Halo: Campaign Evolved has launched in early access, which has been met with glowing praise from critics and scorn from Xbox players who are having trouble accessing the early access period due to technical difficulties.

However, if you're planning on playing this game on PC or Steam or Xbox on PC, but are stuck with old hardware thanks to rising prices on newer PC components caused by the ongoing RAM Crisis, we have good news.

Our friends at PC Gamer have discovered through rigorous testing that Halo: Campaign Evolved can be played at low settings and still look almost as good as it does on Ultra settings on PC.

For further context, PC Gamer tested Halo: Campaign on several PCs running NVIDIA RTX 3070, NVIDIA RTX 4070, NVIDIA RTX 5080, and AMD RX 9070 GPUs, and noticed there were very few differences between Low and Ultra settings when it comes to the graphics.

The biggest differences were blood textures and weapon lighting being slightly more detailed on Ultra, whereas foliage details, lighting softness, and shadow textures were only barely more detailed.

As for the game's framerate performance, PC Gamer noted that differences are much more prominent in this regard. Running Halo: Campaign Evolved on Ultra settings cuts the performance down by at least 20% across multiple rigs, particularly if the DLSS upscaling setting is set to Ultra.

Meanwhile, keeping the game at low graphical presets keeps the game's framerates somewhat high without a dip in their consistency, without the need for DLSS upscaling.

For example, running the game on Ultra graphical presets at 1440p with Ultra DLSS settings saw Halo Campaign Evolved achieve 60fps (RTX 3070), 84fps (RTX 4070 Super) , and 127fps (RTX 5080).

Whereas running the low graphical presets at 1440p with low DSLL settings saw Halo Campaign Evolved achieve 82fps (RTX 3070), 148fps (RTX 4070 Super), and 172fps (RTX 5080), giving much higher framerates with minimal changes in graphical fidelity.

PC Gamer even tested Halo: Campaign Evolved out on the Xbox ROG Ally X and discovered that running the game on Ultra or Native upscaling tanks its performance hard. PC Gamer recommends running the game using the Xbox Rog Ally X's Very Low preset option to get the performance out of it.

PC Gamer concluded that unless you have a monster PC rig that can push hundreds of frames per second or if you don't mind playing the game at around 30fps, they recommend playing the game on Low settings for the best balance of performance and appearance.

Though they also recommend turning off the motion blur, as it makes the game look pretty terrible.

Now, while I plan on playing Halo: Campaign Evolved on Xbox Series X after hearing how awesome it is from my colleague Brendan Lowry, who gave it 4/5 stars, I'm glad PC players won't be forced to upgrade their rigs to play it at acceptable levels.

We are living in a dire age of tech where it's getting harder for PC gamers to play the latest games without scouring the internet for increasingly scarce and pricey components needed to run them, so any AAA game that's optimized enough to be played on older hardware without losing too much graphical fidelity is a blessing we'll gladly take.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is available in early access and will be released to the general public on July 28, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Windows and Steam.

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When Diablo 2 launched in 2000, it essentially took over my gaming life. Never before had I played something so addictive. It was (and still is, to a certain degree) impossible to put down. Little did I know that I'd still be playing it 26 years later.

My love for action RPGs with isometric graphics and oodles of loot was indeed borne from my love of Diablo 2, and trust me when I say that I've tried almost every other game similar to the best there is.

Grim Dawn. Titan Quest. Nox. Torchlight. Last Epoch. Path of Exile. I could go on and on.

The thing is, none of these Diablo 2 competitors ever gripped me in the same way as Blizzard's opus. Hell, even Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 failed to get me to keep coming back in the same way that Diablo 2 continues to do today.

I've thought a lot about exactly what Diablo 2 does differently than its competition to make it so compelling, and I've never really been able to pin it down.

This mental block was recently lifted. In a video on his personal YouTube channel, Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson dropped some serious ARPG knowledge that made Diablo 2's appeal finally click.

Diablo 2's eternal appeal is all about ... breakpoints?

Chris Wilson helped create what is arguably the best non-Diablo ARPG around with the Path of Exile series. To say he knows a lot about the genre is an understatement, and the wisdom he shares in the video is proof.

Wilson argues that it's Diablo 2's breakpoints that make it particularly compelling.

In Diablo 2, rather than each piece of superior gear making a tiny change to your character's power level (as we see in most modern ARPGs), the effects are only felt once the numbers reach a certain threshold, aka a breakpoint.

Block rates, cast rates, attack rates, and hit recovery rates all depend on breakpoints. Diablo 2 was designed to run at an internal 25 frames per second no matter how many frames your PC is outputting, and each of the actions I just mentioned has to fit into that metric.

Wilson uses the Amazon's base faster cast rate number as an example. It takes 19 frames to complete, which eats up a big chunk of those 25 frames, and it only goes up by equipping new gear.

Here's the catch. The Amazon, in this case, only starts casting faster spells once those frames drop to a certain breakpoint. You need a total of 152% faster cast rate from gear in order to hit the lowest 11 frames per second casting speed, with several stops along the way.

If you aren't hitting those breakpoints, there's no actual difference in speed.

Wilson explains that modern ARPG systems "preserve a fractional time and carry it into the next action." This results in your toon acting at an average speed.

Diablo 2 does the opposite. It rounds "up to a whole number of frames and just discards that fractional time. " The result of this system is a series of meaningful power spikes that actually make your character feel so much more powerful.

Any Diablo 2 player who has slotted in a piece of Hammerdin gear that helps finally hit the final casting breakpoint knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Wilson explains the drawback to how modern ARPGs operate.

The modern approach to ARPG power is indeed smoother and requires far fewer spreadsheets with listed breakpoints, but it's also far less rewarding.

Speaking from personal experience I have with Diablo 4, this seems to be the game's biggest problem. Everything feels the same all the time, and character progression is not even slightly engaging. Oh, look, a new piece of gear that's marginally better. Guess I'd better equip it.

Diablo 2's addictive qualities were not an accident

Wilson wraps up his video by stating that David Brevik, one of the original Diablo 2 creators, confirmed that breakpoints were an intended mechanic.

Wilson adds that he doesn't think players "love inaccurate timing," but he does agree that "many players love systems where reaching a target requires planning and produces a noticeable payoff."

I've pored over breakpoint spreadsheets for so many hours it's probably better to measure in days, but for whatever reason, this mechanic never crossed my mind as what makes Diablo 2 so exciting.

For my other Diablo 2 diehards out there, do you agree with Wilson's analysis? What else do you think contributes to the game's lasting appeal? What are modern ARPGs lacking that would make them as compelling as Diablo 2? Let me know in the comments section below!

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Halo and Xbox fans are having a bad day today. Not only are people locked out of playing Halo: Campaign Evolved's early access despite paying for it, but Xbox Live's services have become inoperable as well.

This has been confirmed by Microsoft via Xbox tech support on X, which states, "We are aware that some users are encountering errors when attempting to connect to Xbox services and features. Our engineers are actively working to mitigate the issue."

As of right now, according to the Xbox Support website, Xbox Live's outage currently affects Store & subscriptions, Friends & social activity, Cloud gaming & remote play, Games & gaming, and Apps & mobile, leaving players unable to access these online features on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming-compatible handhelds.

Maybe this outage is the reason why players can't enter Halo: Campaign Evolved's early access? I know I've certainly noticed something's wrong, as I've been unable to look at any Xbox games on the Xbox app's store today.

Either way, we will keep an eye on Xbox Live's status updates and let you know when things are back up and running properly.

Have you been affected by these recent Xbox Live Outage issues? Have you been unable to access Halo: Campaign Evolved's early access period because of this?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know in the comments, on Reddit, or in the poll.

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Today should've been a joyous day for Halo fans as Halo: Campaign Evolved is now available for people who purchased the Premium Edition or Premium Edition Upgrade, and it's received many glowing reviews on Metacritic (including one from us, which gave it a high score of 4/5 Stars).

Unfortunately, people who bought the Premium Edition or Premium Edition Upgrade via the Xbox Series X|S's store or the Xbox on PC App aren't so lucky because they've been unable to access the game despite paying money for it.

This has been confirmed by Halo Studio's tech support team on X, which says they are aware of the situation and is working on fixing it. They will let players know status updates on their progress as soon as more info is available.

Fans are especially upset over this because if they couldn't get the Premium Edition through Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. You have to shell out $69.99 separately for it, and it promised players up to five days of early access to the game. This isn't the first time Xbox has failed to deliver early access for one of its products, and it's frankly getting odd at this point.

Since this is one of Xbox's flagship franchises, I have no doubt the developers are scrambling as fast as they can to fix this issue, and we'll be sure to let you know when they do, so stay tuned for further updates.

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One of the big existential crises facing Xbox and other platforms is "how do we find new users?"

The memorypocalypse has driven Xbox console hardware to record highs. While that has led to an Xbox hardware bounce in the short term as people buy hardware before price hikes, longer term it's looking like fewer consoles will be sold than we've seen in a long time.

As free-to-play platforms like Roblox and Fortnite capture audiences on the younger end, and older gamers become aged and priced out, Microsoft and other companies are trying to figure out how to find new users in a tough climate.

What's cheaper than a $699.99 Xbox Series X? Well, free Xbox gaming, of course. And that's what Xbox is beginning to test today. Say hi to the long-rumored Xbox Cloud Gaming free tier, powered by ads, featuring all of your digital content.

We revealed exclusively last year that Microsoft was building a free version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, powered by ads, and now it's confirmed.

"Today, we’re starting to test an ad-supported way to stream select games from your library for a limited time, available to XBOX Insiders," the Xbox Wire post reads. "During this test period, XBOX Insiders with an XBOX account will be able to stream games they own for free with ads. Players will have one-hour session limits across supported devices and regions."

Microsoft says that ads will only run before the session starts, and won't interrupt gameplay during the one-hour session slots. The ads won't be inserted into games, and it'll remain entirely optional, focused on Xbox Cloud Gaming. The paid tiers of Xbox Cloud Gaming (associated with Xbox Game Pass) will continue to be ad-free in perpetuity.

Microsoft's blog post is clear on its approach to ads, with an attempt to put forward a player-first approach. The idea entirely revolves around improving access to Xbox content, without having to buy a (now, very expensive) console. Xbox One users can gain access to titles that have dropped past-gen versions, and developers can potentially access an all-new audience. Indeed, any digital game you've purchased that is available on Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available to play through this free tier. There are well over 1,500 titles in the pool as of writing.

Microsoft outlined its policy approach to Xbox Cloud Gaming free-tier ads as thus:

• We start with the player. Ads should create value.
• We do not interrupt the flow of gameplay.
• We hold ads to the same quality bar as our content.
• We’re clear about what’s advertising.
• We make sure ads fit what players expect on each platform.

Indeed, Microsoft wants to emphasize that it is imposing some strict rules on the types of ads that can show up here, too. Given that increasingly YouTube and Meta feature ads that are often wildly beyond irrelevant, this is a refreshing take.

Providing Microsoft remains principled ... of course.

If it helps Xbox and devs find new users and compete with free-to-play mobile games, I'm all for it

Being completely honest, I've discovered a metric ton of hidden indie gems via Steam advertising on Reddit, Instagram, and X in recent months. If ads actually feature high-quality games or relevant products, I'm personally all for it.

Too many companies went way too hard on ads, and it led to a degraded experience overall. It's a piece of feedback I'm constantly sharing with higher-ups, even here at our parent company, about ads on the site, as we explore models that will help you guys avoid ads here while continuing to support our work.

RELATED: Best Xbox Cloud Gaming controllers

Developers in the gaming industry, particularly on Xbox, are starving for new users willing to move beyond the CODFIFAFORTNITE triptych. If allowing free access with ads helps Xbox and core game devs find new users in a world dominated by free-to-play mobile titles, I'm all for it. But we'll have to keep an eye on it as a community, to stop the ads eventually appearing in other places ... let's hope Microsoft remains principled on this one.

Now, Microsoft ... it's about time you released that direct-to-cloud Xbox controller already, huh?

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One thing that has dogged Xbox users since the beginning of time is the inconsistent speeds games often download at.

The same seems true across both Xbox PC and Xbox Series X|S (and older) consoles, where download speeds often fail to come close to what you're actually paying for via your ISP.

There are numerous factors at play when it comes to download speeds specifically. Steam generally has set the bar here, with very visible download metrics in its app that show how data is downloading in addition to the speed at which it's writing data to your storage device. Indeed, I was told before that sometimes Xbox downloads can appear "slow" because it gets backed up while unpacking data to your disk space, even it still displays as a "download" in the app. But I digress.

Xbox announced yesterday evening that it is working to boost download speeds across its network, starting with Xbox Alpha Skip-Ahead users on the Xbox Insider Program.

"Users will experience a new feature to optimize game install and update speeds by introducing a smart download client," the update reads. "Shortly after your game download begins, the client will check which content servers are available for the install or update. It will then test the connection speed to each server pool and select the fastest available connection for that install. The speed test will rerun periodically during the install or update to ensure that the client continues using the fastest available connection." The update notes also describe improvements to general stability and performance, as well as a fix for downloads sometimes hanging.

Even though this update is targeting Xbox consoles, it seems to have boosted my experience on Xbox PC devices as well. As someone who plays about 50% of the time on Xbox Ally these days, this boost in download consistency has been a welcome add. My internet at partner's place (in the countryside) is pretty abysmal compared to what you can get in a big city, so every wasted MB is particularly annoying when trying to download big games or updates. I was pleasantly surprised to see Halo Campaign Evolved and Beast of Reincarnation pre-downloads hitting my max 250 mb/s download capacity, which is honestly generally rare to see for me.

It's nice to see the incremental updates flooding back to the Xbox platform. For a long time it felt like Xbox was grossly under-funding its hardware platforms, but new CEO Asha Sharma seems intent on bringing back Xbox as a platform. She's pledged console exclusives again for Xbox for the first time in years, and we've already seen a variety of small and major improvements to the Xbox ecosystem. Xbox achievements are once again getting new additions, Xbox back compat program just hit Windows PC, among other smaller changes.

Although with Xbox's huge layoffs biting throughout this year, it remains to be seen just how long this new feature shipping cadence will last ...

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A full 25 years after the launch of Microsoft's first-ever Xbox console, it's arguably quite fitting that one of the firm's largest new game releases in 2026 is Halo: Campaign Evolved — a remake of the original Halo title that launched with that system, helped propel it into the video game zeitgeist, and kicked off what would grow to become one of the most recognizable science fiction franchises in all of entertainment.

Despite being a colossal Halo fan, I couldn't help but have a bit of a tepid response to Campaign Evolved when Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) announced it last year, largely because I'm more interested in Halo Infinite getting a proper follow up and also because Halo: Combat Evolved already got a remaster in 2011.

Still, I resolved to give the new remake a fair shake, as Combat Evolved Anniversary radically and controversially changed the first game's atmosphere in ways I disliked, and Campaign Evolved is notable for being the first Halo project built on Unreal Engine 5. Plus, it also features a three brand new prequel missions in which the Master Chief and the fan-favorite Sergeant Johnson go on a covert operation, introducing a new self-contained story.

Thus, I went into an opportunity to review it with an open mind, hoping for a more faithful modernization of the original experience, a successful adaptation of the series' unique gameplay feel to a new engine, and fun and fresh content to dive into. And now that I've played through the game extensively, I'm happy to report that the remake offers all of this — though I'd be lying if I said it hasn't left me wanting in some ways.

This review was conducted with the Windows PC version of Halo: Campaign Evolved, and made possible thanks to an Xbox PC review code provided by Microsoft and Xbox. The company did not see the contents of this review before publication.

Halo: Campaign Evolved review — Story

The Master Chief's adventure across Alpha Halo in which the crew of the downed UNSC Pillar of Autumn fight for humanity's survival against both the alien Covenant empire and the grotesque parasitic Flood threat remains largely unchanged in Campaign Evolved.

There are a few minor tweaks to the narrative and there's a bit of new dialogue here and there — along with rerecorded voice lines from Steve Downes (Master Chief), Jen Taylor (Cortana), and others — but overall, this story is identical to the one first told 25 years ago, with no radical changes to speak of.

What has changed, though, is how much of it is presented, as the remake features bespoke pre-rendered cinematics instead of the original game's in-engine cutscenes. I feel that all but one of these were done fairly well, though some of the transitions between them and gameplay can be rather abrupt and shots occasionally linger longer than you'd expect them to. Regardless, they generally look great, though I do ultimately prefer the original scenes.

As for Operation: METEORITE — the story that unfolds over the course of the three new prequel missions in which Chief and Sergeant Johnson infiltrate a Covenant ship to learn where the heart of the alien dominion lies — its narrative is solid, though some of its dialogue was dramatically campy to the point where I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Even so, its characters and plot are perfectly serviceable, and I'm curious to see if a loose thread it ends with will be woven into another tale in the future.

Halo: Campaign Evolved review — Gameplay

Gameplay changes are one of the key things that distinguish remakes from remasters like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary that strictly update visuals and audio, and Campaign Evolved makes several that elevate the original experience.

For starters, many mechanics, enemy behaviors, and types introduced in Halo's sequels have been implemented in Campaign Evolved, including sprinting, vehicle hijacking and seat-swapping, overcharged Plasma Pistol shots temporarily disabling vehicles, suicide Grunts, Jackal snipers, and Flood tank forms. Also, you can hold onto powerups like the Overshield or Active Camo and use them when desired, rather than when picking them up.

Together with weapons like the Energy Sword, Fuel Rod Gun, SMG, Beam Rifle, Needle Rifle, and Sentinel Beam that weren't available in the classic title, these additions deepen the sandbox and spice up Combat Evolved's encounters without making them feel wildly different. Crucially, their inclusion is carefully balanced and remarkably thoughtful, and made for a truly great playthrough (I recommend Heroic difficulty for the best balance of challenge and satisfying gameplay flow).

Campaign Evolved also makes a variety of changes to level design, with those made in the latter half of the game — including the infamous The Library mission — far more significant compared to others. One of the biggest issues with the original Halo is that its later levels are woefully repetitive and excessively reuse locations from past missions, and that's been addressed wonderfully with a variety of creative new spaces here. I'm a fan of every single rework in the remake, and I expect many others will feel similarly.

I also very much enjoyed playing through the three new prequel missions, which have the iconic Battle Rifle and notably throw the Covenant's Brutes — ape-like berserker shock troops — into the mix. Similar to their past iterations, Brutes have their own set of weapons (Spiker, Brute Plasma Rifle) and fill a tanky melee brawler role. This time around, though, they also have a frenzy mechanic you can engage with (for spoiler reasons, I won't go into detail about how to do so).

Causing a Brute to frenzy will fully heal it and drive it into an enraged state, during which it throws its weapon away and starts sprinting after you to pummel you with lethal melee attacks. However, it will also target other Covenant units while frenzied, which can make it easier to contend with large groups of foes. Figuring out when to frenzy Brutes and avoid doing so added an engaging layer of strategy to Operation: METEORITE that I loved.

By default, Brutes are exclusively found in the new missions, though you can find a Skull — one of 42 in the remake — that makes them spawn in the main campaign as well. These Skulls allow you to shake up gameplay with a huge variety of interesting and wacky modifiers, and are at the heart of the Campaign Remix feature that lets you randomize enemy and weapon placements while also roll for which Skulls you have on or choose them manually.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with how Campaign Evolved plays, and how replayable it is, too. What frustrates me, however, is that it's a strictly campaign-only experience, without multiplayer of any kind outside of campaign co-op (which does support four players online, up from two in the past). I can understand not having PvP multiplayer given the campaign focus, but for $50, Halo's beloved wave-based PvE mode Firefight should absolutely be here.

The remake's customization system for Master Chief and weapon skins also feels very lazy and tacked on, with no cosmetics available to unlock through actual gameplay. The only way to get them is by preordering or purchasing the $70 Premium Edition ($67.09 at Loaded); not having things players can earn through gameplay achievement is a massive missed opportunity.

Halo: Campaign Evolved review — Presentation and performance

Halo Studios announced back in 2024 that all future Halo projects would be developed with Unreal Engine 5, and Halo: Campaign Evolved is the first game to use it instead of something proprietary like Halo Infinite's Slipspace Engine. Next to developer familiarity with such a widely used tool, increased visual fidelity has long been thought of as one of the largest upsides of that decision, and it's been proven so by this remake.

Campaign Evolved modernizes the classic Xbox flagship in breathtaking detail, with some of the sharpest and most visually striking textures and lighting effects I've ever seen put to screen. Everything from the weapons in Master Chief's hands to the legions of diverse aliens he's tasked with battling through are the best they've ever looked, as are the sights of Alpha Halo's vibrant skyboxes and its dreary Flood-infested depths.

It's truly shocking how much detail the remake manages to cram into each and every level, and the best part is that nearly all of it feels authentic to the original game's visual style. I have my nitpicks — Covenant vehicles are too vibrantly purple and some reload animations lack the style of classic versions, for example — but overall, the game looks phenomenal.

Campaign Evolved's remastered soundtrack is also a treat and is similarly faithful, and notably, versions of tracks from several different Halo games feature in the trio of bonus missions. The sound design is also mostly top notch; melee strikes lack oomph and I don't love the sound of the Magnum and Sniper Rifle, but every other weapon, vehicle, and grenade sounds fantastic, and the way audio reverberates around every hallway, cavern, and battlefield is ear candy.

But while Unreal Engine 5 is at the heart of Halo: Campaign Evolved's terrific presentation, it's a tool that's notorious for its performance issues — and sadly, the remake has some of its own to speak of.

I've been playing the game on my PC that's equipped with an i5-12600K CPU, an RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GPU, and 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and have been running it with Ultra settings with DLSS Super Resolution on an ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor. Generally, I get about 60-80 FPS, which seems about where my rig should be based on the official recommended specs.

However, it's not uncommon that my framerate drops down to the 50s and even into the 40s in larger spaces and engagements, and that can be rather jarring. Turning the settings down some and using Frame Generation can help with this, but even so: expect some FPS dips.

A few of my colleagues here at Windows Central have reported running into performance problems on Xbox as well, with shadows and reflections sometimes looking fuzzy and pixelated on Performance Mode being a particularly noteworthy issue. Hopefully the day one patch for the remake irons wrinkles like these out.

Halo: Campaign Evolved review — Conclusion

I went into Halo: Campaign Evolved with one big question: was it worth making?

In the end, I feel that it was, both to give Combat Evolved a high-quality remake it deserves and to prove Halo on Unreal Engine is a viable path forward for the series (it's also a great introduction to the franchise for PlayStation players, though I doubt we'll ever see Halo on Sony's consoles again).

Halo Studios has accomplished both of those objectives in my view, even though the remake's performance issues do show it has room for improvement when it comes to optimizing the series on Unreal Engine. The absence of additional content like Firefight is also majorly disappointing, as is the underbaked player customization system.

With all that said, Campaign Evolved ultimately delivers an incredible reimagining of the original Halo, enhancing it with jaw-dropping audiovisual presentation, carefully considered gameplay and level additions, an enjoyable new three-mission story, and a suite of over three dozen collectible Skulls for tons of replay value. For $50, I wanted more ... but I've had a ton of fun with what we got.

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If you'd asked me a couple of days ago, before Xbox's latest news, what games had me excited about PC gaming, there's no way I'd have named BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, or Fuzion Frenzy.

Alas, here we are. These four classic Xbox games are spearheading the new Xbox backwards compatibility program on Windows PC, with more titles expected to arrive in the future.

Sure, this initiative might seem small today. These are four first-party games without many legal complications. A toe dipped in the water, if you will.

But new information about how Xbox is handling backwards compatibility has emerged since the news first broke, and it has me rethinking the entire situation.

The back-compat OG Xbox games just released on PC are already Xbox 360 games

In a lengthy thread on X, user @XCTdotLIVE explains how the back-compat program currently works.

As it turns out, the store packages are actually labeled as "Xbox360BackwardCompatibil.*," giving us our first clue at what's happening.

XCT.LIVE goes on to explain that, yes, these games are in fact already Xbox 360 games that are running on the Xbox 360 Xenon Fusion (XeFu) emulator.

As they put it, "your 2001 game runs inside the 360's OG-Xbox emulator, inside a 360 running on Windows. Two nested generations of Xbox emulation."

As X user @TheLunarixus notes, this is confirmed by "XEX2/STFS magic and strings in the kernel such as "XENON KERNEL EXITING."

The rabbit hole goes deeper. This is the same sort of wizardry that allows original Xbox games to run on the Xbox One's x86 architecture via layers of Xbox 360 architecture. It's a convoluted way to reach an end goal, but hey, if it works, it works.

This information is really what got my attention. If the foundation is already a working Xbox 360 emulator, 360 games being backwards compatible on PC is more than plausible. In fact, it's probably already almost ready for primetime.

The likelihood of Xbox 360 games on PC just got a lot better

The core statement that "Microsoft made four old Xbox games run on PC" gets a lot more exciting now that I know how everything works. The four OG Xbox games look a lot more like the tip of a much larger technical foundation that's already capable of running 360-era games.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the hardest part about console emulation is the base architecture rather than the games that run on it. So if the base is already capable of handling Xbox 360 games, the path from four OG Xbox titles to a plethora of 360-era games is a lot shorter than it seemed just a few days ago.

The Xbox 360's library is what really gets me excited. I wasn't much of an OG Xbox gamer (I was too busy with PCs), but I had a lot more experience with the 360. It's the generation that landed right when I was graduating high school, and I know I'm far from the only one who considers its library of games to be peak.

If Xbox 360 emulation is indeed on the table, Microsoft's back-compat news stops being a nostalgia play and instead becomes one of the most significant moves Microsoft could make, not just for Game Pass (on which these games are launching), but for game preservation in general.

I don't know how this all relates to Xbox's "Positron" disc-to-digital program, but I can't imagine the two initiatives won't collide at some point.

Microsoft hasn't yet made anything official, but I'm feeling hopeful

Let me be honest here. Microsoft has been pretty quiet about what's going on behind the back-compat scenes. There's no roadmap, no announced Xbox 360 support, and no timeline for any of it.

The information I received could be wrong (not likely), or Microsoft could have reasons involving licensing, resources, or other priorities that keep it from acting on the Xbox 360 capabilities, even if they do exist.

It's worth pointing out that my colleague, Jez Corden, has teased that "their plans for this longer term are pretty epic" regarding the back-compat program. He knows a lot more about Xbox than I do and generally has plenty of inside information he keeps close to his chest.

In any case, Xbox seems to be making all the right moves at a time when game preservation is a hot topic. Microsoft might have just flipped the switch on one of the biggest customer service endeavors in video game history, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

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Fans eager to know what Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer modes will look like won't have to wait any longer. Coalition has confirmed on X that on July 30, 2026, at 6:00 am PT | 9:00 am ET, it will reveal the first gameplay footage of Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer on Xbox's official YouTube channel.

What we know so far about Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer is that, according to Xbox Wire, it will feature a 12-player PvE horde mode similar to Gears of War 2's horde mode, but on a much grander scale, where you and other players work to fend off invading Locust across giant city maps.

Plus, it will feature a 4v4 PvP mode where players fight in classic Gears of War-style symmetrically designed maps with new traversal mechanics thrown in.

Additionally, playing both these modes will contribute towards completing in-game challenges, events, and achievements, and these multiplayer modes will be seasonally updated via a content roadmap.

Players who pre-ordered the game or who are subscribers of Xbox Game Pass/PC Game Pass will be able to play these multiplayer modes early through an Open Beta test weekend starting on August 6, 2026.

However, this gameplay reveal on July 30, 2026 will give fans a brief early taste of what they can expect to see before then.

Windows Central's take

Gears of War's multiplayer modes are often a major highlight alongside the main campaign, featuring insanely brutal, fast-paced, and challenging firefights that always end in fun chaos.

I still have fond memories of my brother screaming in fear as he was overwhelmed by a squad of Locust before soloing them in a blind panic in Gears of War 2's Horde Mode.

So I can't wait to see how Gears of War: E-Day plans to improve upon Horde Mode because the idea of 12 players scrambling to fight Locust at once with the possibility of friendly fire getting everyone killed sounds like my brand of mayhem.

Gears of War: E-Day is set to launch on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, and PC via Windows and Steam on October 6, 2026.

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One depressing part of the Xbox story over the past few years has revolved around Xbox hardware sales, which have been in near freefall decline quarter in, quarter out.

Factoring the memory crisis, attention market saturation, bad marketing, and the general negativity over the Xbox brand — the Xbox Series X|S platform has had a pretty awful gen, despite arguably being the best console Microsoft has ever made (on paper).

RELATED: Xbox Series X|S price / stock tracker (before price hikes)

There's no reason to think that Xbox's hardware fortunes won't continue to struggle in the near term. Price hikes are pending for these consoles, and the memory shortage is expected to get even worse before it gets better. But, hey, positive momentum is positive momentum, I guess.

Xbox Series had a good June in the US. Units up 86% vs last June, avg price up as well. Highest US Xbox Series units this year. Last June, Xbox Series was seeing impact of the May price increase and the Switch 2 launch. So, big % growth on a smaller base last year. Still, good month for Xbox Series.

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T18:35:49.083Z

Mat Piscatella of Circana noted Xbox's positive June upswing on BlueSky, charting that Xbox had its best month ever. He noted that the increase offsets a nasty decrease from last June, owing to the Nintendo Switch 2 launch and Xbox's initial price increase wave. Xbox also has price increases pending for August, which has likely driven additional sales in the short term as users get on board now before rates go up. Piscatella noted that Nintendo Switch 2 was down -78% year over year, and PS5 was down -43%.

There are other potential factors here too for Xbox. Xbox has had a bit of a spotlight on it recently. Forza Horizon 6 has enjoyed massive sales success, and is presently exclusive to Xbox Series X|S on console (exclusives sell systems? who knew). New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has also created some positive excitement for the brand, and hints of a more aggressive posture on exclusive content, a price cut for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and the promise of new games like Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution also might be having some impact. There's also the GTA 6 bounce. The Xbox Series S is going to be the cheapest way to access GTA 6 for the foreseeable future, despite the price hikes.

Microsoft might also simply be allocating more stock to the U.S. market. Japan, for example, has seen Xbox sales dive down from thousands of units, to hundreds, to mere dozens of units in recent years. Prioritizing Microsoft's core market in the short term seems like a smart play than trying to muddle through in markets where it has traditionally struggled. Although longer term, new CEO Asha Sharma has signalled intents to grow Xbox beyond its traditional Western shores.

Xbox isn't out of the woods yet

It's also true that Xbox is growing from a very small base number of units. An 86% increase might seem like a lot, but if you're starting with a low number already, Xbox still has a ways to go to show real growth. Still, up is up, and "up" is probably the only way Xbox can go from here.

I wrote recently how only heavy-hitting exclusives will change Xbox's console fortunes. The overall base of console gamers probably won't grow until Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo figure out a way to siphon youngsters moving directly to Roblox when joining the industry. Roblox is under pressure from world governments to tighten protections for youngsters, as the dangers of the social media-adjacent gaming platform become increasingly apparent.

RELATED: Xbox brings back compat games to PC for the first time

Games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls enjoy mass market appeal. It's particularly true of Fallout, which has enjoyed mainstream TV show success recently. Minecraft as well represents vast untapped potential as a potential system seller for Xbox. The previous Xbox administration felt content to leave Minecraft to its own devices, but new CEO Asha Sharma has brought Minecraft directly in-house at Xbox, potentially signalling intent to leverage its mainstream status to synergise marketing beats with Xbox hardware.

It remains to be seen if Xbox Series X|S can finish with positive hardware growth for the quarter overall. The RAMpocalypse is on-going, and Xbox Series X|S consoles will pick up price hikes soon, too. But many gamers on Xbox One will likely be looking to upgrade for the first time specifically for GTA 6 soon, as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is cutting off last gen for the first time.

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Xbox fans have been wondering for a long time what might be next for its backwards compatibility and game preservation efforts. Today, we got a pretty big hint.

Shared on Xbox Wire, Xbox VP Jason Ronald revealed that the Xbox backward compatibility program is expanding to PC, with new emulation tech supporting Xbox games on Windows for the first time.

It's early days yet, but it's an encouraging step about where Xbox's efforts to preserve its gaming legacy will end up in the coming years.

"Your library is more than just a collection of games. It is your personal history of epic stories and treasured memories from the past. And as players, we don’t want to leave our gaming legacy behind even as technology continues to evolve and advance. We expect our library of games to move forward with us and to be able to play them in entirely new ways," Jason Ronald explained.

The initial wave of games will include Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Fuzion Frenzy, Crimson Skies, and Conker: Live and Reloaded. All are classic OG Xbox games fully owned by Microsoft, but it stands to reason that even more titles previously locked away on Xbox consoles could eventually appear on Windows PCs and Xbox gaming handhelds, like the Xbox Ally.

Additionally, and surprisingly, these games will also eventually support Xbox achievements "later this year," says Ronald. Considering the source code for these games is likely covered in cobwebs, I'm curious how Microsoft has managed to achieve this one.

The games will also support a variety of PC-oriented upgrades. They will support Xbox Play Anywhere with Xbox Cloud saves. They have 4X resolution scaling, V-Sync support, Full and Windowed display modes, anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, and other PC-expected features.

In a universe where digital ownership rights are in the spotlight, it's great to see Xbox leading the charge for backward compatibility and preservation here. It increasingly seems like disc-based games are not long for this world, but platforms like GOG are stepping up to offer DRM-free digital options, and companies like Xbox continue to invest in bringing more console-locked titles to Windows PC, complete with dual-platform license entitlements via Xbox Play Anywhere.

It's only four games for now, but could we realistically see a future where all your digital Xbox content could move between platforms even as console hardware becomes obsolete and stops being manufactured? One can hope.

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Xbox Game Pass dropped a healthy selection of day-one releases this past week, some of which have been getting plenty of praise. But the one folks have been playing the most, well, it's none of those.

It's PBA Pro Bowling 2026. A game that first launched eight months ago but has only just joined Game Pass.

It comes by way of TrueAchievements charting the most played games on Xbox for the week ending July 12. There are no surprises at the top, but when you drill down and specifically look at the newest Game Pass additions, only two even made the top 40, with PBA Pro Bowling 2026 by far the highest-ranked.

I'll admit, I haven't played it, and I'm not much of a bowler, but I'm installing it right now. Of the games it dropped with, Denshattack! with its mad Jet Set Radio-like styling was the one I was planning to play first. I hadn't even given PBA Pro Bowling 2026 a second thought.

As it turns out, it seems to be a pretty good game, though. It's rated well on Steam, and personally, I think it's actually the sort of game that's a great fit for Game Pass.

As much fun as playing brand-new releases may be, or the latest AAA blockbuster out of one of Microsoft's many studios, I actually think that casual games make the most sense to bulk up the Game Pass library.

There's been plenty of discussion about Game Pass as a platform recently, but I know I'd be lost without it. So would my son. Between us, we've enjoyed so many games that otherwise wouldn't have been given a second glance if they'd had to have been bought.

While I use it to play big new first-party titles like Forza Horizon 6, the rest of my time on Game Pass is spent trying out a real variety of games. Some casual, some less so. But because I don't need to make a purchase decision, it's easy. And I've found plenty of real gems.

I can't be alone there, either. I really do think that could be an element of what's been seen here with PBA Pro Bowling 2026. Unless you're a hardcore bowler, it was probably never high on your list. But it's a casual game with a recognizable theme that's easy to pick up and play without having to sweat your eyeballs off or devote the next month of your life.

Xbox Game Pass should be like Netflix. Always something new and fun to discover beyond the big hitters we hear about every day. It doesn't need to be filled with day-one releases. Games like this prove that.

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Here's something that I've been investigating for years at this point: Xbox's support services.

One of my personal nightmares as a heavy Microsoft ecosystem user is the prospect of somehow losing my account. I have decades of memories stored in OneDrive, important and crucial documents from everything relating to taxes to medical services. I have thousands of dollars invested in Xbox digital games, movies, and TV shows, and an archive of projects and art work I've built up since I was literally a child — all stored for a hefty annual Microsoft 365 fee.

The problem is, as we're increasingly being reminded, if it's in Microsoft's cloud, you quite literally don't own it. Microsoft can for any reason strip you of access to your account, per their terms of services. What's worse is, Microsoft's own policies seem to suggest that it won't help you either, if you're hacked through no fault of your own. Regulators and national laws have nowhere near caught up on this stuff, and it's becoming a huge problem.

This past week it came to a head somewhat, as a major content creator fell afoul of Microsoft's abysmal support services. He was only able to regain access to his account after luckily going viral. Many hundreds (thousands?) of others aren't so lucky.

You shouldn't need to go viral to save your Microsoft account

Over the past year or more I've been collecting experiences from affected users, banned for dubious reasons, or hacked and then denied support. I've learned all about the Kafka-esque rabbit holes Microsoft's AI-powered support systems send users on, taking them through mazes of dead links and abandoned phone lines. It's simply not good enough, and absolutely needs to change.

One user @ijpex on X told me "it was honestly horrifying" when he began seeing his Microsoft and Xbox account access slip away.

"I remember I tried logging into Minecraft and when I opened the launcher I noticed it had a different email saved. I thought it was weird and tried logging in with my correct email. It said my account didn't exist. Which led to another problem because Microsoft forced Minecraft accounts to be merged. My Microsoft account was shared with my family and we used OneDrive for storage. It also had sensitive information like bank details, passwords, etc. That was when panic really set in to be honest."

@ijpex explained that getting in touch with Microsoft represented a "huge convoluted pain," saving several chats with various support agents, filling in various forms to prove ownership — with questions that required some form of insane eidetic memory for accounts that are particularly old. For some reason, Microsoft didn't seek proof via billing.

He fell afoul of what many many users have fallen afoul of. Microsoft acknowledged that a hack had taken place, but said they couldn't (or wouldn't) do anything about it. Instead, they advised ijpex to start a new account.

As of writing, I've received dozens of accounts similar to the above. I spoke to content creator Joshua Khane who really ended up giving Microsoft a strong kick up the backside about these issues. It was only after going viral that Microsoft seems to have begun giving this a serious look.

Similar to @ijpex above, Khane seems to have been impacted by malware being spread via Minecraft PC mods, via services like CurseForge which are often unverified by Microsoft.

"At that moment, I realized I had lost access to nearly 20 years of digital purchases, achievements, save files, and my OneDrive. That was probably the hardest part. My OneDrive contains irreplaceable family photos of my children, old music projects from the beginning of my career, and videos from performances and studio sessions that simply can’t be replaced."

As you might've expected, Microsoft support basically told him "sorry lol" after admitting that a hack had taken place. They advised Khane to make a new account and buy Minecraft again, taking no responsibility for the decades of lost pictures and documents.

It was only after going viral did Khane get the support he needs.

So, what's Microsoft doing about this?

Microsoft has been grossly underfunding its support services for years now. Speaking to what few people remain at Microsoft's customer services, I've discovered that Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella joined a variety of other major tech firms outsourcing real support to under-trained and under-funded agencies in developing nations, where language and translation issues prevent real help from materializing.

Microsoft has unsurprisingly also been (poorly) leveraging AI and automated responses, leading users in circles. We've seen this across the entire stack at Microsoft, whether it's Microsoft 365, Activision Blizzard games, Xbox itself, Surface, Windows, and beyond. Microsoft is by no means alone here, of course, a major PlayStation content creator Colin Moriarty recently had a similar issue, and was only able to regain access to his account due to his public status. Sony has cast a big spotlight on digital ownership recently, after pledging to ditch physical discs by 2028.

I spoke to a variety of users who have also been banned from all of Microsoft's services for vague "terms of service violations" despite not providing affected users any additional context. Users suggested to me that Microsoft's AI might be flagging legally-stored digital versions of movies and music as piracy, or even innocent childhood family OneDrive pictures as abuse material for example, which is horrifying to think about. And of course, there's no mechanism in place to force Microsoft to put human eyeballs on cases that are potentially more complex.

I feel as though users affected in this way wouldn't have come forward to me for help had they knowingly violated laws. I also feel that if Microsoft itself knew that laws had genuinely been violated, those affected users would be (and potentially should be) getting visits from law enforcement. None of those I spoke to had received visits from law enforcement.

As more and more of our data goes up to cloud services like this, it becomes increasingly critical that regulators and legal bodies re-examine what rights we have to our digital content in my view. AI is also boosting the cadence by which hostile actors can potentially gain unauthorized access to accounts. You'd have to hope Microsoft is cognizant of this, as a one of the companies pushing this tech on society. I've written to EU regulators and the UK CMA to learn what, if anything, they plan to do about it. I'll update if they respond.

Microsoft says it is working with people via X DM messages to resolve account issues, but that isn't exactly a big help for people not on X.

Xbox sources tell me that Microsoft is reviewing how it handles its support flow for situations like the above, although it could be some time before new systems materialize. "If you invested your time and money in a library with us, we want to honor that trust and keep you connected to what you built," I was told by sources familiar with Xbox's plans here.

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Microsoft has a lot of work to bring good cheer back to gamers after its massive restructuring of Xbox laid off 3,200 people, and one of the ways it's doing that is by announcing more games for Xbox Game Pass.

The first half of July 2026's new additions brought Gears of War: Reloaded, so Microsoft decided to follow up by showing that Xbox's other iconic flagship franchise, Halo, will lead the second batch of Xbox Game Pass games with the much-anticipated Halo: Campaign Evolved.

Other notable titles in this line-up include Beast of Reincarnation, an upcoming action-RPG by Game Freak of Pokémon fame, Heretic + Hexen, a classic first-person shooter bundle created by id Software, and Shift at Midnight, a viral indie PC horror game that's coming to Xbox consoles soon.

Here is the full list of Xbox Game Pass titles from July's second batch as stated on Xbox Wire:

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (July 31)

• Back to the Dawn (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Celeste (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Crusader Kings 3 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• My Friendly Neighborhood (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Rain World (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Sniper Elite Resistance (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Whiskerwood (PC)

Windows Central's take

The star of the show here is Halo: Campaign Evolved, an upcoming remake of the original Halo's iconic campaign mode that's set to release on July 28, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

It will feature updated next-gen graphics, a new mission for the campaign, new levels, new gameplay mechanics and weapons to bring it more in line with newer Halo games, while remaking the original game's cinematics and audio and bringing the original game's voice cast to re-record dialogue.

While Halo: Campaign Evolved will not feature the original Halo's PVP multiplayer modes, it will support four-player online co-op and two-player split-screen local co-op (which is my preferred way to play Halo) with cross-platform play for all platforms and cross-progression for the campaign for all platforms during online co-op.

Halo: Campaign Evolved has been shaping up to be a long-awaited return to form for the series as it goes back to basics while also wowing new players with its exciting combat and next-gen visuals,

At the same time, Halo: Campaign Evolved has also been earning goodwill from players incensed by Sony's crusade to kill physical media by announcing that it will launch on discs and provide a Machinima mode for players to create screenshots or fan movies similar to the classic Red Vs. Blue series.

Will Halo: Campaign Evolved be the ultimate comeback for the Halo franchise? Only time will tell when the game drops on July 28, 2026.

What do you think of Xbox Game Pass' second batch of games for July 2026? Which titles are you most looking forward to from this list?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know in the comments, on Reddit, or in the poll.

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Cliff Bleszinski is a legendary name among Xbox fans, as this man was the lead designer behind the original Gears of War trilogy that helped put the Xbox 360 become a dominant force during the mid-to-late 2000s.

Yet, you don't hear from him these days, as he left the video games industry after his game studio, Boss Key Productions, closed down in 2018 due to the company's games Lawbreakers and Radical Heights failing to make enough profit.

However, in a recent interview with 80.Lv, Cliff Bleszinski has said that he wants to work on video games in a full-time capacity.

It's a lengthy interview that provided interesting insights into Cliff Bleszinski's life.

These include his early days shipping shareware games as a teenager before spending the next two decades working at Epic Games, reflecting on Boss Key Productions' rise and fall, and his long-standing alcoholism that spiraled out of control after Boss Key Productions shut down.

In fact, the issue got so bad it caused Cliff Bleszinski to suffer a seizure and land him in the hospital this year in March. After such a traumatic event, Cliff Bleszinski hasn't drunk alcohol since, and during this now four-month sobriety recovery journey, he eventually rediscovered his love for video games.

Cliff Bleszinski has already slowly gotten back into the video game industry in a part-time capacity, working as a consultant for an upcoming asymmetric horror game called Soul Walker, but he wishes to get into the business full-time eventually and "not get pushed into the pool", as he puts it.

Now, Cliff didn't mention what kind of game he's planning to make, but he makes it clear it won't be a PVP game again, as he states, “I'm more of a fan of PvE these days. Horde mode saved Gears 2, and I believe that space is evergreen because players just want to hop online with friends and shoot some stuff, no frills, no questions asked."

He ends the talk with "I’m nowhere near sharing anything specific (about a new game), beyond that, I can’t walk into a Home Depot without seeing a full arsenal at every turn. There’s so much more than just chainsaws.”

Windows Central's take

In some ways, I owe some of my happiest Xbox memories to Cliff Bleszinski, as I still remember gleefully charging into battle against the locust horde with my friends and family in the original Gears of War trilogy that he and his team created.

An experience which, by the way, I hope will be recaptured in the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, as Gears 4 and 5 didn't hit it for me. Although I admit I was blinded by jaded nostalgia for the older games and characters when Gears 4 and 5 came out, so I didn't give them a proper chance (which I'll need to fix at some point).

While I wouldn't mind if Cliff came back to spearhead a spiritual successor to the original Gears of War trilogy, it's ultimately up to him what he wants to make at the end of the day, particularly for the betterment of his own health.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to hear he beat his addiction, as, regardless of your opinions of the man, alcoholism is a slippery slope that can be nearly impossible to come back from if gone too far, and no one should suffer from it.

So I hope that the rest of his sobriety recovery journey goes well and wish him luck on his comeback to video game development.

But what do you think? Do you think Cliff Bleszinski will actually make a full-time comeback into game development? If he does, what do you think his game will be?

If you have any thoughts, please let us know through the poll, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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We're inching ever closer to the official release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and that means it's almost time for fans of the first-person shooter franchise to get their hands on the multiplayer beta for themselves. If you're wondering when and how you can play multiplayer from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, we've got you covered.

Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer beta will span across two separate weekends. Early Access for players who have preordered drops on August 21, immediately following the live broadcast of this year's Call of Duty: NEXT. Early access ends August 25. The Open Beta, which is free and available to all players across all platforms, kicks off the following weekend, on August 28, and lasts until September 1.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Beta

The Early Access beta period for Modern Warfare 4, lasting from August 21 to August 25, is only available to users who preorder any edition of the game. However, some early access beta codes have been awarded to players for tuning in to Call of Duty live stream events like the recent Fanatics Fest showcase.

A strict start time for the beta has not yet been revealed, though the official Call of Duty blog does confirm it will be immediately following this year's Call of Duty: NEXT broadcast for the first time ever.

The early access weekend event is only for preorders on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC editions of the game on Steam, Battle.Net, and Xbox on PC.

Open betas for previous Call of Duty titles, including Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7, were included in the official Call of Duty HQ launcher as updates. The beta for Modern Warfare 4 will most likely be accessed in a similar fashion.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta

If you're hesitant to preorder Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and you aren't able to get your hands on an early access beta code, the open beta is for you. Everybody on all platforms — including the Nintendo Switch 2 for the very first time — will be able to squad up and experience Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer beta starting August 28 until September 1.

No preorders or special codes are required; simply install Call of Duty HQ for access during the open beta window.

Multiplayer Beta access expectations

Call of Duty beta access windows typically provide us with the first public hands-on for multiplayer maps, modes, and weapons. It's a chance for players to experience the game's gunplay and movement mechanics before the full launch while also providing valuable feedback to the dev team for pre-launch fine-tuning. Treyarch famously reconsidered door placement for Black Ops 6 following feedback from the beta.

However, we shouldn't expect every Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer map and mode that will be available at launch to be playable during the early access or open beta periods. It is normal for these access periods to offer pared-down playlists, limited only to core modes. Those of us who like the hardcore playlists will have to wait until launch for some sweet one-shot action, but it is still worth checking out the beta to get a handle on gunplay and a feel for Modern Warfare 4's changes to movement.

I previously went hands-on with Modern Warfare 4 in its alpha state, and I found the gameplay to be a bit slower than what we've seen during Black Ops 6 and 7's tandem eras while still keeping encounters exciting. Significant changes to weapon sights have alleviated many of the past Modern Warfare titles' gunplay frustrations, and the new Kill Block map is an exciting innovation on small map mayhem.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, launches on October 23 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam, Battle.Net, and Xbox on PC.

Preorders for the standard edition or the Vault edition unlock early access to the beta from August 21-25 on all platforms except the Nintendo Switch 2. Preordering also unlocks early access to the Modern Warfare 4 campaign starting October 16. The open beta goes live August 28-September 1 for all platforms.

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What's Xbox's strategy for exclusive games? Microsoft itself doesn't really seem sure.

In a new interview with our friends at GamesRadar+, two Xbox C-suite figures offered some mixed messaging on exactly what Xbox fans should expect out of their exclusive games play.

Xbox fans wholly rejected the idea of having the only gaming platform in history without any form of exclusive content. It was the first thing new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma addressed when she got the job, immediately turning around and making Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution permanent Xbox console exclusives. What's happening beyond that, though?

Here's what Xbox execs had to say on the topic, although I'm more confused now than I was previously.

Xbox will get exclusive games. Some. Randomly, apparently?

Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball emphasized strongly that there will be more exclusives for Xbox players beyond Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution. He noted that, indeed, you can't really grow a platform without exclusive stuff — which is something I feel literally anyone on Earth should've known.

"This specific decision was made very early. Asha believes that to build a platform, you must have exclusive services and software — in this case, games. And so to return our platform to consistent growth, we need a reliable pipeline of exclusive games."

"I can assure you, Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are not the only titles we're planning. To grow a platform like ours, you have to have exclusive games and services. These are not going to be the only two titles."

People are speculating about exactly what that might mean.

There has been some suggestion that Xbox might follow PlayStation's stated model, of single-player games being exclusive, while multiplayer games remain multi-platform. After this past week and Bethesda's announcements, many are wondering if that might mean Fallout and The Elder Scrolls VI.

"I wouldn't overly fixate on single-player," Booty said. I think that's a good rule of thumb, but it certainly isn't something that's carved in stone."

"We are the stewards of over 20 game franchises that have made a billion dollars in their lifetime. There are a lot of different games in our portfolio, and we have to think about how different games serve different purposes within it."

Ball then chimed in, "We have a framework for these selections, including how we evaluate them. I recognize that this approach is not obvious to all of our players, and we are committed to making this clearer."

... "Not obvious" indeed.

Exclusives are about setting expectations, if Xbox can't do that then why even bother?

Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution both look amazing, and I'm confident they will be amazing. But Gears of War has almost always been exclusive to Xbox, and Clockwork Revolution is an unknown quantity with the wider audience. I would bet money Microsoft doesn't put up the marketing budget necessary to help Clockwork Revolution cut through the noise either.

I really feel like only heavy-hitters like The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Halo, and Fallout are going to move the needle in any direction here. The massive audiences, the TV show mainstream reach ... the decades of fandom and embedded history. These are the only types of games that could come close to delivering new users to the Xbox ecosystem. It's not about gatekeeping either — this is about whether or not Xbox actually wants to have platform "growth," as Matthew Ball says.

The problem in the near term is that there's a memory crisis going on, and that it's not a hot look on a spreadsheet to be selling consoles at all right now. Each Xbox Series X|S sold incurs a loss even after the price hike. If those users only pick up the console for a single game, or a couple of games, or maybe even three games ... you potentially don't even break even. Furthermore, it's not something the studios would likely want either. No access to PlayStation's massive install base would harm their bottom lines too.

When you can't sell consoles and break even, and your cost of user acquisition is higher than ever ... the road to better margins is selling games everywhere you can, be it Xbox, PlayStation, or beyond. But ... Xbox will keep bleeding users in that universe, maybe even irrevocably. It would end up ceding even more control to potentially hostile rival tech companies. It's self-defeating over time, and it might be impossible to fix now.

The economics are very difficult in the short term, but I feel like if Microsoft doesn't absorb the short-term pain, it'll end up with a far bigger and potentially far less workable problem. The memory crisis won't be forever, and this piecemeal approach to exclusivity doesn't set expectations particularly well for future potential customers.

To convert a non-Xbox user to a full-time Xbox user, you need more than new IP and franchises that have historically been exclusive already. You need a coherent, visible strategy that sets expectations for the platform for non-users. You need visible, known franchises that market themselves by virtue of simply existing. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the point is.

It'll be interesting to see how Xbox actually approaches this in the future, but Matthew Ball and Matt Booty's vague comments aren't helpful.

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It's been a while since I last reviewed a GameSir controller. Despite the brand being indisputably my first choice for a budget-friendly option, I often felt like I was repeating myself regarding what I liked and disliked. Great controllers, packing in the latest TMR stick technology, yet would always fall at the final hurdle: missing wireless on Xbox.

Well, recently the GameSir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl caught my eye, not just because of its gorgeous pastel cotton candy colors, but because it states wireless for Xbox on the box. In my experience, wireless GameSir controllers have typically required a cable to the console, but I was over the moon to find out this one simply needed a dongle to work wirelessly.

Could this finally be my perfect GameSir controller? Well, spoiler: nearly! But let me elaborate.

Gamesir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl: Price, availability and specs

The GameSir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl comes in at a respectable $89.99 MSRP, which isn't as cheap as many others within the brand's range, but it's also pretty damn cheap for a controller with TMR sticks. At the time of writing, it was out of stock on GameSir's official website, and for some reason, was listed at $135.00.

Now, I haven't been told of any price increases, so I can only include that as a placeholder until the controller comes back into stock. It's also available on Amazon, though it moves in and out of stock sporadically. It seems that, despite the controller having what I would say is a "love or hate it" design, it's actually very popular.

The controller comes with a charging dock, and for specs, I'll break down what you get for your ~$90:

• Tri-mode connectivity (so it works on Xbox, PC, and Android, combining Bluetooth, a 2.4 GHz dongle, and a USB-C cable if you need it
• GameSir's magnetic TMR sticks, so there's no worry of stick drift
• Hall-Effect analog triggers and dual-stage trigger stops
• Two rear remappable buttons
• Membrane ABXY and D-pad
• 4 integrated rumble motors
• 6-axis gyroscope for PC
• 1,050 mAh battery
• RGB lighting!

Gamesir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl: What's good

Whether a design is "good" or "bad" comes down to personal taste. I love some pastel colors, and this design is really eye-catching — certainly better than anything I could put together in the Xbox Design Lab for twice the cost, so I am down with the "Sugar Whirl" aesthetic. On to using the controller, it's remarkably lightweight for a wireless joypad, but not so light it feels cheap. It's a real pleasure to use, and feels ergonomically sound in the hand.

The sticks, being TMR, are smooth as butter to use. If you don't know what TMR is, it's the very scientific-sounding "tunneling magnetoresistance", which, in short, is the most recent version of the Hall-Effect.

The longer explanation is that, instead of relying on physical contact to judge movement, they use magnetic fields and electrical resistance. Much more precise for shooting and racing games, hence the "pro" tag on this controller. Do I need TMR sticks to play PalWorld and Diablo 4? Absolutely not, but it feels good, and because of the tech, I don't need to worry about stick drift six months down the line.

While I do prefer having trigger stops with 3 settings, having 2 isn't a deal breaker, and they are pretty effective. The rear buttons, like with all GameSir controllers I've tried, also sit in the perfect position for my middle fingers, and the textured plastic on the handles keeps the controller secure in my hands.

Not that I play many sweaty shooter sessions — but I've endured heatwave after heatwave here in the United Kingdom.

The charging dock is simply lovely, and the controller snaps into place for charging when I'm not using it (though it could be more magnetic and firm like Razer if I had to nitpick; but at this price, I can't complain).

I don't have to worry about messing with play-and-charge kits or changing batteries. It also has a hidden compartment to house the USB dongle, which saves me from losing it amongst the myriad other dongles in my house.

Speaking of USB dongles, yes, this does require that to be wireless with Xbox, but I can say that it still powers on your Xbox from the controller. Besides, being able to store the dongle away when not using it, in a place that actually makes sense, means I can't be mad at it not being Microsoft's proprietary tech — which they keep under lock and key.

I'm just over the moon to finally have a GameSir controller I can both use and recommend that works wirelessly and seamlessly with my Xbox.

Gamesir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl: What's bad

Unfortunately, in true GameSir fashion, they can never give me absolutely everything I love about their controllers in ONE controller. They give wireless in one hand, but take away the micro-switch buttons I love from the Kaleid range.

So the ABXY and D-pad buttons are fine, but I know they can do SO much better because membrane just feels lacking after using the clicky loveliness of microswitch. Additionally, controllers like the GameSir G7 Pro have a rubberized finish on the grips, which just feels that bit more premium, like the Elite controllers, and this controller relies simply on a textured back.

If these two things were changed, this controller would have gone from a 4.5 to a 5 for me, but at a 4.5 it's still a bloody great controller, and I'm using it as my daily driver right now despite those two nitpicks.

Gamesir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl: The competition

At $89.99, the T7 Pro Sugar Whirl sits in a very specific, fiercely competitive sweet spot. It is no longer a bare-bones budget option, but it undercuts the heavy hitters like the Xbox Elite Series 2 by a mile. If you love the dock and the true wireless freedom but aren't entirely sold on the pastel aesthetics or the membrane buttons, here are two of its biggest rivals to consider:

The 8BitDo Ultimate 3-Mode Xbox Controller (Hall-Effect Edition) is priced at $69.99 and is what I would consider the most direct competitor to this on the market (for which I also have a review coming up soon).

Like the Sugar Whirl, the 8BitDo Ultimate offers true wireless Xbox play via a 2.4GHz dongle and comes bundled with its own seamless charging dock.

While it features standard Hall-Effect sticks instead of the slightly newer TMR tech, you would be hard-pressed to notice the difference in daily gameplay.

Where it beats the GameSir is the price, coming in around $20 cheaper, and its body features a slightly more traditional, textured matte finish. However, its back buttons are a bit smaller and more recessed, meaning the GameSir still wins out on rear-button ergonomics.

I've no experience with the Flydigi range, but I'd be remiss not to mention the Flydigi Vader 4 Pro, which comes up in pretty much any controller enthusiast conversation.

If you aren't really bothered about the Xbox connection, and simply want reasonably priced, and crucially, mechanical microswitch buttons, you can grab this for $79.99.

It has a mouse-click tactile response, as well as adjustable sticks that let you adjust the resistance to your taste. It doesn't come with a charging dock out of the box, but it's a solid choice around this price range.

Gamesir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You've been waiting for a wireless Xbox controller from GameSir

You can finally ditch the long USB-C cable across the living room floor; the included 2.4GHz dongle gives you seamless, couch-friendly wireless play.

✅ You want a premium charging setup on a budget

The included charging dock with its hidden dongle storage is so convenient for keeping your setup tidy and ensuring you never pick up a dead controller.

✅ You are tired of stick drift

The cutting-edge TMR magnetic sticks mean you get top-tier precision for shooting or racing games without worrying about the sticks wearing down six months down the line.

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You absolutely love clicky, mechanical face buttons

If you've been spoiled by the micro-switches on GameSir's Kaleid range, the traditional membrane ABXY buttons and D-pad on this model might feel a bit too mushy for your taste.

❌ The pastel aesthetic isn't your vibe

The 'Sugar Whirl' design is a "love it or hate it" look. If you prefer a stealthy, understated controller on your desk, this bright palette will stick out like a sore thumb.

Ultimately, the GameSir T7 Pro Sugar Whirl has officially stolen the crown as my new daily driver, and it’s going to take something pretty special to dethrone it.

While it still represents that classic GameSir dilemma, giving me wireless freedom in one hand while snatching away my beloved micro-switch buttons with the other, it gets closer to perfection than any budget controller has the right to.

I remain endlessly hopeful that one day the team at GameSir will finally combine all my favorite features into a single, flawless pad, but until that day comes, this is a pretty damn close second.

It’s genuinely brilliant to see them constantly showing up Microsoft by packing this much high-tier tech into a sub-$90 bundle, and long may it continue.

Today, Bethesda offered a big update on how the studio is mapping its future.

Xbox's massive cuts have left many of its subsidiaries reeling, with fans worried that Microsoft may have cut the legs off many of the industry's most beloved franchises. id Software sought to reassure fans on the topic this week, and now Bethesda is also doing its bit on top.

Bethesda just confirmed in a big note that Elder Scrolls VI is coming along nicely and hitting milestones, Starfield will continue to get new content, and finally, Fallout is getting a ton of new projects. Fallout 5 is in pre-production, Obsidian is returning with its own Fallout spin-off, and Fallout 3 and New Vegas are getting remakes, confirming our previous reporting.

One piece of news that might go under the radar here a bit is on Creation Engine 3, which Bethesda is developing specifically for Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5. I recently caught up with Todd Howard to learn a bit more about how the studio is positioning Creation Engine 3, Creation Club, and how it's becoming an increasingly critical part of Bethesda's future.

"I can't say enough about our tech team. It's just incredible."

Creation Engine has been a bit controversial in some corners, with some gamers feeling it lacks the fidelity of engines like Unreal or the cinematic qualities of in-house engines like RE Engine.

Creation Engine has always been more of a sandbox play in my view, designed for extensibility first and foremost and rapid iteration on huge-scale worlds. It's also designed for modding at its core, with Creation Club members earning over $10 million in revenue since the platform's inception.

I caught up with Todd Howard recently to talk about a variety of topics, including how Creation Engine 3 is being leveraged in Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls VI, and how he's thinking about the platform given the rise of Roblox and Minecraft's own platform-extensible features.

"When we build these worlds, it starts with the tech. A lot of people think engine, they think rendering, but there's so much more that goes into it from a tool side and a system side," Todd explains.

"For the kind of worlds that we want to build and also knowing that we were going to be doing Fallout 5, and just how do we do those simultaneously in a way where it's not start and stop. And we're really happy. I can't say enough about our tech team. It's just incredible. Our designers ask for so much crazy stuff, and our tech team finds a way to do it. And I think that's really defined our games where you feel like anything is possible."

I mentioned the stat Bethesda brought up: $10 million has been paid out to creators in the Creation Club program across games like Fallout 4 and Starfield. Given the rise of Roblox as a user-generated content juggernaut, I asked if these industry shifts have informed how Creation Engine 3 will show up.

"If you go back, something we've been super passionate about since we sort of started this run with Morrowind, I was adamant that I wanted the Elder Scrolls Construction Set to come with the game, like as a separate disc. And we've been doing it for decades. We have a creator group that have been doing it for decades, it's what's kept games like Skyrim alive after fifteen years.

It harkens back to when you played D&D and you can make your own adventures. That spirit of creation. It takes a lot of different flavors, so it's really about supporting all those different flavors. I think we're in an awesome spot with Creations, with verified creators, and they're getting that revenue. It has risen all boats, free modding too, with those things being more popular. You see people who maybe they were a hobbyist on the side now becoming a professional. The the content in there blows us away. They just do an incredible job. And for some, now this is their career, and that makes us ecstatic."

Could Creation Club and Creation Engine be another answer to Xbox's Roblox problem?

On the Xbox layoffs, Todd Howard lamented for friends who will no longer remain at the studio with visible hurt, but noted that the game industry more broadly is undergoing a massive shift. He called back to 2016, just before the Xbox acquisition, on Bethesda's sprint towards mobile and multiplayer as gamers seemed to be shifting away from single-player titles en masse.

That similar change now revolves around user-generated content in a lot of ways. Roblox is now bigger than Steam and PlayStation combined, as creators build out entire games and worlds and build entire businesses inside Roblox itself. Bethesda's Creation Club was a pioneer in that space to some degree, alongside Minecraft, giving the modding community ways to turn their hobbies and passions into careers that pay the bills.

It'll be interesting to see how Creation Engine 3 shows up in Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls VI, but we're probably going to be waiting a while to see how it all shakes out.

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It's a little conspicuous that, in among all the strategy changes at Xbox thus far, new CEO Asha Sharma hasn't mentioned Xbox Game Pass all that much.

Inspired by the Netflix and Spotify era, Xbox built Game Pass, as an all-you-can-eat subscription service serving everything from AAA blockbusters to hidden indie gems. During its heyday, it was hailed as "the best value in gaming," and often times seemed too good to be true. Increasingly, it looks like it might be the case.

Xbox's huge cuts this past month have been driven in large part due to a decline in Game Pass revenue and a decline in Call of Duty, so I'm told. Last year's Black Ops 7 didn't resonate as dominantly as the franchise previously has, as strong competition from Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders ate into its traditional user base. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 still went on to sell monstrous amounts, but the operation is so vast and expensive, even small disruptions can have big consequences.

Indeed, the fact Call of Duty showed up in Xbox Game Pass disrupted the business model at both ends. Fewer people purchased Call of Duty outright, and the Game Pass price hike to pay for it led to an exodus of users over time, disrupting both business models quite heavily. There are various other factors, but that's the core of what went down, ultimately. As user behavior evolves, is Xbox Game Pass now having a net negative impact on Xbox's overall operation?

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier discussed sentiments I've also heard about Xbox Game Pass' impact on Microsoft's gaming studios, in no uncertain terms.

"There are a lot of people out there in studio leadership within Xbox who absolutely detest Game Pass," Schreier said on his Triple Click Podcast, "[They] think it has destroyed the value of their games, think it has taken away the value from all games in general and has been a detriment to the games industry in those people's view, because of how it devalues games."

I was curious what my own sources felt on the topic. Speaking to a former Xbox studio lead, they were pretty upfront about echoing what Schreier reported: "Giving games away for 'free' in Game Pass from day 1 sends a message to consumers that the games don't have inherent market value. It almost creates an assumption that these titles could not sell on their own," one said. "It felt like a race to zero."

I asked another former Xbox lead with intimate knowledge of the Game Pass strategy previously, who explained that the idea around the whole platform was to offer core games a stable revenue stream as many core users increasingly opt for free-to-play titles, or wait for deep cuts and sales, such as those often found on Steam.

They explained that Xbox has an engagement formula it uses to allocate profits from Xbox Game Pass back to studios. Although some studio figures I've spoken to feel that these accounting mechanisms aren't transparent, nor are they motivating for studios — whose bonuses have traditionally been tied to direct sales rather than oft-vague "engagement" metrics.

Circana Player Engagement Tracker US MAU charts for June 2026:- Meccha Chameleon debuted on top of the Steam US monthly active user chart- Destiny 2 jumped to 5th from 32nd in May on Steam- Where Winds Meet launched in top 10 on Xbox with Game Pass release

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T13:46:40.715Z

Despite Xbox Game Pass, it is true that the top 10 most-played charts are generally dominated by the same handful of free-to-play titles, or service titles, that monetize primarily via bite-sized microtransactions. Xbox Game Pass was designed to encourage users who are perhaps less inclined to spent $70 on a full priced title to try something outside of their typical free-to-play habits.

There was a time early in Xbox Game Pass' life where the instant-audience Game Pass would grant helped games achieve free-to-play-like virality, actually boosting retail sales. As Xbox Game Pass habits become embedded and expectations become set, it seems the positive impacts of Xbox Game Pass become increasingly difficult to quantify.

It's true that Xbox Game Pass by itself is driving billions in revenue for Microsoft, and consumers obviously love it. Many independent developers have remarked on funds from Xbox Game Pass as being a financial lifeline, too. But, Xbox is not exactly transparent about how the profits are allocated to first-party studios, even internally it seems from those I've spoken to on the topic.

If Game Pass is subsidizing studios over retail sales, the harm of any potential decline seems to be distributed across the board, even across studios and teams that might've otherwise had good years in a traditionalist retail model. That is speculative, though, given how opaque the Xbox Game Pass business model is. We don't have a crystal ball to deduce how well a game might've performed outside of Game Pass, as well.

Jason Schreier speculates that Microsoft might move away from its day one Xbox Game Pass model. Microsoft hasn't signalled intent to do that (yet), but the fact that it will no longer include the latest Call of Duty titles in the service could be a hint.

I suspect what we might get instead is some sort of "build your own" Xbox Game Pass, where users can pay a premium for titles like Call of Duty, Forza Horizon, or even things like World of Warcraft's or Minecraft's subscriptions on an à la carte basis. Microsoft's Xbox margins are being crushed by a variety of crises, whether it's tariffs, supply chain problems, geopolitical issues, or the on-going memory crisis. Microsoft has also seen interest in its Xbox hardware reach unprecedented declines, owing to the fact it pivoted away from any form of exclusive content.

Xbox Game Pass has remained a bright spot in Microsoft's overall gaming offering with consumers. Even as exclusive games failed to materialize, games got cancelled, and price hikes bit, Xbox fans and customers could usually point to Xbox Game Pass as a reason to stick with the platform. That changed when Microsoft hiked its price to $30 last year to offset Call of Duty potential losses. Without a strong line-up of exclusive titles, Microsoft is likely cautious to do harm to one of the only unique selling points Xbox Series X|S consoles have left.

RELATED: Xbox's Todd Howard on the future of Fallout, Starfield, and The Elder Scrolls

Right now I would imagine Microsoft is looking at every lever it can pull to boost up Xbox's margins. It has angled for devastating and potentially self-defeating layoffs in the short term. We've seen price hikes on hardware. I suspect addressing ways to tighten up the Xbox Game Pass model might be next.

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Today, Bethesda moved to reassure fans that its upcoming games, Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls VI, are still trucking along.

Microsoft's absolutely massive cuts to its Xbox division have left fans wondering if the developers left are enough to even reproduce the kind of quality we've come to expect at the AAA level. DOOM studio id Software sent a note to fans yesterday on the topic, and now Bethesda has followed up with its own.

Bethesda said that it's still working on Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls VI, alongside new content for Starfield. The firm also revealed that Obsidian's Fallout project has been greenlit and that fans of Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online can also expect new content in the coming months.

I got a chance to speak to studio director Todd Howard about how Bethesda is navigating this unprecedented time in the games industry, and how the studio hopes to show up in the future.

"Very difficult, very difficult for our teams."

I asked Todd Howard how the studio is doing, given Xbox's cuts. Many Bethesda, Obsidian, id Software, and other veterans from across the Xboxosphere were let go in the past couple of weeks, alarming fans and industry insiders alike.

"I've been doing this a long time, whenever you've worked with people for, in some cases, many decades, and they're no longer here, that's really personally very difficult, and very difficult for our teams."

Howard called back to other difficult periods in Bethesda's tenure, noting its struggle to land a big hit in the 90s before Morrowind. And also before the Xbox acquisition, where Bethesda came under pressure to produce mobile games and multiplayer service titles as tastes changed.

"If I think back, and people hear me say this internally, Bethesda is turning 40 this year. There have been difficult periods, I look at like Bethesda 1.0 from kind of 86 to 99. I was there for that. We had to change who we were and how we did some things then. And then we kind of became ZeniMax and did a bunch of things, and then we had to change again in 2016. Moving to different studios ... how do we support these franchises?

"I think we're at another change moment for how we support each other, and what we do with these games and for our fans."

Finding optimism in an uncertain games industry

I asked Todd Howard how he stays optimistic given the way the game industry is shifting. More and more younger users are choosing Roblox over traditional gaming options, for example, and big companies have come under increasing pressure to find megahits to stay afloat in the face of inflation, tariffs, the memory crisis, and other issues.

"The wider industry, this is not an Xbox comment, really. You know, you see it going on across the gaming industry," Todd explained. "So it's a wider industry thing — level setting, figuring out how some things are going to work in the future."

"If I zoom out from the video game industry, I look at who was nominated for Game of the Year last year. As someone in the industry, I was so proud of that list, and what it says about what's being created, and the creativity. There were periods of times where a lot of the games were kind of getting samey. You worry things like, 'will adventure games ever have a home in the future, or this, or that, will this type of game finds success?' And so on. And so from kind of a creative standpoint, as far as the content that's being made out there. As a player, it's been really good."

Todd Howard said that he generally doesn't use social media, but does say he reads commentary on Reddit to get the lay of the land. He said that seeing the quality of the work his teams are putting together drives his optimism, as Bethesda looks ahead to Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls VI, and beyond.

"I think I have the benefit of being able to work [in the games industry], I see the work we're doing. So, I get to be there with the team and see the passion, see us channelling how we do better every week. Crafting games that we absolutely love. It's easy for me to be optimistic when I when I look at the work."

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Zenless Zone Zero, the once-PlayStation-exclusive action game by the creators of Genshin Impact, has announced it will be making its way onto Xbox on PC with cross-platform Xbox Play Anywhere support between the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming on July 29, 2026.

In addition, the game will be receiving a massive Version 3.1 content update titled "The Long Goodbye" on the same day it launches on Xbox on PC.

This update will include new questlines for its storyline and a new playable character called Remielle Dan, an S-Rank Anomaly Agent who is the very first Lumiflux attribute agent who can adapt her damage output depending on her team composition.

In addition, the S-Rank Ice Attack Agent Sigrid will also become playable in this update.

As part of Zenless Zone Zero's 2nd anniversary celebrations, the game will allow players to select and obtain one of five S-Rank agents (Jane, Soldier 0/Anby, Hugo, Trigger, or Lucia) and receive their corresponding exclusive W-Engine weapons.

On top of that, this update will introduce a new game mode called Enigma of the Labyrinth: Operation Bagel, 1,600 Polychrome login rewards, and up to 20 signal searches to find across the full game.

With Zenless Zone Zero now available on Xbox on PC, Xbox players will now have even more ways to enjoy the rich story, beloved characters, and addictive combat of this popular gacha action game on any compatible Xbox device, no matter where they are.

Zenless Zone Zero is also available on iOS and Android mobile devices, PlayStation 5, and PC via Epic Games Store and the Hoyoverse, with full cross-play support between each system and the Xbox platforms.

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Today, Bethesda offered an update on its studio, following Xbox's brutal cuts across its games business.

Microsoft is laying off thousands of gaming staffers and contractors in its gaming operation, as bets on Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty, and multi-platform games didn't pan out. To that end, many fans have been worrying that the future is bleak for games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, as ZeniMax seemed disproportionately targeted by management.

In a note shared by Bethesda today, the firm not only confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI is coming along nicely, but also that Starfield and Fallout will continue to be built upon. Not only that, but Fallout 5 is now in pre-production, and Fallout 3 and New Vegas will get Oblivion-style remakes, confirming my previous reporting.

Fans will also be excited to learn that Obsidian's long-rumored Fallout project has now been fully greenlit, and is being developed in collaboration with Bethesda.

"The wasteland continues to expand as we team up once again with our longtime friends at Obsidian Entertainment," Bethesda remarked. "We're happy to confirm they're working with us on a new Fallout project. We'll have more to share in the future."

Details on the Obsidian Fallout project have been rumored for a while. In my own research, I learned that Obsidian had been building a prototype on the side for as long as two years, pending collaboration with Bethesda.

Update (July 17, 2026): To clarify, sources felt that this project (which was not officially Fallout by name) was very Fallout-y in nature, to the point where there were debates at the upper levels of Xbox Games Studios about whether or not it should be made in Unreal or Creation Engine. I was told that Obsidian's previous project wasn't officially Fallout, at least in part because Todd Howard wanted to be involved in any potential formal Obsidian-Bethesda collaboration on the IP. It purportedly wasn't possible at the time due to the various on-going commitments to the Fallout TV show, Elder Scrolls 6, and Starfield. It does sound like the extent to which the previous incubated apocalypse-style franchise was potentially "Fallout-adjacent" amounts to a matter of perspective to onlookers, but Obsidian is obviously very cognizant of fans' long-time hopes for them to return to the genre.

With Xbox's CEO Asha Sharma signalling intent to speed up production on Fallout titles, it seemed increasingly inevitable that more spin-off projects like New Vegas and 76 would emerge.

I caught up with Todd Howard in an exclusive interview yesterday to learn more about the plans, and talk about the "mythology" fans often curate surrounding some kind of rivalry between Obsidian and Bethesda.

"I appreciate some of the fan chatter, but behind the scenes, there's a huge amount of like mutual respect [between us]. We're always wondering if we could find a way to work together in the right way. And when those things come up, I think I definitely look at the franchise all up, as you see in the note, everything that's kind of happening with Fallout."

"You sort of say, is there a way or a window or a pocket where we could do something together that really, really made sense? And so we're super excited about the opportunity, working together."

I asked about the possibility of other spin-offs, given that under Xbox, you now have Fallout legends like Tim Cain and Brian Fargo of InXile all under one roof. Could we see a return to an isometric-style tactical CRPG Fallout, given the success of Baldur's Gate 3 more recently? Todd Howard's response, 'never say never.'

"Sometimes you find your way there and sometimes you don't, or you do it later. It takes time. You mentioned the Fallout show. And that was a 10-year journey. As a caretaker of these things, the number one job is to make sure we serve the franchise as best we can."

Todd Howard couldn't give us more details on what Obsidian's Fallout might look like, as it's still early on. I've been investigating rumors that it would be built in Unreal Engine, although given Bethesda's focus on growing Creation Club, perhaps that could change. I asked whether or not it would be multiplatform or Xbox exclusive on console, but Todd Howard said again, they'll announce those things "when the time is right."

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Good news often comes in threes, and that could be true for fans of Starfield, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout today.

Just now, Xbox studio Bethesda offered a massive update on its plans for its big three properties, and we caught up with studio director, Todd Howard, to learn more context about what fans can expect.

"We love making these worlds as much as you love playing in them," the note reads. "Today, we want to share what's next for Bethesda Game Studios and what you can expect from us in the years ahead."

For forty years, we've built games that have entertained almost half a billion players. More than just games, these are worlds. Worlds for you to explore, shape, and make your own. Worlds we return to together. That's what's driving us forward."

Bethesda said that it's making the investments to bring its core teams "closer together" with a view of building titles faster, provide them support for longer, for "decades to come."

Here's an overview of what was announced.

• On Fallout: Bethesda confirmed that it is working towards Fallout 5, which is now in pre-production.
• Bethesda confirmed my previous reporting that Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas will get full remakes in the future, but didn't announce dates.
• Bethesda also confirmed that Obsidian is returning to Fallout with its very own spin-off game, and said more info would come in the future.
• Fallout 76 will get a "huge" new DLC called Raven Rock, which will serve as a prequel to Fallout 3.
• Starfield is slated for more content, with a Starborn DLC on the horizon, and more tools and features to boost Creation Club content. Bethesda says Starfield remains "an important part of our future."
• Elder Scrolls 6 is progressing nicely, and Todd says that the studio is "where they want to be" on the game's development timeline — but don't expect it any time soon.
• Elder Scrolls Online will continue to get new seasons, and Zenimax Online Studios will be more directly integrated into Bethesda proper to improve collaboration.
• Elder Scrolls VI is Bethesda's current primary focus, "we're where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing every day."
• A big part of the wait revolves around Creation Engine 3, which Bethesda has been developing specifically to boost simultaneous franchise development and improve Creation Club tooling.

Todd Howard spoke to us about the Xbox cuts, huge respect for Obsidian, and video game industry challenges

When I got the call that I'd be speaking to Todd Howard, I admit I was a bit floored. I've been doing this for over a decade at this point, and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would lead to an on-the-record chat with one of gaming's most prominent.

Todd Howard has been stewarding Bethesda franchises since 1994, but solidified his place in gaming legend with the release of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, back in 2000. The game industry looks wildly different now than it did back then, but Bethesda has always managed to adapt to changing times.

Top of mind for me, and I suspect most of the Xbox faithful right now is Microsoft's huge cuts to the gaming operation, which seem to have disproportionately fell into ZeniMax's lap. I asked Howard how he and the team was doing, given what's going on.

"Great question," Howard says, looking visibly sorrowful. "I've been doing this a long time, whenever you've worked with people for, in some cases, many decades, and they're no longer here, that's really personally very difficult, and difficult for our teams."

Howard referred to previously difficult times in Bethesda history. During the 90s, Bethesda struggled to make it into the big time, and just before the firm was acquired by Microsoft, it had struggled out a variety of multiplayer-adjacent and mobile titles in attempts to join the "service game" gold rush, to mixed success.

"We had to change who we were and how we did some things then. And then we kind of became ZeniMax and did a bunch of things, and then we had to change again in 2016. Moving to different studios ... how do we support these franchises? And I think we're at another change moment for how we support each other, and what we do with these games and for our fans."

Speaking of fans, I couldn't help but mention Obsidian's return to Fallout. Obsidian made Fallout New Vegas, which is among the most beloved entries in the storied Fallout canon. Fans love it for its reactive world and true choice and consequence, something many feel Fallout 4 pulled back on. I asked Todd Howard how the collaboration with Obsidian came about, and what he thinks of the online mythology surrounding a purported rivalry.

"I appreciate some of the fan chatter, but behind the scenes, there's a huge amount of like mutual respect [between Bethesda and Obsidian]. We're always kind of wondering if we could find a way to work together in the right way. And when those things come up, I think I definitely look at the franchise all up, as you see in the note, everything that's kind of happening with Fallout."

"You sort of say, is there a way or a window or a pocket where we could do something together that really, really made sense? And so we're super excited about the opportunity, working together."

Todd remarked about how Obsidian's work flow mirrors Bethesda's, with a core team that have been together for decades. I noted how there's so much legendary Fallout alumni at Xbox now, with Tim Cain at Obsidian, and Brian Fargo at InXile. I asked if we could see even more projects emerge in the future, like an isometric Fallout 1 remake from InXile, for example. Howard remarked that Xbox teams are "pretty in sync," and they've seen and heard every idea for Fallout spin-offs.

"Sometimes you find your way there and sometimes you don't, or you do it later. It takes time. You mentioned the Fallout show. And that was a 10-year journey. As a caretaker of these things, the number one job is to make sure we serve the franchise as best we can."

The future hold for Starfield, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls fans

I didn't have a ton of time with Todd Howard (albeit hugely appreciated), and many of my questions were simply too far afield for answers.

I asked Todd Howard if The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 would be going exclusive to Xbox, given Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's mandate to grow the Xbox hardware ecosystem. He said it was too early to comment. I asked if we could get a timeline for Elder Scrolls VI launch window, but again, it sounded like the game is still too far away to put a landing strip on paper. I asked what engine Obsidian's Fallout game would be using (Unreal or Creation Engine?), but he said more would be revealed at a later date.

I think ultimately, today, Bethesda really wanted to reassure its fans that Xbox's cuts haven't decimated the studio. We've seen other Xbox studios like id Software put out statements on the topic, for example, as rumors run rife, and long-tenured staff with decades of experience and millions of dollars in sales to their names get ousted.

With the memory crisis ongoing, the AI build-out harming Microsoft's financials, and the saturation of the attention economy, it's a tough time for gaming. There's more content than ever, but also more competition than ever. It sounds as though Bethesda is pouring everything it can into making The Elder Scrolls VI another landmark hit for the studio, but we might still be waiting more than a hot minute to get our hands on it.

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Id Software has been through the wringer this month, as it was one of the many casualties of Xbox's big "reset" that laid off 3,200 game devs, which caused it to lose 136 of its workforce.

id Software quickly responded by saying that despite its loss of staff, it still has the essential crew needed to make more DOOM games and that its team is roughly the same size as it was when it made DOOM (2016).

Plenty of fans weren't entirely convinced by this statement, so id Software's Studio Head, Hugo Martin, decided to reassure the fanbase directly during a YouTube livestream playthrough of DOOM: The Dark Ages | Livestream hosted by id Software's Senior Community Lead, Joshua Boyle.

During this livestream, Hugo Martin stated that “There have been reports that we've been nerfed into the ground and gutted, and we are not; we have 50 people, and that's not true. We're the size we were when we made Doom 2016, and IDTech is very much alive and well."

Hugo continues, "You have to understand, we have idTech engineers both in Frankfurt and, you know, at Machine Games; we collaborate quite a bit. So, you know, the IDTech is there, the Doom team is here, and we're excited to work on; to share with you guys more of what we're working on in the future when it is appropriate and approved.”

Windows Central's take

Reactions to id Software's layoffs have been universally reviled by the gaming community. Fans have sent harsh criticisms to Microsoft via its Player Voice Feedback platform (while being spurned by Bethesda's Union), and one former id Software developer even left a scathing message, saying, "I sure hope the sixth round of layoffs is worth our pain and your pleasure."

One of the few neutral reactions to this situation was from John Carmack, one of the founders of id Software, who said, "I’m saddened, but I can’t muster anger or outrage over it, he continued, "To continue being produced long term, games need to succeed, not just be beloved. Games are competing with every other option for spending your leisure time and money, and the competition is brutal."

Personally speaking, I'll believe id Software's statement that it is "not gutted and nerfed" when I see what their next game is and if the quality of it suffers from the downsized manpower it suffered thanks to Microsoft.

The only good news from this mess is that at least DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelation's quality hasn't suffered from these layoffs because this DLC expansion is enjoying rave reviews from critics and fans for refreshing it with DOOM: Eternal's faster-paced gunplay while adding new weapons, enemies, and more features.

But will id Software's future projects maintain high standards of quality now that its team has been downsized? Will Microsoft incur even more layoffs to the point where id Software will be forced to close its doors? Only time will tell, and we'll be there to find out and report it.

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Content creator Sean Dubs TV, who regularly covers Halo, recently took a closer look at a Microsoft trademark filed back in 2021 for Halo: The Endless.

At the time, many assumed it was connected to Halo Infinite, possibly as the title of a campaign expansion, but that never materialized. What's particularly interesting is that Microsoft continued fighting to secure the trademark until April 2026, suggesting it may have been intended for something else entirely.

For those unfamiliar with Halo lore, the Endless are a mysterious species introduced in Halo Infinite. While very little is known about them, some fans have speculated they're connected to the Precursors, the ancient race said to have created all life in the Halo universe.

The timing is what makes this particularly interesting. Microsoft formally abandoned the trademark just weeks before reports emerged that Halo Studios had canceled their multiplayer project, Project Ekur.

That doesn't prove the events are related, but it certainly raises questions about whether Halo: The Endless was once part of an earlier vision for the franchise that has since been left behind.

Sean Dubs TV also uncovered a little-known interview with Halo Studios head Pierre Hintze, in which he reflects on lessons learned from previous Halo games. Speaking about Halo 5, Hintze said:

“We chose to go a different direction when it comes to the narrative where Master Chief was not the main protagonist and the backlash was imminent, and for us there are certain things which we have to deliver in terms of the expectation of our players.”

Personally, I think Halo Studios may be taking away the wrong lesson from Halo 5. It wasn't simply that players wanted more Master Chief, but that the game was marketed around him only to shift focus to Spartan Locke.

Bungie also proved with Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, while Ensemble Studios did the same with Halo Wars, that Halo stories can succeed without Master Chief when expectations are set appropriately.

Hintze also spoke about the kinds of experiences he believes will become more important in gaming over the coming years, saying:

“I think we're going to see deeper experiences where the line between playing with and against humans becomes more blurred... Yes, it is incredibly rewarding if you go into a first person shooter and play one v one and win. But it is also incredibly rewarding if you are completing an objective or completing a raid in an MMO and you see the solidarity and the help and support we can lend each other.”

It's worth stressing that Hintze was answering a broader question about the future of gaming, not Halo specifically, and he never suggests Halo is becoming an MMO.

Even so, the comments have attracted attention online, and when combined with Microsoft's decision to abandon the Halo: The Endless trademark, they've left fans, myself included, wondering exactly what direction Halo Studios is now taking.

Halo: Campaign Evolved releases soon, but I'm even more eager to find out what Halo Studios has planned for the future of the franchise. I've always felt Halo is massively underutilized, and with Xbox now looking to invest more heavily in its biggest franchises, I'm hoping we finally see the series branch out into more genres. Who knows, maybe even the canceled Mega Bloks game could make a return one day.

Let me know what you'd like to see from Halo in the comments, and as always, be sure to take part in our poll!

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As I sit here typing this, our entire content management system is buckling under the load that is Xbox's Ultimate Game Sale 2026.

Microsoft often runs sales events during the summer, lining up with Steam and other platforms to drive interest during a time that is typically light for gaming. People are actually going outside and touching grass I'm told, during the summer months. It couldn't be me, though.

Indeed, I've already spent over $100 on this week's sales event, which is scheduled to run until July 29th, so you have plenty of time.

The event has a ton of highly popular titles deeply discounted. Little Nightmares 3, the entire Final Fantasy franchise, Resident Evil games, Xbox first party titles, indie heroes like Darkest Dungeon and Mutant Year Zero, heavy hitters like Death Stranding, Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, Cronos: The New Dawn and Silent Hill 2. There's a ton of hidden console gems here too, like Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, Void Train, Wartales, Signalis, and many, many more.

There's everything from Xbox Series X|S, to Xbox One, to back compat Xbox 360 games, to Xbox Play Anywhere PC games, Xbox Ally-optimized games, and everything in between.

If you jump into the sale, do let us know what you pick up in the comments. Below is a list of all the main games we could find, and their associated discounts.