the game. These include a preorder bonus, Bloody Bones' Legacy Mission, the Ashen Corsair Mission, the Smuggler Pass Token, digital soundtrack and artbook, and Premium Bonus Pack.

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— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) June 28, 2022

While it's unclear exactly what these are individually, their placement on the Xbox Store certainly implies that Ubisoft is nearing an official announcement of Skull & Bones' release date, from which point players will be able to preorder it. Repeated leaker Tom Henderson subsequently followed up to add weight to the November 8 release date (also in the tweet above),

It's also not the only evidence to suggest a major reveal is coming. Skull & Bones was rated by the ESRB on June 27 (and by South Korea's ratings board in May), and games are usually only presented to ratings boards once they're in a complete or near-complete state. Gameplay also leaked in April that had a pretty comprehensive overview of the game, and while it's not clear what stage of development this was from, we do know that certain members of the public have been playing Skull & Bones to test it for Ubisoft.

The game was first revealed five years ago in 2017 but suffered delay after delay and as of July last year had reportedly been in development for eight years. It reportedly entered an alpha stage at this time after receiving a major reboot in September 2020.

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

Prime Day is right around the corner on July 12, with the 48-hour shopping event ready to set the deals world on fire with a bunch of new deals on video games, tech, homeware, and pretty much everything else under the sun.

For now, there are still plenty of early Prime Day deals to check out as well. Yes, the whole ordeal seems like a misnomer. Prime Day is two days long, and there are even Prime Day deals before Prime Day has even started. But, we're not complaining, as there are even more opportunities to save right now. So, without further delay, here are the top 10 early Prime Day deals to check out before Prime Day.

Prime Members Get 3-Months of Audible Premium for Free

So why is this an excellent deal? First of all, it's free for Prime members, so you can currently consider it just another benefit of your membership for the next few months (just remember to turn off auto-renewal). The only catch is your need to be a new Audible member, so take that into consideration.

Not only that, but you get three audiobooks of your choosing, for free, during this period. These are yours to keep, and you don't need to keep paying for Audible to listen to them. The membership would usually set you back $14.95 per month, in total you're saving almost $45 overall on the service.

More Excellent Early Prime Day Deals

Complete These Steps and Get Another $10 for Free on Prime Day

Amazon is also running a "Prime stamp card" promotion that nets Prime members $10 in Amazon credit. Once you have a Prime membership, you can get started collecting stamps. Note that you need to do all four things before 11:59 p.m. ET on July 13. Here’s what you have to do:

• Stream a show on Prime Video
• Listen to a song on Prime Music
• Borrow an eBook on Prime Reading
• Make a Prime-eligible purchase ($5 or more)

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

The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ Star Wars series was originally pitched as a trilogy of feature films, still starring Ewan McGregor.

In an interview with The Direct, one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's credited writers Stuart Beattie revealed that he didn't actually collaborate with the production team but was instead responsible for writing a screenplay for the first of three planned Obi-Wan films. He added that, at the time, both Disney and Ewan McGregor were "absolutely" on board with the idea of a trilogy.

"I wrote the film that they based the show on," Beattie said. "I spent like a year, year and a half working on it. When the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out, I left the project and went on to other things.

"[Executive producer Joby Harold] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff."

Beattie pitched three films to Lucasfilm as he believed the Obi-Wan from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith had to undergo three different evolutions before he became the Ben we know in A New Hope.

"The first one was the first movie, which was the show, which was: 'surrender to the will of the Force. Transport your will, surrender your will. Leave the kid alone,'" Beattie explained. "The second was thinking about where Kenobi ends up. And one of the most powerful and probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan's story is that moment where he sacrifices himself in A New Hope.

"Great moment, you know, makes you cry. But, if you stop and think about it, it's a pretty sudden thing, to just kind of go be fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, 'I'm gonna die.' You know, that to me, that required forethought. That required pre-acceptance that this was going to happen."

Beattie didn't share his ideas for the third film but said he was devastated when the trilogy was scrapped as Disney and Lucasfilm shifted major parts of Star Wars storytelling towards TV shows instead of movies.

"It certainly crushed us. Devastated, absolutely devastated," he said. "But, that's the business, you know, highs and lows. I'm glad it got made. I'm glad the show got made. I'm proud of my story that [got] told."

Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy said in May that Star Wars is now about "persistent storytelling" instead of film trilogies, as a regular output of TV shows, one-off films, and even novels, comics, and games will now be used to expand the universe instead of just landmark movie collections. The next film set to be released is from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who also said in May that he'll bring a completely fresh story to the Star Wars universe.

The new model appears to be working, as in our 8/10 review of the first season, IGN said: "Bookended by strong opening and closing chapters, Obi-Wan Kenobi bridges the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope to satisfying effect."

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

All six episodes of Baymax! arrive Wednesday, June 29 on Disney+.

Big Hero 6's second animated spinoff series comes in the form of Baymax!, a gentle, jovial run of six minisodes designed to comfort and delight. At around nine minutes each, give or take, these short adventures feature lovable, inflatable doctor-bot Baymax patrolling its bustling San Fransokyo neighborhood in search of those in need of medical — and emotional — assistance. It's light, rewarding content for those looking for a brief reprieve.

Baymax, as a character, is a triumph on more than one level. Like a reverse-Terminator, it's relentless in its mission to help others and much of the humor here comes in the form of our own reluctance to, basically, get a check up. Our own stubbornness, as humans, to practice self-care or even our fear to face a diagnosis collide with Baymax's programming to be both kind and logical. So it's no surprise that a few of these chapters involve a chase scenario, where the episode's patient literally scrambles to evade Baymax's dopey, determined care.

30 Rock's Scott Adsit reprises his role as Baymax (which he also did for Big Hero 6: The Series), once more providing a calm A.I. presence with notes of childlike innocence. The dichotomy between Baymax's bloated, cumbersome form and its approach to others, which feels tame and respectful, taps into its usual comedy, giving us a hero who'd rather do things right than do things fast, shirking all shortcuts to wellness.

Ryan Potter and Maya Rudolph are also back as Hiro and his Aunt Cass, to help embed these tiny capsules of attentive aid within the larger Big Hero 6 universe. The episodes themselves mostly run as single-serving stories, though the season wraps up in a serialized manner, nicely tying things together. The animation's crisp, the action is entertaining, and the interaction between Baymax and the fair citizenry of San Fransokyo is lovely.

Since the season is small in stature and breezes by quickly, there's not too much to dig into story-wise without delving into full spoilers, so let's just say that Baymax tenderly treats patients from all walks of life (and species) who are dealing with everything from allergies to phobias to menstruation (Episode 3 is a standout in both topic, humor, and messaging).

Baymax, sweetly slow on the uptake, is eternally well-meaning, and the series not only reinforces the importance of community but also the idea of people needing emotional support and how often that's connected to physical health. Baymax is "programmed" to care, but its packaging and demeanor never place you in a cold vacuum of robotics. Its drive to nurture all, as funnily boring and lumbering as that's supposed to be, feels as human as the need for us to flee from healing and self-reflection.

This article contains spoilers for Ms. Marvel. Check out our review of Ms. Marvel Episode 3 if you're not caught up yet!

Last week’s Ms. Marvel episode, “Destined” had it all. A wedding, teenage superhero drama, and even a fight scene set to Bon Jovi. That last part feels especially appropriate since the rock band was formed in Kamala Khan’s hometown of New Jersey (Bon Jovi’s home state). But the biggest moment comes during the opening scenes, where Kamala (Iman Vellani) meets the mysterious Najma (Nimra Bucha). Not only is Najma the mother of her Kamran — Kamala’s crush — but she also happens to be a member of an interdimensional race known as the ClanDestine.

Who are the ClanDestine?

Created by Alan Davis, the ClanDestine first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #158. They are a group of superhumans led by a man called Adam Destine. Adam was a knight who found out a startling secret: whenever he suffered a severe wound in battle, he would recover when he had dreams of a mysterious woman. During one of his adventures, Adam encountered the warlord Al Kadhdhaab, who hired him to kill a wizard that possessed an all-powerful mystical gem. Turns out that Kadhdhaab wanted the gem for himself and betrayed Adam. Adam shattered the gem, freeing the woman from his dreams – who was named Elyath.

What are the ClanDestine’s Powers?

Elyath used her powers to make Adam immortal and virtually unkillable, and the two would soon marry. They gave birth to a whole lineage of children, each with their own special power. First-born Jasmine has immense telepathic powers; Albert can heal others and learned to cast magic spells over the years; Newton possesses unrivaled intellect; Dominic has superhuman senses; Samantha can control a living metal that usually takes the shape of armor; Walter can transform into a massive, superhumanly strong beast; and youngest twins Rory and Pandora can manipulate the forces of gravity and light respectively.

ClanDestine in Ms. Marvel

The ClanDestine in Ms. Marvel seem to have more than a few differences with their comic counterparts. For one thing, there’s the interdimensional element. While the ClanDestine did have mystical powers, only Elyath is from another dimension. And while the ClanDestine consists of mostly Caucasian characters in the comics, the fact that they are led by a Pakistani woman in the MCU is another way the show ties itself to Kamala’s heritage.

At first, Namja is kind to Kamala, telling the young heroine more about her great-grandmother Aisha. She also asks for Kamala’s help in getting back home, as her bangle might possess enough energy to accomplish the task. But when she learns that the result could have dangerous consequences, Kamala asks Kamran for more time while she figures out what to do. This doesn’t sit well with Namja, and she and the other ClanDestine attack Kamala at her brother Aamir’s wedding. Even though Damage Control shows up and arrests them, it’s a safe bet that the back half of the series will have them coming into conflict with Kamala once again.

The presence of the ClanDestine leads to another deep cut from Marvel Comics canon. In the opening of “Destined,” the ClanDestine are shown searching for the bangle that Kamala currently wears, and Namja mentions that it is one of a pair. This may reference the cosmic artifacts known as the Nega-Bands, which transforms a user’s thoughts into energy. The Nega-Bands were created by the Kree – and in a possible hint to the alien race, Namja finds the bangle around a bright blue arm. Not only would the Nega-Bands explain Kamala’s new powers, but it would also give her a closer tie to her superhero idol Carol Danvers since Danvers got her powers from a Kree experiment as well.