On Thursday morning, bad news that many were fearing unfortunately came to pass, with Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie hit by major layoffs from PlayStation maker Sony, its publisher.

The cuts have affected "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." Additionally, it's been confirmed that some Sony workers that assist Bungie have been impacted by the workforce reductions as well.

Though the layoffs were, sadly, somewhat expected — Bungie announced the end of Destiny 2's live-service development last month, and it was recently reported that the developer would soon be struck with "significant" cuts — they're no less devastating for the studio's staff, and represent a large cutback of its resources from Sony.

Notably, separate from Sony CEO Hermen Hulst's memo to his employees on the matter, Bungie itself has also publicly shared a letter about the news to its fans and staff members, both former and current. I've embedded the post below, and the text of the letter has been included below that:

With great sadness, we are announcing a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie.

As the leaders of Bungie, past and present, we recognize Destiny 2 fell short of expectations these past several years. Following our final content update to Destiny 2, and with our future projects still in early incubation, we unfortunately could not continue operating at our previous size.

We know this decision has a profound impact on the people affected, their families, friends, and teammates. While these changes are necessary to best position the studio now and for the future, that does not lessen the difficulty of this moment or the impact it has on those affected.

Later, we will share more about that future with you all but today is not that day.

Today, we wish to extend our gratitude and compassion to every member of the Bungie team who has been impacted and to those who remain.

We hope you will do the same.

— Bungie

This is the third and largest wave of layoffs that Bungie has faced after being acquired by Sony in 2022, with the studio also hit in October 2023 as well as in July 2024. At the time, 155 employees were shifted from the developer's workforce to Sony's as well.

The letter directly references Destiny 2's gradual decline throughout the last several years, which is all but assured to be the primary reason for the cuts we've seen. It's worth noting that recently, former Bungie and Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert asserted that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" due to leadership "greed," leading to a lack of valuable resources for the game's development.

She then reported the lack of adequate funding became so severe that the merger between Bungie and Sony was done as an "emergency acquisition," and that if the PlayStation publisher hadn't absorbed the studio, it would have been "very close to shutting its doors."

We may never know the exact truth of what's happened at Bungie, but one thing is clear: the studio's last few years have been quite tumultuous, and sadly, its employees have suffered as a consequence.

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Before we begin, I think it's only fair to say that I'm heavily invested in the Xbox ecosystem. It's my platform of choice, but I've almost always owned a PlayStation and Nintendo console alongside it. At least, that was the case until this generation, where I still haven't picked up a PS5 or Nintendo Switch 2.

Being an Xbox fan, though, often feels like living through a constant cycle of highs and lows. One week it's good news, the next it's bad news. Rumors, questionable decisions, smart decisions, panic, excitement, and endless debate. Quite frankly, it can be exhausting.

When Asha Sharma arrived to help revive Xbox, the reaction online felt pretty clear. The usual suspects, and even some Xbox fans themselves, were concerned about her background in AI. Many immediately jumped to conclusions, claiming it was the beginning of the end for Xbox, that the platform was being sunset, or that Microsoft was about to replace game development with AI.

In reality, Sharma has been fairly consistent in how she talks about AI. Her position has largely been that AI is a tool. Not something that replaces games or the people making them, but something that can assist in the development process. In fact, she even ended Copilot for console within her first 100 days as CEO, showing where she stands on AI quite firmly.

That's why Sony's recent strategy update caught my attention.

In its latest report, Sony removed references to bringing first-party games to PC as part of its broader strategy discussion and instead placed significant emphasis on AI, positioning it as a key part of PlayStation's future. Yet the reaction online feels noticeably different. If anything, I've seen more people defending it than criticizing it.

That's not to say Sony hasn't received criticism, because it has, but the conversation feels far more measured than the reactions Xbox often receives whenever AI enters the discussion.

Within its strategy update, Sony states:

"As AI lowers barriers to creation and increases the volume and diversity of content... Within the studio business, AI powered tools are automating repetitive workflows and improving productivity... Across the platform business, AI is driving efficiency, personalization, and customer value at scale... Overall, AI is expected to unleash the creativity of Sony Interactive Entertainment's studios."

Sony clearly believes that AI will enhance the PlayStation experience and reading those statements, it's hard not to wonder what the reaction would have been if they had come from Xbox instead. I genuinely struggle to imagine a world where Xbox could publish those exact same comments without triggering a complete online meltdown, accompanied by endless declarations that Xbox was abandoning hardware development and heading for disaster.

Now, I will admit I'm being a little facetious here, but I do think there's at least some truth to it. If this had been an Xbox-led announcement, I suspect the discourse would have been far louder.

To be clear, I'm fully aware that Microsoft is one of the biggest proponents of AI and the broader push that's currently sweeping through the industry. But that doesn't mean other companies should get a free pass when they're making many of the same decisions that consumers are against. If we're going to scrutinize one company for embracing AI, then surely it's only fair we apply the same standard across the board.

eading those statements, it's hard not to wonder what the reaction would have been if they had come from Xbox instead. I genuinely struggle to imagine a world where Xbox could publish those exact same comments without triggering a complete online meltdown, accompanied by endless declarations that Xbox was abandoning hardware development and heading for disaster.

Now, I will admit I'm being a little facetious here, but I do think there's at least some truth to it. If this had been an Xbox-led announcement, I suspect the discourse would have been far louder.

To be clear, I'm fully aware that Microsoft is one of the biggest proponents of AI and the broader push that's currently sweeping through the industry. But that doesn't mean other companies should get a free pass when they're making many of the same decisions that consumers are against. If we're going to scrutinize one company for embracing AI, then surely it's only fair we apply the same standard across the board.

Of course, maybe I'm completely wrong. That's entirely possible, and that's okay too. I'd genuinely love to hear what you think. Do you agree that the reaction would have been different if these statements had come from Xbox, or do you think I'm off the mark?

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to explain why you do or don't agree. And, of course, don't forget to take part in our poll!

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Before we begin, there's an important asterisk attached to all of this. Yes, according to Alinea Analytics, PlayStation has generated nearly double the revenue from PC ports than Xbox has from bringing its games to PS5. However, it's worth noting that Sony's PC strategy began in 2020, while Microsoft's push onto PlayStation only really started in 2024.

There's also a difference in scale. Sony has published roughly 20 PlayStation games on PC, compared to around 13 Xbox games currently available on PS5. So, while I fully acknowledge this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, it's still interesting to dig into the numbers, look at the differences between the two approaches, and perhaps explore why Sony's PC strategy may not have taken off quite as strongly as it initially hoped.

First off, let's look at the numbers. According to Alinea Analytics, Sony had generated around $1.2 billion in revenue from its PC ports as of November 2025. A significant portion of that success came from Helldivers 2, which alone accounted for more than 12 million copies sold on Steam and roughly $400 million in gross revenue.

It's also fair to point out that Sony actually generated $1.5 billion in revenue, but due to Valve's 30% cut, Sony's takeaway was $1.2 billion.

Over in the Xbox camp, the picture isn't entirely dissimilar. Microsoft's PS5 ports have reportedly generated around $667 million in revenue, but much of that has been driven by Forza Horizon 5.

Despite arriving on PlayStation more than three years after its original launch, the racing game has sold 5.8 million copies on PS5 and generated roughly $323 million in revenue on its own, accounting for nearly half of Xbox's total PlayStation earnings. Again, fair to point out, but this data also includes Sony's cut from sales, which is 30%.

When you put it into perspective like that, it's hard not to question whether the potential brand dilution is worth the extra sales for Xbox. Then again, a similar argument could be made about PlayStation's now-defunct PC strategy, albeit to a much lesser extent given that PC isn't a competing console platform.

Perhaps most surprising is just how quickly Xbox has reached half of Sony's. Sony's PC strategy had been running for roughly five years by the time these numbers were recorded, whereas Microsoft's PlayStation strategy was still relatively new.

As for why Sony's PC strategy may not have performed better, there are a few possible explanations. Several PlayStation games launched on PC with technical issues, while the PlayStation account requirement controversy also created significant backlash. PSN is officially available in around 70 countries, compared to Steam's presence in roughly 190, which became a major talking point due to Helldivers 2. Sony was also restricting game sales of certain PC titles in regions where PSN wasn't supported, though they did walk this back after backlash.

It's an interesting time for both companies. Xbox appears to be stepping back from its recent push to bring more games to PlayStation, while Sony seems to be slowing the pace of its PC efforts as it shifts focus toward AI and makes it a much larger part of its overall business strategy.

Regardless of where either company ultimately ends up, one thing is clear: there are still plenty of great games heading to both platforms. Despite all the turbulence in the industry lately, and yes, AI certainly hasn't helped as rising costs continue to plague the industry. Still, I'm sure we can all agree there's still a lot for games to be excited about.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do you think Sony's PC strategy has been more successful than Xbox's PlayStation strategy, or is the comparison more complicated than the headline numbers suggest? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Treyarch — the Call of Duty developer under Xbox and Activision that's created and contributed to many of the franchise's titles over the years — has announced that two of its classic games will soon be ported to PlayStation (presumably meaning 4 and 5).

The news from the studio came on Wednesday afternoon, with Treyarch revealing in a social media post that both 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops and 2012's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be brought to Sony's platform in July. Both games were originally made by Treyarch, though Iron Galaxy Studios, known for its support work, will handle the process of creating modern PlayStation versions.

Black Ops and Black Ops 2 — titles released for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 — have been playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S since 2016, soon after Microsoft began the Xbox Backwards Compatibility Program. The PS4 and PS5 are not backwards compatible with PS3 games, however, so until now, the only way to play these Call of Duty titles on modern PlayStation consoles has been to stream them through PlayStation Plus Premium.

At the moment, it's unclear if those who own Black Ops and Black Ops 2 on PS3 will have ways to get the new native PlayStation port for free or transfer their progress. If they exist, they may only be available to those who have a digital copy of the shooter.

It's also presumed that the ports will hook into the games' existing server network and won't use new servers, though this hasn't been confirmed.

It's great to see that PS5 and PS4 owners will finally get access to two of the most popular classic Call of Duty games without having to stream them, and that these ports are coming in just a few short weeks, too.

With that said, though, many Xbox and PC players are frustrated that the ports have been announced without mention of critical fixes for the other versions of the games that they sorely need.

Indeed, there are widespread complaints that both Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are locked to basic 720p resolution when played through Xbox Backwards Compatibility, and that hackers have infested the servers across both games on both platforms for years. Players also aren't happy that the titles aren't on Xbox Game Pass and still have DLC you have to pay for.

"Microsoft and Xbox really hate their own customers," writes one angry fan. "Yes a Xbox 360 version exists. But they are locked at 720p. They are full of hackers. After 2.75 years of the ABK acquisition they still aren't even on Game Pass. The DLCs aren't bundled in. What the f*** man."

This is yet another case of Xbox players feeling less important to the people in charge of their own platform than fans on rival consoles, and I'd argue it's quite a bad look for the brand. At the very least, Xbox, Treyarch, and Iron Galaxy should work to update Black Ops and Black Ops 2 on Xbox and PC so it's on par with the new PlayStation versions. Hopefully we'll see that happen.

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To say that the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster if you're a fan of Bungie and its long-running space fantasy looter shooter Destiny 2 would be an understatement. In late May, the developer suddenly announced that development of the game would end on June 9, with one final massive Monument of Triumph content update sending the title out with a bang.

Destiny 2 has experienced a steady and severe player count decline over time due to slow and disappointing updates, though fans rallied to demand a Destiny 3 and vowed to flood the servers for the final patch — something they've followed through on while also gathering upwards of 400,000 signatures for a Destiny 3 Change.org petition.

The push for Sony and Bungie to greenlight a third Destiny and not end the series on such an abrupt note has also driven lots of conversation about what went wrong behind the scenes. That led former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert to speak out, claiming that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" due to leadership "greed."

Now, she's commented on the health of Bungie's business once again — this time alleging that the studio "was below the red line" before Sony initiated its plan to acquire it for $3.6 billion in 2022. The merger with the PlayStation maker, she says, was an "emergency acquisition."

"Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition. If it wasn’t acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny," she wrote in a social media post. "It was an emergency acquisition."

Notably, this news lines up with previous comments from Ruppert and other ex-Bungie developers who fiercely criticized the studio's leadership for long-standing issues when major layoffs came to Bungie in 2024, after it had already gone through cuts in late 2023.

All signs point to grave resource mismanagement at the developer that put it in dire straits and drove it to strike a deal with Sony. At first, Bungie was given wide creative freedom under the PlayStation publisher, but its independence has been "getting tighter" since last year, and it's "becoming more part of PlayStation Studios."

Just last month, Sony reported a $565 million impairment loss attached to Bungie. That's further called the studio's autonomy into question, and has left many wondering how much control Sony now has over its future plans.

With Destiny 2 content development now over, the performance of Bungie's new PvPvE extraction shooter Marathon will undoubtedly play a large role in determining what the studio does next. The game hasn't exactly been a massive hit since it arrived in March, though it does have a passionate community of dedicated players.

Ultimately, if Bungie's financial troubles have been as severe as Ruppert describes them for several years now, it's likely going to take a long time for its workers and Sony to right the ship and stabilize the situation at the studio. I just hope that effort is actually invested, and that Destiny — and Bungie itself — has a place in the future.

How do you feel about Bungie and the end of Destiny 2? Share your thoughts in the comments, and also let me know if you want Destiny 3 or not in our poll.

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Gears of War: E-Day Direct has come and gone, and what a show it was. From entirely new movement mechanics to a much more grounded and open campaign, the latest entry in the war on Locusts is breathtaking to look at, and hopefully just as breathtaking to play.

Here’s every highlight I was able to catch during the show!

Story and gameplay areas

As we’ve known previously, Gears of War: E Day will showcase two of the most iconic characters in the Gears franchise, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. What we didn’t know was that this would come without the pre-built relationship.

Coming home as wandering war veterans looking for where they fit in, Dom and Marcus are seen together celebrating the life of Dom’s brother and Marcus’s best friend, Carlos Santiago. You see, Carlos was the one who connected the two, as Dom and Marcus were never previously close. Their connection had always been someone between them.

By the time Gears of War 1 occurs, these two have been to hell and back, strengthening that lifelong knowledge of one another into a true friendship that plays at the heart of the original trilogy. Seeing these two grow into that role will be something Gears players have yet to experience, and one even my non-gamer wife is interested in playing through (points for me).

The campaign will be centered around the city of Kalona, which was built similarly to the coal towns of yesterday. Emulsion is all the craze, and Kalona was born and grew as a central hub for emulsion activity.

As the campaign progresses, players will journey across the entire cityscape over multiple days as they watch the once bright city uncontrollably fall apart. Replaying through central city areas will be different every time, as each passing will come in the face of more destruction to the homes of people around you.

Players will also have access to dynamic events that play out depending on just how interested they are in exploring the areas each level presents. From people who need rescue in a crumbling apartment, to soldiers who could use some backup at an ambush point, you’ll be able to choose what’s important to you as the mission unfolds.

To play through these new, more open areas, something else was needed. One thing I know Gears purists love is the movement mechanics. Not much has changed on that avenue for quite a few entries, but for the first time in a long while, we’re getting a hefty overhaul!

Modernized movement mechanics

First is the slide mechanic! Footage of this made the feature look like it was something that’s always been part of the series. Not only can players slide into coverage or toward an enemy, but they can also slide underneath obstacles to get a jump on someone from the other side.

Seeing this in the campaign mode was one thing, but seeing it in multiplayer will change the gameplay of the core Gears experience quite a bit. A chance significant enough that Gears just moved up to my number one most-wanted multiplayer title.

They’ve also added JUMPING IN GEARS OF WAR?! Say what? I never in all my years thought they would add a jumping mechanic to the rodeo show game. From what I can tell, this still seems a little limited.

Thankfully, I don’t think we’ll see any bunny-hopping shotgun users coming at us in multiplayer; instead, it appears that the focus is limited to jumping over gaps and up onto higher ledges than before. Rather than only being able to shuffle on top of a ledge that’s waist height, players can jump onto something above their head to pull themselves up.

In turn, this is meant to lead to greater verticality and a sense of freedom in the playable environments. I can already see a wider variety of routes being created throughout campaign and multiplayer matches, where players won’t be limited to triple-wide ramps up to the main area. Instead, they’ll be able to make use of natural environment cover, which means even more moments to use the GNASHER!

New low ground cover also signals a drastic change in combat, as players can now lie low on shorter ledges. Popping up to shoot from these cover spots means more of the player will be exposed, but getting a quick moment of relief, no matter how small it is, will create less stagnant gameplay as a result.

Customized destruction technology

Cover is not only scalable from a height perspective, but also dynamic in terms of destruction, as pillars, road blocks, and more all feature micro-destruction. You won’t be blowing up entire buildings, but rather, the world is destructible on a scale that makes sense.

The tops of cover areas won’t last forever under the stress of extended gunfire, revealing the tops of players and enemies alike. But that dynamic destruction doesn’t end there.

E-holes are no longer pre-defined, as E-Holes now come within random areas of the map. No longer will you be able to “pre-nade” oddly specific-looking places, as these holes will open near players for an added layer of challenge to the chaos of an unraveling city.

Retaining a classic look while redefining fidelity

Gears has also been overhauled visually, with higher-fidelity models featuring more detail in Marcus Fenix's eyebrows than his entire character model did in the original Xbox 360 game. Even with added fidelity, they made sure to retain the look and feel of Marcus Fenix without leaning into some sort of scary uncanny valley scenario.

All of this with real-time ray-tracing at 60 FPS. With a glorious 120 FPS target for multiplayer game modes. I am announcing that I will be shooting each and every neon sign!

All will come with great beauty under the pleasure of brand new weapons like the incinerator, an acid-burning shotgun that literally melts the flesh from enemies. Or a manually triggered grenade launcher that will be perfect for those who like to pretend a rock will protect them forever.

Multiplayer is back

From the get-go, all four characters will be available in four-player coop for the campaign. You won’t be locked out of having to complete any tutorial. You and your friend (or my wife and I) will also have the astounding pleasure of playing Gears of War: E-Day in full split-screen mode!

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see split-screen getting love in 2026 with brand new titles. Too often, these games and series ditch local cooperative play in favor of a dual-screen experience, but there’s just something else about setting up on a couch with your friends or loved ones to play a few hours of Gears of War that would be lost without the feature.

Hopefully, that splitscreen applies to online as well, because returning alongside the revamped multiplayer experience is a new Horde mode, called Horde Siege. The mode will feature 12-player arenas as players cooperatively battle together to take out the never-ending Locust swarms, with more information becoming available at a later date!

Players who pre-order now will get access to the beta (that will eventually become an open beta) on August 6, 2026. While true Emergence begins on October 6, 2026. Coming exclusively to Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.

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We finally got a decent look at the future of State of Decay with a gameplay trailer during the Xbox showcase. As many fans and I hoped, State of Decay 3 will feature more chaos, more zombies, and a lot more carnage in our favorite co-op survival game.

There’s also a couple of surprises I didn’t quite expect to see.

First, the release date. Given how long it's been since State of Decay 3 was first announced, each and every showcase has left fans wondering when the game would be out. After another trailer last summer and a gameplay testing sign-up earlier this year, we were finally told that 2027 will be the date.

Even if State of Decay 3 could make late 2026, given how packed the holidays are with the release of GTA VI, choosing to release in 2027 with more time to polish makes sense. It seems to be a route a lot of development teams are making this fall.

What’s pushing that date a little bit more might be the team's latest platform they’ll be developing for: PlayStation 5.

Exclusivity will be a case-by-case basis

In the development blog, they talk about everything except why State of Decay will no longer be exclusive to Xbox. It seems, as many guessed after Asha Sharma’s interview on Bloomberg Tech, that games coming will be made exclusive on a game-by-game basis, with State of Decay 3 being one of those non-exclusive games.

Perhaps it's the whole cooperative aspect, where players and communities come together to survive the wastelands of post-apocalypse zombie hordes. Online community-style games may remain across all platforms, but then why does a game like Gears of War: E-Day stay exclusive? Who knows!

More answers about State of Decay 3

Pointing once more to the Xbox Wire post about State of Decay 3, we get a lot of questions answered about the upcoming title.

First, weapons will come with variations:

“So, you can see in the trailer, you’ve got a machete that’s now got a serrated blade on it. Like the golf club example, all of the machetes you can get from a hardware store are shattered. Now you can find altered weapons in the world that embody this maker culture concept. Some machetes are homemade with a serrated edge, others have rebar welded on the back of the blade, some have both! One of my favorite early concepts was the slicing weapon, but you might think, “Boy would I like a little more weight for better dismemberment.”

Undead Labs is also introducing Plague Nests, a new form of high-risk reward looting for players to take part in:

“They represent some of the most dangerous areas, but because they’ve been dangerous for so long, haven’t been looted nearly as much as other locations. So, it’s got some of the best loot, but at a very high risk.”

No two Plague Nests will be the same as the last, or at least, in practice: “Nests also have multiple ways they behave and grow. We call them personas, where every time you roll one, it might take on a different form, a different behavior set, a different way that it comes at you. This is going to keep things fresh not only within the play session, but save to save — no two saves are ever going to play the same.”

State of Decay 3 will also come with a massive world map that will be four times larger than the previous State of Decay 2 play space. As more worlds become available post-launch, expect each map to be massively replayable given the size.

Not to mention, one of my favorite features from Grounded will be coming to State of Decay in the form of shared worlds. Players will each have access to a game’s save, whether one person is online or not. You won’t need the host online at all times!

Instead, if someone opens the game, they’ll begin hosting a session with the latest save, where others can join in dynamically. If the host leaves, the game host switches, and if they all leave, the latest save is updated, and any one person in that save can start it up at any time.

Make sure to come back as we unravel more about State of Decay 3 over the coming days! State of Decay 3 will launch in 2027 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

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I don't get as excited about "ERMAGHERD EXCLUSIVES" as a lot of folks out there, but there's no denying it's a hot topic people really care about.

As we wait for the big Xbox/Gears of War double-header later on today, exclusive fans will love what we're hearing.

According to Jeff Grubb on Giant Bomb's latest Summer Game Fest show, Gears of War: E-Day was planned to be on PS5, but now it is not. Potentially this marks new XBOX CEO Asha Sharma's first big call on platform exclusivity.

Gears of War: E-Day was first revealed a couple of years ago, and obviously since then XBOX has been pretty keen to put its first-party games out there on PS5. Forza Horizon 5 was a smash hit when it made its debut on Sony's console, and Halo is primed to make its first appearance with Campaign Evolved.

Both of those are old games, though, as was Gears of War: Reloaded when it launched on PS5. The Gears and Halo that PS5 players have had and will be getting might be 'new,' but they're both decades-old games at their core.

Pulling the plug on Gears of War: E-Day for PS5 would be a pretty huge call and represent a shift in strategy and no doubt one that the fans of platform exclusives will be singing about from the rooftops.

Unlike PlayStation, though, XBOX will continue to support PC with all its biggest releases, I mean, it's a Microsoft platform after all. But it looks like giving all the goodies to the other side could start to slow down.

I can see some sense in it, for sure. Multiplayer games like Forza Horizon 6, you want in as many places as possible. Live service franchises live and die by having as many players as possible.

We'll soon find out for sure, though. The Xbox Showcase starts tonight at 10am Pacific, 6pm BST, and the Gears of War: E-Day show is right after it.

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Former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown teased the reveal of his new game just a few days ago. Now, Maverick Games has officially pulled back the curtain, giving us our first look at the project, along with some early details, including its name: Clutch.

Having sunk my teeth into Forza Horizon 6 since launch, I'm actually starting to warm up to the idea of trying other racing games again. It's a genre I've largely stepped away from over the years, with my last real venture outside of Forza dating back to the Xbox 360 era.

For those unaware, Maverick Games is made up of former Playground Games employees, alongside developers who previously worked on the Need for Speed franchise, making it what some might call a match made in heaven for racing fans (via GTPlanet).

The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, which may give some people the heebie-jeebies, and honestly, that's understandable. That said, based on what we've seen so far, Clutch is shaping up rather nicely, with impressive visuals and a strong first showing.

Honestly, having watched the reveal, the game is shaping up nicely. After more than three and a half years in development, Clutch follows the story of "a pair of sibling racing prodigies competing in the R1K racing series."

The studio also unveiled the Midnight Collective within the game, which it describes as: "Away from the pomp and the pageantry and commercialism of the R1K is the Midnight Collective... A group of car enthusiasts who don't care about the money and the fame of the R1K... They care about the love of driving and the raw thrill of speed."

What I believe will be the standout feature of the game, however, is the sheer level of customization on offer. I genuinely don't think any other racing game comes close to the number of options shown so far.

From the usual visual upgrades you'd expect on the outside of your car to surprisingly detailed interior customization, Clutch seems to let players make their vehicle feel unique. We're talking cups, hoodies, dashboard clutter, and other personal touches that go far beyond the customization options found in most racing games today.

With all that said, let me know your thoughts on Clutch. It can obviously exist alongside Forza Horizon, but I think it's great to see the genre potentially gain another serious contender and some healthy competition.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and be sure to take part in our poll.

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This year's annual Summer Game Fest was officially kicked off by Sony on Tuesday afternoon, with the PlayStation maker hosting a new State of Play event that gave players a closer look at several new and upcoming titles headed to PS5 and other platforms. Games like Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Onimusha: Way of the Sword left a big impact on many, with Marvel's Wolverine ultimately stealing the show.

And yet, much of the community's focus on the presentation had nothing to do with its contents, and was instead directed to the chat of the livestream — a result of players barraging it with a clear, unified message: "We want Destiny 3," either fully written out, in hashtag form, or conveyed with emotes. The spam continued for nearly the entire show.

For those who've been keeping up with the news surrounding Bungie's live-service space fantasy FPS series, I doubt the rallying cry will come as a surprise; since the studio announced Destiny 2 development is ending on June 9 when its final Monument of Triumph update comes out, players have passionately pushed for Sony to greenlight a sequel, surging a Change.org petition that now has nearly 350,000 signatures.

Fans were further spurred on by a comment from Destiny 2 community lead and principal communications manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner, who wrote that "Guardians make their own fate" in a post on Sunday. He then reposted a call for Destiny 2 players to log in on June 9 and flood its servers for its final update, giving many hope that doing so might sway Sony to invest in future Destiny projects.

I'd also like to draw attention to the fact players have been driven to get loud by recent revelations about what's been going on at Bungie behind the scenes. Former Destiny developers have publicly claimed that "greed" from leadership led to a shortage of resources for the live-service shooter, with new comments aligning with what's been said about the studio's management after the devastating 2024 layoffs at the developer.

Reportedly, that lack of adequate support played a large role in Destiny 2's steady decline and imminent downfall — and fans feel strongly that the franchise deserves far more than such an abrupt and dissatisfying conclusion. After all, Destiny has been around since 2014 and has touched the lives of millions, and has left a monumental mark on gaming history.

As a veteran of Destiny 2 that played it frequently during its nine-year lifespan, I'm in full agreement with that sentiment, and have high hopes that the ongoing rally to demand a future for the series will bear fruit. I don't expect we'll hear anything about a potential Destiny 3 soon, but eventually, I'd be really happy to see it announced by Sony and Bungie.

My main concern is that Bungie as we know it may be a completely different entity by then; with Sony forced to endure a massive $565 million impairment loss attached to the developer and Marathon not exactly raking in massive success, one can't help but wonder if the publisher will put the studio through some significant restructuring. In the end, though, only time will tell what Bungie's future holds.

Do you want to see Sony and Bungie eventually make a Destiny 3? Share your thoughts down below.

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I figured that we wouldn't see Microsoft and Xbox announce the next Call of Duty game until the big upcoming Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, but it and developer Infinity Ward decided to go ahead and reveal it a week and a half before the presentation. Indeed, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has officially been unveiled, and is headed to Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 23 later this year.

Ahead of its announcement, we knew the game wasn't going to be released on PS4 from an official confirmation of that on social media, and most guessed that Modern Warfare 4 wouldn't be on Xbox One either since it's a last-gen system too — a prediction that turned out to be true.

Something a bit more surprising, though, is the news that Call of Duty: Warzone — the standalone free-to-play battle royale experience that's been a mainstay of the shooter franchise since 2020 — is being sunset from Xbox One and PS4 consoles with the arrival of Modern Warfare 4.

The Call of Duty team announced this near the end of its Modern Warfare 4 reveal blog, noting that Warzone will be gradually phased out on last-gen platforms until the new game's release and the start of Season 1, at which point Modern Warfare 4's content and progression will be integrated into Warzone and the battle royale will be fully taken off Xbox One and PS4.

Something important to note is that while existing Warzone players will have access to the experience until Modern Warfare 4 comes out on October 23, the ability to download and install Warzone on Xbox One and PS4 is going away next week on June 4.

That means you only have a few days to pick Warzone up before it's delisted from storefronts if you're using one of these systems and want to be able to enjoy it for the last few months it's playable on last-gen consoles. If that's you, I recommend doing this right away so you don't forget.

Once Warzone is no longer playable on Xbox One and PS4, you won't be able to purchase the Call of Duty Points microtransaction currency on those platforms. Additionally, from June 25 onwards, Warzone's in-game store will be removed from last-gen versions of the game. You'll still be able to progress through free Battle Pass tiers, though.

Ultimately, this is disappointing news if you're still playing on one of these consoles, but they're now 13 years old now, and I have no doubt that their limited capabilities were holding back the scope of Call of Duty content. Therefore, I'm glad to see that the series is finally moving past them, though I do sympathize with folks that haven't been able to afford or find Xbox Series X|S or PS5 systems.

Frankly, it's never been easy to do, and has only gotten more difficult with the ongoing RAM crisis. Here's hoping that mess ends as soon as it can, even if current projections suggest we'll be dealing with it for another year or two.

Are you still using a last-gen console to play Call of Duty: Warzone? I'm curious to hear from you, so let me know in the comments and vote in our poll.

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Call of Duty has had a rollercoaster ride the last two years. Treyarch’s initial release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2024 felt like lightning in a bottle.

The game’s new omnimovement system and snappy time-to-kill were the high-octane action-heavy gameplay that many vocal fans in online Call of Duty communities had been begging for.

And yet, the excitement for Black Ops’ return quickly fizzled out after the launch of the first round of seasonal content.

Players were being thrown into lobbies that were heavily impacted by rampant cheating, and Treyarch ultimately had to delay the planned content drop for Season 2 for an all-hands-on-deck rework of the proprietary anti-cheat system, RICOCHET.

Just as the ship felt like it was beginning to right itself, Treyarch announced that it would be releasing Black Ops 7 as a direct sequel to Black Ops 6. The community was divided on the decision to forgo the head-studio rotation it was accustomed to.

Additionally, a rift formed between Zombies players who wanted Activision’s Carry Forward policy to allow them to take unlocked Zombies skins to the new game versus Multiplayer fans who — fed up with some of the more ridiculous operator bundles that were plaguing the storefront — were ready to make Carry Forward a sacrificial lamb if it let them get rid of Beavis and Butthead from the battlefield.

The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 did little to mend the hearts of the community, as some took issue with the game’s more experimental campaign. However, Treyarch’s efforts to cater to the whims of Multiplayer fans won over a portion of gamers. Still, the game ultimately struggled to find its footing when compared to its predecessors.

Black Ops 7’s launch woes led to its publisher, Microsoft-owned Activision, reconsidering release schedules and returning to the classic studio rotation of the past. Xbox’s new CEO, Asha Sharma, also announced the game would no longer launch day one on the Xbox Game Pass service in an effort to alleviate the negative feedback following the subscription’s freshly increased price — though patient players can still expect to see it included with the service 1 year after launch.

Despite the hurdles in front of Infinity Ward, there’s an obvious pride among the team members when they talk about the newly revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. “I think we’re in a good place,” says Jacky Reynolds, multiplayer design lead for Infinity Ward, “We worked a lot — really hard — to get the game pretty holistic by the end of last year. We’re massaging and tweaking and refining and trying to get it … as good as possible… before we launch it.”

Finding Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's identity in the wake of Black Ops 7

Infinity Ward has recently shared a significant amount of information about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, including the campaign’s new South Korean setting, the collection of multiplayer maps, and upcoming changes to player movement. Its player movement that has the greatest potential to be a hotbed of discussion for players.

Treyarch’s new Omnimovement system was introduced just two years ago, featuring thousands of new animations that have been integrated across both Black Ops 6, 7, and Warzone. BO7 doubled down on the faster movement with the wall jump motion, bridging the gap for players who wanted more vertical movement options and those who wanted to keep things boots on the ground.

Modern Warfare 4 has dropped the wall jump capability, firmly towing the boots-on-the-ground line. But Infinity Ward did not completely step back from Omnimovement, instead building on sliding mechanics that benefit from Treyarch’s supine positioning as well as further improving mantling, lean animations, and introducing ledge crawling. While I was speaking with the multiplayer team, I took a moment to ask how Infinity Ward decides which features from other franchises make their way into Modern Warfare.

“We’re all different games,” says Reynolds, “even though we’re under the same franchise. I think it is important that we present a different game. It’s fresh and different, so we make the game that we want to make. Modern Warfare has its own kind of vibe, and we just ran that through a big filter — does it feel like a grounded military experience?”

“That’s kind of the lens that we make our game around,” says technical designer Jack Hoppus. “How do we make something that’s really true to us, true to the Modern Warfare series? But also, how is a new player going to feel using this? Are our systems intuitive enough?"

"We’re striving for something really good with our movement system, as well. I think a player who’s just getting their hands on the game is going to be able to move around with ease, and if you play for a longer time, you’re going to really be able to master it. I feel like we have this really strong identity that we’re shooting for with this game. Someone who gets their hands on it is going to feel [that identity] right away.”

Building immersion with the little details

The identity Hoppus speaks of is quick and easy to pick up on, as Modern Warfare 4 fully embraces its South Korean staging — even using Korean-inspired stylization for the numeral in the game’s logo. The inspiration flows over into the Multiplayer mode’s maps. “We try to share as many locations as we can with the singleplayer. Under the hood, it’s … logistics. We need to scan locations, come up with a set of textures, and a bunch of boring little things. We really want it to feel like a holistic world,” says Reynolds.

“I’ve always felt like the multiplayer map is like 2 blocks down from the mission that happened in singleplayer. If you hear system gunfire, it’s another team, and they’re doing another operation. We started with Silkworm, because we needed a map that would generate assets for South Korea, and then we also started with Lotus, which was a coastal town in South Korea."

"So both of those generated an urban center and the rural center, and then we were able to give a ‘to-do list’ for teams to go and find those things,” Reynolds continued, “Find little newspaper stands and these things that make it feel authentic. Find the paint they would [use] on their roads. There’s red strips on their roads. How do we bring all these things in to make it feel as legitimate as we can?”

It's these seemingly ‘boring’ details that build upon the immersion players experience in Modern Warfare 4. Modern Warfare titles, even in the Xbox 360 era, frequently included interactive map details. However, remastered maps like Favela lost those little bits of interactivity when Modern Warfare was rebooted a few years ago.

Modern Warfare 4 embraces world immersion with those little details once more, ushering in a new creative era for the studio that is both celebrating its past identity and embracing its potential future under new studio leadership.

The Call of Duty Engine and launching on the Nintendo Switch 2

That return to immersive worlds comes at a cost, though. Earlier this month, official Call of Duty social media accounts confirmed that Modern Warfare 4 would be the first game in the series to skip launching on past-gen systems like the Xbox One X and S and the PlayStation 4. The decision to forgo last-gen consoles gave the development team the freedom to push Modern Warfare 4’s limits — which made the reveal that MW4 is to be available on the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch all the more surprising.

“Early on, getting [MW4] to run quick and responsive was the biggest [challenge],” says Reynolds, “Just tweaking its architecture, which is kind of different than our base, and to get it to sing. It’s just been great to pick it up, and it’s scary how natural it feels.”

“Oh, that’s our game,” says Hoppus through laughter, “It just plays pretty well!”

“Switching platforms these days? It’s such a streamlined system that we can have different kits playing… especially with crossplay,” Reynolds added, “Unless we really push that boundary, we’re able to mix and match and just see the nuances between the settings and make adjustments.”

Infinity Ward’s engine for Call of Duty has long been lauded by fans who mistakenly still refer to it as IW8 and speculate about the existence of IW9. However, the engine pushing Call of Duty evolved some time ago to be a shared system used by all the studios working on the franchise as “the Call of Duty Engine.” “It’s a shared engine,” says Reynolds, “we can access other games, but we try to keep as holistic as we can.”

“As we explore new tech, especially with our dynamic weather, the engine is evolving,” says Hoppus, “We put a lot of work in our engine and make sure what follows sweep this performance bar and visual bar that we want to hit for the content.”

“[The engine] has allowed us to realize ideas on the design side in a very streamlined way,” Hoppus continues, “There’s not a huge amount of friction when you come to …an idea. It’s attainable for sure.”

Not every idea gets the green light, even with the power of the Call of Duty engine. “My original idea of how to do Kill Block, we couldn’t do it, really,” says Reynolds. Kill Block is Modern Warfare 4’s new dynamic map, inspired by stadiums with retractable pitches that allow for quick transitions between grass-laid fields, hockey rinks, and basketball courts.

“They had to come up with an interesting way that it works, but my original idea … would take 18 man-years. But they figured it out. It looks like a little postage stamp, but the tech that runs that is pretty outrageous.”

Weapon changes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Modern Warfare 4’s improvements don’t stop at a new setting and map tech. Weapon mechanics like aiming and depth of field underwent serious reworkings for the upcoming Call of Duty, changing the way players interact in this new world.

“Our weapons team obsesses over this,” says Hoppus, “They see details that no one else in the world would be able to see. All of the improvements that we’re doing to weapons kind of fall under this shared goal of making you feel like you’re the one holding the gun. You feel the weight of the gun."

"It’s more realistic than ever before. When we see the side-by-side videos, you’re like, ‘How did we ever ship like this in the past?’ We come at it from a realism standpoint, a gameplay standpoint, and try to make something that really fits and feels fun for the player. Like with the enhanced FOV, it’s trying to take the best of both worlds. A high FOV makes targets really small, the big FOV makes them bigger, but you don’t see as much of the sides of the screen. So our engineers and our weapon designers really took it upon themselves to find the best balance.”

Modern Warfare 4 sticks with the series’ gunsmith mechanic for weapon loadouts, though it is more simplified than past iterations. Players can choose up to five attachments for any given weapon, with the pros and cons of those attachments being displayed clearly so the player knows how it will affect the weapon once its live on the battlefield.

“The gunsmith has evolved so much that you can really [put together] any kind of build you want,” says Hoppus, “If you’re going to be good at something — like you want a really good hip firing gun or a really good quickscoping gun, I think it's easy to make that in the gunsmith now. We have over 500 attachments, right? So each one of them is going to do something different. Our [weapons team] loves working on iron sights — it’s their bread and butter! So we got some sick ones in our game now.”

Hoppus also leans into Modern Warfare 4’s new Gunny system for the freedom it affords players in trying out new attachment combinations. Gunny is a new gunsmith addition that dynamically generates weapon builds for players with the press of a button.

“For all of the attachments that you have unlocked, each supports play styles. So [Gunny] is a kind of handcrafted system from our weapons team to sort out these attachments and generate a configuration that works. It’s not going to block one of your attachments; it’s building this optimal weapon for you, and it’ll use every attachment you currently have unlocked. You can just keep cycling through it to find one,” he explains.

“Gunny works in the middle of a match, as well, so you don’t have to go back in the front end. And you can actually edit them after the fact. Something that’s really popular even among some of the hardcore players is getting an initial Gunny build, maybe try it out for a match or two, and then you’re like 'ooh, cool, I want this with no stock instead.' You can take that Gunny build and still edit it after the fact. You’re not locked into that specific configuration.”

“We make this robust gunsmithing system, but it can be overwhelming with how many choices [it has],” says Reynolds, “So that’s where the idea of [Gunny comes in]. Could we just say, ‘This is all of your stuff, this is actually a pretty good gun. Why don’t you go give it a try?’ It’s an onboarding [tool] to help people engage with the system and then hopefully, ideally, continue to engage with them.”

With so many potential combinations for Gunny to assemble weapon builds, it almost seems inevitable that the system would throw some duds. Reynolds verifies that the builds generated by Gunny have been prebuilt and aren’t entirely up to random luck, though he adds, “Sometimes they’ll set up some systems where you just get this really random, crazy one, and then we’ll try it and be like ‘Oh, it’s actually not that bad!’”

“We have the Mosen — long single bolt,” Reynolds sighs before continuing, “It’s been spitting out these snub-nose cut-off little pirate gun.” Hoppus chimes in, “But it’s great for quickscoping! People are going to be able to make their COD montages, for sure.” Hoppus and Reynolds close out the interview by sharing their current favorite loadouts for Modern Warfare 4.

“Right now, I’ve been using one of our new guns, a side-loaded SMG. I’ve been rocking with that, and I’m a quick fix guy. Ever since we debuted that perk, it’s been my favorite. I run ninja to try to, like, move stealthily around the map, and then I got some kill streaks. I run the bomb glider. I run the crossfire, and I’ll run the attack chopper so I don’t have to my gun down,” Hoppus shares.

“I’m a fan of the Odin,” says Reynolds, “That gun just looks crazy. You get the big monolithic suppressor on there, and it just looks like it’s OP.” “It’s a really strong, slower-firing AR,” adds Hoppus, “it feels really like it’s going ‘thunk thunk’. The audio team was killing it with [the Odin]! It really feels like a behemoth. It’s pretty rad.”

Modern Warfare 4 ushers in a new era for the Call of Duty franchise and Infinity Ward as a development studio. With new leadership at the helm, the team is taking the opportunity to explore new creative directions without losing sight of what makes Modern Warfare special to so many players. The team's excitement for this new era of Call of Duty is palpable and downright contagious.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is expected to launch Fall 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC via Steam and Xbox on PC, and the Nintendo Switch 2. The game will not be available on Xbox Game Pass until 2027, but it will support the Xbox Play Anywhere program at launch.

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Finally. We have confirmation that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the official title for Infinity Ward's next release in the ongoing annual Call of Duty franchise. Infinity Ward has confirmed that Modern Warfare 4, which is expected to launch this fall, has been designed around a "ripped from the headlines" philosophy, with gritty and authentic characters that are intended to feel real and not superhero-like.

Here's a quick breakdown of everything revealed for MW4 so far.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign details

The last Call of Duty players saw of Captain Price, the popular character, had just shot US General Shepherd in his office during a post-credit scene for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023).

At the start of Modern Warfare 4, players will experience the ramifications of that action, as Price is now on the run and running short on allies. But Price and Task Force 141 are not the only squadron we'll see in Modern Warfare 4.

The story will also center on a second team of 18-25-year-old soldiers in a squadron that consists of both Korean soldiers and US Marines. These soldiers will have fully realized stories and names.

The second team allows Infinity Ward to recenter the Modern Warfare story on a team of grunts, as opposed to the spec ops soldiers that have been the central focus of the story in recent entries.

"For us, we wanted to refresh Modern Warfare, and to do that, we needed to go to a new setting," says Infinity Ward co-studio head Jack O'Hara. O'Hara says that choosing South Korea as the setting for MW4 was exciting for the team, as it offered the opportunity to introduce new architecture and cultural influences to the series.

Modern Warfare 4's campaign will feature 13 missions across three acts, taking players to memorable locations like New York City and Paris, as well as new destinations like Mumbai.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer details

Gritty, boots-on-the-ground gameplay is the theme for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Infinity Ward's studio multiplayer creative directors Joe Cecot and Geoff Smith shared a mantra for Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer experience, describing it as "Slick and sophisticated" with "cinematic firefights" that perfectly balance realism and dynamic worlds for fluid, fun gameplay.

One such way that the studio has pulled off this mantra is by introducing a new shockwave mechanic and adding more interactive items throughout multiplayer levels. If a player shoots at a fire hydrant, for example, enemy players in the blast radius can be impacted by the explosion.

If the explosion is non-lethal to the enemy player, it will still cause them to be knocked back. This shockwave feature expands to grenades, as well.

Infinity Ward has also further expanded on Modern Warfare 4's animations and movement systems. Some movement tech originally introduced with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's omnimovement has transitioned into Modern Warfare. Features like supine prone have been tweaked to be even more dynamic.

Players will be able to transition smoothly from a slide to descending down a ladder in Modern Warfare 4, making for faster escapes from sketchy situations.

Mantling has also gotten yet another boost, with MW4 allowing players to transition instantly from a mantle into a slide. This mechanic works best when clambering over an object like a vehicle, and then instantly hitting a slide after disembarking.

Dynamic leaning and ledge shimmies round out the new movement tech coming to MW4. One thing that will be missing from Infinity Ward's take on advanced movement is the ability to wall jump. Introduced with Treyarch's Black Ops 7 launch in 2025, the ability to wall jump will be left behind in favor of a more grounded approach to combat.

Create-a-class gets a much-needed makeover for the better in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Previous Call of Duty titles only allowed players to edit their base loadout using create-a-class, but now deeper customization gives the player the freedom to create classes tied to specific operator skins. Choose an operator in a ghillie suit for your sniper class, build out your weapon, pick 3 perks, and then choose your preferred killstreaks.

Want to run and gun, instead? Create your second class with your favorite Operator and go for an SMG loadout heavy on perks like Ghost, Ninja, and Cold-Blooded. Pair it with some high-value killstreaks that don't require you to leave your body alone on the battlefield, and watch your Elimination to Death Ratio skyrocket.

In an effort to find and secure its own identity for Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward has eschewed Treyarch's previous weapon prestige system. Instead, the development team has introduced Apex attachments, an unlockable reward for each weapon that only becomes available after hitting that weapon's max level.

Apex attachments can be added to your weapon without taking away any of the five standard-issue slots available for attachments, and have significant advantages that can change your experience on the battlefield. An underbarrel attachment that launches a trio of throwing knives, a heartbeat monitor built into your weapon's sight, and more can be equipped to your weapons — that is, if you can earn them.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will launch with 24 weapons, hundreds of attachment combinations, 11 lethals, 9 tacticals, 17 killstreaks, and 11 field upgrade options for your loadout. If you're feeling overwhelmed about how to choose your next weapon, the Gunny feature can be found in the Gunsmith. Gunny will generate a viable weapon build from the player's list of available attachments and weapons at the press of a button.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will launch with 12 game modes for multiplayer, including fan favorites like Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint. New modes like Inflation and Counterattack will also be available at launch. Gun Game and Drop Zone will return as party offerings, with more modes planned for after launch.

Launch maps include:

• Silkworm
• Reactor J92
• Rooftop
• Mumbai
• Caschette
• Nautical
• Lotus
• Sentry
• Coal
• Transit 23
• Korean Nuclear Reactor (KNR)

All the maps for Modern Warfare 4 are brand new, so fans of Shipment and Shoothouse may initially feel left out. Fear not, Infinity Ward isn't leaving us small map junkies out of the rotation — the brand new dynamic map, Kill Block, will provide a Shoothouse-sized playground that changes dynamically throughout the match.

Inspired by sports stadiums with retractable flooring systems that allow them to rotate between football fields, basketball stadiums, and hockey rinks all in one, Kill Block is a live fire training facility with three slabs that shift throughout the rounds of the match. There are over 500 combinations for Kill Block, ensuring plenty of small map variety, and some map slabs may even be reminiscent of locations seen in Modern Warfare's past.

Prestige will return in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, but with a significant change. Infinity Ward has offered two new tracks for Prestige. Classic Prestige allows players to give up their unlocks for XP boosts and additional rewards, while the second option for prestige allows players to keep their unlocks while continuing to progress through the level track — albeit without receiving prestige-only unlocks.

Hands-on impressions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer

Activision and Infinity Ward gave content creators and press a brief preview window during which we had the opportunity to play through a few matches of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer modes.

After two years with the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, Modern Warfare 4's movement system is decidedly slower. Even with improved mechanics for sliding and mantling, the boots-on-the-ground experience Infinity Ward was aiming for is very present. There were still plenty of players attempting to wall jump, and there were some rogue instances of players trying to revive the long-lost art of bunny hopping around corners, but weapon balance and dynamic lean mechanics managed to bridge the gap.

Bunny hopping in multiplayer has long been a pet peeve of mine, and I'm not surprised to see that become the go-to strat for players who are looking for advanced movement in a more grounded environment, but I'm still going to hope that Infinity Ward adds in some deterrents for it somewhere down the line. Loss of aim accuracy, slower recovery from the jump to sprinting, or some other limitation on the player coming out of the hop can help a lot.

I do feel as though Infinity Ward's grounded movement has led to better map design, as well. Black Ops 7's maps feel almost comically large at times, especially as they're designed to allow for wall jumps and extreme slides. Modern Warfare 4's corridors feel more imposing, as you can run up on an enemy with a close-range weapon and truly find yourself without an out. It adds more tension to encounters and movement, and makes successful gunfights feel rewarding.

I was surprised and genuinely impressed by the design of Kill Block, the dynamic Shoothouse-sized map. It's easy to get lost in the details of a map's design when it does something as unusual as shift layouts every round. From the description alone, I was expecting a mode that was a little more gimmicky, but instead I found myself thoroughly enjoying the chaos and challenge of an ever-evolving battleground.

There's still so much we have yet to see from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and I have no doubt that the shock of going from BO7 to MW4 movement is going to throw the community into a bit of a tailspin. But for those of us craving a little bit of nostalgia and more thoughtful, tactical gameplay engagements, Modern Warfare 4 certainly looks promising.

For more on my time at Infinity Ward's studio, check out my interview with the Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer team.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 third mode: DMZ is back!

As part of today's reveal for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward has confirmed that the DMZ will return as MW4's third mode this fall. Infinity Ward has declared DMZ the 'definitive Call of Duty extraction experience", taking place within a living combat sandbox that is always shifting, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces.

Every run is a risk as you loot, fight, negotiate, and betray in order to extract whatever you can carry. Infinity Ward was light on any additional details pertaining to the DMZ, so we'll likely have to wait for either a Call of Duty Direct sometime in the future or for this year's Call of Duty Next event to learn more.

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For those unaware (and I’ll admit I was too), new studio Maverick Games was formed by former Playground Games creative director Mike Brown alongside other senior developers from the Forza Horizon series.

The team is currently working on its own game and has now teased on X (formerly Twitter), that a trailer reveal is coming soon ahead of Sony’s State of Play, which is set for June 2, 2026, at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET / 10 p.m. BST, now to be clear, the team are revealing their game on the same day, not that it will be at the State of Play.

For those unfamiliar with Mike Brown, he started work at Playground Games on Forza Horizon 2 before eventually working his way up to Creative Director on Forza Horizon 5. He later left Playground Games and went on to form Maverick Games in January 2023 alongside several other senior developers from the Forza Horizon series.

So far, the studio has yet to release a game, though they were previously partnered with Amazon Games before going independent earlier this year.

Currently, Maverick Games is developing a AAA “narrative-led” open-world racing game, written by Jamie Brittain, according to VGC. It’s easy to draw parallels here, as an open-world racing game does sound quite familiar to what many have come to expect from the Forza Horizon series.

That series recently released its sixth entry, set in Japan, which has since become the highest-rated game released so far this year on Metacritic. It has also topped Xbox’s most-played charts, beating long-running giants like Call of Duty.

Honestly, with how good Forza Horizon 6 has been, I’m all for more games in a similar vein. More games in any genre or series help breed competition, which, believe it or not, is good for the industry.

With that said, and my thoughts out of the way, let me know what you think. Are you excited to see what Maverick Games reveals, or not? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll.

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One of the most biggest and most impactful updates in Fallout 4 history was scheduled to come to Bethesda's beloved classic 2015 post-apocalyptic RPG last year in November, but ended up getting delayed due to technical issues. For months, it's been relatively silent about it since then outside of a confirmation it's still being worked on — but thanks to a new announcement, we finally know when it's coming.

The update in question is a massive mod storage increase to the amount of space Xbox and PlayStation players can dedicate towards the player-made "Creations" mods you can download and install from Fallout 4's main menu. A new communication from Bethesda confirms it's coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4 on May 27, which is just a week from now.

"We're excited to share the Fallout 4 Creations storage expansion will arrive for consoles on May 27th. Console players will soon have more space to download content, including larger, more ambitious Creations," the developer wrote in its social media post.

Specifically, the amount of storage available to Xbox Series X|S users will skyrocket from 2GB to 100GB, while those on Xbox One, PS5, and PS4 will jump from 1-2GB to 15GB (last-gen and Sony-imposed limitations mean these systems won't get as much extra space as Xbox Series X|S systems will).

While this update ultimately won't mean anything for players that don't use mods, Fallout 4 is radically changing for those on console that do. Even having 15GB available for mods opens up a ton of possibilities for Xbox and PlayStation players, and Xbox Series X|S users with 100GB of space will be able to put together load orders comparable to what PC players have enjoyed for years.

With that much available storage, console users will be able to use high-quality graphics improvement mods without issue, and will still have plenty of room left over for countless other smaller mods that overhaul gameplay, add new weapons and armors, introduce new quests and storylines, and more. Advanced projects that rely on the PC-exclusive Fallout 4 Script Extender still won't be on the table, but that's it.

As someone who's enjoyed modding Fallout 4 extensively over the years, I'm stoked that my fellow Sole Survivors over on Xbox and PlayStation will finally be able to mod the RPG on a deeper level as I have. Something you need to be aware of, though, is that the update will wipe existing load orders. Thankfully, you can save yours and then restore it after the patch.

Bethesda published an article explaining how to do this, but I'll write out the process here too. In the Fallout 4 Creations menu, go into your Load Order and then select the Load Order Archive button. In the box that opens, select "Save Load Order to Bethesda.net" and let the process complete. Then, after the update, go to the same location and choose "Restore Load Order from Bethesda.net" instead.

It's unfortunate that this update is coming to Fallout 4 six months late, but ultimately, I'm just glad to see it's finally almost here and didn't end up getting scrapped. After the disaster of the Anniversary Edition, the popular Fallout game really needed a win.

Will you take advantage of the mod storage increase patch for Fallout 4? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll, too.

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PlayStation maker Sony has historically attracted players to its consoles by releasing its first-party, high-profile single player games exclusively on its systems, though throughout the last several years, it's been bringing them to PC via Steam months or years after their initial launch as well. Now, however, it appears the firm's time releasing titles on PC has come to an end.

According to a new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst told the gaming brand's employees that Sony will no longer publish any of its single player games on PC in a meeting on Monday, meaning that they'll now be completely exclusive to the PS5 and future console systems.

Notably, this news comes after an earlier report from Schreier in March in which he revealed that his sources informed him PlayStation would be moving away from PC releases. Though there were plans to bring games like 2025's Ghost of Yotei to Steam, they were reportedly axed as Sony decided to shift back to complete console exclusivity.

The only games exempt from this new policy will be multiplayer titles such as Marathon or Helldivers 2 — games that benefit greatly from being as accessible as possible, and stand to rake in the most profit from being widely available. Sony could still make new multiplayer games PlayStation exclusive, but I'd say it's unlikely after the success of Helldivers 2 on Xbox and PC.

It's speculated that Sony may be abandoning the creation of post-launch PC ports due to poor sales on Steam, and also because some at PlayStation feel releasing the brand's first-party exclusives on PC weakens it and gives people less of a reason to buy PlayStation consoles. The fact Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" Xbox system is said to be a console/PC hybrid is also likely a factor, as Sony wouldn't want its games to be playable on Xbox hardware.

Assuming this new report is accurate, it puts Xbox in a bit of an interesting position. It's grown to become a major multiplatform publisher in recent years, with its own first-party games releasing on PC on day one and nearly all of them coming to PS5 either at launch or at a later date, too. But if you can get Xbox games anywhere and can only get PlayStation games on PS5, why bother getting an Xbox console?

Helix's value proposition is offering players the plug-and-play simplicity of console gaming with the unrivaled catalog and Windows flexibility of PC, but is that enough? Ultimately, I'd argue it's probably not, especially since exclusives are the "number one reason" someone decides to play on a specific machine. Notably, exclusives are also the number one topic in the new Xbox Player Voice forum.

Given that Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma wants to strengthen the brand's hardware performance as part of a plan to make Xbox "where the world plays," I expect she wants to bring back single player Xbox exclusives, and might even take them off Steam to release them on PC exclusively through the Xbox on PC app. We know she's evaluating the potential return of exclusives carefully, after all.

But will Microsoft let her? As the firm aggressively pursues a 30% profit margin and tech manufacturers struggle worldwide to keep systems in stock amidst the ongoing AI-driven memory crisis, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw it prioritize short-term revenue over long-term brand health and make every new Xbox game available on Steam and PlayStation as well.

In the end, only time will tell. But Sony's shift away from Steam and PC undoubtedly puts some pressure on Xbox, and it will be interesting to see if some changes come in response.

Are you sad to hear that new PlayStation exclusives won't come to PC? Do you believe Xbox needs to bring its own exclusive games back in order to succeed? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.

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"I hear you," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said, when asked about Xbox exclusives.

It's the most fractious debate around Xbox in recent times: that of exclusive content. A couple of years ago, Xbox announced that it will no longer have exclusive games, as if it was something to be proud of. Digital platforms revolve around exclusive content. I subscribe to Netflix to exclusively get WWE. I subscribe to Disney+ to exclusively get Star Wars content. I buy a Nintendo Switch to get access to Mario and Super Metroid. The list goes on, and it's an obvious narrative to sell to consumers: join our ecosystem; get exclusive content you can't get anywhere else!

Microsoft disagrees.

Microsoft's pursuit of a 30% gaming margin led Xbox to start putting its games like Halo, Forza, Gears of War, and Fable onto other platforms. In some cases, it shouted this from the rooftops in a celebratory manner, alongside its much-hated "This is an Xbox" campaign, which inexplicably marketed competitor platforms who would love nothing more than to see Windows and Xbox die.

Without exclusive content, it seems inevitable that Xbox has decreased desirability. With fewer users, you risk putting the platform into a death spiral: fewer users means more games exclusively skipping the platform, which in turn means fewer users. This dark cloud has been hanging over Xbox for years now, with customers and developers alike worried for its long-term viability.

I believe new CEO Asha Sharma wants to bring Xbox exclusives back. If you look into her background at Instacart, it was built on exclusivity deals for e-commerce fulfillment. She's mentioned the idea of exploring exclusive games for Xbox again. She has a real competitor spirit: something Microsoft seems to lack under Satya Nadella.

But, there's a big problem. What's the point of creating desire, marketing, and exclusive content for your hardware ecosystem when you can't actually procure stock to sell?

Indeed, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo are already selling through every unit they can get their hands on. Yes, even Xbox. The demand is there, but the price of memory and other components has broken the business model. And the big three are all impacted.

It doesn't leave Asha Sharma with a lot of wiggle room.

The memory rout is eating into stock, and demand

The video game industry is worth more than ever overall, but the traditional platform holders are struggling from a variety of "headwinds."

This is the year of Grand Theft Auto 6. This is the year Call of Duty stops shipping on past-gen consoles, like the PlayStation 4. But despite this, PlayStation itself, the market leader, is warning investors that PS5 hardware sales will decline 6% year-over-year, "due to a decrease in unit sales." This follows a 46% year-over-year decline already, reported this month.

How is it that even PlayStation, who has an exclusive marketing activation with Grand Theft Auto 6, is predicting a hardware sales decline?

The answer is pretty simple: Amazon, Google, and other AI hyperscalers have already purchased all the memory, now and future allocations too. There's a huge shortage of components for consumer electronics, with Nintendo also raising prices specifically later this year as its fixed-price component contracts expire. Console makers know that traditional gamers won't bite at these new, painful higher prices, particularly when their disposable income is also seeing a generational squeeze.

"Unfortunately, the recent surge in memory and other component prices," Nintendo explained, "and the changes in the market environment, including trends in the foreign exchange market and the price of oil, are all factors that we anticipate will continue over the medium to long term."

Microsoft is obviously part of engineering this problem, with its own hyperscaler ambitions. Unfortunately, the memory Microsoft acquired is not being sent to Xbox, it's being sent to Azure, so we can use Copilot to generate cat memes, deepfakes, and confidently incorrect LinkedIn think-pieces with greater efficiency.

Xbox in essence has been sabotaged at both ends by Microsoft here, creating a self-actuating problem and self-fulfilling prophecy. Microsoft knows Xbox can't procure memory at a reasonable price. Microsoft knows Xbox can't sell hardware at an even vaguely reasonable margin in this current climate. And Microsoft knows putting Halo, Gears, and Forza on PlayStation destroys Xbox's desirability as a hardware ecosystem.

Microsoft engineered the predicament Xbox now finds itself in. CEO Satya Nadella said during the FTC trial that he hates the idea of software exclusivity, arguing against the frankly ridiculous accusations that Microsoft would move to make games like Call of Duty exclusive. Indeed, Nadella has a long history of killing any and all Microsoft hardware initiatives, with Surface on the ropes and Windows Phone six feet under.

I'm sure if Satya Nadella had his way, Xbox would devolve into a simple publisher. It's a better margin business on paper. Microsoft wouldn't have to deal with the headaches that come with distributing hardware, providing repairs, customer service, and so on. But the credibility damage to Microsoft would be absolutely astronomical: why would you ever put your faith in Microsoft products again if it moved to orphan tens of millions of Xbox users' digital content?

Indeed, speaking to Xbox staffers at a recent internal event, Satya Nadella remarked that business clients in Azure meetings often want to talk about Xbox, rather than Office 365.

That's why Xbox Helix is still on the way. Microsoft knows they're in too deep with gaming to pull out of its hardware ecosystem now. Nadella said he's long on gaming. But, I'm here to tell him that Xbox won't have a long life if it doesn't have some form of exclusive content.

Even if Xbox will struggle with stock levels, it should move back to exclusive games anyway

I understand the logic. If you can't get the hardware, you need to find the margins in software. PlayStation's expectation that it'll struggle to move hardware even in the year of Grand Theft Auto is obviously more than true for Xbox as well. Why go crazy on marketing and exclusive games (which create desire for your hardware) if you can't actually get the hardware at a reasonable price? I get the logic, but ...

I would argue thusly; if you don't, you won't have an ecosystem at all when the memory rout ends. And it will end eventually.

There's no universe where we'll see God of War or The Last of Us on Xbox. There's no universe where we'll see Super Metroid or Mario on Xbox. In a perfect world, software wouldn't be locked to hardware, and we'd be able to play wherever we want — much like being able to access Spotify or Netflix on any device we want. But we do not live in that universe, nor will we ever. Microsoft is saying to today's and tomorrow's customers that they shouldn't buy an Xbox, because if you buy a PlayStation, you'll get both Xbox's games and PlayStation's games. Better yet, save a bit more, buy a Steam Machine or a gaming PC, and get Xbox's games and thousands of Steam-exclusives too.

It's with that in mind that you can't really draw any other conclusion: putting Halo on other platforms like PlayStation is chaos-brained insanity. The brand damage is absolutely immeasurable, and it will continue to dog Xbox long into the future.

This was a historic mistake made by people thinking quarterly, rather than by people thinking about Xbox's long-term health. The astronomically stupid self-immolating decision will continue to have long-term consequences for the Xbox brand and its relevance both with customers, developers, and distributors alike.

The memory-pocalypse is expected to last through to 2028 I've been told. Xbox is a vast and expensive operation, more so than ever now Activision-Blizzard is part of the equation. When Call of Duty has an off-year it drags the entire operation down with it, as evidenced by last year's Black Ops 7 fiasco. But therein lies the core problem: gaming is not a quarterly business, nor has it ever been.

To treat Xbox like an Azure or an Office 365 is fiscally negligent. Gaming is a hit-driven business, curated over decades of goodwill building, nostalgia, and cultural attachment. Microsoft shouldn't be thinking quarter-over-quarter for Xbox, in a universe where games take literal years to make.

You. Cannot. Run. Xbox. Like. Azure.

As such, I think Microsoft needs to stop capitulating to Steam, PlayStation, and other competitors who are actually competing to end with Xbox, and instead capitulate to reality: Xbox needs exclusive content.

Microsoft needs to soak the insane decisions of the last couple of years, and accept reduced margins to subsidize the mistakes, while it rebuilds the culture around the brand, and return to meeting expectations of the community and the wider industry at large.

Gaming is about the characters, the worlds, and the communities around those icons. It's about building up generational cultural cache. Master Chief should be Xbox's Mario, Gears of War should be Xbox's God of War — the mascots that sells the ecosystem. Instead, they've become a symbol of Microsoft's wholesale unwillingness to compete: quick and cheap ports for a quick buck. How sad.

I think Asha Sharma understands the value of exclusive games. Asha's previous company, Instacart, built itself up on long-term exclusivity contracts with the likes of Aldi and others. But, will she be able to convince Microsoft's bean counters to think about Xbox's generational value, its cultural value, rather than its quarterly value?

The most likely scenario in my mind is that, eventually we will return to exclusive games. There's no other path forward in my view. It might not be until after the memory-pocalypse ends, but I wonder if it'll be too late by then.

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PlayStation players can rejoice. While Xbox players are out there playing PlayStation’s own Marathon more than PlayStation users themselves. PlayStation fans can indulge themselves, as they get a feature exclusive to their console, omitted from Xbox hardware, in a first-party Xbox game no less.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is finally getting PlayStation VR2 support for both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro today, April 30, 2026, giving virtual pilots full VR support in the title. That alone is enough for PlayStation fans to laugh and maybe even clap back.

I’m being a bit dramatic and sarcastic on purpose, of course, but it’s great for those that enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator to finally get this feature on PlayStation. PlayStation VR2 has been out for around three years now, and while originally it was stuck to PlayStation’s closed ecosystem, it has since escaped those crutches.

Back in 2024, PlayStation released a PC adapter for the headset, which helped open things up. I’ve always had mixed feelings about virtual reality. It can be genuinely fun, and even a decent workout, but it feels limited when it’s locked to a single platform, or restricted by a cord that needs plugging in.

At least now, with PC support, the PS VR2 isn’t all that bad of a headset. That said, I still lean toward a cordless experience whenever I use virtual reality.

Hopefully, PlayStation users can make the most of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s VR support. It’s a well-loved feature on PC, and for good reason, as it adds a strong sense of immersion.

What’s always baffled me, though, is Xbox’s reluctance to embrace virtual reality at all. Whether it was making use of Windows Mixed Reality (which has since shut down) or simply opening the door to third-party headsets, it feels like there were missed opportunities for some sort of virtual reality platform on Xbox.

It could have even positioned Xbox as a more affordable entry point into VR, especially when the Xbox Series S was cheaper.

What do you think? Did Xbox miss an opportunity by skipping virtual reality, or was it smart to avoid a niche that still hasn’t fully taken off? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll:

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"Just got hit with Xbox One flashbacks."

As new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma aggressively puts the Xbox community first, it seems Sony PlayStation is taking a step backward.

In 2013, Microsoft adopted an aggressive DRM policy for the Xbox One. Microsoft told itself this was a "best of all worlds" scenario, designed to bridge the gap between physical retail and the increasing shift towards digital games. Xbox gamers have always skewed disproportionately digital in the console space, as Microsoft was among the first to offer robust services in support of the shift.

Microsoft set up a convoluted system that attached your Xbox account to the discs you were using. To resell or share them, you'd need to get the disc unlocked and removed from your account via "participating retailers." Games would also be subject to DRM check-ins online, to ensure that you actually had the "rights" to the disc you'd, you know, purchased. In exchange, Microsoft was planning to allow family pooling of digital games into a single huge digital library, similar to what Steam offers today. It buried this lede pretty hard, though.

The confusion over the policies led to a denigration of the Xbox brand that continues to this day in some ways. Microsoft backpedaled hard in 2013, but it put them on the back foot all the way to modern times. In 2026, the vast majority of Xbox games you own no longer need any form of online check-in when used on your "home" Xbox console — save for multiplayer games, which are online anyway.

Oddly, PlayStation now seems to have adopted a mandatory 30-day check-in — which is reminiscent of those fateful Xbox One days.

As examined by Spawnwave in the video above, it does seem that PlayStation now has some form of DRM check-in period for some games, requiring an internet connection and a valid account sign-in.

PlayStation Support seems to have suggested that the check-in period is around 30 days.

"Thank you for your interest on the 30-Day Timer that is being applied to all new purchases," the purported message reads, "Affected content: games purchased digitally after the March 2026 update. If the console does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the license expires and the game may refuse to launch until a connection is restored."

Either way, it's truly nowhere near as aggressive as the Xbox One policy from 2013, which was gunning for a somewhat insane 24-hour check-in. Even in 2026, I've had situations where our fiber optic internet has been down for over 24 hours, and I live in a country that (supposedly) ranks high for internet connectivity.

Thankfully, Microsoft walked back the insanity of this policy, and PlayStation's DRM check-in is far more "generous." But there's a broader issue here.

I'm not really someone who cares a great deal about DRM, speaking personally. Like I said, I generally have good internet connections, and failing that, you'd have a 5G hotspot to do the DRM check in a pinch.

But, for many, the issue boils down to futureproofing. Imagine decades into the future, in a scenario where PlayStation, Microsoft, or anyone else for that matter, decides to no longer continue serving the DRM services for whatever reason: you could end up with a console full of digital games you could no longer play or access.

Microsoft no longer requires any form of DRM on the vast majority of its digital single-player games, meaning you could fill up a big Xbox Series X|S Seagate Storage Card (21% off on Amazon btw!!) with games and, as long as that Xbox was designated as your home console, you could realistically expect to access those games decades into the future, even if Xbox stopped supporting the Xbox Series X.

For PS5, on the other hand, if Sony ever stopped supporting DRM checks on that system, you'd be checkmated in theory after the 30-day expiry period.

It's still a pretty far-fetched scenario to imagine, and not one I personally think is realistic. I can't envision a world where PlayStation, Xbox, or any of the major platform players shut down their account management layers in my lifetime. If they did, it would likely be due to some catastrophic global event, in which case accessing my games would probably be low down on my list of priorities. But for many, it is an issue. Not only mechanically, but it's often also a matter of principle — and that's totally valid.

It's a reminder that we don't truly "own" our digital games we've purchased. It's a far cry from how games used to work in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s, where buying the disc simply meant owning it for all intents and purposes. And it's why Xbox's aggressive posture, ramming this through in 2013, was met with such hostility. I've seen some suggestions that this is PlayStation's attempt to mitigate recent attempts to jailbreak its ecosystem. Whatever the reason, it's probably not going to be as big of a deal for most people in real terms, in an era where we're all perpetually connected online.

Every platform handles its DRM a bit differently. Steam's DRM supports indefinite access offline for games you own, as does Xbox's, after that initial online setup. But it's an interesting reminder of the 2013 Xbox One backlash — bearing hard lessons Microsoft is arguably still reeling from.

In any case, we've reached out to PlayStation for a comment. It could be a bug, or something unintentional. We'll let you know either way.

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It's the biggest Xbox conversation of the now: will Xbox get exclusive games again?

One of the most controversial, if not the most controversial topics surrounding Xbox pertains to this and this alone: exclusive content, namely games.

A couple of years ago via a very dry business-style presentation, Xbox announced that it is bringing "four" of its exclusive games to PlayStation. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer said that it would only be those four, specifically saying "it's not Indiana Jones" in comments that are now notorious: a few months later, it very much was Indiana Jones.

After Forza Horizon absolutely blew up on PlayStation, making Microsoft (and Sony ...) absurd amounts of money, the writing was essentially on the wall. Xbox will no longer have exclusive games. I wrote two years ago that, as part of Xbox's ill-fated "Project Latitude," any exclusive Xbox game moving forward would be incidental at best. A result of budget constraints, dev kit access, or pipeline issues. In essence, every single Xbox game would eventually come to PlayStation, and some easy ports to Nintendo Switch 2 as well.

But like new CEO Asha Sharma said, "the plan is the plan until it's not the plan," and confirmed repeatedly over the last few weeks that exclusive games for Xbox are being re-evaluated.

Selling Xbox's soul for (a ton of) money

Whether Xbox likes it or not, eventually it's going to have to contend with the fact the vast majority of Xbox owners want exclusive content on their box.

A recent poll I conducted on Windows Central and in other places revealed that only 12% of our readers think Xbox shouldn't have any form of exclusivity. At the very least, you want Xbox to have some form of exclusive content, whether timed or otherwise. Plenty want full exclusivity, too.

The problem is, for Microsoft, the sentiment hasn't always translated into real-world sales data.

Previous CEO Phil Spencer said in an interview that Starfield, no matter how good it might've been, wouldn't have sold Xbox consoles in meaningful amounts. The sentiment points to a worrying trend across console gaming in general: it isn't growing. That's the cold, hard facts.

Various analytics firms from Circana to Ampere show that youngsters simply aren't buying any console, letalone Xbox. Those that don't become console gamers in their youth are far less likely to become console gamers in adulthood too.

From Circana's Checkout service: $100+ income households now account for 43% of US video game hardware purchases, up from 36% just a few years ago.18–24-year-olds accounted for only 3% VG hardware purchases during the 12-months ending July 2025, down from 10% during the 12 months ending July 2022.

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T16:56:43.878Z

Console gaming has become the realm of the unc to use the vernacular du jour. If you're reading this, most likely you're in your mid-thirties or older.

Kids today grew up with iPad and Roblox, and therein lies their gaming expectations generally speaking. They also spend more time on TikTok and other addictive social media algorithms than older generations, although our attention is divided by this increasingly as well.

All up combined console sales between the big three are lagging behind the previous generation owing to a variety of factors. Increased costs are a factor. The rise of free-to-play is a factor. The social-heavy nature of dual-monitor PC gaming is a factor too.

Consoles essentially fell behind in a variety of ways, but we're not here to discuss the causes of that right now. The point is that in a stagnant, or even shrinking total user base, how can Xbox (and others frankly) stay ahead of inflation? Costs are rising for platform holders too, and finding new money is driving both Xbox and PlayStation to explore other pastures. PlayStation quite unprecedently put Helldivers 2 onto Xbox as well last year, so it's hardly as if Xbox's behavior exists in a vacuum.

Despite the difficulties, Xbox's Asha Sharma has set up some pretty strong expectations

I seriously doubt Asha Sharma and Matt Booty would be teasing the return of exclusives if there wasn't already some sort of plan in place.

Personally, I think that we will see some form of exclusivity return, but it may be pretty limited. Gears of War: Reloaded, for example, very barely moved the needle when it launched on PlayStation last year. The anaemic sales really begs the question: is the juice worth the squeeze?

It's difficult to measure brand damage in a spreadsheet, and Microsoft is a company that is well entrenched in telemetry. I call this phenomenon spreadsheetification — if it can't be measured in a spreadsheet, Microsoft's decision making seems to be paralyzed. This is why they so often fall afoul of negative sentiment and lack a human touch. It's hardly unique to Microsoft. Corporate inertia is a real thing, and it's what helps smaller, more nimble firms like Discord appear out of nowhere and disrupt entire markets.

Microsoft and Xbox can no longer afford to be this ignorant. The blowback to their strategy around Xbox has been so utterly loud that it can no longer be ignored here. Hence why we've already seen a huge reversal on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's 50% price hike. When is the last time you saw a subscription service actually get cheaper?

Forza Horizon will continue to sell millions when it hits PlayStation. But, will Gears of War and Halo? Obviously, we're not talking Minecraft or Call of Duty here, which have PlayStation's install base fully factored into its business model. The ship has well and truly sailed here (although some Xbox co-marketing wouldn't hurt ...). We're not talking about whether or not Xbox will ditch PC either ... Xbox and Microsoft obviously have a vested interest in keeping Windows 11 as the default PC gaming platform.

But what if Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 were Xbox console-exclusive down the line? I feel like a persistent cadence of high-quality exclusives absolutely would sell Xbox hardware. You're going to need stuff like that for Xbox Helix, which many predict will be disproportionately expensive for a video game console.

And of the "smaller" franchises. The immeasurable brand damage that putting Xbox icons like Master Chief and Marcus Fenix onto PlayStation really doesn't feel like it's worth it to me. Yes, they will sell some copies, but is it really worth making your users feel abandoned in the process? Gears of War and Halo have never really had an audience on PlayStation until Microsoft CFO Amy Hood forced Xbox to chase an insane 30% profit target.

But there's the other argument: if Xbox isn't finding new users from the Gen-Z and Alpha cohorts due to Roblox, etc., then it needs to find new money elsewhere, i.e. on PlayStation. But I find that to be reductive. If there's an industry problem all up with console, I don't see why putting games on PlayStation is doing anything other than accelerating the identified problem. Kids don't want to play Halo or Gears, and their parents don't want to necessarily buy a console for it either.

Microsoft didn't even wait five minutes to see if cloud gaming could help bridge the gap before it started chasing PlayStation's audience. It has done little to no marketing of this platform, nor has it bothered really marketing its own consoles either. Meeting people where they are is all well and good, but what good is reinforcing PlayStation's position if the entire market is stagnant to shrinking anyway?

Microsoft should be fighting for those users that potentially remain in the segment with one arm, and exploring what's next for Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha with the other, in my view. But again, it's a real dilemma ultimately. Microsoft has pushed themselves into a corner by leaning into these trends, and it makes you wonder if its studios can even get the investment they need without PlayStation's install base now — even if the sales overall end up being anaemic.

So, I ask you, dear reader: will Xbox return to console-exclusive games?

I go back and forth on this, but they're talking about "re-evaluating" too much to make me think they won't return some form of exclusivity back to Xbox customers. I think what we'll end up seeing is a partial return to exclusivity, perhaps with an emphasis on timed exclusivity.

I can see Gears: E-Day being a timed Xbox console-exclusive, but Microsoft already dealt the damage by announcing PlayStation versions of Halo: Campaign Evolved.

RELATED: Ranking the biggest problems faced by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma

Putting their games onto PlayStation does allow their studios to be more ambitious, and gain bigger budgets and investment. Fable decidedly looks truly AAA, but is it only AAA because Playground Games is able to offset risk and invest in studio growth thanks to huge actual and projected sales of its games on PlayStation? I certainly believe that putting Xbox games onto PlayStation helps them hit a higher quality bar.

But at the same time ... it's doing massive damage to Xbox as a hardware platform. Sales are in freefall decline. Why buy an Xbox in 2026 if none of its content is actually exclusive? This is a serious question for the average consumer.

Console enthusiasts might end up buying both devices if there's enough content between them. I don't have a PlayStation today, but it's purely for incidental reasons. PlayStation has fantastic exclusive content, even if a lot of it has hit my gaming PC in recent years ... I still prefer console gaming.

I'm PlayStation's target market, and they make their platform compelling purely via virtue of their exclusive content. I'm not interested in any other aspect of the platform beyond this, and I know eventually I will buy a PlayStation (when I get my own place). Unless it was specifically to play with friends, I'm not sure why you'd buy a console were it not for the exclusive content.

I really hope Microsoft realizes that finding users from Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha is a totally separate, and much more long-term problem. If you alienate your current users, you're not going to have a platform left at all to figure out how to solve this issue. And there's no universe where your competitor platforms are going to help you solve this either. They will, however, happily cannibalize your platform if you let them.

Perhaps Microsoft has some kind of feature set "secret weapon" for its upcoming Xbox Helix that could help it leapfrog the need for exclusive games ... but that's a big IF, and seems entirely unlikely to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't see how Halo, Gears, and other Xbox icons on PlayStation helps improve the business for the long term. Short term gains for long term pain seems to be Microsoft's M.O. though.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the poll above, and in the comments below.

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I recently explained how Xbox closing Social Clubs felt like part of a wider clean-up ahead of the next generation. In that, I explored what else could be on the chopping block, and briefly touched on something bigger.

Xbox, a platform that once thrived on social features, has quietly handed that over to Discord, a private company that can implement any changes they deem necessary. A platform that, lately, has been dealing with its own set of issues, from age-verification concerns to security breaches and eroding user trust.

Which raises a bigger question: Why have Xbox, PlayStation, and yes, even Steam, all ended up relying on Discord to handle something that used to be so central to all their own platforms? First, it’s important to lay out what’s actually happening.

On Xbox, integration with Discord is now built in, and with the recent removal of Social Clubs, that shift feels more intentional than ever. It was a feature with its fair share of issues, and one that may not have fit into Xbox’s broader push toward unifying with Windows.

That said, removing it doesn’t really benefit players. Instead, it leaves a gap where those communities used to exist, and in most cases, that gap is now being filled by Discord.

Looking at PlayStation, it’s the same pattern. Discord integration is now part of the PlayStation experience, while Communities were shut down in 2021, a year later, Discord came to the platform. Those who can’t build their social experiences within PlayStation’s ecosystem now have little choice but to go elsewhere.

It all points to the same broader trend across both companies, whereby platform holders are stepping back from directly managing social spaces.

On PC, things are a bit different. Steam still offers its own social features through Steam Groups, but in practice, many players default to Discord anyway, even when native tools are available.

It’s equally important to understand why these platforms stepped away from social features. As much as I want them back, the reality is they’re difficult to maintain and expensive to build, and that’s before even considering moderation, which comes with its own risks, no matter how it’s handled.

Even Discord has faced ongoing scrutiny over moderation, which shows just how complex this space really is.

Then there’s cross-platform play, which made platform-locked communities far less valuable. Discord stepped in and solved that problem, offering voice, text, and shared spaces that work across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

It’s not that Xbox, PlayStation, or even Steam failed at social features, but instead that they chose to stop competing in that space. In essence, the trade-offs likely became too big for them to even consider trying to compete anymore.

All of this helped Discord become the default. People were already organizing communities there, and over time, even developers followed that same trend, creating official servers to share updates and gather feedback, which only reinforced Discord’s position as the default.

Now, of course, it’s great that players can gather together regardless of platform, but Discord isn’t just popular anymore; it’s become central to how people communicate across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

The issue comes from the fact that Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam have no control over how Discord is handled. Some might see that as a positive, others less so.

Personally, I tend to be cautious when it comes to large corporations and how they operate, but the bigger point is that any decision Discord makes can affect everyone at once, whether that’s changes to monetization, new policies, or shifts in moderation.

We already have real examples of this. Discord has faced security issues in the past that exposed user data, and more recently, there’s been backlash around age verification, with concerns over privacy and how that data might be used.

At the same time, Xbox and PlayStation specifically are stepping back from social features, and it’s hard to ignore the timing. For example, Xbox removed Social Clubs just as Discord was facing backlash over privacy concerns, leaving users who had built communities with few real alternatives beyond a platform already under heavy scrutiny.

Even now, as I was writing this, Xbox and Discord have announced a new partnership, teasing what could likely be an even bigger collaboration between the two brands, teasing Game Pass flexibility. Whether it's Nitro included in Game Pass or some sort of cloud-based partnership like streaming your games directly in Discord, it's clear that Discord isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

With that said, ultimately, this shift leaves gaming in a strange place, where the social spaces that once defined platforms like Xbox and PlayStation now live almost entirely on Discord.

It works, it’s convenient, and for most players, it’s already the default, but it also means the experience is no longer controlled by the platforms themselves. That trade-off is easy to ignore now, but as Discord continues to evolve, it’s something that could shape how players connect across every platform moving forward.

Without repeating myself too much, I’d love to hear from you. Do you think Discord is a great solution, or do you find yourself concerned by the recent controversies and looking for alternatives?

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Microsoft is moving the Raise Hand icon and the button to leave a meeting within Teams.

If you've ever raised your hand accidentally in a Microsoft Teams meeting, you'll appreciate a change that's on the way to the communication app. In June, Teams will move a few items around within meetings to reduce mis-clicks and make the app easier to use.

The Raise Hand icon will now be grouped under Reactions, which should prevent people from raising their hand when they mean to response in a meeting with an emoji.

The Leave button will be placed on the right of the meeting window to separate it from other controls.

Microsoft details the changes on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. The Verge spotted the change, which is currently scheduled to roll out in June 2026.

Dates on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap are subject to change, so the feature could be delayed or moved forward. Since the planned rollout is a few months away, we should see it enter testing soon.

At the same time, Microsoft will also roll out a change to Teams that allows you to customize the meeting toolbar. After the update ships, you'll be able to pin, unpin, and reorder controls within a meeting.

If you spend a lot of your day in Teams meetings, you know that hunting around for buttons can waste a lot of time. Clicking the wrong one can also bog down a meeting since the presenters may stop to ask if you have a question when you just meant to click an emoji.

When explaining the changes, Microsoft said things "may feel different at first." I'm curious to know how you feel about these changes. Are you happy to see controls moved within Teams meetings or would you prefer they stay in the same place? Let me know in the comments below and vote in our poll!

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The 2023 Xbox and PC RPG Starfield from renowned The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda has been in the spotlight quite a bit recently, as the game officially made its way to PlayStation with an April 7 PS5 launch and also introduced the Free Lanes content update as well as the Terran Armada story DLC.

Its PS5 release marked the end of the space exploration title's Xbox console exclusivity, and naturally, many have wondered how Starfield has performed on Sony's PlayStation now that it's finally come to the platform. Early estimates suggested disappointing results, but a new report indicates that it may be doing quite well on the new system after all.

That report comes from none other than Mat Piscatella, the senior director and video game industry advisor of the well-respected market research firm Circana. On BlueSky, Piscatella commented that Starfield was the top-selling game in the US during the week it came out on PS5 in.

"Starfield was the best-selling video game of the week in tracked physical & digital US full game dollar sales during the week ending April 11th. It's the first time Starfield has led the weekly US best-selling titles chart since week ending Sept 2, 2023," he wrote. "The PlayStation 5 version of Starfield released on April 7th, coinciding with the Free Lanes and Terran Armada content updates."

Starfield was the best-selling video game of the week in tracked physical & digital US full game dollar sales during the week ending April 11th.It's the first time Starfield has led the weekly US best-selling titles chart since week ending Sept 2, 2023.Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T21:01:16.070Z

That's a pretty impressive feat for a game that came out three years ago and didn't hold a place in the game industry zeitgeist for long; though it reviewed positively with most critics, Starfield proved to be very controversial with players, to the point where it ended 2023 with a "Mostly Negative" rating (it's now at "Mixed"). Its Shattered Space expansion wasn't met with much of a better reception.

Many criticized Starfield for being as wide as an ocean — or a universe, I suppose — but as shallow as a puddle, with very little engaging content to enjoy outside of its main story and handful of hub worlds. Free Lanes and Terran Armada expand the game's offerings a bit, but Bethesda was clear that they don't represent a "Starfield 2.0" overhaul of some sort. This isn't a Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty situation.

With that in mind, I find it hard to believe that this new surge of sales might have come from new players on Starfield's existing platforms of Xbox and PC. It makes far more sense for them to come from PS5 users curious to check out one of the biggest Xbox games in recent memory, especially now that it has more content than it ever has (though it's still not enough in the eyes of many).

Thus, this report suggests that Starfield may be seeing more success on PS5 than was originally believed, though ultimately there's no way to be sure of that without more platform-specific sales data. Regardless, no matter where the sales are coming from, Bethesda's RPG is enjoying quite a boost right now. It's available for $41.99 on Loaded — a nice discount from its usual $49.99 price — and also on Xbox Game Pass.

Do you believe that Starfield's recent sales surge has come as a result of its PS5 release, or do you think it's explained by Xbox and PC players checking out the RPG now that it's been updated substantially? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll about Xbox exclusivity as well. It's a hot topic, and one Starfield is very relevant to.

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In a post on LinkedIn, Joost van Dreunen, who analyzes the video game industry, discussed a leaked memo obtained by The Verge, in which Asha Sharma said Game Pass had become too expensive.

In response, former PlayStation CEO, Shawn Layden, shared some strong thoughts on LinkedIn, describing the situation as unfavorable and grim.

In full, Layden states:

Usually, posts like this come and go without much follow-up. You would not expect Xbox’s new CEO to step in publicly. But she has.

Responding directly, Sharma signaled she is open to a conversation with Layden, writing simply:

“I would love to chat sometime."

Sharma has been doing a pretty impressive job so far, if I do say so myself.

She has been highly responsive, even setting up a dedicated team focused on long-requested Xbox features. That team is also actively seeking input from fans on what they would like to see.

She also recently responded to a fan on X (formerly Twitter) after an Xbox Insider update reportedly bricked their Xbox Series S.

It is refreshing to see this level of engagement, and hopefully any conversations she has with Layden are productive, offering a fresh perspective and insight for both.

Personally, I’m hoping a chat between the two is constructive. Sharma appears to be looking across all of Xbox to see what can be changed or improved.

Getting more users into Game Pass also seems to be near the top of her list. There have been talks between Netflix and Xbox, alongside new codenames like TRITON and Duet appearing.

These could point to a new Game Pass tier focused on first-party Xbox games, with the possibility of Netflix integration and cloud play time limits.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you feel about a conversation between Sharma and Layden? Or do you not care at all? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Nestled in the shadow of stunning AAA graphics, custom PC builds that cost as much as a used car, and throbbing RGB lighting is a growing collective of retro PC gaming enthusiasts who want nothing more than to keep the world of 8-bit, 16-bit, and early 3D games not just alive, but thriving.

While the retro gaming scene has been quietly growing for years, it certainly seems like 2026 has been a tipping point, especially with how expensive PC components have become.

Online communities like r/RetroGaming and r/CRTGaming are busy centers. Retro arcades are packed on weekends. And searches for "retro PC gaming builds" have skyrocketed in recent months. People are digging out old hardware, firing up emulators, and building dedicated retro rigs for some good ol' couch co-op in the living room.

So what's driving this resurgence? And how do you actually get started? Here's what you need to know.

Why are so many PC gamers interested in retro games?

The answer to why so many gamers are interested in older titles from bygone eras is multi-layered.

One of the biggest drivers, at least for my own retro gaming ambition, is nostalgia. The games I grew up on helped form the preferences I still carry today, and there's nothing quite like going back to a game I used to love, even if it's not perfect.

There are plenty of games being developed today that resemble older titles, using pixel art and time-tested mechanics. Although older more experienced gamers can often point out a newer game's influential origins, younger gamers are increasingly searching out original games to see why their influence remains so strong today.

The nostalgia factor goes hand-in-hand with game preservation. Without the support of enthusiasts, many games would be forgotten, unable to be played because their associated hardware is no longer produced or maintained, and their software lost to time.

This is well encapsulated by the r/CRTGaming Reddit community I covered in a separate piece. The community's passions are focused on the preservation of CRT displays, but the games played on those screens are almost always of the retro variety.

Newer isn't always better

For the younger readers, games used to launch in a working state. What was put onto a cartridge or disc and shipped was the final version of the game; no patches, no updates, and no second chances.

The best retro games still hold up today, with crisp mechanics, clear goals, and no scope creep after launch. You can sit down today or thirty years from now and know exactly what you're getting.

Compare that to today's modern mainstream gaming landscape. Early access titles that may or may not ever complete development. Billion-dollar AAA studios that pump out absolute crap year after year. Paid battle passes that get you cringy AI-generated cosmetics. Always-online multiplayer that doesn't work. Unfinished launches and ineffective patches. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point.

With the cost of PC gaming hardware always on the rise, I don't doubt that a lot of retro gamers also arrived at their destination thanks to a much lower cost of entry.

Buying and restoring your own retro consoles is one route, although prices can add up quickly for collector items. Relatively affordable handheld devices like the Anbernic RG351V are another option; I use it to recapture early Game Boy magic first experienced in the '90s.

This being Windows Central, I'm focusing more on the PC and retro gaming mashup that's probably the easiest way to enjoy your favorite titles from generations gone by.

You don't need a powerful GPU. You don't even need a powerful CPU. High-resolution display with fast refresh rate? Forget about it. All you need to get started is a potato PC with some emulator software and ROMs.

How do I get into retro gaming in 2026?

Let me preface this by stating that I'm not suggesting you break any laws. Emulators, aka the software that emulates a specific console's hardware, are usually legal, or at minimum exist in a grey area.

ROMs, aka the software that holds a specific game, are a different story. If you own a physical copy of the game, a ROM technically isn't illegal. If you don't own the game, downloading it is illegal. Do with that information what you will.

Hardware requirements for retro game emulation

The best resource I've yet to discover for help with building your own retro gaming setup is RetroTechLab.com. Among the countless guides and reviews, there's an entire section on how to set up practically any old PC as a retro gaming centerpiece.

For 8-bit and 16-bit games from the NES, SNES, and Genesis generations, you'll want at least an Intel Pentium 4 chip running at 2.0GHz and 2GB of RAM. Considering this chip is now 25 years old, that shouldn't be a problem.

If you're going for 32-bit games from PlayStation and Nintendo 64 generations, something like a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.0GHz should do the trick, as long as it has at least 4GB of RAM. The same goes for handhelds like Game Boy and PSP.

Once you get into the PS2, GameCube, and Dreamcast eras with 128-bit graphics, emulation demands rise considerably. A more modern Intel Core i3 chip at 3.0GHz and 8GB of RAM are recommended, although a Core i5 is better.

As for a GPU, something discrete is always better, especially if you're dealing with more demanding features like shaders and filters. However, most emulators offer software rendering that makes them work quite well on integrated graphics.

What are the best retro game emulators to run on PC?

RetroArch is one of the most popular emulators because it supports a wide variety of console generations. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you probably won't want to try anything else.

For older arcade titles, MAME is the go-to program for many golden age classics.

If you're more interested in GameCube and Wii emulation, Dolphin is a solid choice. Many gamers have success emulating OG Xbox titles with Xemu, and for PlayStation, I recommend DuckStation.

Using more than one emulator is common practice, and something like EmulationStation is designed to pull everything together into one manageable package. It's what I use on my Steam Deck, but it'll also work on Windows.

How do I build my own retro gaming PC?

I mostly use my Steam Deck as a platform for retro game emulation, but I've been toying with the idea of building a cheap little PC to keep connected to my living room PC. Once again, RetroTechLab comes in clutch.

One of the most practical routes is with a single-board PC. A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 4GB of RAM is available for about $110 at Amazon, and it can run the specialized RetroPie OS made for emulation right out of the box. Add a controller and an HDMI cable, and you're ready to go.

If you're targeting some of the more demanding emulators, a new or used mini PC with more powerful hardware is a stellar option. Or, as I outlined above, try your hand at repurposing an old laptop or PC that's otherwise collecting dust in a closet.

Over to you

I'm really only scratching the surface of retro gaming here; it's a deep subject that resonates with a lot of people, and the resulting projects often reveal the ingenuity and engineering prowess of enthusiastic gamers.

Have you built a retro gaming PC solely for running emulators? Have you repurposed an old laptop for the task? Do you run emulators on your gaming handheld?

I'm certain that more than a few of our readers here at Windows Central have something interesting to share on the subject of retro gaming, and I urge you to let us know in the comments section below!

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Back in 2023, Steam introduced a 30-day price history tracker in parts of the EU, though it was only available in some countries rather than across the entire region.

Now, based on recent backend updates, it looks like Valve could be expanding this into a proper 30-day price history feature for Steam games, likely rolling out more broadly.

Whenever Valve adds something genuinely useful like this, it raises a simple question for me: why doesn't Xbox do this too?

It is a consumer-friendly change and just another example of the kind of feature I would love to see Xbox adopt, and given their recent track record of listening to feedback, it isn’t totally out of the question that they do add something like this.

After looking into this update, I came across a Reddit user claiming that this is something PlayStation already does, which only raises the question further of why Xbox does not offer anything similar.

I cannot confirm if this applies to every region on PlayStation, as I don’t own one anymore, but it is still a great feature to have. It helps users make more informed decisions, especially at a time when everything feels more expensive than it should be.

On Xbox, players are still forced to rely on third-party trackers. They are useful, but far from ideal compared to having this built directly into the store.

For now, tools like XBDeals and PSPrices can help you check price history. They work, even if the experience is a bit clunky, but they are worth using if you are someone who likes to hunt for deals like me.

I’d love to hear from you, so tell me what you think. Would you actually use something like this on Xbox, or is price history not something you really care about?

If you are someone who regularly waits for sales, this kind of feature could make a real difference. Being able to quickly check whether a deal is genuinely good or not would save time and remove some of the guesswork.

On the other hand, if you are already comfortable using third-party tools, you might not feel the need for Xbox to build this in at all.

Either way, I am curious where people land on this. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and make sure you take part in our poll below:

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Xbox has rightfully been lambasted online for poor decisions and inexcusable prices, with last September’s price increases pushing things to frankly gross levels, albeit ones many argued were unavoidable due to broader market conditions (thanks, AI).

Whilst Xbox was mocked at the time, many presumed a similar price hike was coming for Sony, and while it held off for a while, they have now finally caved, citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” so with that said, let’s break down the price differences between Sony and Microsoft and see which one might be better value (spoiler alert, it’s not Sony).

How Sony’s price hike compares to Xbox

Now, I am poking the bear a bit here because, of course, whatever platform you prefer will suit you best. That said, there’s quite a lot to break down when it comes to the price differences across regions.

As far as I’m aware, Sony is increasing prices across four regions, including the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Japan. These changes affect the PS5, PS5 Digital Edition, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal.

I have put together a handy table to compare retail prices, so here it is:

As you can see, across several regions Xbox hardware does come in cheaper, or at the very least matches Sony on price.

It’s a bit of a shame that the days of consoles getting cheaper as a generation goes on seem to be behind us. In a perfect world, you’d expect something like a Series S at $199.99 and a Series X at $349.99, especially with newer revisions that cut costs, similar to what we saw with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era.

Instead, here we are, newer revisions never happened, hardware didn't get cheaper, and instead, we're watching prices go up across the industry. I suppose the best we can do now is waste a bit of water and ask our favourite AI chatbot to comfort us in these trying times.

It is also worth mentioning that this does make Xbox the cheapest place to play Grand Theft Auto VI whether it's the Series X or Series S and that is something that Xbox should definitely capitalise on.

What do you think of the price hikes from Sony?

Did you already bite the bullet and pick up a PS5 while it was more affordable, or did you hold out and now find the price increase a step too far?

For me, the PlayStation 5 is the first PlayStation generation I’ve actively missed out on. There just haven’t been enough games that appeal to me personally, so this price hike doesn’t affect me too much, but it’s still a shame to see the industry in its current state.

With all that said, let me know your thoughts in the comments, and make sure you take part in our poll below:

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Crimson Desert has been the talk of the town these past few days. What started off in some negative respects has suddenly seen a massive surge the other way. After what seemed like a rough start for Pearl Abyss as Crimson Desert began tracking at around a 51% approval rating, the game has now jumped to 77% as of this morning.

Officially nearing “Mostly Positive”, Crimson Desert’s review turnaround doesn’t seem to be slowing down either, as player charts continue to hold steady around 200,000 every day. Sunday’s numbers were at their peak, nearly surpassing 250,000 concurrent players on the platform.

Pearl Abyss has been nothing but communicative since release with their fanbase, a reflection of my time I had during the review process. Prior to release, all of us reviewers had a shared Discord channel to share experiences, advice, and bugs.

Some journalists expressed concerns over control muddying, storage issues, and other noteworthy pests. Will Powers, PR and Marketing Director at Pearl Abyss, was relaying all of this and more to the development team during their final push before release.

Will shared every update he could, and, as the Crimon Desert X account has shown, continues to do so with the fanbase at large. Every concern thus far has either been patched or plans to be.

Intel GPUs, AI assets, and more control reworks are all on their way in the wake of the latest storage and gameplay improvement reworks we received last night. Hopefully, all will come in a timely manner that satisfies the player base.

80 Hours in, still hooked

I haven’t been shy about my time with Crimson Desert. I gave the game a near-perfect rating, with the story and jank we're seeing being patched out as the main culprits holding it back from perfection.

I’ve spent most of this week working and writing, while also scouring social media to gather player reactions. Many are warming up to the idea that yes, Crimson Desert is what we like to call a slow burn. Hours in things suddenly click, like having to get through the first season of The Office.

Players are posting videos of elephants I hadn’t even come across yet, or mechanics I never even thought to try. Crimson Desert really does seem to be the game that keeps on giving.

The reviews cropping up on Steam are a noteworthy extension of that attitude shift. Today alone, according to SteamDB, over 6,000 positive reviews have been given, while a mere 150 of them are negative. That’s a 98% approval rating on the day.

If this keeps up, the review score will be swapping to Mostly Positive, marking a monumental shift in the game’s reception that few titles ever see. What Pearl Abyss has done before and after the reception of their game is a masterclass in communication and teamwork.

Here’s to hoping the next 80 hours of my playthrough are even more surprising than the last.

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Pearl Abyss might need to be careful with how fast they're responding to feedback. We might become too accustomed to it.

Crimson Desert has only been out for three days, and it’s already taken the internet by storm. From chilling tales of heroic deeds, adorable armored kitties, and breathtaking landscapes, to reports of bugs, clunky controls, and storage issues.

Despite launching just three days ago (weekend included), Pearl Abyss has already rolled out its first patch, bringing a wave of fixes and improvements to the world of Pywel.

Yes! The most requested feature Crimson Desert gamers have been asking for is here, within days of launch. Personal storage has come to the game in two places:

“Added the Private Storage that can be used to store items from your Inventory. The Private Storage is located at the initial temporary lodgings in Hernand and at the Howling Hill Camp.”

The storage being used is the same storage that previously held your camp rewards. It still does, but now you can also move items into the box, too. Looks like I can finally start stacking armor sets.

Next up, Pearl Abyss has been listening very closely, as they’ve already rolled out Keyboard and mouse control adjustments. They’ve also made jumping commands more responsive!

• Controls overhaul: Overall faster and more responsive controls like camera turning and jumping, faster UI, center-screen aiming, improved equipment quick slots, and more.
• Abyss Nexuses added: More fast travel points have been added to the map.
• Reduced health and attack of specific enemies/bosses: These include early game bosses, an increased parry stun gauge, and less stamina consumption from blocking.
• Easier resource gathering: Trees now take fewer hits, and ores, grindstones, and more will become highlighted on the map when walking near them without having to use them.
• Increased health from food: They’ve now more than doubled the health given by food items. From 30 to 70!
• Knowledge & skill system eased: Reduced acquisition time; skill observation required only once; Force Palm learned much earlier; icons/tooltips showing total knowledge acquired — Speeds up slow/ opaque early progression that many players called grindy or unclear.
• Improved gameplay systems: Pet patterns have been fixed for picking up items, lantern detection range has been increased, and more.
• Better performance: 120Hz toggle support has been added to both Xbox and PlayStation.

Plenty of other changes have been made, like a permanent fire fixture near a certain tower during the game’s opening quests (that thing was not easy to light).

It’s late where I’m at, but I’m already busy checking out all the patch notes for myself and can tell you without a doubt, the game I gave a 4.5/5 days ago is better than ever!

Changes made fast

Nobody expected Pearl Abyss to drop a patch this massive so early into the game’s lifecycle. It’s Sunday night where I’m at, but it’s already Monday morning in South Korea. Given the timing, it’s pretty safe to say someone over at that studio spent their weekend grinding away so we could have these features this fast.

I’ve been gaming long enough to know this isn’t normal. Big games don’t usually move this fast. I need to be careful, or I’ll start expecting this from every developer, and that’s a dangerous place to be.

To the team at Pearl Abyss, I genuinely respect the hustle. I just hope these changes came from a place of passion and not from people being pushed past their limits to hit a number on a spreadsheet.

And to the players out there, trust me when I say you have no idea how good you have it with personal storage. Some of you may be pretty deep in the game, but I doubt many of you are sitting at 80 hours like I am.

Once you start collecting multiple armor sets and weapons, a 100-slot inventory starts feeling laughably small. That dream of picking up every flower and ore you walk past? Yeah, that dies pretty quickly.

How do you feel about the changes coming to Crimson Desert? What should Pearl Abyss prioritize next? Let me know in the comments below! Cheers to anyone who says more horse armor.

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Bethesda's 2023 sci-fi space exploration RPG Starfield has remained exclusively available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC systems, and Xbox Game Pass since it was released two and a half years ago. However, there have been widespread rumors of a PS5 version for months now — and a new leak suggests that it may only be a few weeks away from launching.

That leak comes from the credible industry insider billbil-kun of the French outlet Dealabs, who reports that Starfield will release on PS5 on April 7, 2026 after investigating a similar report from the Polish site PPE.pl. It's also been said that preorders for the PS5 version will go live on March 17 at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET, which is exactly two weeks from now.

Just as it is on Xbox and PC, the PS5 edition of Starfield will allegedly be purchasable in a Standard Edition or a Premium Edition, with the former coming in at $49.99 / €49.99 / £44.99 and the latter costing $69.99 / €69.99 / £59.99. Presumably, the Premium Edition will include access to the Shattered Space DLC, a Constellation skin pack, and 1,000 Creation Credits as it does on the game's original platforms.

Whispers of a PS5 version of Starfield began coming late last year when Bethesda gave media and creators a behind-closed-doors look at what's coming next to the RPG, and gained further traction when the well-known insider Shinobi602 reported official news about the PS5 release and what's next for the game would come in March.

Then, not long afterwards, Bethesda's Todd Howard announced that more details about Starfield's next big content update were "coming soon," lending credence to the theory that we will indeed get some big news about the title later this month.

Given that this leak suggests we'll get preorders for the PS5 version of Starfield on March 17, I expect that we'll see Bethesda showcase what's next for its expansive sci-fi RPG the day before or on the day of that release, with the studio then announcing the PS5 edition and its preorders as an "oh, and one more thing" twist.

Assuming that's the plan, the surprise has been spoiled, though admittedly it never would've really been much of a surprise at all — though it's still coming to PS5 faster than I thought it would. Xbox has brought pretty much every new game it's published in the last few years to PS5 either at launch or with post-release ports, and several of them have performed very well on the platform; Starfield making the jump feels rather inevitable.

With Xbox hinting at a shift on exclusives, it's hard to say whether or not we'll continue to see Xbox Game Studios titles come to PS5 under the new CEO Asha Sharma. But I'd argue that at least for Starfield, it seems extremely likely that a port is coming, and coming soon at that.

As for the upcoming new content that players on all platforms will be able to enjoy, Todd Howard has went out of his way to state that it's not a Cyberpunk 2077-style "Starfield 2.0" revamp and won't change the game fundamentally, and will instead include "updates that change the game not in an isolated way, but sort of, you know, meta, using outer space and things in ways that we haven't."

Many fans are expecting Starfield's long-awaited second DLC expansion, and based on Howard's comments, it'll be centered around some creative new experiences in space. Only time will tell more specific details, but hopefully we won't be waiting long for them.

Do you believe Starfield is coming to PS5 soon?

What's your read on this leak? Do you believe Starfield really is coming to PS5 in early April, or do you think the insiders have this one wrong? Let me know in the comments.

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Sony has technically been releasing games on PC since 2015, starting with the first Helldivers on Steam. Since then, it has gradually opened the floodgates, with most of its major titles now making their way to the platform.

Even its latest State of Play felt closer to a State of PC Play, with a heavy focus on titles launching on PC, aside from a few exceptions.

But that momentum may not be as certain as it once seemed.

Recent comments from reputable insiders, including discussion from our very own Jez Corden in previous years, suggest Sony could be rethinking parts of its PC strategy. That naturally raises a bigger question. If a shift is happening, could Xbox’s long-rumoured Xbox PC plans have anything to do with it?

What comments were made exactly?

NateTheHate, who has a strong track record when it comes to Nintendo Direct leaks, has weighed in alongside industry insider Jason Schreier. The suggestion is that Sony may stop bringing single-player releases to PC after a timed exclusivity period on PlayStation.

It is an unsettling thought, particularly for those eagerly waiting for Marvel’s Wolverine to eventually make its way to PC. It may also raise questions about Nixxes, the studio Sony acquired specifically to handle PC ports, especially given that Sony has not been shy about studio closures in the past (rest in peace Bluepoint, gone but not forgotten).

Back in November 2025, during an episode of XB2, Jez also touched on the situation. He said he had heard a vague rumour from a trusted source that PlayStation was likely pulling back from PC.

At this stage, though, it is important to mention that these are just rumors, but rumors from rather trusted sources within the industry, so make of that what you will.

It does raise the question of whether Xbox’s proposed PC console could be playing a role in Sony reconsidering its strategy. If true, it would not be the first time Sony has been accused of taking a hard-line and petty approach toward Xbox.

From resisting cross-play in the early days, to securing a litany of deals that kept certain titles off Xbox (a practice maintained to this day), to attempting to block the Activision acquisition, Sony has not exactly shied away from aggressive competitive tactics. Even the now-famous PS4 game-sharing video was a very direct punch to the face of Xbox during a moment when Xbox was vulnerable.

Whether that amounts to pettiness or simply smart business depends on where you stand, but the pattern of strong competitive positioning is certainly there.

I did also recently cover news of Marvel's Spider-Man coming to Xbox, as Insomniac said it was unlikely, however, I do point out all of the current PlayStation games on Steam which will be playable on an Xbox PC next generation.

🗨️ Passing it back over to you!

Do you think Sony is genuinely reconsidering its PC strategy, or are these rumours being overinterpreted? Let me know in the comments, comment over on our Reddit and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Highguard has dominated the conversation lately, though mostly as a target for internet scorn. Honestly, I can’t blame anyone; the final product didn’t feel unfinished so much as it felt unfulfilled, like a vision that never quite came together.

Wildlight Entertainment started with a promising concept, but failed to evolve it into something players genuinely desired. ARC Raiders is the perfect example to illustrate my point.

Most people remember the ARC Raiders beta just before launch; it put the game on everyone’s radar. But what often gets overlooked are the years of earlier alphas and betas the game underwent.

ARC Raiders didn’t always shine; in fact, the released game was dramatically different from what the earlier betas and alphas had shown. Much of what we love about the game today was absent; it was a hollow husk. One that was shaped not only by additional development time but also by vital community feedback.

Therein lies the issue with Highguard: there was no feedback system. There were no open alpha or beta tests. It was a closed garden, only announced a couple of months prior to launch at the Game Awards show.

Made worse by the fact that the host decided to pump it up to his audience, both of which were partially funded by Tencent. But that's for another article, maybe. Multiplayer titles, especially these days, are crucial to get right from the initial launch. Another game that’s seeing some resurgence after its failed Beta is Marathon.

Had Marathon launched in its previous state, the game would have crashed and burned without question. The internet and gaming community hated it, and rightfully so.

They’d stolen art assets, added or taken things away from the extraction shooter genre that were vital to the formula, and most importantly, it wasn’t fun. There were no solo lobbies, progression felt off, no proximity chat, and the AI enemies were incredibly easy to deal with.

That’s just for starters, as the whole combination of things I laid out, along with other things, including its hard-to-see art style, was a major turn-off for gamers. But again, Bungie was given the miracle of a beta prior to launch.

They took the reception on the chin, and now, months after fixing those assets, polishing gameplay, and actively listening to the community, Marathon is setting itself up for success come its server slam on February 26. There’s actual hype surrounding the game again.

Be that as it may, the success of Marathon isn’t guaranteed, but the future of the game is looking way brighter thanks to that feedback. Something Highguard was never given.

Studios need to develop for gamers

I don’t want this to get mixed up with the idea that I’m talking about the anti-woke crowd here. I don’t care about that stuff, or the weird fights they pick over the smallest things ever. What I care about is what gamers want.

In 2026, indie games are coming out at a record pace, while AAA games continue to take years to develop. Making a game today is far more dangerous than at any other point in gaming history, as gamer attention is more divided than ever across the space.

If you’re not developing or catering to those who would play your game, then you’re setting yourself up for automatic failure before launch. I mean, look at Concord.

Who that game was made for, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s clear that the title was a passion project by developers who truly loved what they were doing. The only problem is that they forgot about who would be playing and what those players would want.

If you’re going to work and develop a game for millions of dollars, you'd better be making it so people will buy it, or at least play it. Concord was another project developed without the outside feedback that mattered most: gamers.

When the beta launched, people called it what it was: a dud.

Highguard never even had a beta. Just from the trailers, people dubbed it "Concord 2.0", and while that might sound harsh, it wasn’t exactly inaccurate. Sure, Highguard offered some stronger moment-to-moment gameplay than Concord, but it still felt like yet another generic hero shooter, blending elements from other genres instead of delivering something truly original.

I’m confident Highguard could have found real success if the developers had run closed tests with actual gamers. Inviting in fans of the genres they wanted to blend and genuinely collaborating with them could have resulted in a game people were excited to play.

So here’s some advice for developers: Involve gamers in your process from the start, or risk betting the livelihoods of your entire team. There are already plenty of studios that have laid off their staff or shut down completely; it should be a clear warning. Unfortunately, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of it.

Here’s to hoping something like Fairgame$ and the other live-service games Sony is making turn out a little bit better. Or the games coming from Microsoft or Ubisoft down the pipeline aren’t just outright cancelled. Just listen to gamers, and the money will come.

What do you think Highguard could have done?

Did you play Highguard? Do you think beta or alpha testing with a larger group of gamers could have saved the title from its fate? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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It’s no secret that fans and haters alike have wanted Call of Duty to fumble this time around. While it has stumbled in some areas, the game is still selling like hotcakes.

According to Circana, which tracks video game sales in the US, Xbox’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped the PlayStation charts as the best-selling game in the country.

It didn't perform quite so well on Xbox, with an obvious contributing factor, but an early-year rush on PlayStation is still a notable achievement for the Microsoft-owned goliath.

Black Ops 7 tops PlayStation charts despite backlash

Black Ops 7 found itself in hot water in the UK after one of its adverts was deemed inappropriate following nine complaints.

PlayStation players still showed up in force. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped the US charts for premium game sales, which include both physical and digital purchases.

Content - January 2026 Top 10 Best-Selling Premium Games on PlayStation platforms - U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T12:44:53.819Z

Not far behind was Battlefield 6. Despite the playful jab in the headline, it secured the fifth spot on PlayStation, which is still a respectable showing. However, after dominating across multiple platforms for so long, a disappointing Season 2 could make things more difficult going forward.

Over on Xbox in January 2026, NBA 2K26 took the top spot. Battlefield 6 landed in third, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 came in sixth.

That lower Xbox placement likely reflects Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes Call of Duty releases and can naturally reduce full-game sales.

Content - January 2026 Top 10 Best-Selling Premium Games on Xbox platforms - U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T12:44:53.867Z

On PC, Battlefield 6 edged out Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 by a single spot, placing third while Call of Duty landed in fourth, again, possibly influenced by Game Pass.

Surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption 2 secured second place, and not to make any enemies, but I hated that game. Anyway, Code Vein 2 surprisingly claimed the top position.

Back to Call of Duty and Battlefield, however, whether one game ultimately outsells the other does not really matter, at least in my opinion.

Battlefield 6 has clearly performed extremely well and pushed Call of Duty to adapt. That kind of competition is healthy for the industry, and it is exciting to see how that friction shapes both franchises moving forward.

Passing it over to you, let us know your thoughts!

Do you think Black Ops 7 earning the top PlayStation spot proves Call of Duty is still untouchable, or is Battlefield 6 still holding well Let us know in the comments, and be sure to take part in the poll below:

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Ever wonder what the face of world domination might look like? Your imagination might settle on a smirking corporate overlord or a gleeful moustache-twirling villain, but the humble smile of a cartoonish Roblox player model might actually be the true answer.

Okay, I kid. But in all seriousness, the free-to-play gaming platform where users can play countless games or make their own has rocketed its way to the top of the gaming industry, and while I've always been aware of its immense success, its latest numbers have nevertheless left me stunned and in disbelief, eyes wide and mouth agape.

They come from the well-respected industry advisor and analyst Matthew Ball, and his new "The State of Video Gaming in 2026" report in particular. In one of its final sections, he details just how rapidly and significantly Roblox has grown in terms of player engagement — and how it's now even nipping at the heels of the world's biggest streaming service.

According to the report, Roblox represented over 4.5% of all non-China consumer spend in 2025, and is also responsible for an astonishing 67% of the game industry's overall growth last year. In previous years, that number was much smaller — 10-20% — meaning that Roblox spiked particularly hard in 2025.

Its average daily active users (DAUs) were already above Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch by the end of 2024, but a year later, it shot up a gargantuan 69%, with three times the DAU gains that the platform got during the first year of the pandemic. Nice (for Roblox Corporation, anyway).

But Roblox's monthly hours of engagement stats are even more jaw-dropping. In Q3 of 2025 alone — July, August, and September — the game reached over 13 billion playtime hours, surpassing its player engagement for the entirety of 2020.

The biggest revelation, though, is that Roblox's quarterly engagement matches that of Valve's PC gaming platform Steam, Sony's PlayStation consoles, and Epic Games' popular free-to-play title Fortnite combined. On average, monthly engagement last year was a little over 10 billion hours; Steam's was about half of that at over 5 billion, with PlayStation coming in at 4.25 billion and Fortnite shy of 1 billion.

Those numbers are even starting to challenge Netflix, which averaged between 15 and 16 billion hours of monthly engagement in 2025. Last year, Roblox achieved 65% of Netflix's engagement (82% in Q3) — and with Netflix reporting relatively stagnant growth of about 1% a year while Roblox continues flying high, it's not hard to imagine the latter closing the gap.

In Q3 2025, only 2.5 billion monthly engagement hours came from console or PC versions of Roblox; the other 11.5 billion were from mobile users, which is a stark reminder for people like me focused on "traditional" gaming platforms that the mobile gaming market dwarfs them by comparison.

This is precisely why we've seen companies like Microsoft's Xbox develop mobile gaming stores of their own, or begin to expand into that market in other ways. But one thing is clear: Roblox is the biggest player in the space, and it's showing absolutely no signs of slowing down.

How do you feel about Roblox?

How do you feel about Roblox, and how it's grown extremely large in the last several years? Have you played it yourself? Let me know in the comments.

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Yesterday, PlayStation made one of the most head-scratching decisions I’ve seen a major publisher make as it shut down one of its globally beloved studios, Bluepoint Games. Matching, maybe even surpassing the closure Microsoft handed to Tango Gameworks, Sony has done something that I can only ask, “But why?”

Bluepoint Games was the mastermind behind some of the most incredible remasters and remakes I’ve ever seen. Heck, let’s be truthful, Demon's Souls was quite possibly the best remake of all time, and that’s coming from a former die-hard Xbox guy.

When I opened Demon’s Souls for the first time in 2020, you could have told me it was an entirely new game, and I would have believed you. Nothing about it screamed 'remake' to me, and to this day, it feels like one of the best demonstrations of PlayStation's hardware potential.

What this closing does is further signal that the industry at large, and not just Microsoft, is facing massive issues. While the internet bemoaned the closure of Tango Gameworks (rightfully so), there have been a number of layoffs and studio sunsets in the last few months.

Just now, I was busy going through the layoffs a few weeks ago at Ubisoft, and only discovered while writing this piece that Ubisoft laid off another 40 employees at their Toronto studio who were working on a Splinter Cell game. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the previous layoffs were "built to create the conditions for a return to sustainable growth." It seems this new round of layoffs is another step toward that “major reset.”

I can’t even begin to fathom what it’s like to work in the gaming industry at this moment, where you’re either one poor game release or a delay away from being closed. And that’s coming from someone whose day job is working in the ever-fluctuating tech industry and the growing popular demand for AI.

Layoffs have continued

I feel like I’ve said this before, but every time this happens, I’m reminded that we really are only at the beginning of what I imagine will be another long year of studio closures. If the last couple of years have taught me anything, with studios failing to make absurd 30% profit margins, to others being closed thanks to inept leadership, the craze of AI and other markers is only going to make it worse.

Supposedly, Bluepoint Games had been working on a live-service God of War game over the last five years. On top of that, some influencers say it was on the chopping block because it hadn’t released anything in the last six years.

If that’s the case, whose fault is it exactly that the studio, known for making single-player remasters and remakes, wasn’t fast at making a live-service God of War game?!

Can you truly blame the development team for those mistakes? Or do you blame the leadership team for making that decision? For going all in on your development in the search for obtaining more live service games?

Well, those live-service games need to hit, otherwise they'll be lost in the slop amongst the rubble of games that have come and gone and failed to capture an audience. The majority of that reason is all due to a single game.

Distracted gamers — they're playing Roblox

All these closures aren’t only to blame on leadership decisions. There’s another problem that’s been brewing over the last decade as well, and that’s gamer attention. You see, console and mobile gaming aren’t the top dogs at the moment. Neither is Fortnite, PlayStation, Minecraft, nor Steam.

One game stands above all, and holds the attention of more gamers than Fortnite, PlayStation, and Steam combined. That’s Roblox. Thanks to Matthew Ball's latest report, we know the world of game development, as we know it, is a battle against the juggernaut that is Roblox.

Attention span be damned, the generation of gamers that the likes of Steam, Sony, and Microsoft are looking to pick up and play on their devices or platforms have grown up and continue to play Roblox. Just take a look at the top games in the industry compared to games within Roblox. These numbers are absolutely insane to think about!

In an industry where time is money, publishers are facing an uphill battle when it comes to fighting for time shares. Against the likes of streaming services, TikTok, and social media at large, gamer hours are increasingly being spent on Roblox.

Microsoft has its own form of this mini-game format with Minecraft, but against the likes of Fortnite and Roblox, it has little to no chance. Even Sony is beginning to fall behind games like this.

All of this is happening while the developers still making traditional games are fighting against one another at an all-time high. With indie games coming out left and right that become hits, players are less likely to be waiting for the next Elder Scrolls, Uncharted, or even Call of Duty.

The likes of ARC Raiders proved that AAA development is no longer needed. Games like Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 are clinging to the old methods of development while smaller studios and tighter experiences outshine them.

I mention all of this to explain the upheaval we’re seeing in our industry. Most of us exist within our microcosm of gaming and don’t realize the trends or habits of gamers we’re not familiar with.

Heck, I’m willing to bet most people who read this article have little to no interest in Roblox, and probably haven’t even played it. We’re quickly becoming the minority of gamers. I guess I'm going to go download Roblox now.

How do you feel about the current state of the industry?

Are you as bewildered by the closure of Bluepoint Games? Can you believe the total number of hours players are spending on Roblox? Share your thoughts below.

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Mewgenics is a newly released indie hit from the developers behind The Binding of Isaac, one of the most popular roguelikes of the past decade. It quickly rose up the Steam charts, earning a “Very Positive” rating and peaking at over 115,000 concurrent players.

In an exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, one user asked Mewgenics co-creator Edmund McMillen whether the game would eventually see a console port. In response, McMillen said: "Working on it now not sure when it will be done though but at this point it might be in Dev for all systems".

The game revolves around building an army of cats, breeding them to create increasingly powerful combinations. Admittedly, I have not played it yet, but it genuinely looks like the perfect Xbox Ally game.

That said, I may hold off for now. With a potential Xbox port possibly in the works, it is worth taking a closer look at what the developer has actually said about bringing Mewgenics to consoles.

No specific platforms were named. However, McMillen’s previous titles, including The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy, have launched on Xbox and other consoles. While nothing has been confirmed for Xbox specifically, there is a clear precedent for his games making the jump beyond PC.

Mewgenics has been a major commercial success. SteamDB estimates suggest it has surpassed 900,000 sales since launching on February 10, 2026. That momentum was immediate, too. The game sold more than 500,000 copies within its first 36 hours.

Fans can also expect DLC in the future. The creator has confirmed that additional content is in the works, though this content will be paid and not free.

Would you pick up Mewgenics on Xbox, or are you already playing it on Steam? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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In a recent interview with TechRadar, Squanch CEO Mike Fridley commented on High on Life 2 launching on multiple platforms, calling the PS5 release a “no-brainer,” despite the first game being an Xbox exclusive.

For anyone unfamiliar, High on Life is a satirical first-person shooter packed with fast-paced gameplay, quick quips, and deliberately edgy humor.

The first game launched exclusively on Xbox and Game Pass in 2022, before arriving on PS4 and PS5 the following year.

This time around, however, High on Life 2 has launched across multiple platforms from day one and has also reviewed quite well. That shift likely reflects Xbox’s broader strategy change, where platform exclusivity is no longer as central as it once was.

Even so, the sequel has still released on Game Pass, suggesting Xbox may have supported the project in order to secure its inclusion on the service. It also supports Xbox Play Anywhere, meaning players can buy it once and play across console, cloud, and PC within the Xbox ecosystem.

Fridley weighs Game Pass exposure vs lost sales

Fridley was very frank throughout the interview. Transparency is always appreciated, and when asked about the potential loss of sales due to Game Pass, he admitted he wasn’t sure whether the exposure outweighed “the potential cannibalization of sales.”

That doesn’t mean he dismissed Game Pass. Quite the opposite.

He added that it would “help establish an IP so getting a bunch of people to play your game.” At this stage, Squanch is still thinking long term.

He also acknowledged the franchise is still in its building phase. According to Fridley, “the best way to do that is to give it away and get as many people with their hands on it as possible.”

However, while broad access matters, platform performance still tells its own story.

Fridley noted that:

That reality made a simultaneous PlayStation release a “no-brainer.”

He later added:

Now, it’s worth mentioning, as does TechRadar, that Fridley’s comments are not based on any concrete data, and a loss of subscriptions following the Game Pass price hike is unknown.

It seems Fridley appreciates the exposure Game Pass provides, but remains focused on overall game sales.

That said, data has shown that Xbox users do still buy games, even alongside subscription access. There have also been multiple reports from developers expressing satisfaction with their partnerships with Xbox and Game Pass.

So, while sales cannibalization is part of the conversation, it is far from a simple one-sided issue.

High on Life 2 was released on February 13, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and is planned to release on Nintendo Switch 2 in April 2026.

Do you think launching on Game Pass helps or hurts long-term game sales? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Insomniac has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to reply to a fan asking whether Spider-Man, the popular Marvel character, would ever make its way to Xbox.

The answer probably is not what Xbox fans were hoping for. However, history paints a more complicated picture. Platform strategies change. Public statements age. And with the next generation of Xbox approaching, this entire debate may end up being moot anyway.

So, let’s break down exactly what Insomniac said, whether that stance can be taken at face value, and why Spider-Man arriving on Xbox one day might not be as impossible as it sounds.

What insomniac actually said

Seemingly out of nowhere, Insomniac chose to crush the hopes of many Xbox fans, myself included.

Replying to a fan on X who asked whether Spider-Man would make the leap to Xbox, as it eventually did to PC, the studio kept things brief. It simply responded, “Not likely.”

That might sound definitive, but history suggests we should be careful about taking platform statements at face value.

Back in 2017, Insomniac made a very similar claim, stating that Spider-Man would never appear on Xbox or PC. We all know how that turned out. The entire trilogy is now playable on PC via Steam.

And it is not the first time fans have been told an Xbox port was unlikely, only for things to change later.

Helldivers 2 faced similar questions about a potential Xbox release. Arrowhead, the game’s developer, suggested that Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President of Gaming at Microsoft, and Sony would need to “duke it out,” implying it was improbable.

Less than a year later, the game arrived on Xbox, with Sony itself ultimately pushing the port to happen.

Why it doesn’t ultimately matter

Whether Sony decides to port Spider-Man to Xbox directly is one conversation. What matters more is what next generation hardware could realistically enable.

The next generation of Xbox is reported to be built far closer to a full Windows PC, according to reporting by our own Jez Corden. If that proves accurate, what Xbox defines as a console could fundamentally shift.

That change would potentially open the door to third-party storefronts. Epic Games has already commented on plans to bring its storefront to Xbox, while Steam has not publicly confirmed any similar move, however, given the nature of PC, installing Steam wouldbe possible.

If a Windows-based Xbox PC does materialize, access to PC storefronts could fundamentally change how we define “exclusive.”

Right now, PlayStation titles available on Steam include:

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Horizon Forbidden West
• God of War
• God of War Ragnarök
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
• Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• The Last of Us Part I
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Days Gone
• Returnal
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
• Until Dawn
• Detroit: Become Human
• Heavy Rain
• Beyond: Two Souls

Wolverine, Ghost of Yotei, and any other PlayStation “exclusives” that eventually make their way to PC would also be available on the next-gen Xbox this way.

For older titles like Spider-Man, the equation is slightly different. If Sony was encouraged by Helldivers 2’s performance on Xbox, it could view legacy releases as an opportunity to further capitalize on the Xbox ecosystem, much like it did with Helldivers 2.

It is also worth remembering that Marathon, an upcoming PlayStation title, is already set to launch day and date on Xbox, a platform that consistently shows strong engagement for shooters.

Do you think Spider-Man will ever officially land on Xbox, or will next-generation hardware make the question irrelevant? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Highguard was first revealed during The Game Awards show in 2025. Coming in as the last announcement of the night, much praise was laid on the game by the host, Geoff Keighley. The game sought to shake up a stagnant FPS landscape by combining multiple genres with a raid-based 3v3 combat system.

Now, after a tumultuous launch that saw mixed results across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, it seems that Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment has laid off most of its staff.

In a post on LinkedIn, Alex Graner, a level designer on Highgaurd, posted the following:

“Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today. This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard.”

Alex had previously worked on Battlefield 6, Apex Legends, and other smaller projects at Respawn. Needless to say, Alex and others on the Wildlight team had definite skills when it comes to creating wonderful FPS experiences. As it went with Highguard, those skills have seemingly failed to transition into commercial success.

Highguard had a mountain to climb even before the game launched. After being revealed as the final piece during The Game Awards show, gamers booed in the comments sections of YouTube and other social media sites.

Players wanted nothing to do with the game, claiming it was another faceless shooter attempt in the same vein as Concord. Drawing similarities to one of the worst disasters in modern gaming before launch is not something any developer wants to face, but Wildlight Entertainment did so anyway.

Launching on Steam to mostly negative reviews, it was clear Highguard wasn’t only suffering from conclusions drawn previously, but rather, the game itself was a complete mess. Riddled with bugs and gameplay that some players felt lacked any sense of urgency (myself included), it managed to reach nearly 100k concurrent players on Steam.

Over the following days, Highguard would drop to just over 11k players. In a desperate attempt to save the game, the development team opened a time-limited event that raised the player count from 3v3 to 5v5, in hopes that games would become more active.

Some praise started rolling in, as players clamoured forums with, “This is what the game should have launched with!” However, it was too little too late, as the player count would continue to fall, all the way to where it is today, a staggeringly low number of 3,822 players.

The future of Highguard

What this means for Highguard going forward is fairly obvious. It’s possible some of the content Alex mentioned in his LinkedIn post could still see the light of day, but with most of the team having been laid off, it seems the game is being put on life support.

I don’t see a future where Highguard manages to add anything substantial to its coffers going forward, and if it does, they'll have to convince a player base that's seemingly already forgotten about the title.

We'll make sure to update this post as more information comes in about the layoffs at Wildlight Entertainment, as well as any future news about the game itself.

Highguard Studio, Wildlight Entertainment, has laid off most of its developers despite the studio's attempts to revive the game. Do you think Highguard ever stood a chance?

Drop your thoughts, theories, and wish‑lists below — especially if you want to see more of these unexpected arrivals.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

There’s been a lot of talk about the success of Avowed, especially after the head of Obsidian, Feargus Urquhart, said that both Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 failed to meet sales marks set by Microsoft. Sure, just a year ago, it was reported that Microsoft was happy with initial sales, and player counts managed to reach higher than Indiana Jones, but that wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft flipped its tone.

Now, some rather fascinating news has come to the surface. Avowed reached the top 20 in single-daily active users. Matching up with other giants like Black Ops 7, Battlefield 6, Helldivers 2, and Fortnite.

What makes this even more impressive is that Avowed is one of the few games on this list that isn't driven by an online component. Games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Rainbow Six Siege X are all free-to-play, with major multiplayer elements that take center stage. Avowed is free of these, existing purely as a single-player campaign.

Other games like the below Elder Scrolls V: Oblivion Remastered, and DOOM: The Dark Ages are the only titles with pure single-player-only elements. Obviously, a lot of this was driven by Game Pass, but notably, there are some other big-name Game Pass titles missing from this list.

Hollow Knight: Silksong and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 were beaten by Avowed. That’s right, more players played Avowed in a single day than the most-hyped game not called Grand Theft Auto VI and Game of the Year winner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

That’s criminally insane when you think about it. There was certainly hype for Obsidian’s Avowed, but nothing came close to the constant chatter over Hollow Knight or the inevitable Clair Obscur.

One-Year Anniversary Update gets a preview

Coincidentally marking Avowed’s achievement, the one-year anniversary update will launch on February 17, 2025. The largest update ever for the game will bring new playable races, a new game plus, and new weapons like the Quarterstaff.

The changes coming include, but are not limited to:

• New races: Orlan, Aumaua, and Dwarf with Godlike features
• New weapon class: Quarterstaff
• Magic mirror at camp to change characters whole physical appearance
• New Game Plus
• Photomode
• New animations
• New difficulty settings that increase XP gain.

In the preview above, done by none other than my favorite reviewer, not named Michael Hoglund, Mortismal Gaming goes over the long road Avowed has faced over the last 12 months. Carefully going through each update, as well as a preview of the upcoming Anniversary patch, he gives high praise to the team at Obsidian for their continued dedication to the game, as well as sharing true excitement for the release.

As a big magic user myself, I decided I’d do a run-through of Avowed as a melee guy. I think another playthrough might be in order, given all the recent updates it’s seen, and you can bet a pretty penny I’ll be smashing skulls with that Quarterstaff.

With the patch comes the release of Avowed on PlayStation 5 as well. Whether the launch of the new update or the release on PlayStation will bring players back is yet to be seen, but I know one player will be striking up a Godlike character once more.

Avowed cracked the top games played in a single day, do you think the update and launch of the PlayStation 5 version will bring another surge of players back?

Drop your thoughts, theories, and wish‑lists below — especially if you want to see more of these unexpected arrivals.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

The official Forza Horizon account has confirmed in a social media post that the latest installment of the racing game — Forza Horizon 6 — will fully support cross-save functionality across all available platforms for the first time in the series' history.

The cross-save functionality expands beyond just Xbox and Xbox on PC entitlements to fully support the feature on Steam and PlayStation, as well.

Cross-platform support, including cross-play for multiplayer and even cross-save functionality, isn't new for Microsoft-owned game studios. Microsoft and Xbox invested in cross-platform environments with its Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, which allowed players to purchase a game on Xbox or Windows PC and own that game on both platforms.

Cloud saves and shared accounts further bolstered Play Anywhere, giving players the freedom to pick up where they left off in a previous gaming session, regardless of platform.

Microsoft's own Call of Duty series also fully supports cross-entitlements, including shared access to purchased cosmetics regardless of which platform the content was originally purchased on. However, it remains unclear if Playground Games will allow for DLC content to transfer between platforms the same way that Call of Duty does.

What is safe to assume is that cross-save compatibility means that your in-game progress — unlocked cars or cars purchased with in-game currency, traded cars, race progress, and player level — will carry with you regardless of where you decide to pick up and play.

Forza Horizon 6 is expected to have more than 550 cars in its roster when it launches on May 19, so if you unlock cars on Steam, you can still access them if you play the game on a PlayStation 5 or ROG Xbox Ally X the next time you launch the game.

Playground Games has previously confirmed that cross-play is also supported in Forza Horizon 6. If part of your squad is on Xbox, but you have that one lone PlayStation fan in your group, you'll still be able to play Forza Horizon 6 together — you'll just have to wait until the game launches on PS5 later this year.

Cross-platform entitles have grown in popularity. Will you play Forza Horizon 6 on different platforms? Let us know with the poll below and sound off in the comments.

Nioh 3 is the next entry in Team Ninja’s soulslike action RPG series, drawing heavily on Japanese history and mythology.

The game is set to release on PlayStation 5 and PC on February 6, 2026, which will disappoint many Xbox fans hoping for a broader console rollout.

However, eagle-eyed viewers spotted a small but notable detail at the end of the game’s latest trailer. The fine print states that Nioh 3 is a six-month timed console exclusive, a phrase that naturally raises questions about what could happen next.

That wording is enough to spark curiosity, but it is not a confirmation of anything beyond the initial release window. Given the series’ history, fans may want to keep expectations in check for now.

Does timed exclusivity actually matter for Nioh 3

As many fans will be quick to point out, no Nioh game has ever released on Xbox. When Team Ninja was asked about the possibility of an Xbox port back in 2022, it said there was “currently not really too much of a possibility of having Nioh on Xbox platforms.”

That comment is now a few years old, and circumstances can change. Team Ninja has since worked more closely with Xbox, including Ninja Gaiden 4 launching on the platform and being published by Xbox itself.

Even so, the lack of any existing Nioh titles on Xbox complicates the conversation. Without the earlier entries available, it remains unclear how or if Nioh 3 could realistically arrive on the platform, especially as a standalone release.

That isn’t to say we can’t potentially see the arrival of past Nioh titles on Xbox, as Team Ninja might see it as a platform to make some extra bucks on and whilst a 6-month timed exclusive windows doesn’t directly confirm an Xbox release, and rather just ends Sony’s exclusivity window for the game.

There’s also the chance the game or other games in the series could just be heading to the Nintendo Switch 2, a much more capable console than its predecessor with an actively growing install base compared to Xbox’s dwindling numbers.

Do you think Nioh 3’s timed exclusivity could eventually open the door to an Xbox release, or will the series remain tied to PlayStation and PC? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

It’s long been rumored, or at least widely spun, that Xbox users do not buy games. This narrative is often tied to Xbox Game Pass, Xbox’s leading subscription service that functions much like Netflix for gamers.

The data, however, does not fully support that claim. Xbox players do buy games in large numbers, particularly shooters, and comparing those sales to PlayStation often paints a more nuanced picture. Helldivers 2 offers an interesting insight. It is PlayStation’s first true multiplayer breakout hit, dropping players into a cooperative PvE experience built around fighting alien swarms in the name of democracy.

Thanks to new estimates from Alinea Analytics, we now have a clearer look at how Helldivers 2 has performed on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. With that data in hand, it is worth taking a closer look at what the sales trends actually show.

How Helldivers 2 launched across consoles

The Xbox release arrived roughly 18 months after the PlayStation launch. That delay, combined with the Halo ODST crossover, likely created pent-up demand when the game finally landed on Xbox.

That demand translated into a strong week one showing. Sales accelerated quickly, pushing close to the one million mark within days of launch.

When comparing the first week's performance directly, Xbox clearly led in early sales. Alinea Analytics estimates show Xbox nearing 926K copies sold in its first week, compared to around 719K for PlayStation during its own launch window.

Helldivers 2 has sold 20M copies and made $700M+ in revenues.WILD.Our estimates also show that over 250K gamers have played Helldivers 2 for over 500 hours. Super Earth is in dedicated hands.Big deep dive:alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/helldivers...

— @superhys.bsky.social (@superhys.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T12:43:28.438Z

PlayStation’s larger install base did not immediately translate into faster early sales. A significant portion of that audience tends to buy later rather than at launch, particularly for multiplayer-focused titles.

Around day 8, however, PlayStation overtook Xbox in cumulative sales and continued to widen the gap from there

Strong launch momentum for Xbox

Alinea’s wider estimates put Helldivers 2 at over 20 million copies sold across all platforms, with the Xbox version contributing around 1.6 million units despite launching much later.

If we put this into context, 1.6 million is actually quite impressive compared to PlayStation's 4.3 million units. Xbox reached it in around five or so months with a much smaller install base than PlayStation, and priced at just $39.99 in the U.S.

I’ve long felt that Helldivers 2’s Xbox release functioned as a test for Sony. Knowing that the push for the port came from Sony rather than Arrowhead only reinforces that view.

It makes it easier to believe that more PlayStation releases could follow on Xbox, particularly shooters. If that holds true, especially for shooters, and who knows, maybe the Xbox release of Marathon could also usher in more Xbox support from Sony in the future.

Would you like to see more PlayStation published games arrive on Xbox in the future? Let us know in the comments and take part in our poll below:

Few game announcements at The Game Awards have been as widely panned as the reveal of Highguard, the new Xbox, PC, and PS5 PvP "raid shooter" from fledgling developer Wildlight Entertainment. It was the infamous capstone for The Game Awards 2025, with fans responding extremely negatively to the news that former Titanfall developers were bringing a new hero shooter to an extremely crowded market.

It's no exaggeration to say that the reveal was a disaster for Highguard and Wildlight, and dug the game into a huge hole that it's fighting to climb out of now that it's launched with a re-reveal showcase that actually advertises what it is more accurately, highlighting its blend of battle royale looting and survival game-inspired base raiding that makes it stand out from other hero shooters.

Recently, the studio's CEO Dusty Welch shared his thoughts about that devastating reveal and its impact, acknowledging that Wildlight was hoping for something far more positive and could have made a "better trailer" that shone light on Highguard's distinct gameplay elements.

"Look, I wish Highguard had been received better. I wish the feedback had been better. Part of that's on us, right? We didn't put our heads in the sand. We, as a team, saw the feedback. We're gamers ourselves. We're online ourselves reading the feedback," he told PC Gamer.

"I think, ultimately, we could have made a different trailer — a better trailer that wasn't about entertaining, which is what we think [The Game Awards] was about," he continued. "We could have made something that did a better job of highlighting the unique loop of the game. So that's on us. We take that, but the team is resilient."

Notably, Highguard sensationally went completely radio silent after its poorly received announcement, which made many assume that it was because of how catastrophically badly it went. There wasn't a single piece of marketing for the FPS until just a few days before launch, which had many thinking it was about to catch a major delay.

According to director Jason McCord, however, Wildlight's plan was always to "go dark" after the reveal until launch, with the studio trying to replicate the same success that many of its developers had introducing and launching Apex Legends out of nowhere back in early 2019.

"The trailer at The Game Awards was meant to be an announcement trailer. The plan was to announce, go dark, and then the next thing that we want players to see is the game," McCord explained. "If the reception had been totally different, it would have been the same plan. The key is, you've got to play the game."

Well, people are playing the game, now, and ultimately, Highguard is still off to quite a rocky start. It's launched to brutal Steam reviews thus far, with only 20% of its current 6,561 user reviews positive. That's earned it a crimson "Overwhelmingly Negative" badge, with many complaining about poor performance, uninspired shooter combat, and maps that are far too large for its 3v3 format.

The game's launch day player numbers also failed to reach 100K on Steam before peaking and then tapering off; Wildlight may say it doesn't need a "super huge" player count and is mostly hoping for a "core group of players that love us," but at the moment, it seems there aren't many fans that love Highguard. Perhaps that will change, but overall, things aren't looking great.

What are your early impressions of Highguard from what you've seen or played? Do you think there's a future for Wildlight's debut FPS, or do you expect to see it struggle to attract a lasting audience? Hit me up with your take in the comments.

The better part of two months after Highguard showed up at the end of The Game Awards 2025 and was promptly lambasted by players around the world for being yet another new hero shooter in an extremely oversaturated market, the game is now actually out on Xbox, PC, and PS5 — and a new re-reveal showcase has given gamers an in-depth look at how it sets itself apart from the crowd. Or is trying to, anyway.

With the understanding that Highguard is a 3v3 PvP experience that blends traditional ability-driven engagements with battle royale-style looting and an attack/defend tug of war of base raids inspired by multiplayer survival games, many are giving it a fair shake, especially since it's free-to-play.

So far, though, it hasn't exactly blown up, with its initial peak player count of 97,249 on Steam now tapering off; as I write this, SteamDB reports 62,121 concurrent players. Ultimately, though, developer Wildlight Entertainment says it isn't aiming to top the Steam charts, and is mainly just hoping to attract a dedicated core audience.

"Honestly, we don't need [player counts] to be super huge in order to be successful," said lead designer Mohammad Alavi, speaking to press and PC Gamer. "We're a small team. A six-player match [Highguard's max player count at launch] is not hard to find. What we're really hoping for is a core group of fans that love us. That will allow us to grow."

Indeed, Wildlight is a relatively small and independent studio, comprised of about 100 developers. Roughly 60 of them previously worked at Titanfall and Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, which is also known for the action RPGs Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Supported by private investors, the developer has published Highguard itself.

There is, perhaps, an alternate universe out there where Highguard is a chart-topping, explosive success, but the odds of it having a launch like that plummeted after its disastrous reveal at The Game Awards that failed to properly showcase what it truly was. "That's on us. We could have made something that did a better job of highlighting the unique loop of the game," Wildlight CEO Dusty Welch admitted.

The game dug itself into a hole that it's now fighting to climb out of. In its efforts to do that, the studio is simply focusing on making Highguard as good as it can be, and letting the title speak for itself.

"Being the ire of the internet hate machine sucks, but at the same time, I try to just focus on making the best game I can and getting that game into people's hands. At the end of the day, that's all that really matters," Alavi continued.

"Internet's gonna internet. If you're gonna be good at live service, you have to listen to the note behind the note," product and publishing VP Jason Torfin added. "Yeah, there are indications that there's fatigue, that they're confused, that they don't know these things. So it's on us to make sure we respond to that, and we're gonna do that."

Despite how crowded the hero shooter space is, Wildlight believes it has "a great opportunity to find our audience with Highguard," as "The shooter space has only continued to get larger." In an effort to facilitate long-term growth, it has an ambitious plan to introduce new "Warden" heroes, weapons, bases to attack and defend, and more every two months in "Episode" updates, with Episode 2 slated to release just two weeks after launch.

Ultimately, only time will tell if Highguard is able to establish a big enough foothold to build towards larger success from. But at the very least, its not dependent on taking the gaming community by storm.

What's your opinion of Highguard, based on what you've seen of it thus far? Are you going to give it a shot yourself, or does it ultimately not interest you very much? Do you believe it will find success? Let me know in the comments.

Remember Highguard, that new FPS game that closed out The Game Awards 2025 last month? Following the scathingly negative reception from players annoyed that former Titanfall and Apex Legends developers had come together to make another hero shooter, it and its studio Wildlight Entertainment gave the gaming community the silent treatment as its late January release date approached.

Now, though, that launch is here — and the free-to-play "PvP raid shooter" has officially dropped on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (on Steam), and PS5 with something of a re-reveal showcase that explores what Highguard is and shows how its gameplay loop stands out compared to other titles in the genre.

The showcase is just over 25 minutes long, and goes over everything from Highguard's core gameplay structure to in-depth details about the game's world, setting, art direction, narrative elements, and more. You can watch it with this link, or via the embed below.

At its core, Highguard is a 3v3 shooter with two distinct phases — an open-world looting phase reminiscent of the first few minutes of a battle royale or extraction shooter, and then a raiding phase that aims to capture the intense attack/defend combat of multiplayer survival games like Rust and and ARK. Throughout it all, players control special Warden characters with unique abilities, though Wildlight notes that ultimately, Highguard is a "gun game" at heart.

As part of the game's live-service nature, the developers plan to add new Wardens regularly, along with several other pieces of content like new weapons, weapon mods, areas to play in, and more. Specifically, all of these will come in Highguard's "Episode" updates every two months, with Episode 1 being launch, and Episode 2 launching very quickly in February in just two weeks.

In the looting phase of a match, teams ride out on mounts and can encounter one another in the field as they gear up with better weapons, armor, and other equipment. Then, after a few minutes, a special sword called the Shieldbreaker will spawn, its location indicated by a storm in the sky.

Players will then have to fight over this blade, and if you manage to stab it into the opposing team's base shield, you'll spawn a giant battering ram that — you guessed it — breaks the shield, kicking off a raid phase in which the assaulting team has to try and push through the defenders to their base's generators, or its heavily fortified anchor stone.

Destroying both of the former or the latter will also destroy the base, ending the match in victory for the attackers. If the assaulting team fails to blow up the base in one raid, though, they're eventually pushed out, and the gearing phase begins again, with the damage dealt to the defenders' keep lasting. Note that a flawless defense will do damage to the attackers' base, meaning you can win with excellent defensive play.

As for how Highguard's launch is going so far, the game has soared up to 97,130 concurrent players on Steam a little over an hour after release as I write this, with its performance on consoles difficult to gauge due to the lack of publicly available metrics. Early impressions from players are nigh-nonexistent, thus far; many seem to be stuck in a server login queue. Welcome to game launches in 2026!

All in all, though, I do think this showcase of Highguard's gameplay does a far better job of showing off what makes it distinct compared to the trailer shown at The Game Awards, and evidently, many will give it a fair chance since it's free. We'll have to see how things are looking in a week's time, but for now, hold those "Concord 2.0" jokes.

What do you think of Highguard? Now that we've gotten to see more of what makes it unique compared to other hero shooter-type games, are you interested in giving it a shot? Let me know in the comments.

All four of the games shown during Thursday's Xbox Developer Direct 2026 presentation are coming to PS5 as well as Xbox systems and Windows PC, with three of them — Forza Horizon 6, Fable, and Kiln — being made by first-party Microsoft developers Playground Games and Double Fine. Forza is scheduled to come to Sony's consoles at some point after launch, with both Fable and Kiln hitting PS5 day one.

Another of Xbox's big first-party 2026 titles, Halo: Campaign Evolved, is also coming to PS5; that's a first for (what was once) the brand's flagship exclusive franchise. And while it's unclear if this year's Gears of War: E-Day will launch there, too, the chances of it doing so are high given the multiplatform nature of every other recent Xbox Game Studios title.

Indeed, it appears that Microsoft is ramping up its emphasis on multiplatform Xbox releases after the immense success of games like Forza Horizon 5 and Sea of Thieves on PS5 — and Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan has all-but-confirmed this in a recent interview.

"As the guy that gets to run studios and help our game teams, I take a pretty simple view on this: we want our games to reach the most players that we can," he told GamesRadar+ when asked about figuring out which titles Xbox should bring to other platforms. "That's always our goal. It's rarely more complicated than that. It's like, how can we get this game to as many players as we can?"

This tracks with Microsoft's recent moves away from focusing on its traditional Xbox Series X|S consoles, and it instead "meeting payers where they are." Launching games on other platforms is only one cog in that machine; others include the release of the Xbox Ally handheld, the expansion of Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and making more Xbox Game Pass tiers multiplatform.

As for why some games like Forza Horizon 6 are coming to PS5 at some point after launch instead of at release, Duncan explains that various development variables can interfere with plans to bring certain titles to other platforms. "There's always development realities about when these projects start — how big a team is, and what plans we have at the start of development ... when a strategy changes, maybe you've got a plan that exists with a game and maybe you can adopt that, maybe you can't. So that's why."

"Sometimes we are inconsistent. You see some games in one place, some games in multiple places. Just know that we're going to work on that, and we're going to try and be more consistent with what we do," he continued.

Duncan also noted that the Xbox Game Studios team may choose to bring games to a new platform later if they're not going to be "the best that they can be for that platform" sooner, and won't be able to "take advantage of whatever features and nuances that the platform has."

"I think we would have a conversation internally and go, 'Hey, unless we can do it really well and do the right thing by those players, then…' and that's when you get into conversations of, well, maybe we can ship it afterwards," he said. "Because teams are only a set size. We only have a certain amount of — ultimately, it all comes down to resource. Not everything is limitless. So we just want to do the best job, by each platform, by each game. So in that world, sometimes we'll maintain optionality."

In a perfect world, though, it seems clear that Microsoft would bring all of its first-party Xbox games to every platform if it could, and that suggests we may see the end of Xbox Game Studios titles that are permanently exclusive to Xbox and Windows PC. At the very least, that appears to be the direction the publisher is heading in.

How do you feel about Microsoft and Xbox's focus on multiplatform releases, and what may very well be the end of exclusive Xbox games? Let me know in the comments.

Update Jan 19, 11.15 a.m. ET: Bungie has now released the previously leaked trailer along with confirmation of Marathon's release on March 5, 2026. You can see the post and the trailer embedded below.

This is not an official announcement from Bungie, but it is supported by an accompanying video spotted by Reddit user u/TheJuiceBaba. The trailer briefly appeared on the game’s Xbox Club page and appears to show a new cut of the game, ending with a release date of March 5, 2026.

Whilst I can't directly show the trailer here as it is being taken down, it can be found online; however, it is important to somewhat touch on the journey Marathon has gone on to get to where it is now.

It is no secret that Marathon has struggled to build momentum since its initial reveal. Many players questioned Bungie’s shift toward an extraction shooter, a genre that is difficult to execute.

That scepticism only grew after the game was found to have used stolen art assets, which sparked significant backlash online. Even without that controversy, excitement around the title never fully took off.

The situation was not helped by the arrival of ARC Raiders, another extraction shooter that appears to have resonated far more strongly with players. As a result, expectations for Marathon have remained fairly low.

Following its delay, Bungie has clearly been hard at work. While the game is still not fully winning me over, the recent improvements do suggest it is in a much better place than before.

What happens next for Marathon?

The leaked trailer has been taken down from the Xbox Club page and across X (formerly Twitter), although it can still be viewed for now via a direct link. Its removal does add weight to the idea that the release date shown may be legitimate, and it is sooner than I expected.

At the very least, Marathon appears to be coming along more confidently than before. Hopefully, Bungie can now avoid further controversy and focus on delivering a strong final product.

Marathon is set to launch on Xbox Series X, Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The PlayStation Store currently lists the game for a March 2026 release, and this leaked trailer may have given us a clearer idea of when it will actually arrive.

What do you make of Marathon’s leaked release date, and do you feel more confident in the game now than you did at its initial reveal? Share your thoughts in the comments and take part in our poll below:

The Xbox story reaches its 25th anniversary this year, and it has been a long, strange road to get here.

During the Xbox 360 generation, Microsoft made a serious dent in PlayStation's global dominance in the console space. Sony's misfired PlayStation 3 allowed Microsoft to gain a serious foothold in the then-growing market, and it has remained a staple ever since.

Things are a bit different in 2026. Headlines about Microsoft's commitment to console gaming refuse to abate, buoyed by Xbox's own reported hardware sales figures, which have been in freefall decline since the Xbox Series X|S launch window. Microsoft is still selling the hardware, but it isn't keeping store shelves stocked, leading to questions about whether or not Microsoft even plans to continue selling hardware.

Microsoft, of course, does still plan to sell Xbox hardware. I reported last year that the next Xbox will effectively be a Windows PC, complete with a living room-friendly interface and Xbox console backward compatibility. Microsoft said as much when it revealed a multi-year mega-partnership with AMD for next-gen Xbox first-party consoles, touting backward compatibility therein.

The next Xbox is going to be full Windows, fully open, with support for Steam, GOG, Epic Games, Battle.net, and even things like Office and Adobe Suite. It will also run your existing Xbox games too, but it likely won't be cheap ... the DRAM price glut, tariffs, and its nature as a "PC" notwithstanding.

In any case, Xbox has found itself on the bottom rung in the console sales race for many years now, losing out to PlayStation and Nintendo month in, month out. Xbox's future seems to revolve around blending with its growing Xbox PC operation, and it'll be interesting to see how all of that plays out.

But you might be wondering, if Xbox is doing so badly right now, why do developers and publishers still even launch games on Xbox?

Data shared by Alinea Analytics paints a picture of an Xbox platform that punches above its weight, with heavily engaged users willing to turn up in droves for games that interest them. I initially became curious about this when PlayStation itself decided to launch Helldivers 2 on Xbox. If Xbox is doing so badly, as netizens often like to claim, why would Sony itself want to publish a game on Xbox?

It seems that the old "shooter box" stereotype may be real for Xbox.

Microsoft doesn't share granular data about how games perform on its platform, nor does it reveal detailed figures about how many active users is actually has per platform, per device. But, popular estimates suggest PlayStation has anywhere up to 3 or 4 times Xbox's console user base. If true, game sales data doesn't always correlate directly to that purported market share disparity.

PlayStation likely decided to launch Helldivers 2 on Xbox in part due to the data above. Xbox players just seem to love shooters, and it was likely habits forged in the fires of Xbox 360's Call of Duty marketing, and its Halo and Gears of War-heavy games line-up. Some of 2025's biggest shooters, including Borderlands 4, ARC Raiders, and even on-going shooters like Apex Legends come up close to neck-and-neck for downloads between Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 hardware.

You'd expect the downloads disparity to be far bigger if it directly correlated to each platform's overall install base.

The habits of Xbox gamers are also reflected in single-player and RPG titles as well, where PlayStation 5 enjoys a much bigger sales gap.

Data on games like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 show up far more in-line with the install base gap. Elden Ring's player base is twice as big on PlayStation for example, and Hogwarts Legacy's sales base is even bigger.

I think this reflects the fact that PlayStation's focus on action games, RPGs, and also younger audiences has helped it maintain a broader ownership of genres. Microsoft has been working incredibly hard to win back RPG franchises to the Xbox platform, with games like Persona and Final Fantasy launching on Xbox more prominently than ever. It's a chicken and egg scenario though, probably. Sales of Final Fantasy 16 were reportedly incredibly low on Xbox, as you might expect given that the game launched on practically every other platform before it. Building up an audience for genres dominated by PlayStation, such as RPGs, fighting games, and others, is likely going to continue being an uphill battle for Microsoft.

However, it has certainly over-indexed on the shooter market, and likely racing games too thanks to Forza Horizon. Halo Campaign Evolved and Forza Horizon 6 of course are going to PlayStation this year, but it seems that Sony itself can't ignore Xbox user's penchant for shooters. Helldivers 2 is still charting on Xbox as of writing, and Sony will also publish Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon on Xbox in the future as well.

Platforms seem to have unique user habits

It would require more research and there are other angles to consider here, but it does seem on the face of it that each platform has genres that simply perform better. Steam has cornered the indie games market without a doubt, but also potentially "variety" gamers who play lots of different titles.As PlayStation and Xbox doubled down on cash cows like Fortnite and Call of Duty, Steam quietly curated an audience of players willing to buy dozens of games per year of all shapes and sizes, and now reaps the benefit. I suspect PlayStation has also cornered a younger-skewing audience, which likely precludes a lot of their users from many of the "Mature" rated shooters.

Variety is key to any platform I would argue, though. Xbox has been working hard to ensure Xbox Game Pass launches, for example, are incredibly varied by genre and scope. But therein lies another issue — if Microsoft is curating an audience of players who wait for subscription inclusions, it might decrease the amount of users willing to actually buy games outright. You could also argue that Steam has created a similar issue, training users to wait for its legendary sales events, as opposed to buying things new.

Either way, it does seem like there's still a ton of money to be made on Xbox when the right games come along for the platform. The irony here perhaps is that Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is one of Xbox's biggest growth opportunities, is arguably not the best way to play online multiplayer shooters. Perhaps it's through this vector that Microsoft can find its audience for RPGs? Microsoft's big RPG Fable is being revealed in full at the January Xbox Developer_Direct, and I suspect Xbox Cloud Gaming will be a very popular way to access the game.

Time will tell. The data is fun, nonetheless. What do you reckon? Let us know in the comments!

One of the longer-running games in the Bethesda Softworks umbrella is getting a major shake-up, with The Elder Scrolls Online fully embracing a shift into a seasonal model. While the team at ZeniMax Online Studios was already experimenting with this shift last year, it's now being fully embraced, with regular seasons and a complete rethink of how new quests, zones, and more are added to the game.

During a recent Q&A ahead of Wednesday's livestream, I had the chance to listen to game director Nick Giacomini and executive producer Susan Kath discuss how The Elder Scrolls Online is changing across 2026.

First up, Kath indicates that most new playable content will now be free for all players who own the base game or are playing through a subscription like Xbox Game Pass.
Prior expansions will be folded into the base experience for The Elder Scrolls Online as the Seasons progress.

Per Giacomini, the team is focused on "resilience and transformation," and is trying to provide a far more transparent approach to updates and planning than has been given to players in the past. Each season will last for three months, with Season 0 kicking off in the spring and adding the Dark Brotherhood, Imperial City, Orsinium, and Thieves Guild to the main game.

Season 0 brings a limited-time event called the Night Market, which may stick around for longer if it's well-received by players. This is described as a group event zone, with differing factions to aid in exchange for special rewards, including a new house.

Promised reworks are also being included, starting with Season 0, with the Dragonknight class. The Two-Handed skill lines and the Werewolf are all getting a significant rebalance and visual refresh.

Looking ahead, Season 1 will bring new story quests and Thieves Guild-related content, as well as a new quest involving Sheogorath. Meanwhile, Season 2 will see the Greymoor expansion (which added the province of Skyrim) added to the main game. Additional rebalancing and visual reworks will be spread throughout these seasons and beyond.

A team at ZeniMax Online Studios is also hard at work on cross-play, though players shouldn't expect this to arrive anytime soon.

For players interested in earning more special stuff, The Elder Scrolls Online is getting a battle pass-esque system called Tamriel Tomes. Completing weekly and seasonal challenges unlocks new pages with new rewards. Seals of Endevaour, armor, weapon styles, and more will be included.

The Elder Scrolls Online is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Mac. It's also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.