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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It’s hard to come up with words to describe what Destiny fans are, or rather have been, over the past few weeks, but relentless certainly comes to mind. After Bungie announced it would close the book on Destiny's live-service development, I've seen nothing short of an onslaught of pleas from fans begging Bungie and Sony to revive the franchise and give them Destiny 3, a sequel to Bungie's FPS, RPG, MMO-like looter shooter.

Players have gone so far as to flood Sony’s recent State of Play broadcast, creating petitions, and rallying behind a community-wide push to log in yesterday, on June 9, 2026, in an effort to send a message to Bungie and Sony. Well, they showed up in force, and then some.

For those unaware, SteamDB is a popular free-to-access database that tracks all things Steam, including player counts, game updates, and sales data. Thanks to an influx of more than 167,000 players jumping into Destiny 2, the site struggled to keep up and briefly crashed under the load.

It wasn’t just SteamDB that struggled under the pressure, either. Destiny 2 itself had trouble handling the massive influx of players, with many across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC reporting login errors as they attempted to get online.

The surge in activity also propelled Destiny 2 to the No. 1 spot on Steam's Global Top Sellers chart, and even I managed to finish getting the remainder of the DLC I needed due to a massive sale. This just further highlights how many players turned up for the game's final major update.

Now, while I’m certainly not one for pointing fingers, many were quick to point out that during this same period, Bungie’s other live-service game, Marathon, had just 5,000 players on Steam. Even as I write this, Destiny 2 is sitting at around 60,000 players, while Marathon is at roughly 7,000, so make of that what you will.

It’s also worth mentioning that Destiny 2 blasted past Marathon’s 88,000-player peak on Steam within minutes, which, for lack of a better phrase, feels like a bit of a middle finger to Bungie. More than anything, though, it’s also a testament to just how much people still care about Destiny, and I’m genuinely impressed.

I never really got into Destiny myself, but I do now own all the DLC, having recently started playing it with a friend, and I must say I can definitely see the appeal. So, I say fight on, Guardians, and I hope Bungie takes notice of this massive outcry from fans.

But enough about me. Did you take part in the Destiny 2 mass login, or have you already moved on? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Just over two years ago, developer SHIFT UP and PlayStation Publishing released Stellar Blade for the PS5 — an exclusive for the console, and a sci-fi action RPG that rapidly became a big hit on the platform. Clearly inspired by the beloved 2017 ARPG NieR: Automata, the game was highly praised for its satisfying fast-paced combat systems and audiovisual presentation, though its writing had a mixed reception.

Still, Stellar Blade performed incredibly well, and eventually came to PC via Steam a year after launch; it sold excellently there, too, to the point where SHIFT UP made mention of "engaging an even broader global audience" beyond PS5 and PC. Naturally, this made everyone think the studio was looking to make an Xbox port, with recent statements on its website fueling that speculation further.

That brings us to today, with the developer's Q1 2026 financial report announcing the news that SHIFT UP plans to break away from Sony and PlayStation in order to self-publish its projects and properties, while also officially revealing that Stellar Blade is getting a sequel.

"Notably, starting with this next title, SHIFT UP will transition to a first-party service model. This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the [Stellar Blade] IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively," the earnings report reads. "Building on the strong fandom and evergreen IP status established by the first [Stellar Blade], we are formulating an optimal go-to-market strategy designed to maximize sales and reach a broad global audience from day one."

"With three key tailwinds — high-quality self-publishing capabilities, a sales maximization strategy, and a proven IP fanbase — we are confident the next title will deliver meaningfully improved results compared to its predecessor," the studio added.

I'm not entirely sure what "the distinctive identity of the IP" means, or how going independent will allow SHIFT UP to "lead marketing strategies that fully reflect" it in ways that it couldn't under PlayStation. It could be something related to the attractive appearance of its protagonist Eve, which was celebrated by many, but that's just a guess.

What does appear clear, though, is that mentions of reaching "a broad global audience from day one" seem like a clear allusion to Xbox and plans to bring Stellar Blade to Microsoft's platform, and perhaps also Nintendo Switch 2 as well. By going independent, SHIFT UP could release Stellar Blade's sequel anywhere it wants, and may be negotiating with Sony to do the same with the original action RPG too.

Ultimately, only time will tell if the studio brings the Stellar Blade franchise to Xbox, but between these comments and previous ones, I'd argue it's looking very likely that it does. Since the series already came to PC, I also think it's likely we'll see the sequel release on PC day one, if not everywhere.

Should the series make it to Xbox in the end, I suspect it will perform very well on Microsoft's consoles. After all, it's one of the most popular action RPGs in recent memory, and was a strong seller on PC when it released on that platform. I'm sure there are tons of Xbox fans who would love to get their hands on it, just like there were with Helldivers 2 before that game came to Xbox last year and proceeded to sell like hotcakes.

Would you be excited to see Stellar Blade and/or its sequel come to Xbox? Do you believe the sequel will launch on it? Share your thoughts in the comments, and in the below poll.

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While Arrowhead Game Studios' Xbox, PC, and PS5 PvE co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is still going strong over two years after its release in early 2024, it's experienced several pendulum swings between "it's so over" and "we're so back" throughout its life cycle — and right now, it's experiencing one of the sharpest slumps it's ever had.

Though the game's player count is holding steady, Helldivers 2's recent reviews on Steam have dropped to "Mostly Negative" at the time of writing, with only 38% of the game's 10,169 reviews that were posted in the last few weeks being positive. The flood of negative ratings reflects the community's sentiment about the shooter right now, with many fans angry and frustrated with Arrowhead's management of the experience.

A variety of different issues have coalesced together to form something of a perfect storm, with players fed up with everything from persistent bugs (I'm looking at you, bouncing turret stratagem beacons) and confusing balance changes to a lack of meaningful endgame progression and no way to reliably earn Super Credits at higher difficulties, forcing players to grind them on easier, less fun modes to get them in a reasonable timeframe.

One recent update to the game in particular significantly frustrated fans, as Exosuit mechs were buffed with more health to make them tankier, but the durability damage Terminid bugs deal was also increased, making their attacks better at piercing armor. This minimized the impact of the Exosuit improvements, and also made other stratagems like the Fast Recon Vehicle and deployable turrets considerably squishier.

Matters were made worse when Arrowhead chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt recently hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread on Reddit; his surprise at many fan questions about the state of Helldivers made many feel that the studio as a whole is very out of touch with what players want, adding to growing vexations.

"Mostly negative" on Steam now from r/Helldivers

I think this particular review sums up how players are feeling: "You had lightning in a bottle and decided to pry the lid off yourself. You consistently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and at this point it doesn’t feel accidental anymore," writes Steam user Libby. "The balancing is incoherent. Weapons swing between feeling incredible and being completely unusable, with no consistency or clear design direction. Enemies get buffed while player tools get nerfed, and every update feels like it undoes the last instead of building on it."

Speaking as a frequently Helldivers 2 player with over 700 hours myself, I have to say that I generally agree with the points players are making, though I do think some folks are being a bit overdramatic. Still, it does feel like there's always a nerf to accompany every buff, and new or resurfacing bugs whenever fixes come for existing ones.

It's worth noting that Arrowhead responded to the continued backlash on Friday morning, promising that new rewards and deeper campaigns are coming to Helldivers 2's Galactic War community-driven metagame this summer, along with promises of technical fixes, clearer, explained patch notes without any hidden tweaks, public beta testing for new updates, and new player progression systems beyond Level 150.

"We’ve been following your feedback over the past few days and seeing the conversations across the Helldivers 2 community," wrote Arrowhead developers. "Helldivers 2 matters to all of us, and we want to be clearer about what we’re working on and what’s coming next."

All in all, these additions and improvements sound good, though Arrowhead was quite vague about them and hasn't really given the community much to look forward to in specific.

While I love Helldivers 2 and believe that it's a phenomenal game at its core, all of the above issues have soured the experience for countless players — and I'd be lying if I said I haven't really felt motivated to play it lately, either. I hope Arrowhead is able to make some large and impactful improvements in the coming months.

How do you feel about the current state of Helldivers 2? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.

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I stopped checking Marathon’s Steam charts within a week of it coming out, not because I wanted to see the game fail or anything, but because I got caught up in all the internet drama surrounding it. Having played the game myself and, quite frankly, disliking it, I was curious to see how it would hold up long term. Well, we now have some numbers thanks to Sony’s earnings report from last night.

For those unaware, PlayStation purchased Bungie for over $3.6 billion back in 2022 as part of Sony’s infamous, and now largely failed, live service gaming push. That strategy gave us games like Concord, alongside numerous canceled projects after the initiative failed to deliver the results Sony likely hoped for.

Successful as Bungie may once have been, Sony has now recorded another impairment loss tied to the studio totaling roughly $565 million. That comes on top of the $204 million impairment Sony reported last year, meaning the company has now written down well over half a billion dollars tied to Bungie in just two years.

As Xbox fans likely know all too well, Bungie was once heavily associated with Xbox thanks to Halo, a franchise many, myself included, still consider one of the greatest trilogies of all time. At the time, Sony's acquisition of Bungie probably made perfect sense. The studio had already moved on from Halo and found massive success with Destiny, proving it could build and maintain a huge live service audience.

I will say, just to keep things clear, an impairment loss does not mean Bungie itself lost $565 million directly. Rather, it means Sony believes Bungie is now worth less than it was when the company was originally purchased.

With that in mind, though, it still naturally raises questions about Bungie’s future, especially regarding Destiny and Marathon. Bungie recently stated it has years of plans mapped out for Marathon, but with numbers like this, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine the studio, and potentially even its current games, remaining in a healthy position just a few years from now.

It’s a sad day for Bungie, and a worrying time for the studio’s future. With that in mind, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you have any specific opinions on this situation, or did you expect it?

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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In what I assume is a surprise, at least it was to me, Marathon has topped playtime on Xbox in the U.S.

Thanks to reporting from Circana via Mat Piscatella, we’ve got a look at player engagement for the week ending April 18, 2026.

Now, this isn’t a list of the most popular games. Instead, it tracks average hours played per user, and that’s where things get interesting, according to the report.

On Xbox, Marathon ranks number one for hours played per player.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II follows in second, with Crimson Desert in third.

Platform leaders in weekly average hours per US player - week ending Apr 18 2026:Xbox - 1) Marathon 2) KCDII 3) Crimson DesertPlayStation - 1) Path of Exile 2) Neverwinter 3) StarfieldSteam - 1) NGU Idle 2) Idle Hero TD 3) Rocky IdleKinda fun. Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T19:48:37.274Z

Over on PlayStation, Marathon is nowhere to be seen in the top three.
Instead, Starfield comes in at number three, following its recent launch on the platform after a period of timed exclusivity on Xbox.

Perhaps just as interesting, despite Steam being Marathon’s biggest platform by sales (via Forbes), it doesn’t appear in the top three there either.

That suggests Xbox players are spending more time in Marathon than players on any other platform, reinforcing the idea that Xbox continues to be a strong home for FPS engagement.

It is also worth noting that Marathon does not appear in the top 10 most played games on Xbox by player count in the U.S.

Which does highlight the difference between reach and engagement. Fewer players may be jumping in, but those who are playing seem to be spending a significant amount of time with the game.

At least on Xbox, Marathon might not be a mass market hit, but more like a highly engaged niche, which isn’t a bad thing.

I’ll be the first to admit, as I said, at the start, this is a surprise to me. I’ll also admit that I didn’t really expect this from Marathon, but I also didn't really enjoy the game.

Before you jump down my neck, I wasn’t one of the people who wanted to see it fail, quite the opposite, actually.

I think it’s great that Bungie tried something different, and hopefully the game can continue to grow, regardless of platform.

That said, what do you think? Are you as surprised as I am, or did you expect this kind of outcome?

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Valiant Helldivers 2 players across Xbox, PC, and PS5 have been fighting a fierce Cyborg-led Automaton counter-attack tooth and nail ever since our invasion of Cyberstan ended in failure, but that doesn't mean Managed Democracy's other rivals have been resting on their laurels. In the southern sectors of the Galactic War, a new Illuminate threat has been brewing...and when the new Uncover the Truth update drops, we'll find ourselves in our next major engagement against the squids.

Developer Arrowhead announced the surprise new update with a trailer (watch it below) after teasing it through news reports of cultist activity on social media. The trailer — riffing on cheesy retro alien invasion media — confirms that the Illuminate are constructing strange new Exospire structures that create electrical "Exostorms" in their vicinity, and are linking to Exospires on other nearby worlds.

The Ministry of Science isn't yet sure what these huge towers are for, but the Ministry of Defense says it can't possibly be anything good, so the Helldivers will soon be sent in to begin destroying them. Ground zero of this strange new activity is Seasse; we'll have to take Heze Bay and Rirga Bay before we can reach it, which the community is very likely to do by the time Uncover the Truth's March 20 release date rolls by later this week.

Notably, some completely new Illuminate units — both large and small, with one appearing to be energy shielded — are visible in the trailer, which means this patch is finally expanding the faction with more depth to bring it in-line with the Terminids and Automatons. Patch notes released early confirm that there are three: a "Veracitor" piloted construct that fights in close quarters, a "Gatekeeper" one that favors long range, and a variant of the Watcher drone called the "Obtruder" that "inserts itself where it is not wanted."

The patch notes also detail new Illuminate subfactions, the "Mindless Masses" and the "Appropriators." The former are actually active on Heze Bay and Rirga Bay already, and exclusively field hordes of Voteless zombies and Fleshmob abominations, while the latter only consist of the squids themselves. That means Overseers, Harvesters, Stingrays, and likely all of the new units. The Appropriators will be active on Seasse.

Once we get to Seasse, we'll get access to new "Destroy Exospire" missions. In these, Helldivers will have to push through the Exostorms that surround these ominous Illuminate structures, disable their shields by disrupting their access to shield generators at access nodes, and blow up their core by damaging the Dark Fluid cells powering it within the spire.

We've got a tough fight ahead of us, but the good news is that the March 20 update is also bringing some sizable buffs to several stratagem support weapons, either by giving them more ammo reserves or improving their reload speed.

All flame-based weapons are getting a buff, too, as flamethrower streams will now slow down small to medium-sized enemies; this reduces the risk of your burning targets running into you and setting you on fire. Also, most units will now become confused while being burned, disrupting their behaviors and giving flamethrowers some more crowd control utility.

And last but absolutely not least, some Vox Engine nerfs for those still on the bot front! These hulking Cyborg supertanks definitely needed some adjustments, and they've come in the form of reduced spawn rates, a nerf to their turning speed and the accuracy of their laser cannons, and instant destruction of their side-mounted miniguns when the main vehicle is destroyed. Thank Liberty.

Capping it all off is the reveal of Helldivers 2's first content roadmap that shows we're getting a Terminid-themed update in April with a new enemy variant, two new biomes, a new Warbond, and new Galactic War campaigns. Then, in June, we're getting another new map biome and Warbond, as well as further battles to fight.

🗨️ Excited for more Helldivers 2?

Helldivers 2 may be over two years old now, but it's still going strong, even as plenty of other newer shooters compete with it for attention. How often do you play it, if you do? Will you return to the game for the Uncover the Truth update?

Let me know in the comments below, Helldivers, and vote in our poll as well!

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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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After reporting earlier this week that Marathon will be getting exclusive charms on PC and Xbox, and speculating about what those rewards might look like, the studio has now confirmed the details, at least for Xbox. Marathon shared the update on X (formerly Twitter), outlining exactly what players can expect.

Marathon, despite its rocky reveal and delays, is actually shaping up to look quite fun. At the very least, I am excited to get my hands on it and try it out with some friends. As an avid Xbox player, I now also know what to expect when it comes to exclusive cosmetics.

It is not quite what I had hoped for. Still, it is neat enough that it is worth sharing, so let’s jump right in. Compared to what PlayStation players are getting, the difference is noticeable.

To jog your memory, PlayStation Plus members are receiving three charms themed around Helldivers 2, Death Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei. Xbox players, however, are getting Minecraft-themed charms. There are two in total, one inspired by a Creeper and another by an Emerald.

They do not look bad at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Still, given this is Bungie, and considering Destiny 2 previously featured Halo-inspired weapons, while Helldivers 2 received a full Halo crossover with ODST and a new map based on New Alexandria, I admittedly expected something Halo-themed here as well.

Perhaps I expected too much, and unfortunately, we do not yet know what PC players can expect.

Marathon is set to release on March 5, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Ahead of launch, a server slam will go live on February 26, 2026, giving everyone a chance to try the game before release.

The team has also been sharing additional details in the lead-up to launch, confirming that cheaters will be permanently banned with no second chances. The game will also feature dedicated servers, along with a reconnect system for players who disconnect mid-match.

All great features to see.

Are you excited for Marathon?

What do you think of the Xbox exclusive charms in Marathon? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Marathon is Bungie and Sony’s upcoming FPS. Similar in some ways to ARC Raiders, it is an extraction shooter that tasks players with gathering loot, gear, and weapons while fighting off other players and NPCs.

Sony typically secures exclusivity deals to strengthen its own ecosystem, especially as it doesn’t have the wide portfolio to do so itself. That has often meant games skipping Xbox and, previously, PC too. PC eventually became part of these arrangements, as excluding it proved unsustainable for many publishers, leaving Xbox as the platform most frequently left out.

Now, while Marathon is releasing on Xbox, many, myself included, expected it to at least offer exclusive in-game benefits only to PlayStation users. The assumption was that Xbox and PC players would miss out on certain perks.

That does not appear to be the case, so let’s take a look at what was actually said.

Xbox and Steam players won’t be left out

Marathon, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), responded to a user, @iSeekRest, who commented on exclusive PlayStation content. The original post detailed weapon charms for PlayStation Plus members featuring Helldivers 2, Death Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei.

Marathon was quick to clarify that weapon charms are also coming to Steam and Xbox players, however, whether they’re exclusive or not is unknown. This does immediately raise the question of what those platforms might receive.

As a long-time Halo fan, my first thought was simple: a Halo-themed weapon charm. It is not outside the realm of possibility, especially considering Bungie’s history and the fact Helldivers 2 has already featured a Halo crossover.

For Steam, it is less obvious. Most PlayStation titles are already available on PC, so it will be interesting to see whether it leans into Valve games or simply expands on existing PlayStation-themed cosmetics, given most PlayStation games are playable on PC.

Despite ongoing negativity around Marathon, with some comparing it to Concord 2.0, or even 3.0 following Highguard, which recently laid off most of its development team. However, sentiment has started to shift. Bungie appears to have gone back to the drawing board and listened to feedback, and the game is generally looking much better lately.

Marathon’s Server Slam begins February 26, 2026, and runs until March 2, 2026. The full release follows on March 5, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Over to you

Will platform specific charms influence where you play Marathon, or does it not matter to you? Let us know 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:

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

Well, my fellow Helldivers, the latest reports from the Battle of Cyberstan just came in, and I've got some bad news: as brutal as the fighting on the Cyborgs and Automatons' home world has been thus far, completing the current Helldivers 2 Major Order just became even more difficult — and it's all thanks to traitorous anti-democratic "dissidents corrupted by Automaton lies." AKA, hackers.

Originally, the Major Order required players to extract from 25 million successful missions by midday on Tuesday, February 17 to support Phase 3 of Operation VALID PRETEXT, the ongoing Super Earth Armed Forces (SEAF) ground invasion of Cyberstan, and the march towards its capital Megafactory Transcendence.

Helldivers were also given a Strategic Opportunity objective to kill millions of Chargers, Impalers, and Bile Titans on the Terminid front "to secure egg specimens for fundraising sales to high-value citizens," which will help replenish our rapidly dwindling reinforcement budget that's keeping the Cyberstan invasion alive (you can watch it drain in real time on the Helldivers Companion site).

However, after developer Arrowhead caught wind of hackers using "in-game exploits" trying to cheat their way to an easy victory for both the Major Order and the Strategic Opportunity, the studio had to temporarily take the Galactic War meta game offline, revert all the false progress the bad actors made, and change the Major Order to require 8 million full Operation (collections of three individual missions) completions instead to counter whatever method the cheaters used.

"At around 0615 this morning, we had several players attempt to auto-complete both the Major Order and Strategic Order using in-game exploits. We temporarily had to disable the Galactic War whilst our team investigated the cause but now believe we have addressed this issue," wrote community manager miitchimus on the official Helldivers Discord server. "The Major Order and Strategic Opportunity have been updated to reflect numbers close to the time the attacks began and have gone live again as we speak."

"Falsified mission data has been traced to dissidents corrupted by Automaton lies. The offenders have been volunteered to beta-test Permacura’s Bio-Safety Protocols. This exemplifies the magnanimity of Super Earth: even the disloyal may find redemption by contributing to scientific progress," reads an in-game announcement. "To ensure fleetwide integrity, Helldivers must now complete Full Operations to progress the Major Order. Proceed with your orders. Defection will not be tolerated."

It's great that the devs made sure to preserve all the actual legitimate progress the community's made towards our current objectives, and I love that Arrowhead always finds a comedic way to integrate instances of cheating like this one into the Helldivers 2 canon. What's not good, though, is the Major Order's new requirement for full Operation clears.

Firstly, some Helldivers 2 players only have enough time to play a mission or two on the days they're available to fight on the frontlines. That's not enough to finish an Operation, and as a result, those players won't be able to contribute to the Major Order. Last year, Helldivers 2 changed the Galactic War to make individual mission completions count towards campaigns because of this.

Also, as someone who's been diving there daily since the invasion started, let me tell you: Cyberstan got hands. Led by Cyborgs and their terrifying Vox Engines (here's how to kill them), the Automatons here are the hardest we've ever fought, and Helldivers are dying at alarming rates. That means it's easier to lose control of a mission and fail it than usual — and one failed mission also fails the Operation it's part of.

Once bugdivers finish off the Strategic Opportunity and come back to Cyberstan with our much-needed reinforcements, it's going to be an all-out slugfest for the Major Order — and with the new mission parameters making it more difficult, I'm not sure we'll complete it in time. That doesn't mean I'm not going to fight like hell to see it through, though, and I hope to see you on the battlefield too. Super Earth is counting on her finest troops.

Are you participating in the Battle of Cyberstan in Helldivers 2? What are your thoughts on the new Cyborg enemies it's brought to the bot front? Let me know down in the comments.

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

Sony's PlayStation State of Play showcases may be all about games coming to the firm's PS5 consoles, but that doesn't mean they're not worth keeping an eye on if you use other platforms like Xbox and PC. In fact, several of the games shown during PlayStation presentations come to these systems too.

February has brought us Sony's first 2026 State of Play event, and we covered it live as all the news dropped so Xbox and PC players have an idea of what they can look forward to in the coming months. Without further ado, here's every Xbox and PC game that was shown during the presentation.

Where to watch Sony's PlayStation State of Play

Sony's February 2026 PlayStation State of Play was streamed live on February 12 at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET on the PlayStation YouTube channel, and on PlayStation's Twitch channel. If you missed the show, you can rewatch it with the embedded VOD above.

All PC and Xbox games shown during PlayStation State of Play February 2026

Kena: Scars of Kosmora

A sequel to the popular 2021 action-adventure title Kena: Bridge of Spirits dubbed Kena: Scars of Kosmora is headed to PC as well as PS5. The game opened the PlayStation State of Play, and is said to have deeper combat compared to the original game. No release date info yet, though!

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is coming to PC

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is coming to Steam and PC on March 19, just a few weeks from now! It got a snazzy new trailer alongside the announcement that shows off some of its PC-specific features. With this release, it will join the original game on the platform, which launched on Steam in 2022.

4:LOOP gets a new gameplay deep dive

4:LOOP, an interesting new sci-fi co-op shooter in which you and your friends square off against an alien invasion, got a new gameplay showcase during the State of Play. It's coming to both PS5 and PC, with playtest sign-ups available on the game's website.

The next Resident Evil Requiem trailer is here

A brand new trailer for Resident Evil Requiem — coming to Xbox Series X|S, Steam PC, and PS5 on February 27 — was shown at the State of Play show, which you can watch above.

Control Resonant showed a new gameplay overview

Control Resonant, Remedy Entertainment's upcoming sequel to the popular 2019 action-adventure sci-fi horror game Control, got a fresh gameplay overview that showed protagonist Dylan Faden getting into some supernatural scraps. It's coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5 later in 2026.

Surprise! Beast of Reincarnation got its release date announced

Game Freak's new Beast of Reincarnation already got a showcase during the Xbox Developer Direct 2026, but it made an appearance at the PlayStation State of Play as well, where its specific release date was confirmed. It's coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PS5, and Xbox Game Pass on August 4, 2026.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer flies in with new trailer

Now this is podracing! First announced in December, Star Wars: Galactic Racer — a new action-heavy Star Wars racing game coming to Xbox Series X|S, Steam PC, and PS5 later in 2026 — got a new gameplay trailer at the State of Play showcase, with a nice little The Phantom Menace reference at the end.

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2

The second volume of the Metal Gear Solid remaster collection is on the way, and includes both Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker — games originally exclusive to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, respectively. Presumably, it will come to Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch alongside PS5 since the first volume did, though this isn't confirmed yet. Keep that in mind!

Bungie's Marathon gets new trailer, announces Server Slam beta

Bungie's upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon got a slick new trailer at the State of Play showcase, along with the announcement of a Server Slam beta test for the game that's scheduled to run from February 26 to March 2. The game is fully launching on March 5 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5.

A new 007 First Light story trailer dropped

007 First Light is a reimagined version of James Bond's origin story, and it appeared at the PlayStation State of Play presentation with a new story trailer. It's coming in 2026 to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has its release date

We got our first full look at the Unbreakable X-Men in a new Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls trailer, the upcoming fighting game headed to Steam PC and PS5. Notably, the game also got a confirmed August 6, 2026 release date.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance and Defiance Remastered

Fans of the classic dark fantasy action-adventure series Legacy of Kain are eating well this year, with two new games — Legacy of Kain: Ascendance and Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered — announced. The former is a prequel coming March 31 to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PS5, Switch, and Switch 2, while the latter is a remaster of the beloved 2003 title on the same platforms coming a few weeks earlier on March 3.

A new, untitled John Wick game

From Saber Interactive comes something every action fan has dreamed of for years: a John Wick game. We know absolutely nothing about it other than that it stars Keanue Reeves, is set before the events of the films, and that it's coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, but we did get to see some awesome clips of gameplay in its reveal trailer.

Yakoh Shinobi Ops

Yakoh Shinobi Ops is an upcoming ninja stealth game with 4-player co-op, and is one to watch if you and your friends like the sound of working together to live out the ultimate shinobi clan fantasy. We know it's headed to both PS5 and PC in 2027.

Crimson Moon

Indie developer ProbablyMonsters is making Crimson Moon, a gothic action RPG with roguelike elements that sees you taking control of a Nephilim — "a violent half-human, half-angel hybrid forged to defend humanity from hell using supernatural powers, weapons, and melee combat abilities." It's coming to PS5 and PC via Steam, with Xbox availability unclear.

Neva is getting a "Prologue" DLC

The beautiful 2024 adventure platformer Neva is getting a special DLC expansion titled "Prologue," and it's not far off. In fact, it's just one week away, as it's releasing on February 19 and will tell the story of how Alba first met her pet wolf Neva years before the events of the main game. Like the vanilla game, the expansion will come to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows PC, PS5, PS4, Switch 2, and Switch.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse

In collaboration with The Prince of Persia's Evil Empire and Dead Cells' Motion Twin, Konami is making Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, a sequel to Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse that puts players in the shoes of Trevor Belmont 23 years after that game. It's coming out in 2026 on both PS5 and PC; whether it's coming to Xbox or not is unknown.

What did you think of Sony's February 2026 PlayStation State of Play showcase? Which games are you the most excited to get your hands on as an Xbox and/or PC player? Hit me with your thoughts in the comments.

With the Battle for Cyberstan now raging on in Helldivers 2, one thing pretty much every Helldiver is thinking about right now is how to kill Vox Engines quickly and efficiently. These towering super tanks are the deadliest and most-durable units ever fielded by the Automatons and their Cyborg commanders, and have a frighteningly high spawn rate in and around Cyberstan's Megafactories.

Their lethal combination of high-damage laser cannons, side-mounted miniguns, and rocket barrages makes them a priority target — and after both reading up on community discoveries and experimenting with different weapons and stratagems with my friends, I've figured out the best tactics and ordnance to use to send these hulking behemoths back to the scrap heap.

Without further ado, here's how to kill Vox Engines in Helldivers 2, with everything you need to know about their weak points, the best stratagems to use for the job, and other tips.

What's the Vox Engine's weakness in Helldivers 2?

Like most heavily-armored Automaton vehicles, the Vox Engine has a glaring weakness: its orange, glowing heat vents. There are six of these on the tank, including three on the back of its "head," two on the back of its "torso," and one directly beneath the chassis, which is thankfully raised high enough for you to be able to run under the vehicle.

All six are uniquely even more vulnerable than other vehicle heatsinks, as they're completely unarmored (others need medium armor penetration). Destroying either the top three vents on the head or the lower three on the chassis will open up a hatch on the back of the tank, and throwing a grenade of any kind inside will blow up the Vox Engine instantly.

This is harder to do with Thermite Grenades — which are ironically one of if not the best grenade types for bot missions in general — because it's very easy to accidentally stick them to the hatch instead of throwing them inside of it, but it's still possible to perform this tactic with one.

Notably, the laser miniguns the Vox Engine uses to cover its flanks can be blown off with medium armor-penetrating ordnance, so consider doing so if you plan to use this tactic so your approach is safer.

Another important thing to note is that if you decide to try and take the Vox Engine down conventionally with heavy weaponry instead, you should always aim for the vehicle's lower chassis, and not at its head. This is because the head has 21,000 health — nearly double the torso's 11,000 HP. Aim lower, and you'll take the tank down much faster.

Best stratagems for Vox Engines in Helldivers 2

While the above grenade-in-the-hatch strategy is a fast and guaranteed way to kill one Vox Engine, it quickly loses viability when several of them are engaging you at once, as the tanks and all their supporting infantry units cover one another and make approaching the vehicles nigh-impossible.

In those situations, it's far more advisable to use stratagems and specialized support weapons to target the Vox Engine, and its torso in particular. Here's a list of some of the best options I've found after some extensive testing with my squad:

• TD-220 Bastion MK XVI: Wouldn't you know it, Helldivers 2's new Bastion tank destroyer is good at destroying tanks! Its 120mm cannon can take one down in 2-3 shots to the torso, and it's got enough durability to stand up to a lot of return fire.
• EAT-411 Leveler: This new nuke launcher from the Siege Breakers Warbond is basically a long-range Ultimatum on steroids, and I've been able to one-shot Vox Engines with it with direct hits to the lower chassis. The projectile has steep drop, though, so trying to hit the torso from afar is tricky (but doable).
• MS-11 Solo Silo: This devastating anti-tank guided missile from the Dust Devils Warbond will either one-shot the Vox Engine if it hits its chassis or put it at critical health if it strikes its head. I've been running it alongside the Leveler, as the two make for an excellent anti-Vox combo. Be sure to keep lazing the vehicle if it's moving, though, or you won't get a direct hit.
• B/MD C4 Pack: Another strong option is the C4 pack from the recent Redacted Regiment Warbond. Planting and detonating three C4 on the torso of a Vox Engine will deliver enough firepower to blast it to bits; you get six per pack (and more with resupply).
• Orbital Laser: The overwhelming firepower of the Orbital Laser is enough to cut down a Vox Engine or two as well as some of the supporting units around it, though you have to be selective about when you use it, as you only get three uses per mission.
• Orbital Railcannon Strike: Though the Orbital Railcannon Strike doesn't one-shot Vox Engines, it does at least put them at critical health, making them easy to finish off with a single anti-tank rocket, Thermite Grenade, or Ultimatum shot.
• Any anti-tank launcher: The Recoilless Rifle, EAT rockets, Quasar, fully-charged Epoch blasts — all of these can take Vox Engines down in three shots to the lower chassis. By focus firing with your squad, you can use these launchers to kill the tanks quickly.

Though not stratagems, I'll give the GP-20 Ultimatum pocket nuke secondary from the Servants of Freedom Warbond and the G-123 Thermite Grenade from the Democratic Detonation Warbond an honorable mention; the former can kill Vox Engines in two shots to the chassis, and sticking 2-3 of the latter there will destroy it as well.

I don't recommend using Eagle stratagems or orbital bombardments because Cyberstan's Megafactories have anti-aircraft guns everywhere that have to be destroyed before the former can be called in, and the latter are too imprecise and unreliable for killing specific units. A squadmate did have decent success with the Orbital Gatling Barrage, though, so you could try that.

Are you participating in the Battle for Cyberstan in Helldivers 2? Do you have any tips of your own for dealing with Vox Engines to share? If so, post them in the comments for your fellow Helldivers.

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

After the meddling Automaton Legion managed to hack into Super Earth's database and steal plans for the planet-destroying Star of Peace, Helldivers 2 players have been ordered to launch a daring offensive to take the bots' home world of Cyberstan before they build the superweapon and use it to target Super Earth.

To support Lady Liberty's finest as they push towards the heart of the robotic menace's territory, the Ministry of Defense has begun production of a vehicle that fans of the original Helldivers will be very happy to see: the TD-220 Bastion MK XVI, tough-armored, heavily armed tank that comes equipped with a lethal 120mm main cannon, a heavy coaxial machine gun, and two little passenger hidey-holes for Helldivers along for the ride.

The tank needs at least two players — a driver and a gunner — to be combat-effective, though it's at its most powerful when you have passengers too, as they can pop out of the turret to take care of enemies on the vehicle's flanks with their small arms, support weapons, and stratagems.

My friends and I put the armor to the test on the Automaton front for several hours last night, and holy Liberty, this thing is a beast. The main gun's 120mm shells pack devastating firepower equivalent to the ones fired by your Super Destroyer during 120mm Orbital Barrage usage, so you'll be one-shotting pretty much everything the enemy can throw at you that isn't a Factory Strider (those go down with two hits to the same spot). In fact, the only thing it can't obliterate are hardened objective structures that need Hellbombs.

The coaxial machine gun also hits as hard as the Heavy Machine Gun support weapon, but comes with an extremely generous 2,000 rounds, allowing you to cut down bots en masse with minutes of non-stop firing. The cannon gets 30 shells, which is plenty provided you're saving them for heavier targets like Hulks, War Striders, Factory Striders, dropships, and bot fabricators.

On top of that — and unlike other Helldivers vehicles like the Fast Recon Vehicle and the Exosuit mechs — the Bastion can take punishment almost as well as it can dish it out. Its thick armor plating shrugs off most small arms fire and bug claw jabs, and it can absorb a surprising amount of damage from rockets and explosive laser blasts before giving out. When it does, everyone is forcibly ejected and given a few seconds to get clear before it violently explodes.

But as awesome as the Bastion tank is, it also has some very glaring weaknesses. For one, it's technically a World War 2-style tank destroyer; like these real-world vehicles, the Bastion has a fixed turret that can't rotate on the X axis, meaning the gunner can only adjust their aim left and right a small amount, and that the driver has to turn the entire vehicle towards targets. This is a limitation, to be sure, though it does smartly make the driver feel more involved in the destruction you're doling out.

That, paired with the tank's hilariously slow turning speed, means that it's extremely easy to get flanked if you're not proactively keeping an eye out for where enemies are coming from and adjusting your positioning accordingly. The armor's "breakneck speeds of up to 32 kilometers per hour" also make it difficult to quickly get out of hairy situations — and as resilient as it is, it will get destroyed rapidly if it takes too much heavy fire from multiple angles.

Like many Helldivers 2 stratagems, the Bastion treads a fine line between "the literal coolest thing ever" and "this sucks, actually," requiring effective teamwork and coordination to maximize feeling like the former and avoid the latter as much as possible. It may feel weak if you're playing with mic-less randoms, but go in with a squad of communicative buddies and you'll spill enough Automaton oil to make General Brasch proud.

It's not going to be meta, but frankly, I don't really care. It's an absolute blast to use, it's still very strong when used with a coordinated team, and for me, stratagems like this that demand teamwork bring some of the highest highs that Helldivers 2 co-op can. I guarantee you that this thing will have you grinning from ear to ear.

For bot missions, this is hands-down my new favorite stratagem, and I'm excited to give it a try on the bug and squid fronts at some point, too (right now, I'm 100% committed to the push to Cyberstan). Excited to get behind the treads yourself? You can unlock the Bastion tank with 35,000 of the Requisition Slips earned from completed missions and operations.

What do you think of the new Bastion tank in Helldivers 2? Will you take it into your missions moving forward? Share your opinion on the latest new stratagem in the comments.

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:

One of the best things about Arrowhead Game Studios' acclaimed Xbox, PC, and PS5 co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is that it supports and enables countless different power fantasies. With all the gear and stratagems in the base game and from various Warbonds, you can be everything from a mobile jet pack-wearing sniper to a laser revolver-slinging space cowboy to a minigun-wielding heavy gunner, and anything between.

Notably, though, one playstyle that hasn't been supported by the game's sandbox very much is stealth. With how bombastic and chaotic the action can get in Helldivers, many forget it has stealth mechanics, with most enemies unable to detect you provided you're well-concealed and keep quiet.

There are also many players that enjoy and prefer stealthier approaches to the game's objective-based missions, however, and those fans have been clamoring for a stealth-themed Warbond for ages. And now, finally, we're getting one soon with Redacted Regiment.

Scheduled to come to Helldivers 2 across Xbox, Windows PC, and PS5 on January 20, the Redacted Regiment Warbond comes with several unlocks that will make sneaking around the battlefields of the Galactic War far easier to do than it is now. You can watch the trailer for it here or with the embed below.

Note that like other Premium Warbonds, Redacted Regiment will cost players 1,000 Super Credits to purchase, or $10. You don't have to spend real money in order to get the Super Credits needed, though, as you can find them in small increments in-game as you play.

At the heart of the Redacted Regiment Warbond is the R-72 Censor marksman rifle and the AR-59 Suppressor assault rifle, both of which have integrated silencers for quiet firing. They'll pair perfectly with the RS-89 Shadow Paragon (light) and RS-67 Null Cipher (medium) armor sets that feature the Reduced Signature passive; this trait significantly reduces the noise you make and the distance enemies can detect you from.

There's also the B/MD C4 Pack for attaching explosives to objectives or heavily armored units Battlefield-style, as well as the P-35 Re-Educator secondary that fires a gas dart, stunning and confusing any democracy-hating extra-terrestrials that become aware of your presence. You can also distract enemies with the grenade-replacing TM-01 Lure Mine that beeps and lights up to draw targets in before detonating (think Left 4 Dead pipe bombs).

Other items in the Warbond include the Concealed Insertion booster that — based on the icon for it — will likely create a large cloud of concealing smoke whenever you land in a Hellpod, along with player banners, capes, a player title, and a "Target Sighted" emote that match the style of the armor sets and Redacted Regiment as a whole.

All in all, this looks like a terrific Warbond, and will be a literal game changer for Helldivers 2. Provided that Reduced Signature armor passive is as effective as it sounds, stealth will become a lot more viable than it is now, especially when paired with smoke and gas-based stratagems that confuse enemy forces. And if it's not, Arrowhead will likely buff it, as they've frequently done in the past with underwhelming armor traits.

One big thing I'm hoping for is that the silenced weapons from the Helldivers 2 x Halo crossover Warbond — the SMG and the pistol, namely — are considered as quiet as the new DMR and assault rifle are, as they're a blast to use and having more stealth-viable options would be great. Fingers crossed.

Are you excited for stealthier playstyles to become more viable in Helldivers 2 thanks to the Redacted Regiment Warbond? Will you be getting it right away when it comes out, or will you wait to see how its unlocks perform? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Earlier this year, Arrowhead Game Studios developed a huge Helldivers 2 x Halo crossover for its popular co-op shooter, delivering players a new 1,500-Super Credit ($15 worth) Legendary Warbond full of weapons, armors, and cosmetics that were either themed after or taken straight out of Xbox's iconic Halo series. Notably, though, this crossover wasn't the first of its kind.

Before the Halo collab, there was Helldivers 2 x Killzone in 2024, a crossover that saw Helghast gear from Guerrilla Games' PlayStation-exclusive gritty sci-fi FPS added to Helldivers 2. However, its content was limited time, added through the game's "Superstore" microtransactions shop, and had to be bought piecemeal, rather than with a Legendary Warbond — a format Arrowhead didn't use until this year's Halo crossover.

Ever since the Halo content was added, fans have been asking the studio to reintroduce the Killzone items in their own bundle so they can be permanently available. And bless Lady Liberty's heart, Arrowhead is obliging with the upcoming addition of the Helldivers 2 x Killzone Legendary Warbond.

The news of its arrival on December 18 at 7 A.M. PT / 10 A.M. ET next week came in a new PlayStation blog post penned by Arrowhead community manager Mitchell Ayre alongside a new trailer you can watch below.

"Helldivers 2 x Killzone is back and this time, it’s back for good," wrote Ayre. "It seems fitting that a year after their initial launch, we bring back this iconic content but now in a new and improved format and pricing — yes, we totally heard you all!"

The new Killzone Legendary Warbond will cost 1,500 Super Credits like the Halo one does, and features every piece of content that was released in the Superstore last year. This includes the StA-52 Assault Rifle, the StA-11 SMG, and the PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle, along with the AC-1 Dutiful medium armor and the AC-2 Obedient light armor that come with the Acclimated passive — a perk that reduces damage taken from fire, gas, acid, and electricity by 50%.

You'll get the capes and player card backgrounds that match these armor sets, too, as well as the Assault Infantry player title. Notably, the Legendary Warbond will also feature new content in the form of light and dark camo patterns called Extrasolar Ash for the Fast Recon Vehicle (FRV), Exosuit mechs, Pelican shuttles, and your Hellpods.

Something important to mention, and pretty cool that Arrowhead is doing here, is that if you bought any of the Killzone content from the Superstore back when it was for sale in 2024, you'll get the entire Legendary Warbond for free — even if you only bought one singular item. Any items you did previously buy will also be medal unlocked from the get-go, making it easier to progress through the Warbond with your medals faster.

This offer does not apply to anyone who only got some of the Killzone items as a free gift — Arrowhead gave away half of them in response to player complaints about their Superstore prices — so those players will have to buy or earn 1,500 Super Credits through gameplay to buy the Legendary Warbond. Gifted items will still already be unlocked in the Warbond, though.

It's great to see Helldivers 2 bring back the Killzone crossover in a player-friendly way, especially since its weapons and armors are quite solid (though not "meta" by any stretch). Whether you're a fan of Killzone that missed the original crossover or just someone who digs the Helghast's rugged sci-fi kit, this new Legendary Warbond is definitely worth a pickup.

Arrowhead Game Studios' acclaimed PvE co-op shooter Helldivers 2 has had no shortage of content to enjoy since its launch in February 2024, with the developer frequently updating it with new Warbonds full of gear to unlock, new enemy sub-factions that spice up gameplay with unique unit types, major narrative events like the Battle for Super Earth, and more.

Throughout all of it, though, the fundamental core of the game — dropping into a map, routing your way through it and completing objectives while fighting off waves of enemy forces, and extracting — has never changed.

Now, that's not a bad thing, as Helldivers 2's highly dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay and its diverse array of weapons to use, stratagems to call in, and democracy-hating alien menaces to fight make it one of the most replayable co-op shooters in the genre.

Still, it would be interesting to see what an experience that shakes up the structure and format of the game would look like. And according to Arrowhead founder, chief creative officer, and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt, the studio is apparently working on a prototyped roguelike/roguelite mode that does exactly that.

"Hey! We have a prototype of a rogue-lite mode," he wrote in reply to a fan suggesting a roguelite/endless survival experience on a single map with constant and/or repeatable objectives. "It changes the game fundamentally!"

Knowing that Arrowhead has something like this in the works naturally has me dying to see it in action, though given that this roguelite mode is still in the prototyping phase, it'll likely be quite a long wait until it's shown off or comes to Helldivers 2 — if it even does.

Still, it's exciting to learn that the developer is thinking outside the box and playing around with ways to take its beloved bombastic co-op shooter in creative new directions. It also gets my imagination churning with the possibilities, especially considering how wide Helldivers 2's sandbox is.

I can see Arrowhead experimenting with a ton of different things, such as randomized upgrades or sets of them to choose from, multiple limited-time objectives that force you to make some tough decisions about where you go next à la Elden Ring Nightreign, a classic Halo Firefight-style experience with never-ending waves of foes and opportunities to rearm and gear up between them, and more.

Ultimately, the sky is the limit here, and it's reassuring to hear from Pilestedt that this prototyped mode "changes the game fundamentally." That signals to me that it's not just some minor spin on the existing Helldivers 2 formula, and would truly be something completely fresh and different if it ever saw the light of day.

It's worth noting that while Helldivers 2 has an MSRP of $39.99 across PC, PS5, and now Xbox — it launched on the platform in August alongside the Into the Unjust update, spiking player counts so high it crashed servers and becoming a massive success — it's currently on sale for some steep discounts on all three platforms.

Specifically, it's going for just $29.49 at Loaded on PC, and the PS5 version is selling for $29.99 at Best Buy. Sadly, there aren't any deals for the Standard Edition on Xbox, but you can get the $59.99 Super Citizen Edition with exclusive extra cosmetics on Xbox for $50.89 at Loaded.

Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios' beloved 2024 co-op shooter, has gotten raked over the coals in recent months due to some severe performance and technical issues on PC. The developers ultimately chose to delay new content to focus on fixes, and most critical problems were taken care of in the weeks that followed as a result.

However, one that continued to persist was its bloated file size, which had steadily grown from around 70GB at launch to a whopping 154GB — more than double the original storage requirement, and a serious detriment to our never-ending fight to keep space on our hard drives open. Thanks to a new update, however, that too has finally been taken care of.

On top of adding the new highly anticipated Python Commandos Warbond, the latest Helldivers 2 patch has shrunk the size of the 154GB co-op shooter down by an incredible 131GB, meaning that it only requires 23GB of space on your drive now. Percentage-wise, that's a full 85% shaved off, which is a better cut than just about everyone was expecting.

Notably, the PC version of Helldivers 2 has gone from being the largest edition by far to the smallest one, as both the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions of the title presently require about 35-40GB of storage.

Something important to highlight, however, is that this new "slim version" of Helldivers 2 isn't yet the default version. Arrowhead is publicly testing it first before making it the standard, so you have to opt into it yourself.

This can easily be done by right-clicking Helldivers 2 in your Steam Library, selecting Properties, clicking the Betas tab in the window that appears, and then selecting the "prod_slim" option from the Beta Participation dropdown. Once you do that, the "slim version" patch should download and install, shrinking the game.

You can also select "prod_legacy" to revert back to the bigger default version if you experience some game-breaking bugs and need to, but hopefully nothing like that happens for anyone. Oh, and Arrowhead notes in its new blog post that "There are no functional differences between the legacy and slim versions besides the installation size," so don't worry about losing your progression or anything like that.

Wondering how this was possible? It's because the developers have "de-duplicated" Helldivers 2's assets after duplicating them over time with each update, which was done to help give users of older, slower hard disk drives (HDDs) reasonable loading times that were decently close to what's achievable with speedy and modern solid-state drives (SSDs).

Arrowhead feared that not doing this would cause HDD loading times to spike by 10 times, but "These loading time projections were based on industry data," and not by testing done with Helldivers 2 itself. The studio found that in reality, "the change in the file size will result in minimal changes to load times — seconds at most."

A dream come true for PC Helldivers 2 players

Ultimately, this is a dream come true for PC players like me, and guarantees that several of my friends can keep Helldivers 2 installed and at-the-ready at all times. Previously, due to their limited hard drive space, the people I play with often had to uninstall the game to download new ones like Battlefield 6; now they won't have to, and can enjoy new content updates with me on day one.

It does seem strange to me that Arrowhead didn't perform tests with Helldivers 2 specifically before deciding to duplicate its assets for the sake of HDD users, especially since it estimated (and later found) that only about 11% of players — a small minority — were using one.

It's certainly unfortunate that many fans on PC have had to struggle with an unnecessarily bloated file size for months, now, but ultimately, I'm just glad that it's no longer a problem, and that one of the best PC games you can play is no longer tough to squeeze into your storage space.

Haven't signed up for the Galactic War to do your part yet? Helldivers 2 is available across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 for $39.99, though the PC version is on sale for $26.39 at Loaded, and the PS5 edition is going for $24.99 at GameStop. Sadly, there are no deals on the Xbox version right now.

It's been nearly three months since Arrowhead Game Studios updated Helldivers 2 with a new Warbond battle pass, with the last one being the Dust Devils pack that came out in early September alongside the big Into the Unjust update. Largely, this is because the developers chose to focus on optimizing the game instead of developing new content for it, as Helldivers 2 was recently in a very rough state performance-wise.

Now that many of those issues have been ironed out across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 with patches, though, the developers are putting out a fresh Warbond called Python Commandos on December 2 — and it's bringing a new stratagem to the third-person co-op shooter that I (and countless others) have wanted for ages.

That stratagem is a handheld, backpack-fed minigun support weapon called the M-1000 Maxigun, and based on the gameplay footage of it seen in the trailer for Python Commandos (you can watch it here or with the embed below), it looks like you'll be able to put far more lead downrange with it than you could ever hope to with Helldivers 2's other machine gun support weapons, at the cost of having to be stationary while firing.

Frankly, the minigun alone would make this Warbond a must-buy for me — I am absolutely stoked to live out my heavy gunner fantasies in the battlefields of the Galactic War — but Arrowhead has included a sweet chainsaw support weapon in the CQC-9 Defoliation Tool as well. This one likely won't end up being that good on higher difficulties since being in melee range is insanely risky in general, but it will undoubtedly be fun to mess around with.

Something that may help make the chainsaw viable, though, is the Rock Solid armor passive included on Python Commandos' RS-20 Constrictor (light) and RS-40 Beast of Prey (heavy) armor sets. This passive makes you resistant to stumbling and ragdolling, which should help you shrug off the staggering effects of Terminid pincers or Illuminate Voteless hordes as you're cutting through the masses.

Other gameplay additions in the Warbond include the AR/GL-21 One Two, an assault rifle equipped with an underslung grenade launcher, and a flamethrower variant of Helldivers 2's backpack-carried mobile sentry drones called the AX/FLAM-75 "Guard Dog" Hot Dog.

Beyond that, there's a handful of new player banners, capes, and vehicle skins bearing jungle camo designs, a goofy new push-ups emote, and a Python Commando player title. All in all, between the minigun, the jungle color scheme of the new cosmetics, and the design of the mask on the RS-20 Constrictor helmet, this Warbond is giving some serious old-school Predator vibes, and I'm 100% here for it.

I'd have liked to see a new grenade or secondary weapon as well to round out Python Commandos, but overall, it looks to be an awesome new Warbond, and one I won't hesitate to buy on day one. I can't wait to get my hands on that minigun — and notably, since it's confirmed to have medium armor penetration, it will be effective against most units from all three enemy factions.

Aside from recent technical woes, it's been an excellent year for Helldivers 2, with big highlights including the Battle for Super Earth in May and the explosive launch of an Xbox port in August. Since then, the game has continued to sell well on Xbox, and Sony has considered its release on the platform a "huge success."

Helldivers 2 is available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 for $39.99. Note that the PC version is on sale for a sizable discount, though, and goes for just $26.39 at Loaded right now.

FAQ

Since 2020, Sony has been porting a select group of its games to PC after their initial launch on PlayStation hardware. Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam marked the start of this shift. A new dataset from Alinea Analytics now outlines how these PC releases have performed over the past five years.

Over that period, PlayStation titles on Steam have accumulated 43 million sales. Combined revenue reaches 1.5 billion dollars before Valve takes its cut. Sony ultimately keeps around 1.2 billion dollars, which highlights how successful this strategy has become. Steam is now a reliable part of Sony’s wider revenue plan, and it has not disrupted sales of its console hardware.

The full breakdown of Steam sales

Unsurprisingly, Helldivers 2 leads PlayStation’s Steam sales with 12.7 million copies and more than 400 million dollars in revenue. Horizon Zero Dawn follows with 4.5 million copies sold, which still surprises me, as I think it is the weakest PlayStation franchise. God of War comes next with 4.2 million sold, followed by Days Gone at 3.4 million, and Spider-Man Remastered at 2.7 million.

These figures come directly from Alinea Analytics, which often reports accurate sales data before companies publish official numbers. Its dataset shows that Helldivers 2 has sold more than double the copies on Steam compared to PlayStation 5. It also indicates that sequels sell less than half of what their predecessors managed on Steam during identical timeframes. Each sequel still brings in millions for Sony, but the gap is noticeable.

Alinea Analytics believes that delayed PC releases might contribute to this decline. Shorter gaps between PlayStation and Steam launches could help maintain audience excitement and improve performance on PC. Poor PC ports likely play a role, too. Spider-Man 2 was widely described as Sony’s worst PC port so far, and performance issues on launch are always a concern for PC players who depend on stable optimisation.

Why Sony should commit to more PC releases

Sony’s Steam results show that PC ports are a reliable source of revenue. Even with Helldivers 2 carrying most of the weight, it is challenging to ignore the 1.2 billion dollars earned from bringing existing games to PC. That alone makes the strategy worthwhile.

Shorter gaps between PlayStation and PC launches could help sustain momentum. There are also major PlayStation franchises still missing from Steam. Ratchet and Clank collections, Gravity Rush, Infamous, the original Uncharted trilogy, Bloodborne, and the Demon’s Souls remake all feel like easy wins that could bring in significant revenue.

I have been enjoying PlayStation titles on my Xbox Ally X through Steam, and I am even considering picking up Spider-Man Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. If Sony ports more of its catalogue to PC, those games will also be playable on Xbox hardware through Xbox Ally devices, and potentially on the rumoured PC based Xbox console that is expected to run Steam.

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The next Horizon game is on the way, but it won't be like prior entries in the PlayStation franchise.

Sony has announced Horizon Steel Frontiers, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. It's being primarily developed by NCSOFT with oversight from the series' creators at Guerrilla Games.

Like its predecessors, Horizon Steel Frontiers tasks players with hunting down powerful machines with a variety of traps and weapons in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Unlike the previous games, it's a multiplayer experience, and it's in development primarily for mobile.

While players on Windows PC aren't being left out thanks to NCSOFT's Purple launcher, no PlayStation 5 console version has been announced.

You can check out the announcement trailer for the game below:

"From the very beginning of creating this franchise, we've imagined the Horizon universe as one that could be experienced in many different ways," says Jan-Bart van Beek, studio director at Guerrilla Games.

"The core concept of Horizon Steel Frontiers can be summed up in one phrase: the thrill of taking down colossal machines," says Sung-Gu Lee, executive producer on Horizon Steel Frontiers at NCSOFT.

Horizon Steel Frontiers lets players build their own hunter from any of the existing tribes, so while one player might be part of the Tenakth, another could hail from the Oseram.

The team at NCSOFT also shared a gameplay overview trailer, providing an example of how a machine hunt could play out:

PlayStation's games as a service initiative continues

It seems like a lifetime ago, but Sony once publicly stated that it was aiming for PlayStation Studios to have a dozen live service games out at once by 2026.

Whether they failed to be officially greenlit (such as a multiplayer Spider-Man game internally pitched at Insomniac Games) or were canceled after years of development (The Last of Us Online at Naughty Dog), the majority of these games have not come to fruition.

One serious bright spot arrived last year with Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2. The game quickly sold over 12 million copies on PlayStation 5 and PC, and was brought to Xbox Series X|S earlier this year, with Sony praising the game's performance on Xbox so far.

Time will tell how Horizon Steel Frontiers pans out, but it'll certainly be interesting to watch, especially since it's not the only multiplayer Horizon game on the way.

Another Horizon multiplayer is on the way for PlayStation

While this Horizon game won't be available on PlayStation consoles, another multiplayer title in development will. Guerrilla Games is currently working on its next Horizon title, and the fact that this title will be a multiplayer, co-op-focused game is an open secret, with some extremely early gameplay footage leaking years ago.

Per files that became available when Insomniac Games was illegally breached back in December 2023, this game is called "Horizon Hunters Gathering," though little else is known at this time. The game has yet to be officially announced, but it does raise some fascinating questions now that Horizon Steel Frontiers has been announced.

Outside of platform focus, what will set these games apart? How will each game be monetized? What will the release dates look like, and will there be overlap? We'll have to wait to learn more.

In the meantime, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Horizon Forbidden West are both currently available on Windows PC (Steam and the Epic Games Store) and PlayStation 5.

FAQ

In recent years, PlayStation maker Sony has consistently released its console exclusives on Windows PC — Valve's PC gaming platform Steam, specifically — months or years after their initial launch on PS5, bringing its titles to a wider audience and generating many additional sales. One such game is Stellar Blade, the debut action RPG from developer SHIFT UP that first released on PS5 in 2024, then came to PC this year in June.

Most PlayStation games that come to Steam are very successful, and Stellar Blade is no different. A new earnings report from SHIFT UP notes that the game has "maintained strong sales momentum even in its fourth month after launch" on the platform, and that "combined sales across PC and PS5 platforms met internal expectations" in 2025's third quarter.

Notably, the game's critical reception on PC has been as strong as its financial performance. At the time of writing, Stellar Blade has an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam, with a whopping 95% of its 11,842 user reviews giving it the blue thumbs up. Its 1,545 recent reviews are also "Very Positive," with 92% of evaluations recommending the title.

Interestingly, according to the aforementioned earnings report, the success of Stellar Blade on PC has driven PlayStation and SHIFT UP to consider bringing the game to other platforms, and is also going to lead to some promotions (which will likely mean discounts).

"To further enhance brand recognition and boost sales, we plan to carry out various promotional activities and are considering additional platform expansions to make accessible to more players," wrote the developer. "Through upcoming seasonal and holiday promotions across both PC and PS5 platforms, we look forward to engaging an even broader global audience."

Naturally, that bit about "considering additional platform expansions" begs the question: which platforms may Stellar Blade expand to, in the future? One strong possibility seems to be Nintendo Switch 2, with SHIFT UP telling PlayForum (per VGC) that it was "reviewing various possibilities internally" earlier this year.

Another, of course, is Microsoft's Xbox consoles, including the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. There was a time when I'd dismiss the notion considering the fact that Sony almost never ports its PlayStation console exclusives to Xbox, but that changed in August with the release of Helldivers 2 on the platform.

Helldivers 2 had an Xbox launch so popular that it briefly crashed the game's servers, ended up taking the top spot on the Xbox Store at the start of September, and has remained a "huge success" ever since. Evidently, Sony saw the popularity and sales of Xbox games like Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation, decided to dip its toes in the multiplatform waters with Helldivers, and was greatly rewarded for it.

Granted, the most successful multiplatform games are multiplayer titles, and while Stellar Blade is widely liked, I'd say it's clear that overall interest in Helldivers 2 is much higher. Even though it won't reach the same heights as Arrowhead Game Studios' co-op shooter, however, I believe it's likely Sony and PlayStation see the potential for good sales from an Xbox release of the action RPG.

Thus, I wouldn't be surprised to see Stellar Blade come to Microsoft's consoles at some point, even if I'd say a Switch 2 port is more likely given that we know SHIFT UP was considering it shortly after the game's PC launch. Ultimately, though, only time will tell what happens, as nothing has been confirmed.

Many Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 users will undoubtedly want to wait to see if Stellar Blade does eventually come to their platform of choice, though if you have a capable gaming PC, getting the Steam version to take advantage of PC-specific features like ultrawide monitor support, the availability of performance-enhancing Super Resolution technologies, and uncapped framerates, among others.

Notably, this edition of the title is actually on sale right now for some sizable discounts, with the $60 regular version of Stellar Blade going for just $42.19 at Loaded (formerly CDKeys) and the $80 Complete Edition with all of its DLC selling for $56.79 at Loaded. There's a deal for the PS5 version as well that knocks it down to $51.99 at Amazon.

After a trio of Spider-Man games, Insomniac Games is switching focus to the X-Men, more specifically, Wolverine.

The trailer above gives us our latest look at gameplay for Marvel's Wolverine, and it's shaping up to be quite the gritty, violent experience. As if we expected anything less from Logan.

Marvel's Wolverine has been confirmed for a September 15, 2026 release, but only on "PS5 consoles." Given a recent Sony pivot, it's also not looking like we'll be seeing it on PC.

Spider-Man gave us hope; Sony took it away

Marvel's Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Spider-Man 2, all made by Insomniac, are on PC now. They came after PS5, but they all came. In the case of the most recent release, Spider-Man 2, it launched a year and three months after the game debuted on PS5.

Many of Sony's other big first-party releases have also made it across to PC. The likes of the Horizon franchise, God of War, The Last of Us, Days Gone all came to PC.

However, recent developments leave a bleak future for PC gamers hoping to play Wolverine. Reports suggest PlayStation's CEO told employees at an internal meeting that the company will no longer put its first-party, single-player titles on PC, reverting back to purely PlayStation console exclusivity.

The exceptions will continue to be multiplayer games such as Marathon and Helldivers 2, the latter especially proving to be a huge hit by launching simultaneously on PC.

But while Xbox continues (for now) to have a cross-platform console presence on top of PC, PlayStation is retreating to its older way of doing things.

Sad news, for sure, but I'm not convinced that even as good as Wolverine looks, it'll convince PC players they need to go and buy a PS5. Especially in a world where the price has increased significantly.

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

With the arrival of the new Into the Unjust update for Helldivers 2, Super Earth's finest have found themselves facing several brand new types of Terminid bugs within the miasma of Gloom-infested worlds.

Most of these are special units from the emerging Rupture Strain capable of tunneling underground as they fight, and there's also the fearsome Dragonroach that is effectively a flying Bile Titan with fiery acid breath.

By far, though, the scariest new enemies added by the patch are Hive Lords — gargantuan armored sand worms the size of skyscrapers that can appear as hidden high-value targets in missions. Compared to everything else Helldivers have faced thus far from any faction, Hive Lords stand out as the game's first true boss fights, and they are brutal.

Capable of slamming their entire body down in an effort to squish you and your squadmates, tunneling through the earth, and spraying corrosive bile in wide, sweeping arcs, Hive Lords are less of an enemy you fight directly and more of an environmental hazard that you slowly attempt to whittle down as you're engaged with the rest of the Terminid swarm.

And whittle away you will, potentially for 10-20 minutes, because Hive Lords have an astonishing 150,000 HP. To give you an idea of just how tanky that is, Hellbomb explosions do 10,000 damage and have been able to obliterate every other enemy in Helldivers 2 in one blast until now.

THEY ARE REAL AND WE KILLED ONE RAAAAHHHH! from r/Helldivers

Because of how ridiculously durable Hive Lords are and how thick their armor is, going for a kill necessitates deep investment into anti-tank stratagems and multiple resupply call-ins, along with strong coordination with your teammates so you can deal consistent and effective damage while also keeping the rest of the bugs at bay.

All the usual ordnance reserved for heavier targets works well — Recoilless Rifle, Spear, Eagle 500KG, Orbital Railcannon Strike — but the best overall way to kill Hive Lords is to have everyone on the squad bring along the Anti-Tank Emplacement stratagem from the Urban Legends Warbond (I've always been a very big fan).

With a relatively short three-minute cooldown and 30 anti-armor shells that each deal 1,300 damage, the Anti-Tank Emplacement can dish out 39,000 damage total to a Hive Lord. That's almost exactly one quarter of its health, so if everyone brings one of these cannons, you can take down the worm surprisingly quickly.

Of course, you probably won't hit every shot, or may have to abandon the emplacement as hordes of smaller bugs close in. But even if you're not able to secure the kill on the Hive Lord with them in one go, you'll burn through most of its HP, and can continue whittling it down with other options or call new emplacements in three minutes later.

Notably, contending with other Terminids while you're fighting the Hive Lord tends to be easier than you might think — and comically, one big reason why is that it often crushes and melts them as it tries to crush and melt you with its slams and bile sprays. You'll still have to deal with them, of course, but doing so is a lot less stressful when the big bad isn't afraid to inflict some friendly fire.

As far as trying to survive the Hive Lord's attacks goes, pretty much all you can do is keep a good distance away from where the worm emerges from the ground — standing near it ragdolls you and pushes you away — and perform evasive dives whenever it tries to slam you or disintegrate you with its acid.

This likely won't save you from taking damage, but in my experience, you will, at least, survive, and can stim yourself to keep in the fight. Large pieces of terrain can serve as cover, too, though many of these can be destroyed by the Hive Lord's slams.

Off the rip, I really like where the Hive Lords are at balance-wise; currently, they feel like a severe threat that's best avoided and skirted around instead of eliminated, though the process of working together with your team to take one down should you choose to do so is an extremely satisfying affair.

Fighting them reminds me of earlier this year when the CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios, Shams Jorjani, said, "you'll s**t your pants" when asked if he could offer a word about upcoming content. There's not an enemy in the game that gives me that feeling more than Hive Lords, so I'd say Arrowhead has done a wonderful job living up to its word.

Helldivers 2 is $39.99 across Xbox, Windows PC (Steam), and PS5, with the PC version notably on sale for $35.09 at Loaded (formerly CDKeys). With the Into the Unjust update in full swing and Xbox reinforcements flooding the servers, now is a great time to join the war effort and do your part if you haven't already. If you're one of those new recruits, check out my list of 7 must-know Helldivers 2 tips.

Following its announcement last week, the colossal Into the Unjust update for Helldivers 2 — Arrowhead Game Studios' massively popular and award-winning 2024 co-op shooter — has officially released in-game. It went live on Tuesday morning and tasked players across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 to charge right into the heart of the Terminid bugs' Gloom-infested worlds.

It's truly a huge patch, and the biggest since the Illuminate's invasion of Super Earth. A new "Rupture Strain" of Terminids can now burrow underground in combat, there are underground subterranean missions that largely take place in tunnels and require vastly different tactics due to extremely limited options for air support and resupply, and there are some truly terrifying boss units like Dragonroaches ("flying Bile Titans") and Hive Lords (skyscraper sized worms straight out of Dune), and more.

But while the contents of the update itself are incredibly exciting, its release has also seen a recent major issue with Helldivers 2 exacerbated — one that's ruining the fun for many fans of the game, and making it very difficult to enjoy everything new in the patch.

That issue is performance and poor optimization, which has become an increasingly prevalent concern over the course of the co-op shooter's several recent updates.

Since the new Patch 01.004.000 went live, there have been widespread reports of significant bugs (not the kind we get to shoot), performance problems, crashes, and more.

Several of the top posts on the Helldivers subreddit right now have thousands of upvotes and comments from players on all platforms complaining about everything from extreme framerate drops to frequent crashing when trying to launch a mission, along with glitches causing enemies to become invincible or the complete loss of all in-game audio.

There's also been quite a bit of frustration with Helldivers 2's ever-growing file size on PC, with the game now over 140GB after the latest patch. That's almost double the size of the title's original 70-80GB storage requirement.

"​​The performance is even worse lol, went from 120 fps to 15 during a bug breach..." wrote one disgruntled Helldiver in regards to how abruptly performance intensive the game becomes when the Terminids call for reinforcements. "You guys getting into missions? My cpu spikes and crashes my pc as soon as I load onto the destroyer… game is literally unplayable," said another.

The original post these comments were in reply to was simply titled, "Arrowhead, this is unnacceptable at this point. Fix your game." Its author went on to assert that "The game is borderline unplayable because of optimization for most people," and that "The lastest patch causes MORE BUGS and fixed barely anything that mattered."

Notably, this fresh wave of performance issues introduced by Into the Unjust come a month after Arrowhead vowed to focus on optimization and bug fixes, with the studio apologizing for the state of the game as of late. "Sorry for the inconvenience," wrote the studio's CEO Shams Jorjani. "We know the game isn't in tip top shape right now."

The good news? The developers have assured fans that they're being heard and that they're hard at work putting together fixes and improvements for everything mentioned above.

"100% get it. Performance is something we’ve talked about a TON today. It’s not good enough," wrote Jorjani in the official Helldivers Discord on Tuesday morning. "A fix for some of the most immediate things is being prepped." They went on to confirm that "The size problem is also being looked at rn," so hopefully Helldivers 2 will get a size reduction in the future as well.

Ultimately, it's reassuring that Arrowhead is looking to seriously address the issues plaguing the experience right now, though in the same vein, it's also frustrating that it took things getting this bad for major refinements to come.

Indeed, it's truly a shame that so many are having such a hard time getting Helldivers 2 to run well, because I'd argue that it's in one of the best states it's ever been in from a gameplay content and balancing standpoint. The Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate all offer players tons of gameplay variety with their sub-factions and varied mission objectives, and nearly every single weapon and stratagem in the game has a place in its sandbox meta.

For now, all we can do is keep up the fight for our expedition into the Gloom as best we can, supported by all the reinforcements from the recent Xbox release, a slick new arsenal of Helldivers 2 x Halo ODST crossover unlocks, and the Dust Devils Warbond coming out Thursday. Snag that Halo collab Warbond ASAP if you haven't; all of its weapons are fantastic, and its armor's prevention of leg injuries is a huge boon when you're kiting around hordes of bugs, too.

Helldivers 2 is $39.99 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam), and PS5. Right now, though, you can get it for $35.09 on Loaded (formerly CDKeys), which is a nice little discount on what was undoubtedly one of 2024's best games.

Original article: Arrowhead Game Studios' critically acclaimed third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2 finally released on Xbox earlier this week on August 26 — complete with full crossplay with other platforms — and it was quite the historic occasion for both users of Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S consoles as well as the game's community at large.

Not only was the title's arrival accompanied by an incredible Helldivers 2 x Halo ODST crossover Warbond complete with meticulously recreated Halo 3: ODST gear that fits perfectly into the game, but it also marked the first time a Sony-published PlayStation console exclusive came over to the other side. Indeed, until this week, Helldivers 2 was only playable on PS5 and Windows PC through Steam.

Because of those two factors — and because Helldivers 2 itself is an award-winning action game Xbox players have sorely wanted access to since it came out early last year — excitement for the port was in orbit heading into its launch. It's not terribly surprising, then, that it's absolutely blown up in the wake of that release on Tuesday.

As posts and comments on the Helldivers 2 subreddit referencing its in-game player count tracker show, the game was hovering at roughly 380-420K total players during peak hours on Xbox launch day, with SteamDB showing that only 167,795 of those divers were PC users. That means roughly 200-250K were active on consoles, and it's clear that the majority of players in that pool were on Xbox.

The good old days… from r/Helldivers

That's an absolutely massive turnout, and one so large that it's even caused server crashes; at one point, 390K divers were fighting across the galaxy and spreading Managed Democracy, only for a massive crash to plummet the player count down to 146,818.

Thankfully, though, there haven't been many game-wide crashes like this at all, and while there have been some silly Xbox bugs here and there that aren't exactly surprising to see from game ports these days, Helldivers 2 seems to by and large run quite well on Microsoft's consoles.

Notably, these reinforcements from the Xbox Corps couldn't have come at a better time, as players are currently in the thick of an absurd Major Order that requires 8.5 billion kills across the Terminid, Automaton, and Illuminate fronts. As the community-made Helldivers Companion site shows, swelling ranks have done much to boost the Helldivers' progress.

Then there's the Into the Unjust update coming September 2 — a content drop centered around the Terminids in which we'll be deploying to special "hive worlds" terraformed completely by the bugs.

On these, there will be special new subterranean missions in which Super Earth's finest take the fight underground, cutting through bug hordes to reach critical objectives with extremely limited options for supplies and air support. Additionally, there will also be missions on the surface, including one that will see players driving around a mobile oil drill they have to protect.

Into the Unjust will also introduce new Terminid enemies to contend with, such as bugs that can burrow underground to avoid fire and change position and a colossal flying Dragonroach that is essentially a Bile Titan with wings.

The good news, though, is we'll be getting a new Dust Devils Warbond two days after the update's launch on September 4, complete with a "Coyote" incendiary assault rifle, a "Pineapple" cluster grenade, a long-range anti-tank MS-11 Solo Silo fortification that delivers thunderous firepower with lethal precision, and more.

As a hardcore fan that's played Helldivers 2 for over 500 hours now and has watched the game's popularity rise and fall across various updates, it's awesome to see it skyrocket up to some of its older peaks like this.

The surge of Xbox players jumping into the co-op shooter have clearly renewed significant interest; as I write this, Helldivers 2 is also at the top of Steam's Top Sellers list, and it's seen a huge jump in its PC player count, too. All in all, it's simply a phenomenal time to be a Helldiver, whether you're a longtime veteran of the Galactic War like me or a recruit fresh out of boot camp.

The Helldivers subreddit is full of lighthearted posts like new players experiencing some of the game's comedic friendly fire shenanigans or wholesome crossplay interactions between helpful experienced divers and new Xbox ones eager to learn, and I've had a ton of fun scrolling through them all. Speaking of, I put together my own list of 7 must-know tips for every new Xbox Helldiver, so check it out if that's you.

Helldivers 2 is now available across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Steam), and PS5 for $39.99. However, you can pick it up on PC for considerably less thanks to a deal that brings it down to $35.09 at CDKeys. There's also the $59.99 with some cosmetic extras, which is just $49.89 at CDKeys.

Hello there, Windows Central community and defenders of freedom everywhere (well, everywhere Super Earth wants to expand/extract oil/etc).

I'm back with another quiz. This time, we're celebrating the recent launch of Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X|S consoles, bringing the PlayStation-published hit to even more players.

In the far future, humanity has taken its place among the stars under the benign, managed democracy leadership of Super Earth. Unfortunately, there are alien monstrosities out there, which is why the Helldivers are here.

These fearless warriors undergo grueling training in order to ensure they're ready to thaw out and fight at a moment's notice, no matter what threats are pursuing totally innocent human colonies.

Initially launching on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC, Helldivers 2 was recently brought to Xbox Series X|S, marking the first time PlayStation Studios has directly published a title on Microsoft's gaming consoles. That means it's the perfect time to test your knowledge!

How many did you get correct? Would you like additional Helldivers 2-themed quizzes in the future? Are you encountering any technical or readability-related issues? Let me know!

Buckle up, Helldivers. Xbox reinforcements are landing, and Super Earth is going to need every last soldier available in the fight against the Terminids with the next update coming to PlayStation Studios' co-op hit Helldivers 2.

Arrowhead Game Studios shared the details on Tuesday, revealing on PlayStation Blog that the next update is called Into the Unjust. Fittingly, it revolves around Helldivers taking the fight directly to the Terminids and charging into the Hive worlds the bugs now call home.

Helldivers 2: Into the Unjust is slated to launch on Sept. 2, 2025, meaning veteran players on PlayStation and PC joined by rookies on Xbox only have a few days to get ready for a massive undertaking.

Subterranean terror is unearthed

Going to the Terminid hive worlds means uncovering the secrets of the Gloom, and for that, Helldivers have to head underground, deep into the network of tunnels that the bugs have crafted.

This is going to completely change how we play, as you can't call in an airstrike when you're underground. It also makes things tougher when it comes to supplies, as carefully rationing ammunition and health stims is critical.

There are brief spots of daylight that can be used to call in supplies, but these are clearly going to be the exception, not the rule.

Many of these tunnels are dark, meaning it'll also be a good idea to have at least some members of the team using flashlights to illuminate the threats.

In addition to missions going into the hives, there will also be assignments on the surface, where we'll be tasked with driving around huge, clunky rigs and gathering oil while protecting the tanker from swarms of bugs.

New threats lying in wait and flying above

Of course, it's not just the environment that's a problem. This update is introducing some new foes to the ranks of the Terminids, including one particularly nasty piece of work.

The developers describe the Dragonroach (as seen in the image above) as being something of a flying Bile Titan, capable of rapidly crossing the skies and raining down acidic vomit like an old bomber plane.

It's incredibly tough, and we'll have to carry some heavy weapons to have any hopes of driving it away or killing it.

Disturbingly, the developers also tease that heavy seismic activity is out there, with massive rumbling across the planet indicating there's something else. Proceed with caution, Helldivers.

More tools to get the job done

Super Earth isn't sending its finest without new tools suited for this dangerous mission. The Dust Devils Warbond is dropping on September 4, bringing new weapons, armor, and more that's suited for the combat encounters Helldivers are going to face on the Terminid hive worlds.

Notably, the Dust Devils Warbond includes the first-ever incendiary assault rifle, dubbed the "Coyote," so if you're like me and you enjoy roasting the bugs when possible, you're in luck.

The Ministry of Defense is also introducing the "Pineapple," a cluster frag grenade perfect for taking out large chunks of a swarm at a time.

As for new strategems, have you ever wanted to call down your own personal missile that you could then guide with laser accuracy into a particular spot or foe? With the MS-11 Solo Silo, you can do exactly that.

Finally, the new armor includes the "Desert Stormer" (subtle, huh?) passive effect, which gives resistance to fire, gas, acid, and arc damage. After seeing what we're up against on these planets, I think we'll need it.

Indeed, this is also coming just shortly after the arrival of the long hoped-for Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST crossover, which is bringing a number of Halo weapons and armor into the franchise and is available now in celebration of the game's arrival on Xbox Series X|S consoles.

This Xbox crossover gear is better suited for stealth missions, but that won't stop me from giving it a whirl when I drop onto the bug planets in September.

Helldivers 2 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam), and PlayStation 5.

One of the biggest Xbox game releases of the summer is imminent, and it's not coming from Microsoft's first-party developers. No, I'm talking about Helldivers 2 — the award-winning, fan-favorite 2024 co-op shooter that's finally coming to Xbox.

Notably, it's the first-ever PlayStation-published title to come to Microsoft's platform.

Much like Forza Horizon 5 on PS5, Helldivers 2 is expected to absolutely blow up on Xbox. That means thousands upon thousands of new recruits joining up to do their part against Super Earth's sworn enemies.

As a veteran diver with over 500 hours of experience playing on PC, I thought I might offer some valuable tips for those dropping into battle for the first time.

Thus, without further ado, here are seven must-know tips, tricks, and suggestions for every new player jumping into Helldivers 2 on Xbox (or any other platform, really). Keep these in mind as you play, and you'll see great success in no time.

7. Be a team player, it pays off!

This tip doesn't refer to any one part of Helldivers 2's gameplay in particular. Rather, it's a mindset, and one that's extremely important to get into if you intend on playing with friends or players in matchmaking. And while it may seem like an obvious thing to highlight for a co-op shooter, you'd be surprised how many longtime divers I still see playing like they're a lone wolf.

You can ping specific objectives and enemies by aiming at them and tapping RB, bringing them to your team's attention. You can also hold RB down to open up a communication wheel, and then the right thumbstick to select messages of thanks or apologies, requests for supplies, suggestions to follow or hold position, and more.

Similarly, with the Share button, D-pad, and X button, you can also open your map, move your cursor around, and place down a waypoint for the team to follow.

There's general teamplay etiquette in moment-to-moment gameplay to consider, too, and unspoken rules you should know. If you have a full squad of four and resupply is called down, don't take multiple ammo boxes for yourself. Pay attention to where teammates are shooting and don't cross their field of fire, or go prone and crawl if you have to. Be mindful of your own aim, and avoid throwing dangerous stratagems near an ally's position.

6. Fight each enemy faction differently

Helldivers 2's three enemy factions — the Terminid "bugs," the Automaton "bots," and the Illuminate "squids" — are each very distinct and different from one another. I'll give you a broad overview of each to give you an idea of what to expect, along with some suggestions on how to best approach fighting each one.

The Terminids are all about swarming with overwhelming numbers, forcing you to constantly stay on the move and kite their hordes to stay out of their melee range. Generally, most of the bugs are poorly armored and easy to cut down with primary weapons or fast-firing support weapons like the Stalwart or Machine Gun (though some require anti-tank), but not staying in any one place for long is crucial.

The Automatons, meanwhile, are the exact opposite — far fewer in overall number, but equipped with ranged laser weaponry and led by heavily-armored infantry, tanks, and walkers. Fighting from cover as often as you can is the key to success against the bots, as is precise aim to target their vulnerable heads and plenty of heavy anti-tank ordnance.

Finally, there's the Illuminate, which is the most dynamic force of the three. Fighting them tends to feel like a combination of both bugs and bots, with ranged enemies like Elevated Overseers and War of the Worlds-like Harvester walkers forcing you into cover that's then assaulted by crowds of shambling Voteless zombies and tanky Fleshmob abominations that threaten to flush you out of it.

This delicate balance of moving between cover and open ground is best enforced with as much crowd control as you can get, as outside of Harvesters, no Illuminate troops have any noteworthy armor at all to deal with.

5. Keep your head on a swivel

Situational awareness is another huge part of the Helldivers 2 experience, as enemy patrols can come across your position from any direction.

Therefore, you should constantly take advantage of Helldivers 2's third-person perspective and look around you and your allies, quickly either eliminating groups of enemies you see, positioning yourselves to avoid them, or gauging if you should retreat or advance in a fight.

It's hard to know what the right calls to make are when you lack the intel needed to make them, after all, so don't underestimate the value of scouting.

Another benefit to keeping your head on a swivel is that you'll likely spot side objectives to ping, many of which aren't shown to you on your map at the start of a mission. Some of these, such as anti-air SAM sites and SEAF artillery cannons, can even give you tactical options and advantages.

Training a keen eye will also help you spot samples — upgrade materials you'll need to upgrade your stratagems between missions — as you explore points of interest and enemy-held areas.

4. Dive, dive, dive!

Here's a simple one, but one that I guarantee you will save your life. By double-tapping the B button, you can send your Helldiver diving to the ground in the direction they're moving at the time (forward, if they're standing still). This immediately puts them into the prone position, though you can quickly get up again and move as you normally would.

This simple maneuver, timed properly to avoid deadly incoming threats, is the single strongest defensive move you have, and will get you out of situations you wouldn't survive by just trying to sprint away. Even if you don't avoid damage completely or get ragdolled, there's a very good chance you'll survive with a large portion of your health remaining.

Diving into cover is also a very effective strategy against the bots in particular, as anything you can do to put something solid between you and their laser blasts faster is a good thing. Once in cover, you can prone or crouch to peek over the top of it with your weapons and fight much more safely.

3. Choose loadouts and stratagems wisely

While I strongly encourage you to avoid being pressured by any kind of community-set "meta" and to simply use the armors, weapons, and stratagems you think look fun, you should try and put together good individual and team-wide loadouts if you want to get better at Helldivers 2.

As a general rule of thumb, you and your teammates should use a mix of crowd control and anti-tank if you're fighting bugs, loadouts focused on dealing with heavy armor if facing bots, and gear ideal for thinning out hordes of enemies when battling the Illuminate.

In terms of armor, light and medium are best for the Terminids, with heavy being a poor choice due to how much it limits your mobility with its speed and stamina penalties. Heavy is far stronger on the bot front since you'll be fighting stationary in cover often, however. All three work well against the Illuminate.

2. Learn and target enemy weak spots

An aspect of Helldivers 2's action that gives it some strategic depth is the presence of enemy weak spots. Indeed, a large portion of the game's alien menaces have parts of their bodies where they're either less armored or take more damage.

Armored Automaton Devastators can be killed with just a headshot or two by most primary weapons, for example. Meanwhile, Terminid Chargers and Bile Titans die with one anti-tank rocket to their heads, and Illuminate Fleshmobs fall if you shoot all the "faces" on their grotesque forms.

Ultimately, figuring out where they are for each foe is a trial-and-error process, but once you understand what each enemy's weakness is, you'll be able to fight them much more effectively. There are community guides to look up about them, too, and if you ask players in-game, most divers are happy to share what they know.

1. Customize your weapons to maximize performance

In addition to the broader customization you can perform by unlocking and equipping different attachments between missions, you can also tweak aspects of a weapon's performance in the middle of battle, too.

To do this, hold down the A button, which will then bring up a menu you can make selections on. The options available to you will vary depending on the weapon in your hands and the attachments you've chosen for it, but scope zoom/distance, fire rate, a flashlight toggle, and firing modes are all common.

Scope zoom is a particularly useful thing to maximize if you're sniping, while speeding up or slowing down your fire rate is worth doing with machine guns to balance uptime with killing power.

It's an exciting time to be a fan of PlayStation Studios and Arrowhead Game Studios' critically acclaimed 2024 co-op shooter Helldivers 2, as the Windows PC and PS5 game is about to get a huge wave of new players when its Xbox version goes live on August 26 (here's exactly when you can play).

At the same time, there's also a special new Legendary Warbond coming out that's entirely themed around a long-requested Helldivers 2 x Halo ODST crossover. The items within — two armors and four weapons based on iconic Halo 3: ODST gear, plus a variety of additional cosmetics — look to be some of the highest-quality unlocks ever added to the title, with one even including a nod to a famous Halo easter egg.

Notably, though, these reinforcements and fancy new pieces of kit are coming at a time when they're both sorely needed. In advance of their arrival next week, Arrowhead and its enigmatic Game Master Joel have introduced a new Major Order that's going to be absurdly difficult for the community to complete — perhaps even more arduous than the defense of Super Earth itself.

Its objective is surprisingly simple, yet nigh-insurmountable: before August ends in a little over a week, the Helldivers have to kill 6 billion Terminids, 1.5 billion Automatons, and 1 billion Illuminate troops in order to stave off a galaxy-wide invasion.

Altogether, that's 8.5 billion of Lady Liberty's sworn enemies to put in the ground, and even though we have a lengthy time limit, it's going to come down to the wire (you can track progress here).

An official briefing from Super Earth High Command makes it clear that "Even with an expanded force, the fight will be difficult. Every piece of ground held, every enemy killed, could make the difference."

This is the first time we've seen a massive three-pronged attack like this launched by the various factions hostile to Super Earth, and as the brass have pointed out, "This coordinated tripartite assault represents obvious collusion amongst the mindless enemies of Managed Democracy."

Indeed, it seems the Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate are all working together to try and wear down Super Earth Armed Forces across all three fronts of the Galactic War — a worrying development, and a strategy that we can only counter if we meet the enemy everywhere and make them fight tooth and nail for every inch of ground.

Naturally, that begs the question: will the bugs, bots, and squids continue collaborating in future engagements? Ultimately, only time will tell, and besides, thinking is above my pay grade (of course, as a Helldiver, I'm not getting paid at all). There's no time for thinking when there are defenses to hold!

The mission before us is daunting, no doubt, but with the help of all the incoming Xbox reinforcements and the sweet new armaments from the Halo ODST crossover, I have faith the Helldivers will emerge victorious against all odds.

One strategy that will improve our chances of success is completing mission objectives and extracting as slowly as possible, while simultaneously trying to get into intense battles as much as you can by shooting everything you see and purposefully letting calls for enemy reinforcements go through. Given that the Major Order's objective is kill count-based, doing everything you can to maximize kills will be important.

If the community does actually manage to pull out a win, here, players will be rewarded handsomely with a colossal payout of 175 Warbond Medals — 55 for each enemy faction we're able to hold the line against. Those will come in very handy when trying to unlock whatever Halo ODST items from the Legendary Warbond you aren't able to get while this offensive is ongoing.

Again, the fight ahead of us is going to be a brutal one, but not an impossible one if the community — strengthened by waves of new Xbox recruits fresh out of boot camp — fights as hard, and as smart, as it can. I'm certainly going to dive some this weekend and do my part, and I hope to see you dropping into battle as well.

Helldivers 2 itself is $39.99 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam), and PS5, though you can actually get it for less thanks to a nice deal. Specifically, it's discounted to just $33.69 at CDKeys for a PC code.

We've got another big shake-up in the gaming industry, as longtime Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is stepping down.

Parsons announced the news in a blog post on Thursday, confirming that after 23 years (and serving as CEO since 2015), he is departing the company, which has developed some of the most iconic games in the history of first-person shooters, including the original Halo titles and Destiny.

"After more than two decades of helping build this incredible studio, establishing the Bungie Foundation, and growing inspiring communities around our work, I have decided to pass the torch," Parsons says.

"This journey has been the honor of a lifetime. I am deeply proud of the worlds we’ve built together and the millions of players who call them home – and most of all, I am privileged by the opportunity to work alongside the incredible minds at Bungie."

Stepping into the role of studio head is Justin Truman, another longtime veteran at Bungie who has worked as a designer, engineer, and, most recently, as general manager of Destiny 2.

"I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them," says Truman.

"We are hard at work right now doing that – both with Marathon and Destiny. We’re currently heads down, but we’ll have more to show you in both of these worlds later this year."

Bungie still has a long, long road ahead

Under Parsons' leadership, Bungie grew into a massive company, with Destiny 2 reaching new heights as a live-service game before Sony acquired the studio for $3.6 billion in 2022.

For this acquisition, Sony aimed to draw on Bungie's live-service experience, allowing the company to operate separately as a multiplatform studio sitting next to PlayStation Studios, not underneath it.

Since then, Bungie has taken a mostly downward turn, with the company laying off hundreds of employees in an effort to maintain its independence under the terms of its acquisition.

The company also canceled a spin-off of Destiny, codenamed Payback, while other Bungie employees working on a new IP were spun out into a small new studio under PlayStation called TeamLFG.

Bungie's leadership has been widely criticized by former Bungie staff who either left the company or were cut across waves of layoffs.

Destiny 2, while still popular, is also on a noticeable decline, with the game's main story of Light and Darkness having wrapped up in the 2024 expansion, The Final Shape. Since then, the company has released new content, with the most recent addition, The Edge of Fate, receiving mixed impressions.

Bungie was aiming to launch Marathon — its first-person extraction shooter quasi-reboot of its original Marathon series — in September this year. Following mixed-to-negative feedback from a series of closed tests, as well as a huge scandal involving stolen artwork found in the game, Marathon has been delayed.

The game does not currently have a new release date, but is currently planned to launch at some point before the end of Sony's financial year, or before March 31, 2026.

In a recent earnings call, Sony openly noted that Bungie's independence was "getting tighter," with the parent company more involved in the studio's operations.

Time will tell just what is next for the storied video game developer, but whatever happens next, it will be with some new leadership at the very top.

Marathon is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

As it turns out, the biggest Xbox game of the summer may not be Obsidian Entertainment's Grounded 2 or the exciting remaster Gears of War: Reloaded. Instead, I have a feeling that it's going to be Helldivers 2 — PlayStation Studios and Arrowhead Game Studios' critically acclaimed third-person co-op shooter that took gaming communities by storm last year.

Though it's been exclusive to PS5 and Windows PC since its launch in early February 2024, Sony announced a surprising decision to bring the hit live-service title to Xbox in late August back in July. Now, its scheduled August 26 release date is just one week out, and when the Xbox port drops, it will be accompanied by a hotly anticipated Helldivers 2 x Halo ODST crossover.

The collab will come in the form of a special $15 (1,500 Super Credits; notably, you can earn these in gameplay) Legendary Warbond battle pass that features ODST and Recon armor sets inspired by kit from 2009's Halo 3: ODST — the Halo spin-off centered around the ODST soldiers that bear striking similarities to Helldiver troops.

A variety of other Halo-themed items will be featured in the Warbond, too, such as a slew of cosmetics like capes and player backgrounds as well as — more notably — a collection of iconic weapons from Xbox's flagship FPS series. These include the MA5C Assault Rifle, the M7S SMG, the M90A Shotgun, and the M6C/SOCOM Magnum...and with the M6C, developer Arrowhead has referenced a unique Halo easter egg while simultaneously putting its own spin on it.

The easter egg in question is a recurring one from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST in which developers at Bungie, the original studio behind the franchise, stamped Japanese, Chinese, and Korean characters for the number seven on the in-game models of the classic Magnum pistol.

For whatever reason, seven is Bungie's favorite number, and as such, it's featured prominently throughout its games (including Halo, Destiny 2, and others). The studio even celebrates July 7 (7/7) as Bungie Day annually.

Halo 3: ODST's Magnum had two Korean symbols on the right side of its laser sight that stand for the number seven, and when Arrowhead recreated it for the upcoming Helldivers 2 crossover, it printed Korean characters on the new model's laser sight as well — evidenced by a close look at the weapon given in the collab's trailer (also visible in the image above).

But hilariously, instead of using the original characters that Bungie used, Arrowhead instead stamped "자유" on the M6C/SOCOM — characters of the Korean Hangul alphabet that represent the word "freedom."

Clearly, this is poking fun at Super Earth's hyper-militarized fascist government that asserts total control over humanity with "Managed Democracy" under the guise of protecting freedom and liberty, and I love that Helldivers 2 is continuing Bungie's tradition while making it fit into its world in a subtle, yet amusing way.

Everything else from the crossover looks awesome, too, and I'm excited for it to come out next week so I can take a closer look at everything it offers to see what other nifty details there are to find. Given that Arrowhead promises that it's "packed with details that fans will love to discover," I have high hopes for at least a few more.

As big of an event as this Helldivers x Halo collab is for all of its players is, though, Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox on the same day will undoubtedly make an even bigger splash. Gamers on Microsoft's consoles have been hoping for a port of the co-op shooter since the day it came out — there's so much interest that Halo Infinite Forgers even made a custom Helldivers mode — but the chances of one coming seemed extremely slim due to PlayStation only bringing its games to PC.

This Helldivers 2 port, though, marks the first time that's changed, with Sony likely persuaded to dip its toes in Team Green waters after the immense success of Forza Horizon 5 on PS5. Indeed, this year's best-selling PS5 game is by Xbox. Could we see Helldivers 2 become the best-selling Xbox game of 2025 in kind?

I'm not sure, but what I do know is that Helldivers 2 will stand as one of the best Xbox games for co-op fans once it's out on August 26. After playing over 500 hours of the bombastic shooter, I can say with confidence that it's my favorite PvE multiplayer title to enjoy with friends, and a must-play if you like action-packed, teamwork-driven gameplay.

The game is typically $39.99, though you can get it for less on Windows PC thanks to a cool deal that brings it down to $33.69 at CDKeys.

First announced in early July, the long-awaited, highly requested Xbox version of PlayStation Studios and Arrowhead Game Studios' beloved co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is real — and it's finally almost here, too. The title is officially set to release on Xbox Series X|S next week, complete with full crossplay with both Windows PC (Steam) and PS5.

The arrival of this port marks the first time we've seen Sony bring one of its high-profile console exclusives to Microsoft's hardware — until now, PlayStation Studios games have been ported to PC only — and given how popular Helldivers 2's chaotic, teamwork-oriented gameplay is, it's expected to perform exceptionally well on Xbox.

It's not surprising, then, that thousands of recruits ready to do their part for Super Earth are wondering when they'll be able to deploy. And thankfully, ahead of the port's release, developer Arrowhead has announced that Helldivers 2 will launch at 1:00 a.m. PT / 4:00 a.m. ET on August 26, with its arrival worldwide occurring concurrently.

Notably, this means folks in western regions will be able to dive in extremely early in the morning, while those farther east will have to wait until late afternoon/early evening. Everyone will be able to play on August 26, however.

The official graphic below shows some of Helldivers 2's global Xbox launch times, which have also been organized into a table below it; if you don't see the time zone you're in, you can use a time zone converter like this one to determine when the Galactic War will come to your area.

Since its original release in early February 2024, Helldivers 2 has remained one of the most popular co-op games on the market, and also one of PlayStation's only majorly successful live-service titles (pour one out for Concord). Despite some rough periods caused by poor sandbox balancing and a rather pointless PSN requirement fiasco last year, it stands tall as one of the best multiplayer action games you can play today.

It puts you in the armored boots of the Helldivers — elite special forces troops sent to fight alien threats like Terminid bugs, Automaton bots, and Illuminate squids, with players able to squad up in groups of four and take on objective-driven missions. The game strongly emphasizes teamwork, positioning, loadout selection, and thoughtful usage of stratagems that allow you to call in air support, artillery strikes, automated turrets, and more.

Individual missions and operations completed contribute to a community-wide Galactic War metagame in which thousands of players work together to take or hold planets from Super Earth's sworn enemies. Impressive community-made apps and sites have even been made to track ongoing engagements in the war (Helldivers Companion is the best, if you ask me).

Also, it's worth noting the game's tone is incredibly satirical, with Arrowhead drawing heavy and obvious inspiration from the cult classic 1997 film Starship Troopers. Terminator and War of the Worlds are also some clear inspirations for the Automaton and Illuminate factions.

Much of Helldivers 2's new weapon and stratagem content is delivered in Battle Pass-style Warbonds that cost $10 worth of Super Credits (1,000) to purchase, though these can also be earned through gameplay. With Helldivers 2's imminent arrival on Xbox, though, Arrowhead is debuting a new type of $15 pass called Legendary Warbonds — and the first one will be a Helldivers 2 x Halo ODST crossover-themed Warbond that looks fantastic.

The devs say they've "gone all-in" with the Legendary Warbond tier "to make sure it lives up to the name," and in this case, I'm inclined to agree. The Halo ODST pass is scheduled to go live when the Xbox version of Helldivers 2 does, and owning it will allow you to unlock ODST and Recon armor sets based on the iconic suits from Halo 3: ODST as well as four beautifully recreated weapons from that game you can take into the battlefields of the Galactic War.

Beyond that, there will also be several skins for the Fast Recon Vehicle, Exosuit mechs, Pelican extraction ship, and Hellpod that feature the olive drab color of Halo's UNSC gear, along with other cosmetics like Halo-themed capes, player banners, and the "Rookie" player title that references Halo 3: ODST's protagonist.

I was practically begging Arrowhead to make this crossover happen the second the Xbox version was announced — and mind you, I'm far from the only one that was — so I'm ecstatic that it's actually coming to the game next week. Of course, the Xbox port itself is awesome to see, too, as Super Earth can always use more cannon fodder troops to serve valiantly in the meat grinder on the frontlines. Maybe we'll even see PlayStation bring other games to Xbox if it does well.

Helldivers 2 is $39.99 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam), and PS5, though you can get it for less on PC thanks to this discount that knocks it down to $33.69 at CDKeys. Even if you're not able to find a deal for it on your platform of choice, though, it's worth every penny. I've invested over 500 hours into the game, and my friends and I are still having a blast with it.

Xbox Series X|S players won't be waiting much longer to help spread democracy across the galaxy, and when that mission arrives, it looks like it's bringing a familiar setting as a crossover event.

There's a new trailer for Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2, with the bombastic visuals celebrating the upcoming Xbox launch for the PlayStation Studios-published co-op shooter. Toward the end of the trailer, the environment suddenly shifts to a dark, rainy city, while a few familiar jazz notes play...

That's right: It sure seems to be teasing a crossover with Halo 3: ODST. While there isn't technically an outright confirmation here, the combination of a moody downpour and those music notes is pretty unquestionable, especially in the greater context of a trailer celebrating the game's arrival on Xbox.

A Helldivers-Halo: ODST crossover is perfect

Halo 3: ODST launched in 2009, developed by Bungie as a spinoff game in the iconic Halo franchise. The game is set during Halo 2, telling the story of a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) and their fight against the alien Covenant in the city of New Mombasa as their mission suddenly changes course.

Halo 3: ODST is often considered something of a fan-favorite, with a lot of love for the unique tone and characters it has compared to other games.

A huge part of that is the noir-esque setting; rain is constantly falling at night, and the game uses an extraordinarily distinct jazz-influenced soundtrack that was co-composed by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

ODSTs (sometimes referred to as Helljumpers) naturally bear an enormous amount of aesthetic similarity to Helldivers, and players like myself have been asking for this kind of crossover event since Helldivers 2 first launched.

Now, with Xbox and PlayStation increasingly open with each other, it seems like it's happening. It's worth noting this is actually the second crossover Helldivers 2 has had with another franchise, with the studio previously bringing in cosmetics and weapons from the PlayStation-owned Killzone series.

I'm curious just how far this crossover will go. The iconic armor and silenced submachine guns and pistols are a must, obviously, but could we get a Warthog skin for the FRV? What about Covenant-themed equipment? The possibilities are super-exciting.

Helldivers 2 is slated to launch on Xbox Series X|S on Aug. 26, 2025. It's already available on Windows PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5, and will support full cross-play across all three platforms.

Xbox and PlayStation are slowly getting more comfortable with each other

It really can't be overstated how weird (complimentary) these events are compared to just a couple of years ago.

Xbox may have been first to bring some of its games like Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 5 to PlayStation, but now the Sony-owned platform is returning the favor. I'm curious just what'll end up being next. God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn on Xbox? It's no longer unthinkable.

If you have a franchise or two you'd particularly like to see make the jump, be sure to go vote in our poll.

It’s a far cry from when Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, with the promise that the studio would remain independent under the PlayStation umbrella. At the time, Bungie was expected to operate on its own terms, despite technically becoming a Sony-owned company.

Since then, however, things have become more uncertain. Destiny 2 has seen mixed responses to recent updates, with player engagement fluctuating, granted the game is getting on in years now. Meanwhile, Bungie’s upcoming shooter Marathon faced heavy backlash over stolen artwork and was delayed as a result.

Sony says Bungie’s independence is “getting tighter” says Sony

Sony CFO Lin Tao has confirmed that Bungie is now becoming more integrated into PlayStation Studios. Describing it as a gradual shift, Tao stated that the studio’s independence is “getting tighter,” a notable change from Bungie’s original status as an “independent subsidiary” following its $3.6 billion acquisition.

At the time of the deal, Bungie was promised creative freedom and operational autonomy. But in the years since, the studio has faced mounting challenges. In 2024, Bungie laid off around 220 employees amid declining player engagement. Reports also surfaced that CEO Pete Parsons had spent $2.4 million on classic cars since the Sony buyout, drawing criticism from fans and former staff.

Bungie’s involvement within Sony already felt significant, as it was tasked with consulting on other live-service projects in development across PlayStation Studios. One of the most notable examples was The Last of Us: Factions. According to multiple reports, Bungie raised concerns about the game’s long-term viability, which ultimately led to the project being paused and later cancelled.

Meanwhile, Bungie’s next big project, Marathon, has struggled publicly. The game received backlash for its visual direction and was further delayed after fans uncovered stolen artwork used in-game. Bungie has since removed the assets and scaled back its marketing while addressing community concerns.

Bungie’s PlayStation shift likely won’t impact Xbox

Bungie’s growing integration into PlayStation may cause concern for some Xbox players, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Sony appears to be shifting its strategy, becoming more open to supporting platforms it once overlooked.

In the case of Destiny, there’s no indication of a pullback. Seasonal content is still rolling out as planned, with Ashes and Iron launching in September across all available platforms.

For Xbox players, nothing is expected to change; Bungie’s titles will likely always remain available on Xbox hardware, even as the studio becomes more closely aligned with PlayStation. It’s a strange moment where Sony is tightening control over its studios while also opening up their games to more players than ever before.

Marathon and Helldivers 2 signal Sony’s growing interest in Xbox releases

Despite criticisms of the game, Marathon — Bungie's upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter — is still confirmed to be released on Xbox and PC, alongside PlayStation. Initially, this seemed possible only because Bungie retained a level of independence following its acquisition by Sony.

However, recent developments suggest that Sony itself is leading the change when it comes to bringing live-service titles to Xbox. Helldivers 2, published by Sony, is now officially coming to Xbox in August 2025.

Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani clarified on Discord that “it was all PlayStation,” confirming that Sony pushed for the release. The move marks a noticeable shift in strategy, showing that Sony is increasingly open to expanding its reach beyond its own console and PC platforms – especially for games designed to thrive with larger, cross-platform audiences.

The gaming industry is looking more and more alien as time goes by.

Almost a couple of years ago now, Microsoft began porting Xbox exclusives to PlayStation, breaking decades of platform-exclusivity conventions. Many called it the end of Xbox, myself included, wondering just how long the Xbox hardware ecosystem would last without the promise of home-grown exclusive games. Fast forward a couple of years, and the answer is "pretty well, actually." At least if you're going off pure revenue, that is.

At Microsoft's recent earnings report, CEO Satya Nadella waxed lyrical about how well Xbox is doing, touting record engagement and continued growth for Xbox Game Pass and overall playtime hours. However, the good news didn't stop Xbox laying off hundreds of people, as part of wider cuts at the firm.

Xbox isn't alone there, of course. Many studios, both big and small, have been impacted by cuts, stemming by intense competition from other forms of entertainment. Infinite-games like Fortnite and Roblox are gobbling up playtime hours and money, while addictive algorithms from the likes of TikTok and Instagram eat into potential customer's free time.

To offset some of these challenges, Microsoft has sought to eliminate the barriers to entry to its products. That means putting Xbox games onto PlayStation, but also PC, mobile devices, and even TV sets, via Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The strategy is definitively working. Xbox has begun dominating PlayStation's own storefront, without seemingly denting its own Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One playtime hours, as users increasingly just habitually stay where they are. Meeting those habitual gamers where they are is becoming the strategy du jour seemingly, with even PlayStation ready to jump on board.

PlayStation itself has become a direct publisher on Xbox, with its first title, Helldivers 2, gearing up for launch next month. That might not be all either. Team Blue is also hiring for a director for third-party relationships, with a specific focus on Xbox and PC, hinting that even more games could be coming.

The news hasn't sat well with console war-minded folk, and this latest bit might not either.

During PlayStation's recent earnings call, the electronics giant announced it has now sold through 80,000,000 PlayStation 5 units, which is an incredibly impressive number. But Sony isn't sitting on its hands.

Senior Vice President Sadahiko Hayakawa noted (via @Genki_JPN) that PlayStation is gearing up to ditch its "hardware centric" business, moving towards a more "engagement-based" platform. Sound familiar?

"In the gaming business we are moving away from a hardware centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement," Hayakawa said to investors, responding to a question about Sony's investments in IP. Sony has invested in Kadokawa of Elden Ring and Dark Souls fame, and has also invested in Bandai Namco, amongst various others.

Does this bode well for more PlayStation games hitting Xbox in the future? It sure does, I would think.

Could more PlayStation games hit Xbox?

Microsoft has also quite clearly moved away from a hardware-centric model in recent years, as competition for eyeballs has shifted away from consoles and increasingly towards mobile devices, laptops, PCs, and directly on television sets.

Xbox's hardware business has shrank, but its remaining users are incredibly loyal and sticky — and remain highly engaged, especially in Microsoft's core markets. If PlayStation didn't think Helldivers 2 would sell on Xbox, there's absolutely no reason to think they would've bothered. Indeed, Helldivers 2's own CEO said that PlayStation was the driving force behind the port. Sony-owned Bungie's next game, Marathon, is already confirmed for Xbox too. It stands to reason that other service games could be coming too, but perhaps even single player titles as well.

The audience for these types of experiences is shrinking, hence why Sony began supporting PC in the first place, and if the next-gen Xbox is going to grab Steam anyway ... then, perhaps Sony will eventually seek to cut out the middle man.

Indeed, Xbox is expected to expand its next-gen Xbox console ecosystem to incorporate other store fronts, such as Steam. It would probably behove Sony to consider making its own PC storefront and launcher too, to sell direct to Xbox customers in that more open future, eliminating the need to give Steam or Xbox a cut of the revenue.

Epic Games is also battling Google and Apple to carve out a more open future on mobile too. Epic has won in some areas, but Apple and Google have both invested mountains of cash in obfuscating the legal rulings. Microsoft itself had plans to build a mobile game store for iOS and Android at one point, but realized Apple and Google weren't going to make it easy enough to be worth while.

As Sony and Microsoft battled each other for the adult, high-spending audience, an entire generation of gamers slipped away to iPad via Roblox and Fortnite. Now that generation has grown up, and sees consoles as archaic. Meeting that new generation where they are, namely PC, is going to be the name of the game going forward. And in that universe, there's no reason to not support the passionate users on console as well — regardless of where they are.

Otherwise, in my view, Sony and Microsoft both risk losing the entire segment potentially, and giving all of the keys over to Steam and its 30% cut.

Over the past year, Microsoft leapt first into some controversial decisions regarding its first party Xbox games output, putting previously exclusive titles like Forza Horizon and many others onto rival consoles.

At the time, Xbox's efforts to give up on console exclusives looked like a swan song for the embattled platform. Microsoft's Xbox hardware sales continue to look bleak on paper, faced with relentless competition from PlayStation and Nintendo. However, fast forward a few months, and things are looking a bit different.

Despite weak hardware sales overall, Xbox continues to post record console playtime hours, buoyed by a string of high-quality releases and expansions into other markets with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Xbox still commands millions of active users, so much so that even arch-rival PlayStation itself has opted to self-publish Helldivers 2 onto the Xbox platform. And it looks like team blue isn't stopping there either.

A new job listing on PlayStation's official GreenHouse hiring platform shared with us Hazzador on X suggests that PlayStation is ready to follow Xbox. The language in the listing suggests that PlayStation is ready to expand even more of its first-party titles, such as God of War, The Last of Us, and Horizon, over to competing platforms — including Steam, and Xbox itself.

"Executing the global commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles across all digital platforms beyond PlayStation hardware"

The job listing is for a "Sr Director, Multiplatform & Account Management," specifically, and describes a variety of responsibilities specific to Xbox and PC.

The successful applicant will lead a team that includes senior managers involved in liaising directly with Xbox and Windows PC platforms, like Steam and the Epic Games Store, to build sales and relationships.

PlayStation says the applicant will "oversee the out-of-year (mid-range) commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios titles across all non-PlayStation platforms, driving long-term revenue growth and audience reach."

Furthermore, the overview describes specifically moving PlayStation Studios software titles "beyond PlayStation hardware," listing Steam, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, mobile, and indeed, Xbox consoles too.

"Reporting to the Vice President, Commercial Management as Senior Director of Multiplatform & Account Management, you will play a critical leadership role in shaping and executing the global commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles across all digital platforms beyond PlayStation hardware, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, Nintendo, and mobile. This role is accountable for optimizing title profitability, ensuring cross-functional alignment, and leading a high-performing team focused on multiplatform expansion, mid-range commercial planning, and platform partner management."

The game industry has changed

PlayStation has been signalling to investors for some time that it wants to boost margins, and a sure-fire way to do that is to sell more software. With the gaming population less willing to switch platform than ever before, it stands to reason that Sony could make heaps of high-impact, high-margin cash by putting some of its older games onto Xbox. There are still tens of millions of active Xbox gamers, many of whom have likely never experienced titles like Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, or others that would likely over-index on Xbox.

PlayStation's renown for high-quality games is reflected by their high cost. Putting more older games on Xbox would do little to harm PlayStation's hardware footprint, which is now essentially locked in and permanent as people have solidified and built up their digital game libraries. The same is true on the inverse, Xbox players with decades and thousands of dollars invested in the platform are unlikely to move across and start playing service games on other platforms, which is where the bulk of playtime hours and revenue remains.

With rumors that the next-gen Xbox will run Steam, which also has Sony's games, it would behove Sony to simply cut out the middle man and go straight to self-publishing on Xbox more than likely. Perhaps Microsoft offered them a better cut than Steam does too, to get the budding partnership under way. Time will tell.

More than ever, the industry will be about finding people where they are to cut through the noise. Whether it's Netflix, TikTok, or forever-games like Fortnite and Roblox, getting the attention of the masses is harder than ever. Being everywhere and on everything all at once gives you the best, and maybe, the only chance at grabbing attention — at least in the market of the right now.

It'll be interesting to see how the industry evolves further in the coming months. I, for one, have Helldivers 2 pre-ordered on Xbox already.

Thursday morning, Xbox fans were treated to quite an uplifting surprise — one that was frankly very much needed after Microsoft's massive recent layoff wave, the cancellation of Everwild and Perfect Dark, and the closure of the latter's development studio The Initiative. I'm talking, of course, about the news that Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox, with Arrowhead's fan-favorite PC and PS5 co-op shooter heading to Microsoft's consoles on August 26, 2025.

While PlayStation maker Sony has brought many of its games to PC in recent years, it's never ported and published its first-party titles on Xbox before. For that reason, I was shocked to see an Xbox version of Helldivers 2 announced — and as a huge fan of the game, I'm ecstatic that the Super Earth's finest troops will soon be reinforced by legions of Team Green soldiers ready to do their part.

Naturally, a huge PlayStation game coming to Xbox draws the potential of cool crossovers to mind, and the best, most glaringly obvious choice for a perfect one would be a collaboration with Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industires) and Halo. And if you're as passionate about Halo as I am, I'm sure you can already see where I'm going with this.

The Helldivers — elite soldiers armed to the teeth that drop into enemy territory from orbit and mow down hordes of alien threats before extracting by the skin of their teeth — are extremely similar to Halo's own Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or ODSTs. These are the toughest non-Spartan troops fielded by the UNSC, and quickly grew to become a beloved part of Halo's universe after Bungie's 2009 spinoff Halo 3: ODST shone a spotlight on a squad of ODSTs trapped in a Covenant-controlled city.

Indeed, the likeness is so striking that Halo 3: ODST images and trailers are frequently used to make Helldivers 2 memes, and talented Halo Infinite Forgers even made a Helldivers 2 and ODST-inspired mode, too. With that in mind, I can't think of a better type of Xbox-themed crossover to do with Helldivers 2.

Just think of how cool it would be to dive into a mission with ODST-themed armor, potentially even wielding iconic ODST firearms like their silenced SMGs and Magnum sidearms. Notably, the latter could even fill a vacant niche in the sandbox, as Helldivers 2 currently doesn't have silenced weapons.

I need this to happen.

But how realistic is the possibility of a crossover like this, anyway? Ultimately, based on previous posts from Helldivers 2 game director and Arrowhead Game Studios chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt, I see no reason why it couldn't happen. On a Reddit post that asked fans where they'd draw the line for crossovers, Pilestedt drew his just after Halo ODSTs and Warhammer: 40,000 soldiers, and just before characters like Master Chief and Space Marines.

He then went on to list some "core tenets" for crossovers, explaining that Arrowhead wants to "avoid IP dilution" by ensuring the properties they work with are very similar to Helldivers 2, naturally fit into the game, and won't feel tonally or stylistically inconsistent with its aesthetic. If you ask me, ODSTs fit nicely within those guidelines — and since Pilestedt included them in the realm of what he'd deem a good fit, it's evident he agrees.

In fact, I can't help but wonder if Helldivers 2's second crossover (the first was with the PlayStation FPS Killzone), revealed to be in the "very early stages" of development in late February, is an ODST-themed one. I imagine Arrowhead knew by then that Sony was giving the creation of a Helldivers Xbox port the greenlight; perhaps it's been working on a fitting Halo collab in the months since to ship alongside it?

Ultimately, we won't know for sure until the popular co-op shooter drops on Microsoft's systems next month on August 26. But even if there's not an ODST crossover to enjoy then, I'll hold out hope that one will come eventually.

It's been a pretty grim week for Xbox and its fans, to say the least. A huge wave of Microsoft layoffs gave way to several major game cancellations for titles like Rare's Everwild and The Initiative's Perfect Dark, with the latter studio also shut down completely. That comes just weeks after a very well-received Xbox Games Showcase, overshadowing the excitement and positivity from that event and calling Microsoft's commitment to upcoming projects into question.

One bright piece of news amid all the ill tidings, however, was the surprise announcement that Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox — something I thought might never happen, given that Sony has never published one of its PlayStation Studios titles on Microsoft's platform before. Indeed, a port of the beloved 2024 co-op shooter is headed to Xbox Series X|S later this year on August 26, complete with cross-play support with PC and PS5.

It's a shocking development, and one that's potentially indicative of Sony being interested in bringing more of its first-party PlayStation experiences to Xbox. After all, the firm has been greatly expanding the list of PlayStation games on Windows PC for years now, so it's entirely possible that it's looking to dip its toes in Xbox waters as well.

With that said, Sony has historically valued the console exclusivity of its biggest titles — cinematic single-player experiences like God of War and The Last of Us — as they've (at least from a content perspective) given the PlayStation maker a notable edge over Xbox in the "console war." These offer gamers a major incentive to get a PlayStation instead of an Xbox, so it's highly unlikely these types of games will follow Helldivers 2 to Microsoft's consoles.

The games that are far more likely to, however, are multiplayer-focused, live-service experiences like Arrowhead Game Studios' hit shooter. These games stand to benefit greatly from multiplatform releases, as greater platform accessibility naturally leads to higher player counts and more people buying microtransactions like Helldivers 2 Super Credits (these are needed for Warbond battle passes and shop cosmetics).

Notably, this is something that Sony's likely learned by watching the business moves of none other than Microsoft, with the Xbox publisher releasing four games on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch in Spring 2024, along with a few others more recently. Along with some single-player titles, these games have included multiplayer and/or live-service experiences like Sea of Thieves, Grounded, and Forza Horizon 5.

On the whole, sales data for Xbox games released on PlayStation painted a mixed picture, though the titles that performed extremely well were — you guessed it — online multiplayer games. As of late March, nearly 2 million Sea of Thieves copies sold on Sony's console, with Obsidian Entertainment's Grounded achieving about 432,200 sales (the sales data was released before Forza Horizon 5's PlayStation launch, but I imagine it's done very well, too). Those numbers helped Microsoft briefly take over the PlayStation Store last spring.

Undoubtedly, the success of Microsoft's multiplayer games on PlayStation has caught Sony's attention, and Helldivers 2's Xbox launch next month is an experiment to see if it can achieve something similar with live-service PlayStation Studios games on Microsoft's console. And if Team Green fans want more PlayStation titles on Xbox, they need to support Helldivers 2's arrival.

While Sony has very little in the way of multiplayer-focused PlayStation games now — beyond Helldivers 2 and after the death of Concord, there's only really 2022's Grand Turismo 7 — it's still aiming to capitalize on the demand in that market. It's got a competitive heist title from Haven Studios called Fairgames (Fairgame$) coming it feels "very positive" about, for example, and PlayStation recently opened a new developer called teamLFG that originated from Destiny maker Bungie and is working on a live-service experience, teasing "action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds."

At present, Fairgames$ has only been announced for PS5 and PC, and teamLFG's game will probably only be on those platforms at launch, too. If Helldivers 2 performs well on Xbox like Sea of Thieves and Grounded did on PS5, though? There's a pretty solid chance we'll see those titles come to Xbox at some point.

And hey, even if they don't? You should get Helldivers 2 on Xbox anyway. It's easily the best co-op shooter I've ever played and one of the best PC games for multiplayer fans, and will surely be one of the best Xbox games when it releases on Microsoft's systems as well. If you preorder, you'll get access to three unique armor sets; Arrowhead has confirmed PC and PS5 players will have a way to obtain these at a later date.

Arrowhead Game Studios and PlayStation Studios' hit co-op multiplayer game Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox Series X|S later this year.

No, seriously.

The news was shared on Thursday during a Helldivers 2 developer stream, where chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt shared that the neverending Galactic War is making its way over to Xbox consoles. You can check out the announcement trailer for the port below:

"I used to be a Playstation angry teenager and all in the console war, today I'm hoping we'll bring all players together," says, Alex Bolle, production director on Helldivers 2, via Linkedin.

Per the store description, Helldivers 2 is being directly published by PlayStation, meaning this isn't like with the MLB The Show games developed by Sony San Diego, which are published on Xbox by the MLB directly.

While Sony has embraced bringing PlayStation Studios games to Windows PC, this is the first time the company has directly published a title on Xbox.

The port is being developed by Arrowhead Game Studios in partnership with Nixxes Software, a Dutch porting studio that specializes in bring PlayStation Studios games to Windows PC.

Naturally, Helldivers 2 supports full cross-play, meaning players on Xbox Series X|S can hop in with their friends on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC with no problems.

Helldivers 2 is slated to launch on Xbox Series X|S on Aug. 26, 2025. The Standard Edition and the Super Citizen Edition are both available for preorder. The latter version of the game packs in a Warbond Token, giving players one free Warbond to redeem for additional cosmetics, weapons, and more.

Amusingly enough, this means that Helldivers 2 is launching on Xbox the same day that The Coalition's Gears of War: Reloaded remaster is coming to PlayStation 5 (as well as other platforms), making it something of a cultural exchange program.

A juggernaut gets even bigger, with needed good news for Xbox

Helldivers 2 first launched simultaneously across PlayStation 5 and Windows PC back in February 2024. The game rapidly exploded, reaching over 15 million copies sold as of November 2024 and becoming the third-best selling game of 2024 in the U.S.

This comes as a bright spot of news for Xbox players in an otherwise dour week, with Microsoft conducting layoffs across the division, as well as closing The Initiative and canceling Perfect Dark.

Personally, I'm hoping this means we can get some kind of Halo: ODST-themed crossover event. Having the Helljumpers and the Helldivers together would make perfect sense, and it seems easily attainable now that the game will be available on both Xbox and PlayStation together.

Imagine being able to take out Terminids with a BR75 battle rifle, or calling in a Warthog to charge through Illuminate-controlled city streets.

I'll also be curious to see what happens in the future. At the start of the year, I wrote about the trends I expected to see across gaming in 2025, and I mentioned that Sony would continue exploring further multiplatform waters. With Helldivers 2 on the way, who knows what PlayStation Studios game could be next in line to be ported?

Sony PlayStation has brought several of its high-profile exclusive games to Steam over the last several years, with the latest title to join the list of PlayStation games on Windows PC being Stellar Blade — the popular 2024 PS5 action RPG from Korean studio SHIFT UP Corporation. And now, just five days after its June 11 release on the platform, the game has hit a huge sales milestone.

The milestone in question is one million copies sold on Steam as well as over three million sales in total across PC and PS5, with SHIFT UP announcing the latter achievement in a social media post on Monday morning. "To all players around the world who have shown love for Stellar Blade, we extend our deepest gratitude and respect," it reads, with a graphic displaying the sales count.

It's been reported that Stellar Blade hit the one million copies sold mark on PC in three days, with many of those sales likely made over the weekend while most were off work and had free time to play. SteamDB data also shows that it had a peak concurrent player count of 192,078, making its PC release the biggest of any PlayStation Studios single-player game.

Stellar Blade is aimed squarely at fans of 2017's award-winning action RPG NieR: Automata, complete with a similarly fluid and stylish combat system, a familiar narrative premise, and a provocatively designed protagonist. In it, Earth has fallen to supernatural creatures called the Naytiba, with humanity's remnants fleeing to a colony world; the survivors eventually send a specialized warrior named EVE to cleanse the planet, though as players progress, they'll learn that the situation on Earth is far more complicated than it seems.

This version of the PlayStation title features some noteworthy PC-specific enhancements, including features like NVIDIA DLSS 4 Super Resolution and its AMD FSR 3 counterpart, NVIDIA DLAA image enhancement, NVIDIA Reflex latency reduction, support for 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide aspect ratios, an unlocked framerate, and an optional 4K texture pack.

The launch of the PC version also brought some new content, with the biggest addition being a special Boss Challenge Mode. There are also 25 new costumes, three new pairs of glasses, and six sets of new earrings to unlock for EVE to wear, along with localization support for Chinese and Japanese players.

Stellar Blade's standard edition is $59.99, with a pricier $79.99 Complete Edition that features tons of bonus in-game cosmetics — including unlocks inspired by NieR: Automata and SHIFT UP's free-to-play mobile game GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE — as well as a code you can use for Stellar Blade-themed items in GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE. Notably, CDKeys has the Complete Edition for $78.89 right now; that's only a dollar off, but a dollar saved is a dollar earned.

The explosive popularity of Stellar Blade on PC thus far represents a major bright spot for Sony's ongoing efforts to expand PlayStation's success to Windows PC. Another is the recent decision to get rid of its PC game region locks that went into effect last year in any country that doesn't support PlayStation Network (PSN) usage.

PlayStation maker and publisher Sony has made a strong effort to expand into the PC gaming market in recent years, as the firm has brought many of its first-party PlayStation Studios console exclusives to Steam months or years after their original launch on PS4 and PS5.

This initiative has proven to be very successful, though it's been hampered by Sony effectively shooting itself in the foot by region locking its games and delisting them from sale in the 170+ countries where its PlayStation Network (PSN) isn't offered — even if those games don't require the use of a PSN account in the first place. Now, though, Sony is finally walking that decision back.

On Friday afternoon, players in these territories began noticing PlayStation games appearing on their Steam client, leading to widespread speculation that Sony was lifting its region locks. This was soon confirmed by looking at data from SteamDB — a third-party site that can be used to track changes made in Steam's backend.

Indeed, in the update history for titles like Helldivers 2, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, nearly all blacklisted regions have been removed. And as a result, all of these games are now available to buy in these countries again.

Sony's decision to region lock its PC releases out of all non-PSN countries came over an entire year ago after it tried to force Helldivers 2 players to make a PSN account to continue playing the game they'd already purchased. After an intense review bombing of Arrowhead's co-op shooter, Sony backpedaled and chose not to implement its PSN requirement.

However, it did delist Helldivers 2 from sale in these areas, and ever since, all other PlayStation releases on PC have been unavailable in those same territories regardless of whether or not they require PSN. Fans have continuously rallied and protested against this policy for many, many months, leading to Sony axing PSN requirements from four games in January before now finally lifting these region locks.

Something important to note, however, is that they're not entirely gone. Of the original 170+ countries blacklisted, seven still remain: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam (Vietnam banned Steam entirely in 2024 over an issue regarding licensing games to be sold). Russia's ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine may explain why Sony still isn't selling its games there, but ultimately, the reasoning for the remaining blacklists is unknown.

Still, it's great to see Sony finally budge on this issue — even if it's one that should have been resolved a long time ago, and frankly never should have been a problem in the first place. The PlayStation publisher has faced constant and intense criticism from players, content creators, and outlets alike since the very first day regions were blocked, as nobody understood the point of the decision or how it even benefitted the firm.

Regardless, what matters most is that the company's stubbornness with this matter has come to an end, and that fans who live in the previously blacklisted regions can now enjoy PlayStation's games (widely thought to be some of the best PC games available). And for Sony, that means plenty of new sales.

A new report from the Swedish outlet Dagens Industri (DI) has revealed that Tencent — a Chinese multimedia company with massive investments in the gaming industry — recently acquired a minority stake in Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios.

According to the report, the conglomerate bought 15.75% of the Stockholm-based studio's shares in July 2024 for close to $83 million, with Arrowhead in its totality valued at approximately SEK 5.1 billion ($532 million). Notably, the rest of the developer's shares are held by its founding executives.

It was also revealed that in 2024, Arrowhead raked in SEK 959 million ($100 million) in profit, with an operating profit of SEK 729 million ($76 million). Helldivers 2 was a huge success, as the $40 co-op multiplayer shooter sold 12 million copies in three months, became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, and has remained a popular title on Windows PC and PS5 well over a year after release.

Arrowhead's chief creative officer, co-founder, and former chief executive officer Johan Pilestedt gave some statements about Tencent's minority acquisition, explaining that the investment will help the developer perform well in the Chinese gaming market.

"Getting access to the Chinese player base is the holy grail in the gaming industry," he said. "They can give us enormous economic leverage."

At present, it's unclear what the scope of Tencent's involvement with Arrowhead and its games will be. It's important to mention, though, that the studio recently said on the Helldivers Discord server that its next game will not be published by PlayStation and that it's "100% funded by ourselves so we'll call 100% of those shots."

It's also worth noting that Helldivers 2 has attracted a very large and passionate Chinese community. Chinese players played a pivotal role defending Equality-on-Sea — a city located within the game's fictional version of China — from the Illuminate in the Battle for Super Earth. A social media account for China's United States embassy posted about the event earlier this week.

Notably, the news of Tencent's purchase last year comes a little over two months after a rumored partnership between Ubisoft and Tencent came to fruition, with the French publisher selling the company a 25% stake and opening a new division for its Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six franchises. The move was largely seen as part of Ubisoft's efforts to recover from a series of underperforming releases in recent years.

What's next for Arrowhead?

It's rather surprising that this partnership between Tencent and Arrowhead went under the radar for nearly an entire year, but regardless, it sounds like it's going to help the latter quite a bit as it looks to the future. It's certainly difficult to dispute Pilestedt's comments about opportunities in the Chinese market after watching Black Myth: Wukong rise to monumental success.

Naturally, I can't help but wonder about what's next for Arrowhead. Helldivers 2 is still getting live-service updates and I don't expect that to change for a long, long time, but it's also clear that the developer is working on its next project, too. Whatever it is, I'll be there for it; Helldivers 2 is one of my favorite co-op games of all time, so with its creators, I'm along for the ride.

Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you're into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It's typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys' sale that shaves nearly $12 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for just over $28.

About a week after Helldivers 2 players finished a nearly two-week long defense of Super Earth against a massive Illuminate invasion fleet that saw the Battle for Super Earth end in victory, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has revealed the next battle pass Warbond coming soon to the Windows PC and PS5 co-op shooter.

The Warbond is Force of Law, a riot police/SWAT-themed pass that includes several new weapons, stratagems, and armor sets, along with cosmetics like capes and skins for FRV vehicles and Exosuit mechs (this nifty graphic shows its full contents). It's scheduled to release on June 12, and like all Premium Warbonds, will cost 1,000 Super Credits ($10 worth) to purchase.

It was revealed with a sick new trailer that shows all of its gameplay items being used against the Illuminate, complete with a blend of synthwave and smooth guitar riffs that sounds straight out of an 80s action film. You can watch it via the embed below.

The name of the game with the kit added with Force of Law is crowd control, with all of its new gameplay items seemingly ideal for slowing down and disorienting large groups of enemies. The GL-52 De-Escalator support weapon grenade launcher, for example, creates large field of stunning arc electricity on impact, while the AR-32 Pacifier assault rifle boasts a high magazine suitable for cutting down hordes of Illuminate Voteless or basic Terminid bugs.

Then there's the G-109 Urchin grenade that repeatedly shocks and stuns targets you stick it to, along with a stratagem I've been waiting ages for: the AX/ARC-3 "Guard Dog" K-9, a variant of the wearable backpack drone sentries that uses an Arc Thrower-like electricity weapon.

It'll pair perfectly with the Arc Thrower itself whenever I decide to use a zap-focused build — something I tend to do frequently when fighting Illuminate or Terminids because of how shockingly (ha) effective it is against these factions. In typical Helldivers fashion, though, the "occasional (accidental) friendly bite" can occur, so it'd be a good idea to wear armor with the Electrical Conduit passive that reduces electric damage by 95% (some is in the Cutting Edge Warbond and Superstore).

Speaking of armor, there's also the BP-20 Correct Officer and BP-32 Jackboot — a set of medium and light armor respectively with a new Ballistic Padding passive. This trait reduces chest, explosive, and bleeding damage; this sounds a bit underwhelming, but the huge buff Masters of Ceremony's Reinforced Epaulettes perk got after launch tells me Arrowhead will at least make it better if it ends up feeling that way in-game.

Compared to how disappointing last month's Masters of Ceremony was, Force of Law is definitely a big step up, and a Warbond I'm actually looking forward to spending my Super Credits on. I'm also surprised that it's coming so soon after the previous pass, as while monthly Warbonds used to be a thing last year, most of them have been two or three months apart in recent times.

It's unclear if Arrowhead is now going back to that monthly release cadence or if this is merely a one-time thing, but ultimately? I just want Warbonds to be good, more than anything. I certainly won't complain about getting new Helldivers 2 content on a monthly basis, of course, but I'd rather get better additions less frequently than have the opposite be true.

Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you're into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It's typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys' sale that shaves nearly $12 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for just over $28.

It's finally over. The Battle for Super Earth has ended in Helldivers 2, and the planet is standing.

This comes after weeks of fierce fighting that saw a massive Illuminate invasion, with the aliens burning through multiple planets before finally invading the heart of (managed) democracy itself, Super Earth.

Players stood their ground, and while the death toll is catastrophic, with even the president of Super Earth falling, the Helldivers are victorious.

"With the Battle for Super Earth concluded, we salute every Helldiver who stood firm in the face of annihilation. The fires of freedom burned brightest in Equality-on-Sea and across our proud cities, where courage and sacrifice turned the tide," the official Helldivers X (Twitter) account shared.

"You held the line. You brought liberty. Together, we crushed the enemy. Together, we were unstoppable. Together, we are Super Earth."

Here's how it all happened

There's a few key factors to look at it in order to understand how victory was achieved.

When the invasion began, players were tasked with holding seven Mega Cities across Super Earth. The Helldivers weren't alone, with the shockingly-capable SEAF forces aiding in the fight. Their contribution can't be overstated, and these NPCs proved their worth against the Illuminate's new terrors like the Fleshmob.

Even so, one by one, multiple cities fell over 11 days of combat in the streets until only two cities remained to be defended. One of these cities was Equality-on-Sea, located in a fictionalized version of China.

Here, the Chinese population of Helldivers came to fight in fury, holding the line with consistent successful operations that pushed the Illuminate back over and over and over. This provided opportunity for Helldivers who left home turf.

While the Illuminate were the main threat over the past couple of weeks, a number of players did depart Super Earth in order to get the DSS (Democracy Space Station) back online. This massive orbital war machine was taken offline just before the invasion, and so a number of brave divers took the fight back to the Automatons, scrapping an incredible 200 million machines to accumulate the metal needed for repairing the DSS.

With the return of the DSS, the Illuminate fleet was obliterated. Sanctioned celebrations like never before are currently unfolding, with some recreational fights against Terminids for Helldivers that want to relax.

Helldivers 2 is currently available on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC (via Steam).

Shift Up made a splash with Stellar Blade in 2024, bringing a fast-paced action game to PlayStation 5. Now, PC players are going to be able to jump in and explore a ruined Earth with EVE.

It's the latest in a growing list of PlayStation Studios games on Windows PC and so, if you want to play Stellar Blade on PC, it's time to check the requirements and make sure your system is ready.

Stellar Blade — PC requirements and specs

Shift Up has provided the PC requirements for Stellar Blade, giving details on the kind of hardware that it'll take to run the game at varying quality levels. No matter what resolution or graphics setting you're using, you'll need 75GB of free space. While not required if you're playing on the minimum settings, an SSD is strongly recommended for a smoother experience.

Curiously, three of the four presets also recommend the same level of CPU, indicating there's more differentiation depending on what kind of graphics card you have installed in your computer. Stellar Blade is confirmed to support a completely unlocked frame rate, making this even more curious.

Minimum Requirements

The minimum requirements for Stellar Blade should be enough to play at 1080p 60 FPS with the Low graphics preset.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• STORAGE: 75GB HDD (SSD is recommended)

Recommended Requirements

If you meet the Recommended requirements, you should be able to play at 1440p 60 FPS with Medium graphics settings enabled.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• STORAGE: 75GB SSD

High Requirements

If you meet the High requirements, you'll still be able to run the game at 1440p 60 FPS, but now with the High graphics setting.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• STORAGE: 75GB SSD

Very High Requirements

If you meet the Very High requirements, you can play Stellar Blade at 4K 60 FPS, complete with the graphics turned up to Very High.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• STORAGE: 75GB SSD

Stellar Blade — How to check your PC specs

Checking your PC hardware is easy. Don't worry if you're not sure about a particular specification, just follow these steps:

• Type dxdiag in the Windows taskbar. 
• Select dxdiag to run the diagnostic tool and grab your information. 
• The system tab will show you memory details for your Windows PC. 
• The display tab has all the details on your graphics capabilities. 

How to upgrade your PC for Stellar Blade

Upgrading your computer in order to play Stellar Blade (or even to play it at a higher graphics setting) might be reasonable or challenging, depending on exactly what you have.

If you just need a slightly stronger graphics card or more RAM, you'll probably be able to upgrade your desktop with ease. If your CPU doesn't meet the minimum requirements, however, you might need to look at building or buying a completely new PC.

I've linked some guides below that can help with different aspects of upgrading your computer or building a new machine for the first time.

• Recommendations: Best pre-built gaming PCs | Best gaming laptops
• Memory: How to upgrade and install RAM in a laptop | How to upgrade and install RAM in a desktop
• Storage: Best SSD for PC | How to upgrade laptop HDD to SSD | Tips to free up space on Windows 11
• CPU: Best CPU for your PC | How to install an Intel CPU in your PC
• GPU: Best graphics cards | How to install a new graphics card
• Overall tips: How to build your PC the right way

Does Stellar Blade run on gaming handhelds?

While desktops and laptops remain the most popular way to play PC games, there's a growing niche audience that likes to play using gaming handhelds.

This provides a number of advantages, primarily portability, as it's easy to take a Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally with you to the couch or on a trip as opposed to hauling a heavy computer everywhere.

Here is everything we know so far about running Stellar Blade on gaming handhelds:

Stellar Blade is currently available on PlayStation 5 and is slated to launch on Windows PC (via Steam) on June 11, 2025.

The horror that has been clearly coming for some time is now here, as the Illuminate invasion of Super Earth is underway in Helldivers 2. Billions are dying, cities are devastated, democratic flags are being disrespected, it's a catastrophe.

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios and publisher PlayStation Studios shared a new trailer for the Heart of Democracy update on Tuesday, confirming that the update is live. You can check out the trailer below:

In a deep dive accompanying the reveal trailer, Arrowhead Game Studios shared more insights on what players can expect diving into the new heart of the war.

As previously promised, there's new Illuminate forces at work, including the Stingray fighters and nightmarish Fleshmobs. There's also the hulking Leviathans, which fly through the air and take a ludicrous amount of firepower to bring down.

Players fighting on the ground of Super Earth will have to be careful not to harm civilians, else they'll be penalized. It's not all bad news though, as the SEAF forces are fighting back as well, meaning players will be getting some AI-controlled assistance for once.

These squads of friendly soldiers can be left to their own devices, but they can also be ordered to follow Helldivers, providing some additional guns to help take on the invaders.

In order to take out the gargantuan Illuminate warships, players need to access the Planetary Defense Cannons. These cannons take a long time to warm up, but they have firepower like nothing else available. As the developers note, players are supposed to aim the cannons directly at the ships, but they can technically fire a shot anywhere...

A recent update also means that even if you can only hop in for a portion of an operation, your efforts will still help the planetary campaigns.

Helldivers 2 is currently available on Windows PC (via Steam) and PlayStation 5.

Super Earth's dedicated defenders of democracy, the Helldivers, will be happy to know that defending and liberating planets in the Galactic War just got easier and more convenient in Helldivers 2 thanks to a new update.

In the midst of the Illuminate's full-scale invasion of Super Earth that began last week with the Galactic Emergency update, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has changed how completing missions contributes to community-wide efforts to defend or liberate a world under enemy attack or control.

Previously, players had to finish a full "operation" — a group of three missions — to have an impact on an ongoing campaign. If you selected a mission from a different operation before finishing your current one, you'd wipe all your progress. On top of that, failing to complete all three levels before a defense or attack campaign ended would also mean that you didn't contribute anything to the war effort.

Thanks to a new update, though, individual mission completions will now have an impact on campaigns, with successfully finished operations rewarding some bonus influence.

Arrowhead announced the change on the official Helldivers Discord server recently: "We are performing an update to our backend logic that will change the way 'impact' is dealt. Impact is the 'liberation' that players deal to enemy planets or defend events," wrote Baskinator, a community manager at the studio. "It used to be that Helldivers needed to complete an operation (usually 3 missions) in order for impact to be distributed."

"Now, each mission will deal impact, and completing an operation will then deal bonus impact," she continued. "This is primarily done to make sure that everyone performing missions can safely say that they have contributed to keeping the galaxy safe, without the need to have the operation complete."

Not only does this make understanding how to do your part for Managed Democracy simpler — Helldivers 2 didn't do the best job at explaining the operation requirement — but it also helps out "the casual diver" who doesn't have time to do multiple 40-minute long missions when they play, and can only dive once or twice during a campaign. And as a bonus, it rewards hardcore players that finish full operations frequently with extra impact.

This reworked version of the "impact" system is something fans have been asking for since Helldivers 2's launch period back in February of last year, and while it's a little disappointing the tweak took this long, it ultimately couldn't have come at a better time.

The ongoing effort to slow and weaken the advance of the Illuminate's massive invasion fleet as it approaches Super Earth will no doubt have a huge influence on how well we're able to hold the line later once we're fighting the squids on humanity's home world, so every last bit of impact matters. And now that the impact mechanic has been revamped, every single individual mission completion will give some.

Will it be enough to save Super Earth, in the end? That still remains to be seen, but the good news is that every Helldiver — from the most casual reservists to the most passionate frontline warriors — can now make a difference in the Galactic War. So get out there and fight, troopers (and consider using the best Illuminate loadout if you do); even if you only have time for a mission or two every once in a while, your contributions could be what brings us an ultimate victory in the face of a devastating defeat.

Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you're into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It's typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys' sale that shaves over $5 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for under $35.