Xbox

Official blog post detailing Halo Infinite's new mode - their take on the classic search & destroy, complete with in-match economy. This mode launches with 6 new Forged maps.

Hot on the heels of the layoffs that have swept through Xbox, the founder of Microsoft-owned Arkane Studios has hit out at Game Pass, whose subscription model he called “unsustainable.”

Microsoft has laid off thousands of workers across its various divisions in the latest cost-cutting measures taken by the corporation, whose 2024 revenue exceeded $245 billion, a 16-percent increase over its 2023 revenue. Though the cuts have impacted several of the company's various divisions, Xbox appears to be hit particularly hard. This represents the fourth time in 18 months that Microsoft Gaming has laid off workers.

UPDATE 6:27pm UK: Chris Linn, senior producer at Zenimax Online Studios, has confirmed the cancellation of the unnanounced MMO on LinkedIn.

Rumors have been swirling for a while now that Xbox’s flagship series, Halo, might be making the leap to PlayStation in the near future. There have also been rumors about a remake of the OG game. Now, Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, has stepped forward to explain that it will provide actual information later this year.

A founding member of Team Xbox caused a stir on social media over the weekend after posting a video on YouTube criticising the state of the brand in 2025, and particularly the strategy over the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally handheld.

Void Interactive has confirmed the console port of its violent shooter, Ready or Not, has been changed "as absolutely required by our first party partners", including tweaks to dismemberment/gore, nudity, mistreatment of children, and "explicit representations of violence". And in some instances, these changes may be applied to the PC version, too.

Players have hit out at The Alters developer 11 Bit Studios after AI prompts were discovered in both subtitles and flavour text in the game, intimating routine use of large language models (LLMs) without disclosure.

Just because the latest games industry showcase has PlayStation at its core, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a bunch of Xbox Series X|S games at it. In fact, there were 12 big Xbox games at the Sony State of Play for July 2025 that you definitely want to keep your eyes on!

With Microsoft being a little bit late with its first Xbox Game Pass roundup for June, we didn't actually know what was coming to the service today ahead of time - but evidently a couple of Baldur's Gate games were part of the plans.

Today, developer Game Science announced it will be launching its action role-playing game ‘Black Myth: Wukong‘ onto the Xbox platform on the 20th of August—with pre-orders beginning on the 18th of June. Devices are not fully confirmed as of this writing, but presumably the game will only launch on Xbox Series consoles.

With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process.

The Witcher 3 is getting one more patch later in 2025, bringing cross-platform mod support to the game and making mods available on consoles for the very first time.

Microsoft has reportedly "sidelined" the development of its long-teased first-party handheld gaming device as it focuses its attention on third-party portable opportunities, including ASUS' Project Kennan, which is supposedly still due this year.

Relic Entertainment is giving its much-loved real-time strategy game Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War a bit of modern day makeover for a Definitive Edition that's scheduled to arrive on GOG and Steam later this year. Additionally, a Space Marine 1 re-release is on the way.

A variety of new updates are available this month across our gaming platforms. Coming today, Retro Classics games are available to play for Xbox Game Pass members. Players who stream on the Xbox app on PC now have an additional streaming option with GeForce Now. Game Bar introduces quick settings, visual updates for Widgets in Compact Mode, and coming soon, Microsoft Edge Game Assist, an in-game browser that brings an immersive game-centric experience to Edge. And Xbox gift cards can now be redeemed for any amount via Xbox Rewards. Read more about these and other exciting updates below.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has discussed the hot-button issue of pricing in the video game industry, saying prices have consistently gone down over the years, adjusted for inflation, while also claiming the company is not attempting to nickel and dime players to maximize profits.

It's been announced today that your Xbox console's home screen is getting three new personalisation options in the near future, and two of them are actually rolling out to Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insiders this week.

It's almost that time of the year again! The Xbox Games Showcase 2025 is just around the corner, and it's set to be joined by a barrage of other showcases at the same time - many of which will feature Xbox-related reveals as well.

Avowed's already a bit of a winner, but Obsidian Entertainment has pledged to make its acclaimed RPG even better over the remainder of 2025. As per the studio's latest development roadmap, a new game plus, photo mode, and more are all on the horizon, and that's alongside the additions now available in its newly-released 1.4 update.

Indiana Jones’s and Doom are both stub disks. If Sony can use two disks you can too!

Mike Kayatta, game director of Remedy’s upcoming FBC: Firebreak, supports the notion of making games "that respect player time and don't try to overcharge."

The Sinking City Remastered - the Unreal Engine 5 spruce-up of developer Frogwares' 2019 Lovecraft-inspired detective adventure - has slithered out of its tenebrous seclusion sooner than expected, and is available now for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Mafia: The Old Country is not following Mafia III's open-world format but will instead take the shape of a "linear, narrative-driven" experience, according to 2K Games.

Former Dragon Age series executive producer Mark Darrah says he doesn’t feel EA and BioWare efficiently supported his team during the early development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Another one of Microsoft's key franchises will arrive on PlayStation this year, via a revamped edition of the original Gears of War game.

Xbox Game Pass continues its consistent 2025 with a mix of high-profile new games and beloved older ones.

Been long enough since the announcement that I actually forgot the name of it... "Wasn't there another fantasy game announced a while back? Not Forspoken, not Avowed, not Fable... I swear it was another one word title..."

A year after laying off five percent of its workforce - impacting 670 employees - EA has reportedly cut more than 300 additional jobs, as part of what it called "select changes" at the company. The move has also seen the publisher cancel a number of in-development projects, said to include a new Titanfall game.

Alongside its next-gen console plans, Microsoft reportedly has three new Xbox controllers in development, including the Elite Series 2's long-awaited successor.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has already proven to be quite a success with over four million players checking it out at launch, and now the teams at Bethesda and Virtuos are apparently taking suggestions from the fanbase.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold over a million copies, publisher Kepler Interactive has announced.

Oblivion Remastered is undeniably the game of the moment right now, although the excellent Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is getting a lot of well-deserved attention too. Bethesda and Xbox both took to social media to share the remaster's latest success milestone: four million players just three days after launch.

Having finally seen The Outer Worlds 2 for myself, it’s clear that leaning into deeper RPG elements was one of the priorities for developer Obsidian. Where the first game was more approachable with streamlined systems and progression for building out your character, the sequel is about avoiding homogeneity, and even egging you on to play in unorthodox fashion. But it’s not entirely about being complex for the sake of it. The Outer Worlds 2 wants players to get creative, become more specialized with the things they spec into, and embrace the oddball choices they may have to make.

Whether you're a fan of games like this or not, Drug Dealer Simulator is evidently getting a fair bit of interest prior to its Xbox arrival - and it's also been wrapped up in controversy over the past week on the Steam platform.

BioWare suffered from friction between its Dragon Age and Mass Effect teams, a former developer has claimed.

I've been trying to distill my thoughts and feelings about playing Marathon into something easily communicable and I keep coming back to Season 6, Episode 13 of The Simpsons. In the episode, titled "And Maggie Makes Three," Homer learns that he's become a father for the third time and, in response, reacts with a despondent thumbs up that simultaneously acknowledges that something good has happened but that it also creates the potential for stress, hardship, and maybe even disappointment. I hate to reduce playing an alpha version of the next game from the team behind Halo and Destiny to a reaction meme deployed by millennials in group chats, but the accuracy of what homersadthumbsup.jpg conveys is undeniable.

Welcome to our latest IGN First – a month of exclusive coverage in April, and it's all about The Outer Worlds 2. This is the very first look at its gameplay in real time, and it takes us through a quest where you infiltrate the N-Ray Facility to show off several of the game’s new features and mechanics, as well as how it’s rethinking level design. And one of the biggest things that stood out to me is how much deeper it’s going to be as an RPG with developer Obsidian looking back at its past and even drawing inspiration from immersive sims like Deus Ex and Dishonored.

Xbox has confirmed they’ll return on June 8th, 2025 for their annual Xbox Games Showcase with an Outer Worlds 2 Direct airing afterwards:

It's been a while since we last heard about Bungie's new 'Marathon' extraction shooter, but it's suddenly now reappeared with a new teaser trailer - revealing that a full gameplay reveal showcase will be taking place this Saturday.

Sorry, Deus Ex fans, despite a new Deus Ex game reportedly being pitched by Eidos-Montreal, it sounds like the company's external partners and publishers aren't interested in bringing the franchise back.

Microsoft has created a playable "interactive space inspired" by Quake II using AI, and it's sparked a vociferous debate online.

Nightdive Studios, a company known for efforts in updating and preserving outdated video games, has revealed that it would like to start remastering games from the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.

Developer id Software and publisher Bethesda Softworks will be launching their coming first-person shooter ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ on Battle.net alongside Steam and the Xbox PC app (Microsoft Store). And just like Obsidian Entertainment’s ‘Avowed‘, the game will support crossbuy between the Xbox version and the Battle.net version so long as the buyer purchases the game on either platform and have their accounts linked.

Ubisoft has launched a new subsidiary dedicated to its big three IPs - Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry - in a move CEO Yves Guillemot has called a "new chapter" for the publisher. Chinese conglomerate Tencent holds a minority stake in the new entity after investing €1.16bn.

Last year, we brought you an interview with the team behind The Precinct - a game we described as a mix of old-school GTA and Police Simulator - but at the time, it didn't have a release date for any platform.

It's been announced today as part of Minecraft Live that Minecraft will be getting a graphics upgrade in the near future known as "Vibrant Visuals", and it looks set to be released on a variety of devices including Xbox consoles.

Anyone for another roundup of Xbox Game Pass rumours? The latest comes courtesy of EA, as it appears that both Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25 are being prepared for Xbox Game Pass at some point in the future.

Fine selection imo, but the "leaving soon" section is pretty dire:

Ubisoft is considering the launch of a fresh business unit, part-owned by outside companies, that could manage its biggest video game brands.

We've been intrigued by 33 Immortals ever since it was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2023. It promises to be the first 33-player online co-op game, a very unique number. Players will become damned souls and then team up with others to participate in large-scale raids against huge hordes of enemies and massive bosses. All that, plus Roguelike progression, promises an addictive multiplayer experience. The game will finally arrive (in "early access" form) on March 18, so the wait is almost over.

NetEase Games, the studio behind Marvel Rivals, is being sued by State of Decay co-creator Jeff Strain and his wife, Annie Strain, both of whom own publisher Prytania Media, for the princely sum of $900 million.

Ubisoft has detailed the changes coming to its evergreen team shooter as part of its big Rainbow Six Siege X update - dubbed the game's most transformative change yet.

If you love Lovecraft, publisher Nacon will be hoping you also love the two Lovecraft games it's lining up for its 2025 slate - one of which is a "thrilling investigative adventure" from the team behind The Council and Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong.

After a quiet year beneath the waves, The Sinking City 2 has resurfaced with a brand new trailer and an official Kickstarter campaign launch.

RoboCop: Rogue City, developer Teyon's warmly received take on the iconic action movie series, is back with a standalone sequel - titled Unfinished Business - that's launching this summer on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.