Appreciate how hard it is to write the name Erling Haaland and literally anything nice. The World Cup star plays for Manchester City, whom I am programmed to despise, as well as England's next opponents, Norway.

But, I know a man of undoubted class when I see one, and Haaland fits that bill because, like us, he's an XBOX man. Some of the games he's playing won't be too surprising, but at least one of them might be.

The video below via yoxic on X walks us through Haaland's Xbox, some of his favorite games, and yes, as a man of class, he also has the Xbox Series X mini fridge.

I had a mild panic when I read the caption before seeing the video before calming down when "Modern Warfare 2" does, in fact, refer to the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy, not the reboot. I've met plenty of people who would agree on the old game and essentially nobody who would pass such lofty praise on the newer one.

There's no surprise to hear GTA 6 is most anticipated, though, fun fact, Haaland was only 13 when GTA 5 was first released. In the time between games he's grown up and become the most feared striker on the planet. Puts it into perspective how long we've been waiting!

Shoutout for Minecraft, too, another of the titles taking its place on Haaland's XBOX alongside the extremely obvious EA FC games.

Reaction on social media is plentiful, but the replies tagging Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and marketing chief Aaron Greenberg feel valid. One of the best known football players on the planet is basically doing free marketing here. If XBOX has any sense, they'll reach out about a partnership. Lord knows we could use some positivity.

There's a precedent for that, too. Darts sensation Luke Littler is also a proud XBOX player, which was soon followed up by an official partnership. All the youngsters out there that love Erling Haaland need to know he loves XBOX. It's a no-brainer!

That's enough from me, though. Time to lock in on the World Cup Quarter-Finals. England vs. Norway. We've got to get the man back home and on his XBOX as soon as possible!

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Xbox is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year, something that's easy to forget within the deluge of seemingly bad news right now. While they've already announced the snazzy Xbox Series X25 as a homage to the original Xbox, I do wonder if there will be more for fans that doesn't include laying down a wedge of cash. Something not unlike the Xbox Year in Review but for our entire time with Xbox.

Well, we needn't wait to see if Xbox has such a thing in store, because the folks over at True Achievements have done it again with its #Xbox25 Milestones tool. Simply click here to be taken to True Achievements and link your Microsoft account, and you'll see all of your stats in one neat timeline and infographic from the start of your journey with the Xbox 360 (when achievements were first introduced).

A blast from MY past

The True Achievements #Xbox25 Milestone infographic is displayed within an Xbox 360 Blades dashboard skin for maximum nostalgia, and is a really cool reminder of my own journey with the Xbox ecosystem.

I never actually owned an OG Xbox myself, and was staunchly PlayStation up until my 4-year-old (at the time) decided to put around 7 discs into my PlayStation 3 at once, rendering it overfed and useless.

My infographic reflects this: the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, but I didn't unlock an achievement on it until this incident in 2012. At the time, because the PS3 had a Blu-ray player, it was cheaper to get a second-hand Xbox 360 instead, and I never looked back.

I'm also reminded that the first game I 100% completed on Xbox was Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure in August 2013. So, obviously, I'll be among the many excited for this to become a backward-compatible title, if such a thing is possible!
Would love to know your guys most interesting stats from the Xbox 360 era up until now, leave a comment below with your results or jump into our subreddit (link below) and share your own infographics!

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Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on July 9, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC, and we've just got our first look from Ubisoft at what console players can expect in terms of performance. Honestly, it's looking pretty solid.

The Xbox Series X keeps pace with the PlayStation 5 in terms of resolution and frame rate, while the PS5 Pro gains the edge thanks to its enhanced PSSR upscaling. Series S fans, however, are a bit out of luck, and I'm a little disappointed to see it.

While the game does support ray tracing on Series S and is upscaled to 1620p, players are limited to a single 30 FPS fidelity mode, with seemingly no access to the other graphics presets. On Series X and PS5, players can choose between Performance, Fidelity, and Balanced modes, with Performance targeting 60 FPS and Balanced targeting 40 FPS.

It feels like a missed opportunity not to offer some kind of 60fps mode on Series S, even if that meant dropping ray tracing and reducing the resolution to 1080p. That said, I've actually picked the game up anyway, mainly for my dad, who's a big Assassin's Creed fan. Since we share games, I'll be playing it too. It is a shame, though, that the game doesn't support Xbox Play Anywhere.

We also already know the game's PC system requirements. For those wondering how demanding it is, the minimum specs call for a GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, 16GB of RAM, and either an Intel Core i7-8700K or Ryzen 5 3600. That'll get you 1080p at 30 FPS using the Low preset with standard ray tracing.

I'm actually looking forward to this remake. I never really got into Black Flag back in the day because I'd just finished Ezio's story and had started to lose interest in Assassin's Creed. Despite that, I've always heard it's one of the best entries in the series, so I'm excited to finally experience it for myself when it launches.

With that said, let me know what you think about the console and PC performance in the comments below, and don't forget to take part in our poll below:

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Grand Theft Auto 6 is fast approaching, and the rumors are already in full swing. Unlike some of the recent, more upsetting Xbox rumors, this is one I'm genuinely hoping turns out to be true. The claim comes from the same source that reportedly leaked The Witcher 3 DLC ahead of its official reveal, which gives this rumor at least some credibility.

Of course, it's still just a rumor, so it's worth taking with a grain of salt. Here's what they had to say: “Xbox Series S is being locked at 30 FPS right now, but they’re fighting to get it to 60 FPS. From what I’ve learned, they’re not 100% sure yet whether 60 FPS will be available at launch.”

It continues with more hints: “A source close to Rockstar, but I emphasize that this is a single source, but a very reliable one. It’s very likely, and ultimately, according to the information I’ve received, there will be two graphical modes: 30 and 60 FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.”

Interestingly, we could expect two graphics modes, which, I believe, might be a first for a Rockstar game (don't quote me on that). Many people, myself included, have expected Grand Theft Auto 6 to be capped at 30 FPS, and given the sheer scope of the game, that does seem believable.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this rumor, though, is the mention of a 60 FPS mode on Xbox Series S. While the report claims it's currently locked to 30, hearing that Rockstar is actively trying to get it to 60 is at least promising, at least to me.

The source also states that Microsoft is working with Rockstar on the Series S version of the game, so hopefully fans with a Series S do manage to see 60 FPS. Hopefully, we hear something official sooner rather than later, although there's a good chance we'll have to wait until much closer to launch.

As for me, I probably won't be picking up Grand Theft Auto 6 on day one. I've been a fan of the series from the beginning, but I grew a little tired of Grand Theft Auto 5, and I still prefer Grand Theft Auto 4. I'll be waiting to see how the game shapes up before deciding whether to jump in.

But let me know your thoughts. Would a 60 FPS mode make a big difference to you? Be sure to take part in our poll and leave a comment below!

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It's no secret that due to increasing RAM and NAND (storage) costs, everyone from Apple to Dell to Valve to Xbox is raising prices. And it's the latter here we're concerned with, as this may be your last chance to get the Xbox Series X below $700 until 2028. Indeed, we may not see prices on hardware drop significantly until 2030.

As such, I'm creating this page to show you the latest deals and inventory on the Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and associated accessories like the ever-so-important expansion cards.

I'll be updating this page every day, usually multiple times.

Xbox Series X prices

The Xbox Series X (see our updated review) is the top-tier Xbox model and is aimed at 4K/60 FPS gaming for those who want the best and fastest available.

Because it's in such high demand, this one often sells out or goes through frequent and rapid price shifts. We think it's the version most people should buy.

We have seen Xbox Series X (1TB, optical) drop down to $573 in the last few days (during Prime Day), and that could happen again for the July 4th holiday.

Xbox Series S prices

If you want to save some more money and don't quite need the power of the Series X (or simply can't afford it), you can go for the more budget-friendly Xbox Series S. If you're not familiar with this model, you can read our Xbox Series S review (2025) for more context and to see what we have to say about it.

The tl;dr is the Xbox Series X is the more powerful console, built for native 4K gaming, higher frame rates, and larger storage with its 1TB SSD. The Xbox Series S is a smaller, more affordable model designed for 1440p gaming, with reduced GPU power and a 512GB or 1TB SSD.

Both run the same games and features, but the Series X targets premium performance while the Series S focuses on value and accessibility.

The good news is that while the savings are not as much for Xbox Series S, they are often in stock at most stores either for pickup or shipping.

How much (and when) are Xbox prices going up?

Beginning August 1, the Xbox Series X Digital will rise to $749 (up from $599) and the Series S to $499 (up from $399) in the United States, with similar jumps across multiple regions.

And those are the entry-level models!

Xbox Series X (1TB) with optical drive is going up to $799 (from $649), while the Xbox Series S (1TB) increases to $599 (from $449).

To put that in perspective, the Xbox Series X (1TB) with optical drive launched at $499, but is going up a total of $300.

The company cites rising manufacturing and component costs as the primary driver, noting that the broader hardware market continues to face pressure that shows no signs of easing.

Analysts expect component prices to climb again in 2027, driven by supply constraints and increased demand for advanced chips. Microsoft’s own internal projections suggest that the “Rampocalypse” — the ongoing surge in RAM and component pricing — will continue well into 2028, making this price hike potentially the first of several.

For consumers, the timing is significant. Xbox consoles have remained relatively stable in price for years, but this shift signals a new era where premium hardware will cost more to produce and more to buy.

With the August 1 increase approaching, the window to buy an Xbox Series X|S at current pricing is closing quickly. We’ll keep updating this tracker as retailers react, deals appear, and the market adjusts, so you always know the best time to make your move.

What about expansion cards?

If you're picking up an Xbox Series X or Series S, extra storage becomes essential fast. Constantly deleting games or clearing space for updates interrupts play and makes managing your library a chore.

The Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S adds more room instantly with true plug‑and‑play support, giving your console the storage it needs without slowing anything down.

Like Xbox consoles, we've seen pricing on these vary a lot, and many times they go out of stock, so give it some serious thought, as we do expect these cards to cost even more later this year.

As to why get a storage card, it really depends on the size of your gaming library.

For instance, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 alone is 161 GB, without any DLC. The Seagate Expansion Card delivers similar speeds to the native storage of the Xbox Series X|S, so you can store games on the card and play them without having to transfer or delete files.

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Amongst what feels like a deluge of bad news for Xbox right now, from console price rises (again) and threatened studio closures, it seems GTA 6 preorder sales data has become the next battleground for which fans and publications are using to stick the knife in. There’s a particular social media post right now being shared from IGN stating that, based on their affiliate data, PlayStation is outperforming Xbox on GTA 6 preorders by a rate of 8-to-1.

Windows Central can confirm that we’ve received a statement from an Xbox spokesperson on this matter: “This doesn’t represent pre-order data. We’ve had record orders. People should wait for real data and not clicks on affiliate links."

Why affiliate data isn’t reliable on its own

We’re living in an era where social media narratives often outpace verified market reality, and to be clear, IGN does state in the quote that it's based on their own community data. But it’s worth noting that while it is likely true that PlayStation is receiving more orders based on their console share of the market, nobody actually knows the concrete sales data yet, and relying on affiliate linking programs from one website to draw broad conclusions about the state of affairs is a shaky tactic.

But it IS one that’s gathering traction as it’s being amplified by reports such as this one from Vice, and it’s gathering significant engagement. Engagement that will no doubt have reached the general public outside of the gaming sphere, too, as it's being shared around on Instagram, X, and other platforms.

Affiliate programs track user traffic and clicks directed through specific retail links. Such data inherently reflects the specific demographics, regional biases, and shopping habits of a single publication's readership rather than being a mirror for total industry performance. Treating click-through metrics as a proxy for platform health risks spreading misinformation, as can be seen in the current cycle regarding Grand Theft Auto 6 preorders.

(Speaking of which, we have our own list of links for pre-ordering Rockstar’s highly anticipated game, so go check that out. Girl's gotta plug!)

RELATED: Everywhere you can buy GTA 6

An unquestionably rocky time for Xbox

The discourse right now is occurring against the backdrop of an incredibly volatile console market. There’s a perfect storm of economic pressures, including the significant price hikes taking effect on August 1, 2026, on Xbox consoles, driven by the global crisis in memory and storage component supply.

On a personal note, I’ve wondered why Xbox, during the week of GTA 6 preorders, would choose this moment to announce price increases. GTA 6 is the final major catalyst that will push many remaining Xbox One and PS4 users to the current generation, and both Microsoft and Sony should be utilizing this to their full advantage. While Sony will likely announce its own price increases, waiting until after GTA 6 has launched could be a savvy move to maintain goodwill with the general gaming public, letting Xbox take the brunt of the frustration during a critical sales window for both platforms.

However, by announcing these hikes in advance, could Xbox have actually secured a surge of panic orders during Amazon Prime Week? If we were to look at our own affiliate data, we saw significant click-through rates on discounted Xbox Series X units at Walmart and Target. But for the reasons I have already mentioned, to base a market analysis on that would be biased reporting. Our audience, which is already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, is naturally drawn to deals on Xbox hardware; that doesn't necessarily reflect the wider gaming community, does it?

RELATED: Cheapest way to get GTA 6 on both Xbox and PS5

It’s more important than ever right now for the gaming community to distinguish between anecdotal affiliate traffic and concrete commercial data. As our Xbox contact noted, waiting for official comprehensive sales reports is the only way to gauge the true state of the market. Until then, statistics derived from click-based affiliate programs should be viewed for what they are: a measurement of a specific website's outgoing traffic, not a reflection of the global gaming state of affairs.

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Xbox is back again, making things easier for developers. You might remember that I previously covered Xbox's efforts to simplify development with the Godot engine through the Xbox Godot Sample, which gives developers the tools they need to start building for Xbox on PC.

Now, Xbox is making another move to streamline development on PC, this time for Unreal Engine developers. Just so you’re aware, this is for Unreal Engine 5.8, and with that cleared up, let's dive into the details and take a look at exactly what's changing.

Removing the friction from PC development

Before we dive in fully, Xbox also explained what the process looked like before. Building for Xbox on PC in Unreal Engine previously required developers to use WinGDK, a separate platform that introduced compatibility issues and added what Xbox describes as "friction" between your game and other PC storefronts.

According to Xbox, these new plug-ins remove much of that friction. Developers can stay on Win64, continue using their existing third-party plug-ins, and benefit from a more streamlined development process that better aligns with other PC storefront workflows.

The new Unreal Engine 5.8 plugin toolkit

Xbox is releasing several plug-ins as part of this update, so rather than beating around the bush, let's take a quick look at what each one does:

• Microsoft GDK Store allows developers to configure their game directly within the editor and generate the packages needed for Xbox on PC from the Project Settings menu.
• Microsoft GDK Runtime provides access to GDK APIs at runtime, enabling features such as Xbox-compatible cloud saves, user selection, and System UI integration.
• Online Subsystem GDK lets developers take advantage of Unreal Engine's platform abstraction layer, making it easier to manage Achievements, Friends, Presence, and other Xbox services.
• Online Subsystem Selector (introduced with Unreal Engine 5.8), allows developers to ship a single executable across multiple PC storefronts while automatically switching OSS behavior at runtime.

Now, I won't drone on with every detail, but Xbox has provided documentation explaining exactly how to get started, which I'll link here for anyone interested in taking a closer look.

This is all great stuff though, and should help make Xbox's PC efforts even more approachable by developers so kudos to Microsoft for putting in the legwork here.

Paving the way for Project Helix

Personally, I'm a big fan of updates like this. With Project Helix also being PC-based, it's hard not to see these efforts as part of a broader push to prepare developers for the future of Xbox hardware.

I've always liked seeing Xbox streamline development wherever possible. The easier it is for developers to bring games and features to players, the better. And I doubt I’m alone in that thinking. Let me know what you think in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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It seems as though Xbox is getting a much-needed, consumer-friendly update that brings the Xbox Store in the U.S. more in line with other digital storefronts. @redphx on X (formerly Twitter) recently spotted a backend update that adds lowest-price indicators, which appear to show whether a game is currently at its lowest price within a set number of days.

This is already a requirement in parts of the EU thanks to the EU Omnibus Directive, which requires retailers to display discounts relative to the lowest price offered during the previous 30 days, and is something Xbox already does in some EU regions. The goal is to discourage stores from inflating prices before putting items on sale and claiming larger discounts than consumers are actually receiving.

Other storefronts already offer similar functionality. Steam has displayed lowest-price information in certain regions for some time, with Valve expanding support to additional markets, while PlayStation also shows lowest-price indicators in select regions. From what I can tell, that includes the U.S. as well.

Honestly, I think this is great, and I can't imagine many people disagreeing. It's a genuinely consumer-friendly feature that helps players make more informed purchasing decisions, especially when Xbox seems to have a sale running almost every other week.

Whether it's the recent Locked and Loaded Sale, which offered up to 75% off selected games, the ID@Xbox Publisher Spotlight Publisher Sale, and yes, they really do say "publisher" twice, with discounts of up to 60% off, or the latest Capcom Publisher Sale with discounts reaching 80% off, Xbox users are rarely short on opportunities to save money. Some deals are pretty fantastic too, with Resident Evil Requiem discounted by 30% and Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition dropping by 70%.

With sales happening this frequently, having additional context around whether you're actually getting the best deal possible is only a good thing. It adds transparency to the storefront and gives players more confidence before hitting the buy button. Hopefully, Xbox rolls the feature out sooner rather than later, as @redphx mentioned, it doesn't appear to be available publicly just yet.

As I've said, I'm all for this, but let me know your thoughts. Do you think this is a positive consumer-friendly move or a waste of development time? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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For those out of the loop, Xbox is back. Or dead; the cycle never ends. But exclusives are back at least.

As I'm sure we're all aware by now, Xbox has firmly returned to the "exclusive games matter" camp. With Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution set to be Xbox console exclusives, neither game will be coming to PlayStation 5. That's despite rumors from untrusted sources claiming otherwise, which have since been debunked by Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball.

Now, Xbox is making that strategy even clearer. In fact, it's putting it directly in players' faces, right on the dashboard, making it almost impossible to miss.

For those unaware of what I'm talking about, Xbox recently appears to have pushed a new tile to the Xbox Series X|S dashboard. The tile shows the word "EXCLUSIVE" alongside an image of an Xbox Series X console.

However, when I booted up my own Xbox to check for myself, the Xbox Series X image was nowhere to be seen. The "EXCLUSIVE" label was still there, though, suggesting Xbox might not have settled on how best to display things yet.

It is interesting to see Xbox take this approach, and in fairness, it does line up with comments made by the company. Recently, Matthew Ball stated that "players can continue to expect signature exclusives from us every year."

Xbox is undoubtedly going through a massive shakeup right now. With rumors swirling everywhere, it's hard to say exactly where the company will end up after its 100-day reset, but it does seem increasingly likely that exclusives will be a key part of that strategy moving forward.

Personally, I'm glad exclusives are back. At the same time, it's hard to feel entirely positive about Xbox right now, as the company continues to navigate industry-wide changes, while reports of layoffs and potential studio closures loom over the conversation.

Even if difficult decisions are ultimately what Xbox believes it needs to get back on track, that doesn't make them any easier to accept. With that said, let me know your thoughts on Xbox's new "EXCLUSIVE" label for eligible games in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Xbox, and Microsoft in general, really reminds me of this old webcomic called Persistence, depicted above. It shows two dudes mining, as one gives up right before hitting diamonds.

I feel like this mentality has long been the bane of Microsoft all over, and its inability to see things through has led them to miss the boat on various computing paradigms and other types of opportunities.

We're seeing it play out again now with Xbox. New leadership has come in, with a mandate from Microsoft higher-ups to "make Xbox sustainable," whatever that means. This is despite the fact Xbox posted record profits last year. But decisions like this are made on future projections, rather than past wins.

Xbox has a variety of headwinds to contend with, as does the entire gaming industry. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has suggested that Microsoft's gaming division will finish the year with "only" a 3% accountability margin. The lion's share of the blame falls on the ill-fated Xbox Game Pass price hike (now reversed), the memory availability crisis, and a soft year for both Call of Duty and Candy Crush Saga. But all of these things will abate over time.

Microsoft's instinct has long been to cut and run at the wrong time. It's potentially making the same mistake now, too, in my view.

Some of Xbox's teams just haven't delivered profitability Microsoft wants, but that's not all on them

Rumors suggest that studios like Double Fine, Compulsion Games, and Ninja Theory are all being explored for closure right now — with others too likely on the block.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but these talks are happening. CEO Asha Sharma is going over the books and seeing how much has been spent on certain studios, and what their returns have been. It's true that none of these studios have delivered a hit game since joining Microsoft, in terms of retail sales or Xbox Game Pass engagement. It could also be argued that they weren't exactly positioned for massive success stories either.

Ninja Theory, in particular, is a frustrating case. The UK had a particularly aggressive Covid shutdown regime, which Ninja Theory can hardly be blamed for. They also spent a huge chunk of time moving studio locations. Ninja Theory is also based in Cambridge, one of the UK's most expensive regions.

Hellblade won awards for its character acting, technology, atmospherics, and depiction of mental health struggles. But I would argue it was on Microsoft's leadership for not identifying the hard truth: interactive walking simulation games just aren't big sellers. It's particularly true when Hellblade is at least superficially similar in presentation to Sony's God of War, albeit without the gameplay depth to complement it.

I'm not armed with intimate knowledge of how Hellblade 2 was greenlit in this genre, but the solution to its soft sales was readily obvious to me and anyone else watching: it should've been an action-adventure title, meeting the market demand where it is. We've seen a huge variety of superficially similar hack n' slash games absolutely blow up on comparatively smaller budgets. Stellar Blade comes to mind, Lies of P comes to mind as well.

We're finally getting Hellblade in the genre it was always destined to be with Senua, which Microsoft announced at its own Xbox Showcase just a few days ago, only for reports to emerge that Xbox isn't even going to see it through to completion.

As a fan and customer who is tired of Microsoft's "announce first, then cancel" approach to games people have been waiting years for in some cases ... this is an absolutely awful pill to swallow. Again. But it's far worse knowing the human cost of these cancellations. Ninja Theory has never been given the runway to fully spread its wings.

Covid wasn't Ninja Theory's fault. And someone, somewhere along the chain, should've identified that Hellblade 2 wasn't going to be a big game in the genre or budget it had been saddled with. Someone, somewhere along the chain, should've invested in it becoming something more.

Studios eventually have to sell games, but how can they if Microsoft keeps thinking so quarterly about things?

There have been a large variety of projects greenlit under Xbox Game Studios that they had to have known were never going to sell or get any kind of engagement in Xbox Game Pass. Keeper from Double Fine, for example, is a great and fun art project, but in an era of restless non-stop neon lights grabbing our attention-deficient brains at every angle, how can these types of projects cut through the noise?

The pressure Microsoft puts on Xbox to deliver "results; now," betrays the reality of modern game development. Games need to either be turbo-unique, cultural phenomena, or absolute AAA bangers. South of Midnight, Kiln, Keeper, Hellblade 2, and even Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 didn't have the scope, polish, edge, or marketing budget to compete with very similar titles that either do it better or just grabbed more attention.

The studios and teams backing the games ultimately work with what they're given. Those who have been around long enough remember Xbox's anemic Terry Myerson era, where the products being shipped barely even hit AA quality bars. What would Avowed or The Outer Worlds 2 have looked like with a more dynamic world or reactive engine? What would Hellblade look like if it were a wide-linear action-adventure instead of a walking simulation? Do smaller projects like Keeper and Kiln detract development time from a more ambitious project? What if South of Midnight had better combat and a broader scope?

I wish we lived in a world where important and artistic games like Keeper and Hellblade 2 could thrive. Xbox Game Pass funds were supposed to be that. But we don't live in that universe, and likely never will. I would argue it's on Xbox Game Studios to guide and invest in the creativity of its teams, steering them towards the kind of quality bars we know Xbox is capable of. We've seen it emerge with Gears of War: E-Day, Clockwork Revolution, State of Decay 3, Fable, Grounded 2, Sea of Thieves, Forza, and so on.

The talent is clearly there. I know Microsoft isn't going to listen to me or any of us, but I would love to see what would happen if these studios were given a chance at a longer runway. Acknowledge that previous management mistakes were not their fault, and things like Covid surely represent mitigating factors.

RELATED: Xbox fans have run out of trust for Microsoft

Alas. CEO Satya Nadella betrayed his position on a recent interview where he bemoaned the fact "there’s more monetization of Xbox games happening on YouTube than at Microsoft ..." I would argue that it's a privilege that so many millions of people want to talk about, watch, and share content based on those worlds. Perhaps there'd be more video monetization going on at Microsoft if it hadn't bailed out on growing Mixer ... but I digress.

Nadella takes the wrong lesson from gaming's popularity on YouTube. The value and interest are obviously there. It's Microsoft's fault for not unlocking that value properly — and the developers shouldn't be punished for it.

How are you feeling about the state of Xbox? Should Xbox give their studios more time? Let us know your thoughts below.

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Over the past couple of days, a rumor picked up steam spread by gaming forums that Microsoft isn't actually serious about Xbox exclusive games.

Exclusive games have been a contentious issue for Xbox. Halo itself is going to PlayStation soon, robbing Xbox of its signature iconic franchise. Nintendo and PlayStation have doubled down on exclusive content, and even Valve kept Half-Life: Alyx off competing VR platforms in favor of its own Steam store.

Microsoft has done a 180 on it, with new CEO Asha Sharma confirming that Xbox will have exclusive content. But given the fact Xbox is looking at making massive savings by potentially closing studios, the logical case for reducing a game's addressable audience is hard to parse. It's particularly true when Xbox itself admits it can't produce enough Xbox Series X|S consoles to meet demand. Why create desire for your hardware if you can't actually sell any?

It's in this vacuum of confusion that rumors have spread. Even "reputable" outlets like Vice reported on the so-called rumors, that suggest Xbox only talked up Gears: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as exclusive titles as a temporary, token gesture. And that in fact, they were already working to walk back exclusivity.

Xbox's new CSO Matthew Ball came out pretty strongly against that rumor today, confirming my own sourcing that suggested the rumors were just hearsay at best and clout-chasing fantasy at worst.

"These rumors are false," Matthew Ball said on X. "Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will stay exclusive. There are no conversations and have been no conversations to "reverse course." And as we said last week, players can continue to expect signature exclusives from us every year."

And there you have it. At least for now, exclusive games is the strategy. But ... for how long, really?

People have been taught by Microsoft not to trust Microsoft

The problem for me (and others) is ... Microsoft has historically said a lot of "stuff" and then reversed course.

If you're on social media, I was notoriously caught out myself a few years ago for assuming that Xbox wouldn't ditch exclusive games. I didn't look into it, assumed, and called the rumors fanboy FUD (and to be fair, I had seen the rumor from a notorious and toxic now-banned account whose claim to fame was spreading demonstrably false rumors). But the very notion seemed absurd to me, and others: Why would people buy Xbox hardware if it had no exclusive content?

I was obviously very wrong to have assumed, because it wasn't a few months later we saw Xbox begin rapidly shipping games on other platforms. And then, it even began marketing other platforms instead of its own in an ill-advised ad campaign that incoming CEO Asha Sharma since killed.

Indeed, we're now reversing course again.

The decisions of the past are of course not the responsibility of the all-new leadership layer at Xbox. To her credit, new CEO Asha Sharma has been incredibly transparent about the difficulties facing Xbox and the industry overall. But the audience doesn't see that. For years now, the audience just sees chaos. Years upon years of nearly non-stop chaos. Years of games being announced, like Perfect Dark, and then cancelled. We even saw Ninja Theory's new game at the Xbox Showcase not a few weeks ago, only for it to now be facing cancellation.

RELATED: Inside Xbox's margin crush, and the difficult future ahead

It's exhausting as a fan, but let's assume you're a future potential customer ... the lack of certainty can't be good for creating faith and investment in your platform, no?

I'm no business analyst, but I wish Microsoft's bean counters would have a little bit more patience and let Asha's new strategy play out a bit before taking another fiscal axe to proceedings.

Asha deserves an opportunity to build up a sense of certainty and stability to subsidize past mistakes of prior leadership. Fans deserve a moment of respite. And more than anything, the developers and employees deserve to have an opportunity to shine inside the new frame work.

How are you feeling about the state of Xbox? Let us know below.

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There's been some furor recently about comments Xbox CSO Matthew Ball made in a new interview about what roles "ads" can potentially have in future gaming business models.

Matthew Ball clarified his position on ads in gaming on X, stating that at no point did he mention ads actually appearing in-game. Ball was exploring how ads can be used to offer more affordable alternatives, in a similar vein to how Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon all have ad-based tiers in their premium subscription service offerings.

I know from speaking to people at Xbox and other major publishers about the role of ads in future business models, and I've written about it as well, as early as last year. Microsoft, at least, was actively exploring ad-based tiers for its subscription services, including Xbox Cloud Gaming under the previous leadership.

What might the current leadership do down the line? Let's explore the whys and speculate.

The memory crisis has put a spotlight on hyper-casual gamers who aren't monetizing at all on console

In our increasingly disappointing and painfully mismanaged Late Stage Capitalism universe, for most people, spending on luxuries is becoming an issue. If you remove artificial intelligence investment hype from the U.S. economy, some analysts paint it as growing at a measly 0.2% per annum. Consumer confidence is also at its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, and inflation is expected to increase owing to the United States ill-advised sojourn in Iran.

There are various other factors, but the common thread is that shit is getting too damn expensive — and for millions, that only increases the attractiveness of ongoing, free-to-play experiences like Fortnite. If you're choosing between paying your bills or dropping $70 on the latest Call of Duty, I'd imagine you'd probably pick paying your bills and sticking with Fortnite.

Platform holders like PlayStation, Xbox, Epic Games, and so on, look at trends and make decisions based on where things are going. Over time, a user spending more hours in Fortnite will eventually spend money, and, most likely, it will become profitable. But as the memory crisis deepens, the short-term economics are looking shaky.

Xbox and others are talking about how ads show up on the console because the traditional hardware-software business model has been destroyed by the memory rout.

With users being more thrifty than ever, and free-to-play experiences offering a higher-quality bar than ever in some cases, the ability for platform holders to effectively monetize the largest and most casual audiences is breaking down.

Previously, you sold consoles at wafer-thin margins and made the money on selling software and services. That's still the case. Xbox lifted the Xbox Live Gold paywall for free to play games for titles like Fortnite, joining PlayStation and Nintendo. But, as users spend less in-game, those same platform holders see fewer returns from opening up that access.

Furthermore, for consoles sold in 2025 onwards, a user who actively doesn't spend money on in-game purchases actually potentially represents a net loss. Microsoft, in particular, is losing not dozens, but in the hundreds of dollars on each Xbox Series X|S console sold.

This is one reason why you've seen Microsoft and PlayStation both intentionally reduce their stock levels and raise prices. It seems counterintuitive, but in the short term, "allowing" these consoles to end up in the hands of casual users who will take longer than ever to become profitable-per-user is a "problem" for the spreadsheets, and ultimately, the health of the business.

Ads in game? Maybe not, but then, where ... ?

It's not OK to boot up a console and see full screen ads. Any way to turn these off? from r/gaming

The memory crisis won't last forever. Microsoft is already laying the groundwork for a full-bore return to more sane consumer hardware pricing by signaling a return to Xbox exclusive content. You don't build exclusive content for your console ecosystem if you are taking the view of not actually selling console hardware in the future.

But in the short to medium term, Xbox has a margin crisis. How can you monetize those hyper-casual, smartphone-like audiences that, due to the cost of living, are also spending less than ever? Not to mention Gen-Z and Gen-A smartphone natives who are coming into console gaming perhaps for the first time.

Well, you ultimately do what the smartphone-first companies do: drop the ads.

Microsoft has experimented with full-screen "ads" for its own products and game releases when you load up your Xbox. Xbox Cloud Gaming has been developing an ad-based tier for some time. Hell, even my Samsung TV annoyingly has ads in the main menu, too.

Samsung, Apple, etc. don't sell their hardware at a loss, though ... but thanks to the memory crisis, right now, Xbox is.

I suspect that, despite protests to the contrary, Microsoft and other platform holders are thinking more and more about how to monetize users who are active, but aren't monetizing. Ads on console is already a controversial topic and for obvious and good reason.

When you buy a product, you quite rightfully expect it to be yours. But it's also true that Xbox is losing a ton of cash on every console sold right now (and probably others, too). Large portions of the user base are probably projected to become less spendy than ever, thanks to the state of things. It's not sustainable to basically spend money, to lose money. With consumer confidence cratering, even the whales increasingly aren't able to subsidize and offset the losses here.

I suspect Xbox, and even the free game makers themselves, will target the free-to-play titles for ad delivery in the future. Opening up Xbox Game Pass to price reductions in exchange for ad viewing and tracking seems clearly on the table, too, from Matthew Ball's comments.

Just how invasive it could get will ultimately depend on community sentiments ... but I'm not sure how Microsoft and other hardware makers can otherwise expect to even break even from this growing hyper-casual cohort in the current model.

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Forza Horizon 6 has made waves since its release, selling millions of copies across both PC and Xbox. Unfortunately, it hasn't been without issues, and this one is a big one.

Some players have reported a major bug that can wipe their entire save file. Up until now, Playground Games had remained largely silent on the issue, but we finally have an update, and the fix sounds more complicated than I was expecting.

While Playground Games hasn't explicitly confirmed the root cause of the issue, the details shared so far point toward a problem involving Xbox cloud saves, Gaming Services, and save synchronization between devices.

A fix is on the way for both Xbox and PC. Interestingly, Xbox players will need an entire system update to address the issue, while the PC fix has already begun rolling out through Microsoft's Gaming Services.

On Xbox, players can expect a system update on June 12, 2026. In the meantime, Playground Games recommends disabling Quick Resume for Forza Horizon 6 to reduce the risk of losing save data. To do exactly that, follow these instructions:

1. Highlight Forza Horizon 6
2. Press the Menu button
3. Select Manage game and add-ons
4. Navigate to Quick Resume settings
5. Choose Disable Quick Resume.

I've been thoroughly enjoying Forza Horizon 6. Driving around in my Warthog from Halo while hunting down collectibles has been an absolute treat. Fortunately, I've been playing on PC and haven't encountered any game-breaking bugs.

That said, I'm genuinely surprised to see this issue require a full Xbox system update to address. I can't think of any other games that have needed what is essentially an operating system-level fix to resolve a problem that's plaguing players. Still, the important thing is that a fix is finally here, and Xbox players won't have to wait much longer to get it.

With that said, let me know whether you've been enjoying Forza Horizon 6, whether you've encountered this devastating bug, or if, like me, your experience has been smooth sailing so far. Be sure to leave a comment and take part in my poll!

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"Tough decisions" are ahead, said Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

This week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma outlined stark warnings about the health of Xbox's business, noting a 3% accountability margin delivery, in a drop year-over-year.

How did we manage to get to this point? A string of misses, a massive memory crisis, and a circle of incongruous subsidies have made Xbox's business model buckle under its own weight. Here's what I've learned over the past couple of days.

A sprint of big misses and disruption at Xbox Games Studios

One major aspect of Xbox's margin crisis revolves around Xbox Game Studios, I'm told, where a variety of high-profile misses and difficult integrations have seen other parts of the business subsidize the losses.

Microsoft has had some major wins with some of its titles, of course. I'm told Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, and of course, Forza Horizon have all been major success stories for Xbox Games Studios, as well as things like Sea of Thieves, Oblivion Remastered, and Grounded. However, much of the profitability for these projects was cannibalized, at least in part, by some of the misses.

Games like Avowed, Keeper, Kiln, South of Midnight, Hellblade 2, Forza Motorsport (not Horizon), and The Outer Worlds 2 didn't come within range of expectations set by Microsoft's spreadsheets, I'm told — either in terms of raw sales on external platforms or via Xbox Game Pass engagement and retention data. Other canceled projects like Perfect Dark, Everwild, and ZeniMax's "Blackbird" also represented huge amounts of investment that ultimately went nowhere. Inertia at The Initiative, in particular, was a huge drag on Xbox's profitability margins, and disruption at Undead Labs was also notable following the departure of founder Jeff Strain — although the latter is on track now, and State of Decay 3 is looking incredibly promising.

Indeed, Fable too has been an incredibly tough project to put together, given that ForzaTech had to effectively be built around a genre it wasn't designed for. In the early days, there was much debate about simply building Fable on Unreal Engine owing to mature tools, in-house expertise, and support studios, but ForzaTech won out. It could end up being a good thing in the longer term, as I'm told Xbox is increasingly looking at leveraging its in-house engines over external vendors to reduce costs. But at least for now, ForzaTech extended Fable's development out further than it otherwise might've.

Microsoft has also canceled a run of third-party projects at various degrees of lost investment, including a shooter from John Romero and a very costly vehicular service game project from Avalanche, which you might remember as Contraband. Many other projects within Xbox Games Studios and via third-party publishing also didn't meet Microsoft's expectations, including the likes of Minecraft Legends, Ninja Gaiden 4, Minecraft Earth, Bleeding Edge, Towerborne, and others.

Xbox's CSO Matthew Ball signalled an intent to double down on fewer, tentpole franchises moving forward. Microsoft has been investing in Blizzard to boost production on franchises like Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, and soon, StarCraft as well, for example. Microsoft has been frustrated by the lack of a new Fallout game to capitalize on the TV show's runaway success, for example. There's also Halo, which I'm sure nobody will argue has been maddeningly mismanaged in recent years.

Where all of this leaves some of Microsoft's "AA" productions remains to be seen. There seems to be less room than ever in the industry for games that aren't laser-focused on grabbing attention in what is arguably the most competitive entertainment medium on Earth right now.

Spreading the subsidies and the memory drought

Microsoft and other companies love subscription model services because it gives you a steady stream of predictable income among the "hits and misses" of regular game development. Microsoft hasn't been shy to admit that its $30 price hike last year absolutely battered the business model. When you consider that Xbox Game Pass has been subsidizing departments that haven't been able to deliver fully yet, you can imagine what kind of damage that did on top of everything else.

Indeed, the notorious "30% accountability margin" target I'm told was actually an average. Some parts of the business were operating up to a 40% accountability margin to offset the misses in other parts.

Putting Call of Duty into Xbox Game Pass cannibalized both sides. As players fled the $30 price tag, there was less money for Xbox Game Pass to subsidize Call of Duty's cannibalized sales for those who remained. The model broke under its own weight and had to be reset back to its lower price, wiping out a year or more of growth.

To make matters worse, Xbox struggled to secure anywhere near enough memory with fixed prices necessary to keep its hardware margins healthy. I'm told Xbox is losing not dozens, but more in the hundreds of dollars per Xbox Series X|S console sold right now, with Asha Sharma noting that wholesale memory prices have risen 700% since the Xbox Series X|S was costed out.

With Xbox unable to acquire hardware to sell to find new members in Xbox Game Pass, which has been the pot of money Xbox has been using to subsidize other parts of the business, once again, the model began to break down.

It was then that Microsoft was also using Activision-Blizzard profits to subsidize Xbox, but when Call of Duty had an off year ... once again, it compounded the problems for that subsidy.

Xbox Game Pass going to $30, Call of Duty having an off-year (thanks to Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, and a generalized backlash to its weird skins), and the artificial intelligence compute gold rush on memory all coalesced for Xbox at the wrong time.

This is before you even consider the existential issue of Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha simply not caring about traditional console gaming at the replacement level the industry would like to see.

The path forward

So, where do we go from here?

Microsoft has a number of levers that it will likely explore in the future. Nintendo has already been flirting with $80 games, and I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft gives that another go with some specific games. Microsoft will also likely look to OEMs to produce Xbox Helix-style consoles for specific markets, reducing or avoiding tariffs, supply chain problems, and shipping costs. I could see, for example, Microsoft fully licensing out the Xbox brand to ASUS to build Xbox Helix for China, Taiwan, and other local markets. They've already done as much with the Xbox Ally. Perhaps we'll see multiple SKUs of Helix, perhaps with a "bring your own NVME SSD and controller" to bring down upfront costs.

For Game Pass, Microsoft could explore pulling some of its biggest and most expensive games out of the service. Forza Horizon would likely sell huge amounts still without Xbox Game Pass. I could also see Microsoft add some kind of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Plus model where you pay a bit more, and can pick "premium" games you want in the service, like Call of Duty, for example, or the World of Warcraft subscription. I think we'll also see a cheaper Xbox Game Pass tier, powered by ads from Bing.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why Microsoft would want to reduce the desirability of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, given how much it has been subsidizing other parts of the business and given its reliability as an income stream. But like Call of Duty, perhaps they'll just spreadsheet out the idea that some titles would end up making them more if they were separated out.

I think what we'll also sadly see is some Xbox studios either spun off as indie, as was the case with Toys for Bob, or placed under the reins of another publisher, like Tango. I sorely hope not, but many in the industry and inside Xbox are expecting studio closures too from within Xbox Games Studios, and potentially the cancellation of some third-party projects that haven't even been revealed yet.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma warned that "tough decisions" were ahead for Xbox. It seems that we'll find out exactly what that means in the coming weeks (or even days).

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Not long ago, we discussed comments made by Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball during an interview with Chris Dring of The Game Business. Now that the full interview is available, there are a few additional comments worth taking a closer look at.

Of course, all of these remarks were made before Bloomberg's reports of Xbox layoffs next month and Xbox's recent 100-day reset blog post. Even so, they help paint a clearer picture of the conversations taking place inside Xbox right now, so let's take a look at what Ball had to say.

In the interview, Ball is very upfront about the current state of Xbox, stating:

“It has become difficult to articulate why you should pick an Xbox console. Players have told us that. I think everyone in the audience understands that exclusives are an important way to do that."

It's a rather stark admission, I must admit, but one that speaks to just how difficult Xbox's position has become. For years, the company has been caught between wanting to grow beyond the console market while also trying to convince people that its hardware remains worth investing in.

Ball goes on to discuss Xbox's decision to return to exclusives, saying:

“We as a company, and this is why you'll have seen such a quick shift to exclusives, and again why it was important for us to do two titles, not just one, is we need to ask people to spend a lot of money today to become an Xbox player… it's expensive. It comes at the exclusion of other things and that includes not just our competitors' platforms, but other things in their life… we have an obligation to work harder and more clearly. That's the marketing and the clarity that we're going to come to explain why you should be an Xbox player."

The two titles in question for context are Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution, which are both now Xbox console exclusives. Anyway, it's hard to disagree with Balls' assessment. Consoles are expensive, and if Xbox wants players to choose its ecosystem over PlayStation, Nintendo, PC, or even other forms of entertainment like TikTok, it needs a clear answer to a very simple question: why should someone buy or choose an Xbox?

For a long time, that answer became increasingly difficult to answer. Xbox's games were appearing on more platforms, its messaging was often inconsistent, and many fans were left wondering why even invest in Xbox hardware at all. Well, it seems Xbox now believes the tried-and-tested solution of exclusive content is the answer.

Whether that's enough remains to be seen; Xbox has a difficult road ahead, but at least for the first time in a while, Xbox appears to have a clearer direction. What do you think? Are you happy with Ball's comments? Do you agree, disagree, or simply not care? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll above.

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The Xbox Showcase has wrapped up, and if it feels like the start of a new era ... that's because it well and truly is.

It's the first Xbox Showcase with the full and shiny new leadership layer, including Matt Ball on strategy, Matt Booty on content, and Asha Sharma at the top overseeing it all. But it's honestly more than that.

Xbox has received new branding and a lot of flowery language and promises already. Everyone from the biggest cynics to repeatedly-burned fans are wondering if Xbox is well and truly in it to win it this time ... myself included.

That was top of mind for me as I met with Xbox fans, developers, engineers, and executives at Summer Games Fest and the Xbox Showcase proper. Here's what I learned about Xbox's strategy.

New and incoming Xbox execs asked Satya Nadella directly if he is truly serious

I spoke to a variety of Xbox executives throughout the week about what the state of play is for Microsoft's gaming operation. CEO Asha Sharma hasn't been shy about the problems facing Xbox either. In a Fortune interview just yesterday, she once again described an Xbox that doesn't exactly have a healthy business, despite rocking up with revenues that now supplant Windows itself.

Asha noted in the interview that Xbox has executed in "days, but it will take years for it to show up on the scoreboard." For anyone paying attention, Microsoft under Satya Nadella hasn't really shown itself to be a company that thinks in terms of "years," moreover, quarters. That has been problematic for a core gaming business, where the best products take several years to develop.

It felt to me as though CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood were under the assumption that Call of Duty would solve all of Xbox's woes somehow. The opposite happened; Call of Duty was disrupted by Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass was disrupted by Call of Duty, and hardware continued its free-fall decline. Xbox, like the rest of the industry, is on fragile ground owing to a variety of factors, and it's interesting to see how Xbox is framing that under Asha Sharma.

Microsoft acquired a ton of studios specifically to deliver exclusive content for Xbox in previous years, but a misguided 30%~ accountability margin target from the top forced Xbox to give up its own ecosystem in attempts to sell more software. It underlined Satya's penchant for short-termism, spreading their content out over a broader array of platforms and robbing the Xbox ecosystem of its raison d'être in the process. Fans and detractors alike questioned Microsoft's commitment to its own ecosystem as a result, and the negative impact speaks for itself.

I asked every incoming Xbox leader about the current strategy, noting that Xbox fans and onlookers find the constant tactical changes to be exhausting. I specifically wanted to know if Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution shifting to Xbox-exclusivity would be a short-lived experiment, until CFO Amy Hood comes knocking for boosted margins.

What they told me was encouraging, and it echoed Satya Nadella's previous internal Town Hall comments about being "long on gaming." One exec told me they wouldn't have been so eager to come on board — were it not for direct talks to Nadella himself about Microsoft's long-term commitment to gaming. They left talks with Satya convinced, and immediately took the job.

Someone in the chain seems to have changed Satya Nadella's mind on Xbox's future; Xbox cannot function like a simple software vendor peddling utilitarian content. Culture is the driving factor for gaming, and the way Xbox has been showing up over the last few years has fractured what was previously a very passionate and tightly-knit community.

Given how close the platforms are in terms of functionality, exclusive content has become a central purchasing factor for console ecosystems. One exec referred me to a recent study by Circana, which suggests that exclusive games are still the primary driving force behind purchasing decisions.

It's illogical on paper. Netflix, Spotify, etc., are not hardware-specific platforms. The idea of content being locked to specific devices is uniquely a gaming thing — but it is a thing, and ignoring that cultural reality has been to Xbox's detriment.

Another staffer suggested to me that, indeed, the current Xbox leadership does not view exclusive games as a restrictive fiscal problem to be overcome. Instead, they see it as a strength, and even a "privilege" to use their words, that users are willing to invest in their hardware ecosystem on the basis of love for these worlds — and their positive association with the Xbox brand. They now see it as an opportunity to create culture and community around the Xbox brand, with a dedicated hardware ecosystem at its core, and games, brands, merchandising, movies, TV shows, and the rest of it emanating out from that. For Xbox now, the driving unit is culture.

Indeed, culture is a tricky thing to showcase in a spreadsheet for your Chief Financial Officer, but it's pretty obvious to any human paying attention how much brand damage Microsoft's previous strategy has created for Xbox. What truly underscores this is the fact that Xbox had planned for Halo Campaign Evolved to show up in Sony's State of Play event, only for Asha Sharma to come in and pull it at the last minute.

Xbox's previous leadership had their hearts in the right place. In a perfect world, no games would be locked to any platform. But, not only do we simply not live in that world, PlayStation, Nintendo, and increasingly Valve are actively rejecting that idea. Xbox won't survive if it's the only competitor playing "nice guy" ... and someone, somehow, has finally convinced Satya Nadella of that.

"The next 25 years of Xbox" was very intentional language

When I brought up this concept of Microsoft changing its mind ... one exec mentioned to me that this is one reason they keep referring to the "next 25 years" of Xbox. They know that people feel burned by Microsoft over some of its products (ahem, Windows Phone), and want to impress upon people that Xbox and gaming is now a pillar for Microsoft — alongside Windows, Office, and Azure.

They see Xbox as leading Microsoft's entire consumer-facing operation, casting a halo effect (pun) over the Microsoft brand all up. I was referred to stories by which Microsoft won major corporate contracts for Azure and Office 365 on the basis of clients' love for Xbox, rather than server tech. And indeed, Xbox and gaming more broadly is fun, and it connects with people on a fundamentally hard-to-measure level that could almost be described as spiritual.

I have been among the most cynical and negative people about Microsoft's direction as of late, and I'm daring myself to find some optimism right now. There will be tough times ahead. Memory costs are still up 700% since the start of the generation. Games take longer to make than ever. Geopolitics is making it difficult for U.S. brands to globalize. And crucial parts of Xbox's back end, such as dev tools, marketing, and publishing layers, have been critically underfunded for years. But like Asha said, Xbox and Microsoft seem to have accepted that it'll take "years" for their moves to show up on the "scoreboard."

It's clear to me that the current Xbox executive layer knows exactly what needs to be done, but more importantly, it seems that Microsoft corporate is giving them the large runway necessary to actually execute that strategy. That latter point is the most important takeaway I brought back from LA this week.

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One of Xbox's most recent hires, Mathew Ball, who recently took on the role of Chief Strategy Officer, sat down with The Game Business' Chris Dring for a surprisingly open and insightful discussion about all things Xbox. The conversation offered a fresh look at what's happening behind the scenes, how Xbox is feeling about its current position, and where the company sees itself heading in the future.

However, what caught my attention most were Ball's comments on Project Helix, and what they could mean for Xbox's next-generation console. There's actually a lot that was said here, but here's what Ball explained regarding Xbox's current hardware, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S:

“Today, demand for Xbox consoles is outstripping supply… We are producing them as quickly as possible. These is a severe limitation to how quickly we can do that, but it’s not a question of appetite... that is a prilvege as a company. It is a challenge for us to figure out.”

It's great to see that the Xbox Series X and S are doing so well, and this does line up with comments made by my colleague Jez Corden in the past. However, moving over to what Ball had to say about Project Helix, things get a bit more complicated:

“We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping… We are very cognizant of the ways in which we need the change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it’s flexible, we are working hard to rethinking what that console model can look like, not in an exclusionary way, but in an additive way, so that as we take a look at this crisis, which may have acute effects for 2-2.5 years.”

As for what we already know about Helix, it's going to be a PC and console hybrid, and we know it'll be positioned as a premium, high-end device. Beyond that, though, it's hard to say exactly what Xbox could be rethinking.

Personally, I'd love to see both Xbox and PlayStation delay their next hardware launches. It's clearly becoming incredibly expensive to produce new hardware right now, and current market conditions mean it's ultimately us, the consumers, who end up paying the price.

As much as I love Xbox, I don't think I'd be willing to fork out more than $1,000 for a next-generation console — but maybe that's just me? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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In a recent interview, The Game Business's Chris Dring sat down with Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball, and to say he didn't pull any punches would be an understatement. However, Ball arrived prepared, offering some surprisingly candid insights into Xbox's future, along with a much clearer picture of the company's long-term vision.

Rather than beating around the bush, Dring asked a question that Xbox fans have been raising for months: “What games are going to be console exclusives going forward?” When asked exactly that, Ball had plenty to say: "We have an internal framework and a strategy that we're using to approach exclusives on and off-platform..."

Ball continues, "We announced yesterday that there were two titles, one coming this year, one coming next year. Doing two titles was important. We could have announced Clockwork Revolution was going to be exclusive later in the year... We could have kicked off 2027 by talking about that as an exclusive... It was important for us to include two titles so that people understood this was not a one-off."

Immediately, Ball does a good job of making it clear that this isn't a one-off and that more is to come. He expanded on that point further: "This is the start of the program and players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform, keeps them as Xbox players going forward, and everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important to the growth and branding of that platform."

According to GameSpot, Ball also acknowledged that "certain Xbox exclusives will sell fewer units" than they would if they were multiplatform. However, he also stated that this is a short-term issue, something I have often criticized Microsoft for, as it always seems like they're thinking too much about the short term rather than the long term, and it seems these decisions are being made now with the mindset of helping Xbox's console business expand in the future.

It's a lot to digest, and I'm still of the mindset that actions speak louder than words. In this case, it's going to take a lot for me to fully buy into the idea of a "reliable pipeline" of exclusives.

The Xbox Games Showcase was excellent, but unless I'm mistaken, almost everything shown outside of Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution is also heading to PlayStation 5. That's where some of the messaging becomes confusing.

State of Decay 3 and Senua are perfect examples of the kinds of games I would have expected to remain exclusive. Instead, they're heading to a competing platform that, for all intents and purposes, has struggled to maintain the same level of first-party output as Xbox in recent years.

Now, Ball does discuss that previously announced games will remain multiplatform, so don't expect anything announced already to change. Still, Ball's comments suggest Microsoft now has a clearer strategy than many of us may have given it credit for. Whether that translates into a steady stream of meaningful exclusives remains to be seen.

Enough about my thoughts, though. What do you think? Do you trust what Ball is saying, or are you, like me, a little more apprehensive? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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The announcement of the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition console, a stunning translucent "OG Green" homage to 25 years of Xbox, has naturally ignited a lot of excitement among fans, but with that comes some concern about getting their hands on one. While lucky attendees at the Xbox Showcase 2026 could secure one for free with a 'FAN' badge, the community is bracing for an inevitable battle with scalpers over the remaining stock.

However, all is not lost. In response to widespread concern over X, Josh Munsee, Director of Creative Marketing at Xbox, offered a reassuringly direct reply to one commenter, "it's top of mind and being worked on."

Xbox should look to Valve and how the Steam controller launch was handled

Xbox is likely looking back at industry precedents to gauge what works, and the most recent approach taken by Valve during the Steam Controller launch offers both a great demonstration of what can go wrong or right during the process.

After an initial wipe of stock, for the second round of sales, Valve’s reservation system prioritized dedicated users. Requiring a Steam account in good standing to make a reservation to even buy the controller. Hopefully, this ensured the next batch of controllers turned their hands into genuine enthusiasts rather than predatory resellers. Xbox is in a position to refine this concept further and get it right the first time.

So what do we think Xbox's anti-scalping strategy will look like? Will they simply copy what Steam did and require a registered Xbox account in good standing? Nobody who's been banned for throwing slurs in a COD lobby need apply!

Perhaps it will be for people with a history of active Xbox Game Pass subscriptions? Surely anyone genuinely wanting this console would have been a subscriber at some point. Some have even suggested having a Gamerscore entry fee of sorts, but the threshold would need to be attainable, of course, for a long-term fan. It would make the barrier for scalpers particularly difficult and ensure the buyer is actually playing games on Xbox.

Whatever this anti-scalper method ends up looking like, it's nice to see that leadership is already considering tackling this annoying problem ahead of the console going up for pre-order (and remember, you can buy the controller separately if you don't want the whole bundle).

Xbox could get really creative with this if it wanted and turn the launch into a genuine reward of sorts for the community. Well, as rewarding as something can be that is going to cost a gazillion dollars...

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At the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, Ninja Theory has officially announced Senua. A new action-adventure that serves as an "additive evolution" of the beloved series.

While it continues the journey of Senua, Studio Head Dom Matthews has clarified in an interview with Xbox Wire that this is not Hellblade 3, but rather a fresh start designed to give players more agency and exploration.

Ninja Theory is all working as an 85-person studio altogether for the first time in over a decade to give us Senua.

This game promises to combine the the intimate storytelling and high production values of previous Hellblade titles and blend them with more gameplay elements. The team aims to satisfy fans' requests for deeper mechanics. So all those "it's a walking simulator" comments will be silenced!

“This is an out-and-out action-adventure game,” says Matthews. “It’s about giving Hellblade fans what they’ve been asking for while meeting action-adventure players’ expectations — and the way that manifests is in broader gameplay, more combat depth, and an interconnected world.”

The combat system is a highlight of this shift, featuring tactical choice. Players can now utilize stealth, verticality, and environmental objects to handle encounters, along with new combat abilities like dual-wielding and powerful Focus moves that alter reality.

The game also promises a significantly larger, interconnected world that rewards player perception and curiosity. Set in Senua’s vision of Purgatory, the story bridges the gap between past games while remaining fully accessible to newcomers.

With a scheduled release in 2027, I'm sure we'll see more of the game between now and the intended release. The title will arrive on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Steam, and PlayStation 5, and will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass.

For the full deep dive into the combat systems and story, head over to the official Xbox Wire article.

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At the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, Xbox just dropped an atomic bomb. As in atomic green, get it? To celebrate 25 years of Xbox, it's unveiled the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition collection.

This special release pays homage to the original 2001 console with a striking, transparent design. We finally got the green everyone wanted!

Celebrating "Back to Xbox"

The Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition console, now listed on the Xbox store, features a translucent "OG Green" chassis, directly inspired by the aesthetic of the original Xbox.

While the exterior marks a bold departure from the standard (and frankly boring) matte black or white. The internal hardware maintains the performance of the standard 1TB Xbox Series X, but in a badass limited edition transparent green, so we can see all the guts of our favorite console in action.

There's a 25th Anniversary logo on the front of the console, and the X lights up in that green glow that was teased recently with the new Xbox logo (we KNEW this had to mean something).

An anniversary controller too!

If you don't want to go and buy a whole new console, don't fear. Complementing the console is the Xbox Wireless Controller X25 Special Edition, now also listed.

It features the same translucent OG Green finish, allowing fans to see the internal components. Essentially, it's very similar to the Cipher collection, but finally in the color we've all been begging and pleading with Xbox for.

It includes several subtle nods to Xbox history, such as bumpers designed to honor the classic black-and-white buttons on the original "Duke" controller, and a fully transparent battery door that reveals the classic logo.

Pricing and specific pre-order details are expected to be announced at major retailers in the coming weeks.

Are you planning on picking up the X25 collection, or are you hoping for more 25th-anniversary surprises later this year?

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At the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, the long-awaited Fable finally stepped into the spotlight with a brand-new story trailer. The footage gave us our darkest look yet at the whimsical yet dangerous world of Albion.

The trailer also confirmed the game’s official release date: February 23, 2027.

This new window follows the decision to shift the launch out of 2026, ensuring the title avoids a direct clash with Grand Theft Auto 6 (and the other 3000 games coming out at the end of 2026). Those looking to jump in early can grab the Premium Edition for early access starting February 18, 2027.

Following the trailer, an in-depth Xbox Wire blogpost detailed the star-studded British cast bringing these characters to life. The feature highlights the game’s primary antagonist, Isabel, played with formidable depth by Hayley Atwell, alongside a cast that reads like a "who’s who" of UK talent, including Matt King, Richard Ayoade, Natasia Demetriou, and more.

Associate Narrative Director Craig Owens provided key insights into the cast, explaining how these actors were chosen to perfectly embody their roles. The piece is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the personality and tone of this new Fable iteration before it arrives on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Steam, and PlayStation 5, as well as day one on Xbox Game Pass.

For the full breakdown of the cast, character backstories, and more behind-the-scenes details, head over to Xbox Wire.

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First revealed during Sony's State of Play, many assumed the game was a console exclusive. That's largely because PlayStation doesn't show competitor logos during its showcases, a practice that remains a contentious topic among Xbox fans.

Not long ago, Matt Booty revealed that Xbox plans to show competitor logos during its own showcases. Personally, I'm not convinced that's the right move, especially if Xbox wants to become the number one gaming platform by 2030.

Anyway, enough of me ranting; let's talk about RuneScape.

For those unfamiliar, RuneScape began life as a browser-based point-and-click MMORPG back in 2001. Over the years, it evolved into two separate games, RuneScape 3 and OldSchool RuneScape. Yes, there are effectively two versions of RuneScape that coexist today, with OldSchool RuneScape generally being the more popular of the two.

Expanding beyond those games, Jagex released RuneScape: Dragonwilds into early access last year on Steam. However, it's quite different from what you'd typically expect from RuneScape. Rather than a traditional MMORPG, Dragonwilds is much closer to a survival game like Valheim, and that's certainly not a bad thing.

Fortunately for Xbox players, RuneScape: Dragonwilds launches on September 15, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S. Even better, it will support Xbox Play Anywhere, a feature that has genuinely influenced whether I buy certain games or not.

As a quick refresher, Xbox Play Anywhere means that if you buy the game on Xbox, you'll also own it on PC. Your progress carries across both platforms, and achievements are shared between them too.

Now, I don't expect anyone to know this about me, and if anything, it'd be weird if they did, but I grew up playing RuneScape; in fact, my account is around two decades old. It's still one of my favorite games of all time, sitting right alongside Halo, so I'm definitely eager to finally give Dragonwilds a go.

But what about you? Has RuneScape: Dragonwilds caught your eye, or is it not really your thing? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Two games are shutting down their servers on Xbox this month, and it's always a shame when this happens (via Pure Xbox). More than anything, it makes me think that the Stop Killing Games campaign really needs to succeed. As things stand, the signs look positive there, which is good news for gamers.

Before we get into that, let's take a look at the games being shut down.

• Pinball FX (June 1, 2026) - Xbox One support ending
• Pinball M (June 1, 2026) - Xbox One support ending
• Rec Room (June 8, 2026) - Server shutdown
• Battlefield Hardline (June 22, 2026) - Server shutdown
• Call of Duty: Warzone (June 25, 2026) - Xbox One store removal
• The Elder Scrolls: Blades (June 30, 2026) - Server shutdown
• Madden NFL 23 (July 2026) - Server shutdown
• DiRT Rally 2.0 (July 2026) - Partial service shutdown
• New World: Aeternum (July 2026) - Partial service shutdown

We've previously covered Battlefield Hardline's server shutdown 11 years after its release. That said, as you can see from the list above, quite a few games are either losing online functionality or seeing support scaled back. Some are having their servers shut down entirely, while others are simply being left behind on Xbox One, which is the case for Call of Duty: Warzone (RIP).

I always think it's a shame when game servers are shut down. As I mentioned, it immediately makes me think of the Stop Killing Games campaign, which was created to address situations like this.

The goal is to push for legislation that would require publishers to provide some way for players to continue accessing games after official support ends. The movement has started gaining some momentum, after 1.2 million votes from people within the EU, and in the U.S., recent developments in California have led to a bill being passed.

What are your thoughts on the games listed above and the Stop Killing Games movement? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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New data shared by Christopher Dring of The Game Business has shed fresh light on how Forza Horizon 6 may have helped boost Xbox Series X|S sales in the UK. It also highlights a significant 50% drop in PS5 sales during May, though that decline may well reflect the recent hardware price increase.

What's particularly interesting is just how close the two platforms ended up. According to Dring, Xbox came within just 400 units of PS5 sales in the UK during the month, with Forza Horizon 6 seemingly helping drive interest in Microsoft's consoles.

Here's what Dring had to say on X: “In the UK, PS5 sales fell 50% in May. It only outsold Xbox Series S/X by 400 units (which saw a 12% rise, helped by console exclusive Forza Horizon 6). Switch 2 was easily No.1 (NielsenIQ).”

It feels like you can't go long without exclusivity being brought up when it comes to Xbox, especially with recent talks on competitors' logos being shown within Xbox’s June Showcase. While I believe exclusives are one of the few ways Xbox can remain competitive in the hardware space long term, I also admit it's unlikely the company will ever fully return to exclusives as we once knew them.

Still, it's nice to see Forza Horizon 6 perform well enough to give Xbox hardware sales a boost here in the UK. Growing up, Xbox was everywhere. These days, you're lucky to see it mentioned at all, which is a real shame.

That said, I think Xbox's bigger issue is Microsoft itself, plus its marketing. The company often struggles to put its products in front of consumers in the same way Nintendo and PlayStation do, whether that's through advertising, retail presence, or simply staying part of the wider gaming conversation, and I hate that as an Xbox fan.

With all that said, let me know your thoughts on Xbox's improved hardware sales in the UK and PlayStation's sizable dip in May. Do you think exclusives still sell consoles, or are other factors at play? Leave a comment below and be sure to take part in our poll!

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On the most recent Xbox Two Podcast, I found myself and my co-host talking for an odd amount of time about logos.

Unless you're as chronically online as I am, you might be wondering what the f I'm talking about. Well, Xbox CCO Matt Booty caused a small storm on X when he recently confirmed Microsoft will continue showing competitor platforms' logos throughout its Xbox Showcase on June 7.

PlayStation, Switch, and Steam logos will share the stage alongside Xbox, in a move that Microsoft's competitors simply would never do. After, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma came out and admitted that it was an oversight, and they'll re-evaluate future shows.

I'm sure 99% of people don't actually care about this, if they're even aware of it at all. Regardless, it triggered a wave of condemnation from people who are invested in the Xbox ecosystem for a variety of reasons.

Toxicity and fanboyism aside, there's an undercurrent of logic that is lost in the discourse here that I really wanted to highlight. It revolves around the fact that Xbox is often held to different standards than its competitor platforms for one thing, but also because Xbox, and perhaps more accurately Microsoft, no longer has its core audience's trust.

The logos aren't the real story here

There are people out there who are gatekeeping and simply want to dwell deep in the imaginary turf battle that is the console war. But I think for the vast majority, it's less about that, and more about keeping tabs on Microsoft's behavior.

People do not trust that Microsoft has the best intentions for Xbox's future.

Thanks to its "30 by 30" margin goals, Xbox went on a sprint of disastrous, anti-community decisions that blindsided users and upended decades of convention. Master Chief is no longer Xbox's iconic hero, no longer analogous to Nintendo's Mario or PlayStation's Kratos. Instead, it's heading to the PlayStation platform as part of a remaster, which is seen as a symbolic (or perhaps actual) capitulation.

Gamers of a certain age remember players like SEGA and others bowing out of the industry. They also remember Microsoft canceling big services with millions of users, including Skype, Windows Phone, and others. Microsoft isn't a company that needs gaming to survive, particularly so in the AI era. So, fans are notably on edge any and every time Microsoft does something that suggests it wants to quit being a platform holder.

None of Xbox's other competitors would ever dream of doing this, nor does anyone expect or even advocate for them to. And why not? Because it's business logic. PlayStation et. al. want Xbox to die, and they want to take Xbox's users into their own ecosystem.

I've had plenty of conversations with people who assumed various games were exclusive to PlayStation or whatever else purely on the basis that they had acquired exclusive marketing rights. PlayStation famously had a uniquely exclusionary marketing deal for Destiny 2 back in the day, seeing Microsoft pull off some "creative" marketing beats to advertise the game without advertising it directly.

But this is competition. For the core, PlayStation and others project as companies that want to win platform market share. By showcasing the logos of competitors, Xbox is projecting itself as a company that wants to sell software at the expense of its own hardware platform and ecosystem.

For Xbox customers who have invested hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars into this ecosystem — every hint that Microsoft might be moving away from its struggling hardware ecosystem, or is intentionally or unintentionally harming its visibility, is heavily amplified. Fair or not.

The same is true for the exclusives debate. Xbox fans are voting overwhelmingly in favor of Microsoft pulling games out of PlayStation. And it's just pure mathematical logic here: if PlayStation has exclusives, and Xbox doesn't have exclusives, why would potentially new users buy an Xbox? If new users don't keep coming in, doesn't that mean Microsoft will eventually kill Xbox off?

I do think we all, as Xbox customers, could do more to offer more patience to the new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma. She's only been in the job for a few weeks. But, I ask onlookers within and without Microsoft to know that it was Microsoft itself that created this environment of distrust over what it may or may not do. Years of inconsistency, short-term thinking, and broken promises take their toll.

I am not naïve on this. I know some are just console warring and using the whole thing as an excuse to be toxic online, but for real fans, it's really not about that. Don't blame the customers. They are simply advocating for themselves. It's pure logic, following to the most obvious conclusions.

If Xbox wants to "have its cake and eat it" it needs to prove that its decisions won't lead to the death of Xbox hardware

For what it's worth, I predicted that Surface would be long dead by now a few years ago, but despite it all, Microsoft has kept it going long after I had ever expected it would.

I want to believe that Microsoft knows that it's saving itself a headache by continuing to soldier on with its own hardware endpoints. Google and Apple have effectively locked down and locked Microsoft out of the entire mobile computing paradigm. They might also do the same with artificial intelligence. Whether it's Google's Android desktop experiments, Apple Silicon-powered MacOS, or Valve's SteamOS ... Windows itself has more competition than ever on the horizon, too.

Microsoft cleverly positioned itself further to the back of the stack by becoming the cloud infrastructure provider, powering everything other platforms do — but it's not as if it doesn't have huge competition in that space either.

A lot of Microsoft's software services are bottlenecked by the lack of control it has over endpoints, like iOS and Android. Having a healthy, home-grown ecosystem like Xbox is a moat to insulate itself against this kind of thing. To be fair, CEO Satya Nadella said internally that he is "long on gaming" at a recent town hall ... but it's hard to believe the guy who was all-in on "the metaverse" just a couple of years ago.

Microsoft could do a lot more to show that it's serious in the long term about its own platforms, whether it's stuff like Microsoft Edge, Surface, or indeed, Xbox itself.

The lack of trust is one thing Microsoft desperately needs to work harder to earn back. But we could all do with a bit more patience, too.

How do you feel about all of this? Vote in our poll, and drop in our comments!

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Forza Horizon 6 is still on a roll. This time, we've got sales data from Japan showing that the game is the first Xbox title in three years to chart physically in the region. The last Xbox game to achieve that was its predecessor, Forza Horizon 5, back in 2023, and before that, it was Final Fantasy XV in 2016.

It's quite a testament to see anything Xbox-related perform well in Japan. It's no secret that Xbox has struggled to gain any meaningful ground in the region, so I suppose it's somewhat poetic that one of its biggest successes there is a game themed entirely around Japan.

It also makes me curious whether the BowieKnife99 meme that seemingly every brand under the sun has participated in has made its way into the Japanese community, and what players over there think about it. I imagine their reaction isn't all that different from what we feel towards the rogue car.

The data, obtained thanks to Famitsu, shows that Forza Horizon 6 sits at number 26 in the top 30 physical games chart. That's quite impressive given how small Xbox's install base is in the region, with the platform often only selling a few hundred consoles per week, and that's assuming Xbox gets lucky.

Having played the game myself, I suppose it's no wonder that it managed to chart. Forza Horizon 6 is a fantastic racing game, and its Japan setting is stunning, with some genuinely breathtaking scenery. Despite how bad I am at racing games, I'm still having a great time with it. But that's just me.

It's always a shame how much Xbox struggles in Japan. It's not through a lack of trying; they just can't ever seem to crack the market, but at least they somewhat have here with Forza.

Anyway, what do you think about Forza Horizon 6 charting in Japan? Do you care? Are you surprised, or did you expect it? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Xbox's Free Play Days lineup for this weekend has been revealed, and there are some pretty good games to check out if you have an active Xbox Game Pass subscription and even some if you don’t. Free Play Days runs from May 28 through May 31, 2026.

For those unfamiliar with how Free Play Days works, simply head to the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store, where you'll find the available games included in the promotion. With that out of the way, let's take a look at what's playable this weekend.

First up, I'll start with Formula Legends, maybe a game worth checking out if you can't muster up the funds for Forza Horizon 6. I'm joking, of course. Formula Legends looks like a fun arcade racer, and I'm sure you could have a good time with it if you give it a chance.

If that's not your style, however, there's also the popular first-person zombie survival game Dying Light: Definitive Edition. It's a bit of an older title these days, but it's still widely regarded as one of the best zombie games around thanks to its parkour and tense gameplay.

For everyone else, there are also a couple of games available through Free Play Days for all. That means you don't need an Xbox Game Pass subscription to jump in.

The biggest name here is undoubtedly Gears of War: Reloaded, the not-so-long-ago released remaster of the original Gears of War. If you've been curious about the updated visuals or just want to revisit Marcus Fenix's first adventure, Gears of War: Reloaded is a great way to do so.

Finally, there's High on Life 2, which is available as a five-hour timed trial for all Xbox players. If you enjoyed the first game's weird humor with talking weapons, and it's probably worth setting aside a few hours this weekend to see what the sequels like.

It’s a pretty nice lineup of games, if I do say so myself, but what do you think? Will you give any of them a go, or are you too busy with other games? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Forza Horizon 6 has been out for around 10 days now, and in that time, players have certainly been busy. Although, I imagine most players are trying their best to avoid bowie Knife99, who has been plaguing games while also spawning memes from seemingly every brand account on the internet.

Well now, the team over at Forza has revealed some player stats on X (formerly Twitter), and they are certainly impressive. With over 29 million hours listened to on the top radio station, Bass Arena, alongside more than 141 million hours played in-game, Forza Horizon 6 is off to an impressive start, at least by the numbers.

Perhaps the biggest stat here, though, is the more than 35 trillion credits earned by players, alongside over 20 billion miles driven. That’s more than the collective people of Wales drive on average each year, and that’s in just 10 days

Instead of going over every single stat, I’ll instead break it down in a list to make things as straight forward as possible, so here it goes:

• 29,277,728 hours listened to the top radio station, Bass Arena
• 141 million hours played
• 35+ trillion credits earned
• 6,955,288 garages built
• 184 million photos taken
• 63,483,678 liveries created
• 19 million deliveries completed
• Over 20 billion miles driven
• 18,403,897 wristbands obtained
• 379,097,880 mascots smashed

It’s fair to say Forza Horizon 6 is doing fantastic so far. Peaking at over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam and reaching more than 6 million players overall, it’s shaping up to be a pretty incredible launch for Playground Games.

I just hope Playground Games can maintain that momentum over the coming months, because I’ve been having a great time with the game myself whenever I get the chance to jump in.

Let me know your thoughts on all of these stats, whether you’ve contributed much to them or not at all or maybe you don’t even care about these numbers like I do; regardless, let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll.

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The Outer Worlds fans can rejoice. Despite the game and its DLCs being delisted from most storefronts, including Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, GoG, Epic, and Steam, but not Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PS4 versions. Obsidian has released a Q&A detailing some commonly asked questions surrounding save files, upgrades, and more.

It’s worth quickly explaining what exactly is happening with The Outer Worlds before we dive in, so bear with me as I do my best to catch you up. Essentially, The Outer Worlds and its DLCs are being delisted from most modern storefronts and replaced by The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition going forward.

With that out of the way, fear not, because I’ve gathered together the most important questions and answers right here. Without further ado, let’s jump in.

First off, and perhaps most importantly, Obsidian answered whether saves from the original version of The Outer Worlds will work with Spacer’s Choice Edition. Thankfully, the answer is yes, with Obsidian stating:

“Yes they will. We have done the work to ensure that all saves from the base edition will be able to move forward to the Spacer’s Choice Edition. Though do note that due to new features like grenades, going back to the base edition from the Spacer’s Choice Edition will not work.”

Next up, when discussing whether Game Pass users will still have access to the game, Obsidian said:

“Yes. The Xbox Series X|S Game Pass version has now been updated to Spacer’s Choice Edition.”

For those who may still be somewhat confused about whether existing owners get a free upgrade to Spacer’s Choice Edition, Obsidian also clarified:

“It depends on the platform. PC storefront owners, including Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Xbox App, and Windows Store users, will receive the upgrade at no additional cost if the game is already in their digital library.”

I’d say those are the main questions answered. It’s admittedly kind of weird that Obsidian is doing this in the first place, but at least the studio is being considerate of people’s save files, which, unfortunately, is something that doesn’t always happen in this industry. If you wish to read the full Q&A, I’ll have that linked right here, too.

Still, I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this, and whether you plan on continuing your existing save or perhaps finally jumping into the game now that this new edition is heading to Game Pass. Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to take part in our poll.

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Everyone’s favorite RPG is back again with a brand new expansion, and with it comes a whole suite of updated minimum PC requirements, alongside support being dropped for older platforms like the Xbox One. It’s quite a major shift for an 11-year-old game, especially one that has remained playable on much older hardware for so long.

Before we continue, let’s compare the game's previous minimum specifications on PC with their new minimum specification requirements:

To provide some context, Microsoft has been slowly ending support for Windows 10 and pushing consumers over to Windows 11, and it does appear to be working. Steam’s latest hardware survey, which tracks what users are running on their PCs, shows Windows 11 now accounting for 67.74% of users, while Windows 10 has dropped to 25.63%.

It is honestly impressive to see CD Projekt Red release an expansion for a game that originally launched 11 years ago. If you want to learn more about The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, you can read our full coverage on the expansion here.

In a statement posted on its website, CD Projekt Red explained the reasoning behind the changes, stating:

“With new content coming to the game, we need to update our system requirements to ensure smooth performance and compatibility going forward for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Songs of the Past… These minimum requirements reflect how hardware capabilities and software usage have evolved since we last changed the system requirements."

Admittedly, I’ve never actually played The Witcher 3, but it’s always been one of those games I’ve wanted to sit down and properly experience. Maybe with this new expansion on the horizon, I finally have a good excuse to catch up before its 2027 release on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

Over to you, though; what do you think about these updated minimum spec requirements, and do you even care? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll.

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It’s really not long now until Xbox’s next showcase, with just under two weeks to go. Anticipation for what Xbox might reveal is quite high, alongside deeper looks at games we already know are on the horizon, like Fable.

One eagle-eyed fan online also noticed that ahead of Xbox’s upcoming showcase, Xbox has added a few games to the “Coming to Game Pass” tab. To save beating around the bush, I’ll list the standout games here:

• Clockwork Revolution
• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
• Tropico 7
• Armatus
• Witchbrook
• Fable
• There Are No Ghosts at the Grand

There’s the obvious one here, Fable, which is hotly anticipated and currently set to release this year. Playground Games recently reaffirmed that, with the game set to launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PlayStation 5 this year.

Perhaps most interestingly, Clockwork Revolution is now listed as coming soon. The game currently has no official release date, though it has been heavily speculated to launch this year.

Clockwork Revolution is being developed by inXile Entertainment, a highly regarded studio known for its RPG pedigree. The game itself is set within a steampunk Victorian-inspired world, which to me sounds pretty exciting and interesting.

Also surprisingly, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is listed as coming soon too, especially considering the game still has no official release date despite being scheduled for this year.

All of this does beg the question as to whether we’ll finally get official release dates for some of these games during Xbox’s showcase. Perhaps their launches are sooner than many of us expected, or at least that’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

Out of the list personally, I’m probably most excited for Fable, as I'm sure many others are too. I’ve got quite fond memories of playing the older games when I was younger and having to share an Xbox with my brother.

Enough about me, though; let me know which of these games you’re most looking forward to in the comments, and make sure you take part in our poll!

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Xbox is at a crossroads, like many industries right now.

User behavior is changing at a rapid clip. The rise of new technologies like AI and infinite-scale "metaversal" games like Roblox is creating chaos for traditional platforms. Converge this with tariffs chaos, rising costs as component shortages bite, and competition from non-gaming addictive social media platforms: Xbox certainly has its work cut out.

To that end, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been tasked with reviving Xbox's fortunes and preparing it for the next decade. She's amassing a large force of new C-suite execs to foster some of these changes, including legendary industry analyst Matthew Ball.

Matthew Ball will be Xbox's new Chief Strategy Officer, essentially tasked with shaping how Xbox shows up now and in the near future. He's not long in the job, but we can already infer what he might do based on his industry-leading reporting into the state of gaming.

The traditionalist "console" universe is not a growth engine right now. PC, MENA, LATAM, China, and other emerging markets are.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma already gave this one a shoutout, but Matthew Ball might turbo-charge it even further. As inflation and costs creep up, so too must growth to keep pace. The problem for traditional console platforms is that Western markets seem to have topped out and tapped out in some regards.

"U.S. (#1 market by consumer spend globally): Surveys consistently report that the share of the population that plays games has fallen by 2.5–4 points since before the pandemic," Ball explains.

If you've been wondering why games are being crammed with microtransactions and higher prices across the board, the answer is pretty obvious.

"Growth can only come from greater monetization of (ever fewer) remaining players. This can come from prices being forced up, players buying more, ads, or serving other business models (e.g., Amazon Prime, Google Cloud, etc.). If players don't spend more, all new investments (e.g., hiring, raises, new games, etc.) must be borne by existing players, or otherwise reduce publisher profits."

Obviously, increasing costs harms consumers for one thing, but it also constrains growth over time, potentially. It also pushes users increasingly towards free-to-play titles, which is another area of concern Matthew Ball identifies in his reporting. But Ball also identifies ways traditional platforms could potentially find growth using the "old school" methods: by increasing investment in markets Western companies have historically under-invested in and/or struggled in. Latin America, the Middle East, and China.

I could see greater investment attempts by Microsoft to break into new markets as a result. Indeed, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass variant for China may have already leaked.

Microsoft has grossly neglected localization and stock levels in regions like the Middle East and Latin America, although China remains a different regulatory beast. But the fact remains that it's China that has captured a vast portion of all industry growth in recent years. It absolutely cannot be ignored as a growth vector, but at the same time, geopolitical challenges make China potentially elusive for Microsoft – owing at least in part to its military ties to the United States government. Navigating that one will probably be Xbox's biggest ever challenge.

The argument for (and against) Xbox games exclusivity

The Xbox Player Voice website has made it clear what the core audience wants above all else: exclusive games.

But ... the problem for Microsoft is that it doesn't make sense on paper. Matthew Ball lays it out pretty clearly: actual users who likely aren't reading this article or debating gaming on social media actually couldn't care less about exclusive single-player games.

"Since January 2021, free-to-play games average 45% of all PlayStation and Xbox time. Since January 2021, free-to-play games average 55% of all PC gaming time. Only 3.1–7.4% of global PC, PlayStation, and Xbox time goes to new, non-annual releases (and five games get half that time)."

PlayStation announced recently internally that its future single-player games would no longer come to PC at all. You could interpret this in one of two ways ultimately: that PlayStation thinks exclusive games will drive people to its ecosystem, or that the juice simply isn't worth the squeeze. Matthew Ball's role as an analyst will differ from his role as Xbox CSO. He could find that the amount of brand damage Xbox is doing to itself by putting icons like Master Chief on competitor platforms simply isn't worth that 7.4% maximum attach rate. It could also be framed as an argument to stop producing these types of games altogether, though. I'm not sure Microsoft could find viability as an entity that only produces free-to-play titles, though. Ball identifies Nintendo as a company that has continued to find success with the old school model, while also noting the Switch's unique hardware proposition as a potential factor.

But there's more evidence that Matthew Ball might favor exclusivity all up.

He's talking about mobile gaming here, but since he also identified PC as one of the only growth bright spots for Western publishers, you can infer Steam's similar 30% platform fee as a barrier for Xbox here. "Mobile remains the largest segment of the industry, but the platform tax imposed by the dominant app stores continues to extract an extraordinary share of total revenues," Ball continues. "The erosion in operating margins is exacerbated by the fact that mobile platforms take 30% of gross revenues before publishers see a single dollar. This structural cost has become more painful as development budgets rise and user‑acquisition costs soar."

In my view, this is Ball identifying the problem of being a simple "publisher." Microsoft could devolve into being a publisher, but giving away 30% of its revenues to PlayStation, Steam, iOS, and Google Play will remain a barrier to growth either way. In my view, at least (which may well be wrong, obviously), this is an argument to strengthen Xbox's position as a platform holder, rather than capitulate.

Ball has identified the costs involved with producing games in traditional Western markets, too, as developing massive games in regions like China and Eastern Europe proves exponentially cheaper without a material decrease in quality. Ball noted how well outsourcing is doing as a growth vector. Microsoft has also quietly set up a studio in Poland to that end, dubbed Elsewhere, but we could see more outsourcing too. Minecraft Dungeons, for example, was created by UK-based Double Eleven.

"In 2025, outsourcing held a record 35.5% share of total content investment spend... Outsourcing's recent growth stems from a near-doubling of its share of net new content investment, representing ~65% from 2022–2025 (versus 33% from 2018–2022)."

Perhaps more worrying is what might happen to some of Xbox's smaller studios in this universe. Ball identifies how difficult it has become for new games to break through. Recent Xbox projects like Kiln and Towerborne weren't even a blip on the radar, sadly. Both represent millions of dollars in investment. Finding new players is tough, but getting those players to stray out of their free-to-play forever-game habits is tougher still.

"Individual games can only grow by stealing other games' players, playtime, or spend. An eat-or-be-eaten market means growing one title involves shrinking one or more others. It's even harder for new games to break through."

Perhaps we could see Ball double down on Xbox's long-neglected, albeit very visible, franchises. Microsoft's wholesale mismanagement of Halo is legendary, for example. I could see Microsoft investing more in fewer franchises to bring them up to a level that would make them difficult to ignore ... but building mega franchises is hard. Matt Booty also said to us in a previous interview that "everything big starts out as small," which makes you wonder if there could end up being a clash of ideologies there down the line. Taking zero risks on new IP doesn't exactly seem like a great strategy either.

Matthew Ball was previously head of strategy for Amazon Prime and was instrumental in putting it on the path that led to high-powered exclusive content, including Fallout, The Boys, and Rings of Power. Prime's growth as a destination for video as an incumbent is undeniable, and it was, at least in part, via vast investment in immediately recognizable franchises. He'll also have a unique understanding of how video games and TV shows based on them can catalyze each other ... perhaps we'll get a Halo TV show that'll be actually good.

Big changes to Xbox Game Pass might be on the horizon ... subscription fatigue is real, but direct-to-consumer and user-generated content is growing

Ball has written a lot about subscription fees and platform services as a growth vector for Xbox and other platforms, although he also identified it as a catalyst potentially harming packaged game sales. Platform services have grown 1.8x faster than the market rate, capturing 7% of industry growth according to his data. Packaged game sales, conversely, have shrunk by comparison.

"119% of net spending growth since 2020 has gone to platform services. Total spending on game sales and transactions is down nearly $3.7B per year (or 11%)." Ball emphasizes that the model of "selling games" is in decline owing to a variety of factors. "Console platform services (PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live & Game Pass, Nintendo Switch Online) have grown every year since 2019, even as game sales and transactions have declined. 119% of net spending growth since 2020 has gone to these services. This means the traditional model of selling games — including exclusives — is in structural decline."

There are multiple roads Ball could take with regard to Xbox Game Pass, but it's hardly as if Xbox Game Pass by itself is responsible for this wholesale decline. Xbox Game Pass only has around 30 million subscribers. Free-to-play games, mobile games, and other forms of entertainment have decreased spending on packaged game sales for every platform, far beyond Xbox's green walls.

Indeed, Ball mentions that the long-term viability of subscription bundles might struggle as our backlogs bite, and if users drill down into specific desires. There's more content than ever out there. Do we need all-you-can-eat? "Many players are choosing to spend directly on the specific content they value most rather than paying for broad subscription bundles. This shift reflects a desire for precision in spending and a reluctance to pay for large catalogs when only a small portion is used."

Xbox's previous CEO Phil Spencer talked about Xbox Game Pass as a content fund powering and funding traditional games, freeing them from the pressure of delivering hits with stable, guaranteed engagement revenue. It's unclear if Ball will disrupt that, or instead build upon it, since he argues both positions: packaged game sales have declined, but users are also showing signs of spending specificity. I've long heard rumors of an ad-powered Xbox Game Pass tier, and Ball explicitly talks about it throughout his presentation. "Today, ads remain rare among PC/Console games and services (with the exception of on-device/in-store ad units). But eventually, ads reach all addressable surface areas."

The amount of money actually flowing to game makers has arguably shrunk in this universe, with "services" capturing growth. You could infer this is because users' money and time are being pulled in more directions than ever, and subscription services and "free-to-play" have become more cost-effective vectors in customers' minds. Would eliminating Xbox Game Pass' day one games pledge return growth to traditional packaged games? The data doesn't seem to suggest that. It suggests it might just push even more users towards free-to-play titles instead, save for some big tentpoles like Forza Horizon and Call of Duty.

Ball has joined other analysts in identifying how "interactive entertainment" platforms have evolved beyond simple gaming. "Interactive entertainment is no longer limited to games. Platforms such as TikTok, Twitch, and OnlyFans command extraordinary amounts of user time and spending, often exceeding that of traditional game publishers," Ball explains. "Their creator‑driven subscription and tipping models allow them to scale engagement without the production costs associated with game development."

Xbox is well-positioned, potentially in a creator-first universe. Perhaps we won't be seeing XboxFans any time soon ... but Microsoft owns Minecraft and has frankly barely done anything with it from a platform standpoint. If it were me, I'd position Minecraft as Xbox's exclusive metaversal layer. Minecraft would be integrated into Xbox and Xbox PC at a platform level, both as a social system and a content delivery mechanism. Players should be able to represent themselves as Minecraft avatars on Xbox Live and create Minecraft games directly from their Xbox.

Ball continuously hails Roblox as the industry's most explosive growth area right now. It's frankly baffling that Microsoft hasn't leveraged Minecraft in any way, shape, or form to grow Xbox. Perhaps Ball agrees.

"At the end of 2024, Roblox had more DAU than PlayStation, Switch, or Xbox. A year later, DAU were up another 69% (with 3x as many DAU added as in the first year of COVID)," Ball explains. He goes on to describe the 'threat' of Roblox to traditional gaming models, noting that it's coming close to rivaling Netflix itself in use. "In fact, Roblox is starting to challenge Netflix for total hours of use. In 2025, Roblox hit 65% of Netflix's hours (82% in Q3), and while Netflix grows ~1% a year, Roblox manages 25–70%." Ball also noted that Roblox captured 60% of net non-China growth since 2021. Obviously, Minecraft is the big untapped goldmine (diamond mine?) here.

With regulators forcing iOS and Google to open their platforms up to third-party stores, could Xbox make a direct-to-consumer play here? It would take some significant investment to see through. The Xbox Mobile Store has been a struggling project for some time, and Microsoft's Minecraft operation is generally quite sluggish when it comes to updates ... a significant overhaul of how Minecraft shows up, to position it against Roblox, would be a huge undertaking.

Matthew Ball's role as an analyst is going to differ heavily from his role as Xbox CSO

Matthew Ball's role as an analyst will differ greatly from his role as Xbox CSO. He'll have access to unique insights and data that he wouldn't have been fully privy to on the outside, while on the other side of the fence. Indeed, his analyses focus on identifying the constraints and problems — not necessarily the solutions, nor aspects of managing fan expectations, or brand equity.

Matthew Ball is a gamer, crucially. He understands the industry better than anyone and spends an inordinate amount of time parsing everything the industry does across the entire globe. He was instrumental in helping Amazon Studios compete as an incumbent against Netflix and Disney+, and as such, has unique insights into the impact of cultural touchstones and their intersectionality with technology and subscription services on top.

Xbox is in an incredibly difficult position with pressure on all sides. Fans want a very specific experience, but the younger cohorts are moving away to other experiences at a rapid clip. Component prices are absolutely insane, and geopolitics and tariffs are adding needless pressure on top. Rising costs of consumer goods put pressure on luxury spending as much as they put pressure on companies' own costs, eating into margins and threatening business stability.

Xbox has long been this sort of "side project" entity within Microsoft, but the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard turned it into a massive entity within its own right. But it's true that the bigger they are, the harder they can fall. Billions in the black can be billions in the red overnight, and balancing all of that is a feat I'm not sure many of us can really understand. No pressure!

But Microsoft has put together a team of proven winners to explore all of this potential. Roblox has changed the way an entire generation thinks of gaming. The Google-Apple mobile duopoly has done immense damage to developers and gamers alike. Social media has changed all of our online habits, too.

The potential is still real and raw, though. Will Microsoft's historical penchant for corporate inertia and short-termism prevent Xbox from reaching its full potential? Or will Ball, Booty, and Sharma unlock a new era of transformative growth for Xbox fans and the gaming industry as a whole?

The next five years are going to be very interesting.

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The Xbox Player Voice website is here, reviving a tradition we've not seen from Xbox in quite some time.

This isn't the first time Xbox has had a feature like this. The Xbox User Voice platform from many moons ago actively solicited feedback from fans and was also used to target specific games for Xbox Backwards Compatibility. The team prioritized the work (both technical and legal) based on what games were being requested the most. We didn't get all of them ... but the vast majority were eventually delivered. Xbox thus has some of the best console-oriented backward compatibility on the market.

Xbox stopped taking feedback from users wholesale a few years ago. It's in this environment we ended up losing Xbox exclusive games, and we got an absurd Xbox Game Pass 50% price hike, amidst other annoyances. 2026 is turning out to be a different beast so far.

New CEO Asha Sharma is prioritizing Xbox user feedback more than ever, as part of a wider Microsoft push to revive its consumer-oriented businesses. Windows also has its K2 initiative, soliciting feedback in a similar way, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella woke up at some point last year and realized that half of his business had fallen into disrepair. Better late than never, I guess.

In any case, it's a positive shift regardless. But how realistic is some of this fan feedback? Let's examine it together!

You can add your own Xbox Player Voice feedback items over here.

We dive into the biggest (consolidated) trending feedback items ranked by order of votes, as well as some comments on how realistic or unrealistic they may be to actually implement.

20. Remove "ads" from the home screen

I appreciate the sentiment here, but I also kind of personally don't see it as a big deal. I'm in and out of the dashboard in seconds, so I don't even really notice that it even really has "ads." Furthermore, I often actually appreciate the "ads" that are there, because at least in Europe, they're usually for Xbox games and Xbox news, rarely external stuff.

I know that in the United States, the ads can be a bit different, though. I did see a McDonald's ad recently from a U.S. dashboard, which I'm pretty sure we don't get here.

The big problem with Xbox hardware is the lack of raw margin. In fact, given the memory rout right now, I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox hardware is actually a negative margin in the current year. Having ads helps Microsoft keep the hardware business at least vaguely viable, particularly in a universe where more and more gamers than ever are playing titles like Fortnite and Roblox for free, and not actually spending a penny.

Hating ads is the default, but they serve a pretty important role for the Xbox ecosystem, so I'm really in two minds about it here.

19. Add music to the home screen

This is a cool idea, particularly if it integrated YouTube Music or Spotify. Microsoft already has YouTube and Spotify on the box, complete with background audio support, so having the Xbox default to an ambient Spotify Playlist on the homescreen or with a Dynamic Background could be a cool feature and potentially comparatively easy to implement.

18. 100% achievement awards like PlayStation "Platinum" trophies

Xbox has been locking in to new features for Xbox achievements at a decent clip lately. You can now get special icons on your profile for certain gamerscore milestones, but what people really want is completion trophies. An incentive to fully complete a game and all of its achievements in exchange for a special completion award, similar to PlayStation's Platinum Trophy.

I'm not a completionist or an achievement hunter, but this has long been one of the top feedback items I've heard in my community. I don't see why Microsoft shouldn't implement it.

17. Legacy Xbox game achievements

Indeed, a lot of the feedback items in the top trending list are achievement-related. One user asks Microsoft to implement achievements for OG Xbox games. There are technical reasons why this might be impossible for many, if not all of the OG Xbox games, with source code inaccessibility, licensing issues, framework incompatibility, and so on — but it's a nice idea. It's sadly one that I seriously doubt will be implemented, though.

16. Official support for Ukraine

Despite Microsoft's heavy investment in Ukrainian cloud infrastructure and military resilience against the evil Russian regime, Xbox actually has no official presence in the country. Microsoft has been investing in Ukrainian games like Metro and STALKER, and has been contributing to defending Ukrainian tech from Russian aggression.

There are obviously some difficult circumstances with regard to delivering the full Xbox ecosystem in the country right now, technologically and financially. Russia is actively attacking Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure, including cloud pipelines. I hope Microsoft does what it can to bring Xbox to the nation, though. Gaming can be a source of calm amidst chaos, and there are fewer places on Earth enduring more senseless, evil chaos right now.

15. Stream games to YouTube

Microsoft has Twitch integration, but more and more people are streaming games to other platforms, including YouTube and TikTok. It might require Google to play nice with Xbox to actually implement, though, and as we know, Google hates Xbox with a passion.

As such, I doubt we'll see this get implemented any time soon. Google is an anti-competitive company, and would rather see the Xbox ecosystem die out than actually support features like this.

14. Add voice chat clip recording

Here's one Xbox COULD implement, though. I've often wanted to clip funny happenings me and my friends have experienced, but right now, you can only really do that on PC. It would be great if you could also record your mic and party chat members' mic into clips to get full reactions etc., subject of course to a disclaimer for users who had the feature "turned on," so that nobody was being recorded unaware.

In the era of social media and clipping, this seems like an obvious one to implement, technical challenges notwithstanding.

13. Boost FPS boost

The 13 top trending pieces of feedback pertain to FPS Boost, which we haven't really seen much of recently. FPS Boost was implemented in games like Wasteland 3, Metro 2033, and Fallout 3, giving some 30 FPS back-compatible games a platform-injected coat of new paint. Or, go faster stripes, I guess.

Microsoft implemented FPS Boost on a few games, but the feature then fell by the wayside. I presume Xbox Helix will have some sort of AI-powered frame generation tech to make it easier to implement at a platform level, but it would be cool to see more OG games get modern frame rates.

12. Lower the price of Xbox hardware

Here's one I definitely don't see happening in the short term. The price of memory is a huge, global problem right now. Every manufacturer that uses memory is seeing a price rout, battering margins, and making components hard to even acquire.

Xbox's hardware isn't down due to decreased demand alone; it's down because they've not been purchasing stock. Because the stock is too expensive ... if they can even get the memory in the first place.

Memory prices are supposed to stabilize around 2028, but who knows what other reasons there might be for increased supply chain costs by then ... I wouldn't expect to see Xbox hardware get a price cut any time soon, sadly!

11. Expand Xbox Play Anywhere to older games

Here's one I'd love to see implemented more. Some classic games recently grabbed Xbox Play Anywhere, including Resident Evil Village and Kingdom Come Deliverance. But it's exceedingly, painfully rare that a game gets retroactive Xbox Play Anywhere support.

My biggest lamentation is that my Xbox Ally doesn't get access to 99% of my console library right now. No Dark Souls, no Elden Ring, no classic games of any stripe. Only the few Xbox PC games that Microsoft does a deal with via Xbox Game Pass. The organic uptake of Xbox PC and Xbox Play Anywhere is absolutely miserable, and it needs to change somehow.

10. Change playtime from "days" to "hours"

I'm surprised how popular this piece of feedback was since I never really considered it a huge deal, but if you go to your stats page on your Xbox guide for any game, it shows your playtime in days, hours, and minutes.

It's not hard to calculate the days into hours, but I suppose the obvious play here would be to add some kind of toggle to switch between days, hours, and minutes, to just hours and minutes. Given how popular this piece of feedback is and how simple it would be to implement, this could be an easy win.

9. HDR dashboard support

Here's something that bugged me so much I actually just fully turned off HDR.

The Xbox dashboard is not in HDR, which means your TV set will flicker between display modes on and off when you switch between the game and the dashboard. Some TV sets do this very slowly, making it a pain. It would be ideal if the Xbox could just stay permanently in HDR or non-HDR modes. I've disabled HDR completely to avoid this, although my TV's HDR generally sucks anyway. If you have an expensive TV with good HDR, you might be disproportionately annoyed by this, and rightfully so.

8. Boost support in Brazil

If there's one Xbox fanbase that is arguably among the world's most passionate, if not the most passionate, it's Brazil.

Xbox has enjoyed a strong history in the Americas, North, Central, and South, but global economic complexities have led to disparate support between them. Tariffs and taxes are some of the main reasons Microsoft has pulled back support from many regions across the globe in recent years, but Brazil is arguably among one of the worst hit.

I'm not sure how Microsoft would resolve things here, but it might require some form of governmental intervention. However, the fact that the Xbox Elite Series 3 leaked via the Brazilian regulatory authority might be an indication that Xbox is gearing up to return more support to the region.

7. Bring back Xbox Avatars

I've written before how Xbox is often too focused on telemetry at the expense of fun, and I think Xbox Avatars was definitely a victim of this. You'd think in the social media era, Microsoft would be more willing to do something with this system, alas.

In any case, Xbox 360 Avatars were a fun way to express yourself on Xbox Live in the 360 days, and were even implemented into some games, similar to the Mii's of the Nintendo ecosystem. Microsoft refreshed Avatars during the Xbox One era, to considerable expense, I'm told, but that's where the refresh ended. Microsoft canceled the project and subsequently cut them entirely, not long after.

I think the crux of the issue with the new Avatars is exactly that, really, they were just too expensive. HD assets cost more to make and implement. Microsoft should've just stuck with the retro-styled Avatars and opened them up to content creators to add to and remix instead, creating a low-cost user-generated content layer for the platform.

I'm not sure if Microsoft would bring them back, but this might be one of the few ways "AI" could play a role in creating harmless 3D assets for players to express themselves with. Bring it back and open it up to creators, Microsoft!

6. Disc-based game support for Xbox Helix

This is another problematic one. The reality remains that PlayStation and Xbox consoles are currently the only market for disc drives. Laptops and PCs don't have them anymore, and Blu-ray players have given way to streaming services and digital delivery in recent years.

The industry sees discs as a declining feature. PlayStation just noted it has hit 85% digital delivery, and Xbox is likely even higher.

That being said, I would like to see some kind of option here for disc fans. Either via external drives, or the disc to digital program Microsoft seems to be working on. It would be a shame to see discs fully go away ... but they already did for PC gaming. It's a digital world now, for better or worse.

5. Xbox Game Pass Family Plan support

Here's another painfully canceled project, although I heard this one wasn't actually Microsoft's fault.

Microsoft was testing a Family Plan for Xbox Game Pass, giving up to four users access to the library in exchange for a discount. It even implemented it in Ireland and Colombia as a test run.

I was told EA, who is a long-term contractee within the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem, fully hated the idea. It sucks because EA does the absolute bare minimum with its Game Pass involvement, refusing to put Xbox PC native versions with Play Anywhere or Xbox achievements out.

If the above is indeed true, I would like to see EA get kicked out of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem in exchange for a revival of the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan, personally. EA barely releases games anymore anyway. EA shouldn't be allowed to hold back Xbox customers, given how anemic its contributions have been.

4. Separate Xbox achievements between base game and DLCs

Here's one I often hear about. Presently, when Xbox games get DLC, the extra achievements are added to the overall pool of the gamerscore for that title.

For users who like "completing" games, this can be a bit frustrating, I'm sure. You spend weeks, or months even, working on 100%'ing a game, only for a DLC to drop in and move the goal posts.

I'm not sure if Microsoft would be able to retroactively separate the base game and DLC achievement scores, but it's certainly something I've seen requested a fair bit, and the fact that it's the fourth-highest trending item is telling.

3. Make online multiplayer fully free

Paying for multiplayer feels like an anachronism in 2026. The rise of Steam has to at least be in part due to the fact that it doesn't request any such paywall. Mobile games, too.

Indeed, an entire cohort of users has grown up expecting access to be free, at least for games. Roblox, Fortnite, and so on. Microsoft would have a huge and powerful message to send if indeed it dropped the multiplayer paywall, leaving Nintendo and Sony as the sole proprietors of the outdated downside. But ... Microsoft would also be putting millions of dollars on the shelf if it did this.

The business for consoles has not changed. You still sell the box at cost, often lower than cost, and then make the money back on the software and services. The "Xbox" people want, that is, simultaneously cheap, has no ads, and no paywall for multiplayer, simply doesn't exist in any fiscal reality that I know of. Either the box needs to be more expensive, to make your margins there, or your services and access need to be expensive, or ads need to be ramped up, rather than down.

Microsoft isn't a charity, and Xbox still has an "accountability margin" it needs to feed back to the mothership in order for people to not lose their jobs. So while dropping the paywall would be a great move ... something else would have to rise up to replace that lost revenue. What would you do?

2. Boost Xbox backwards compatibility

Perhaps Xbox's best "exclusive" feature right now: backwards compatibility.

Xbox and console gamers in general are getting older and more nostalgic. The fact that you can get access to games from decades ago via emulation is fairly unique in the industry for the Xbox console, and it helped force others to build up some of their own offerings on top.

Windows is the ultimate backwards compatibility layer, offering games all the way back to the 1970s if you want to go extreme. But there are some games that simply never launched on PC, which are now only playable via Xbox 360 backwards compatibility.

There are some holdouts still missing. Singularity, the Transformers games, and other Xbox 360 classics — licensing issues prevent some of these, but it would be cool to see Microsoft push some more over those legal hurdles.

1. A return to Xbox exclusive games

Here's the biggest and most problematic one. People want Xbox to have its exclusive games back.

Putting Halo, Gears, Fable, and Forza on PlayStation was a historic capitulation for the Xbox ecosystem and brand, battering trust and desirability for the ecosystem. PlayStation, Steam, and other companies don't want to play nice with Xbox; they want it to die, so for Xbox to surrender like this has not been a popular decision.

But there's a business reality to accept here: Even with exclusive games, there's no guarantee Xbox would find new users, particularly not regular returning users. Someone buying an Xbox console at a 0% margin (at best) and then only playing a couple of games before returning most of their spending to another platform is hardly a progressive business plan.

But at the same time, you might not have a business to plan for at all if everyone leaves. WHY buy an Xbox in 2026 when PlayStation potentially gets ALL of your games, in addition to its own exclusives? Which, by the way, now apparently won't even come to Steam and Windows.

I think it's a foregone conclusion that Xbox will get exclusive games again. I believe Xbox only set up this Player Voice platform to really prove the point to CEO and CFO Satya and Amy in the language only they understand: a data point that shows Xbox customers want exclusive content above all. Something needs to be done, and it's on Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to figure out one of gaming's most difficult fiscal puzzles.

BONUS: Jez's most important feedback ... revive Heroes of the Storm

Since I have free will and this is my article, and I can do whatever I want: Vote on my most important and most epic Xbox Player Voice feedback item, the REVIVAL OF HEROES OF THE STORM.

Heroes of the Storm is the world's best MOBA, and even though many millions have been tricked into thinking games like LoL or DOTA2 are better, there's a clear opportunity here. Bring Heroes of the Storm to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. Add other Microsoft properties like DOOM, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and heck, even Banjo. And BOOM, make a BILLION dollars. Or don't. I dunno.

It's pretty clear what people are eager to see the most ... but how realistic is all of this?

Either way, it's pretty clear that the biggest feedback item by a country mile revolves around exclusive games. I doubt Microsoft can actively pivot on games that have already been costed and projected as including PlayStation's userbase, but what of future titles?

Microsoft shouldn't be working as hard as it has been to deprive consumers and developers of reasons to actually build for Xbox platforms. Microsoft should be doing MORE to bring users to these platforms, and it can only do that with content.

Every platform has exclusive content. To play the biggest Roblox titles, you need to download Roblox. To play Half-Life 3 (if it ever comes out), you will need to use Steam. Spider-Man, God of War, and Mario will NEVER release on Xbox. Hell, even the Steam Controller doesn't work with the Xbox PC app, by design.

These companies do not want to collaborate with Xbox; they want Xbox to die. They want to absorb its customers — many of whom have invested thousands into the Xbox ecosystem.

It's not about gatekeeping content; it's about Microsoft showing it has the guts to actually be competitive for users and developers for the sake of the customers who are effectively locked in. It would be a sad state of affairs if Microsoft set up this entire platform for feedback and then ended up ignoring it.

Will Microsoft blink? Time will tell.

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

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

Microsoft disagrees.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The memory rout is eating into stock, and demand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Halo: Campaign Evolved is set to release this year for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, and, yes, to the dismay of many Xbox fans, PlayStation 5, despite ongoing drama surrounding Halo Studios

Now, my personal view is that if this helps Halo survive, then as a longtime fan, I’m happy. However, as an Xbox fan too, it feels like Xbox as a brand, especially its hardware division, is on thin ice, at least from my perspective anyway, which may sound extreme.

And yes, I’m aware Project Helix is coming (which I'm excited for), but I digress. Halo appearing on PlayStation still feels weird to me. This is the franchise that helped kickstart Xbox, and now it’s becoming one of several games helping keep PlayStation afloat as Sony continues scrambling after its failed live service push and lack of games.

The exclusives conversation will always continue to swirl around online, and personally, I struggle to think of many reasons to invest in Xbox hardware outside of exclusives, despite Xbox still being my favorite platform compared to PlayStation and Nintendo.

Over on Reddit, one fan, u/Maxkid1995, spotted that GameStop is stocking its shelves with placeholder cases showing Halo: Campaign Evolved coming to PlayStation 5, with them stating: “This is still very insane to see.”

The post received more than 6,000 upvotes, with one commenter saying: “This is pretty much Halo's last chance to salvage any damage done the last decade.” That particular comment alone received more than 3,000 upvotes.

However, as many Halo fans may notice, this now feels like Halo’s third “last chance,” with many fans having said the exact same thing during both Halo 5 and Halo Infinite’s launch periods.

I’ll admit it myself, seeing Halo advertised for PlayStation feels weird, especially seeing it on store shelves. Personally, I do think it’s bad for Xbox as a brand, but at the same time, it also feels far too late for Microsoft to back out of this strategy now.

I also don’t expect Xbox to reverse course on exclusives at all, so I just hope whatever the company does to entice players toward Xbox as a platform is enough moving forward, and that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma can pull it off.

With that said, what are your thoughts on this?

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

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Forza Horizon 6 is finally here, or well, the reviews are anyway. The game itself launches tomorrow, May 15, 2026, for those who purchased early access, while everyone else can jump in on May 19, 2026.

It’s fair to say that Forza Horizon 6 is a hotly anticipated game. After leaking early just a few days ago, which led to users who accessed the game ahead of launch reportedly receiving 8,000-years bans, we now know that maybe risking it all was worth it, as the game has scored quite well across the board.

As of writing, the game currently sits at 92 on Metacritic, and over here at Windows Central, my colleague Michael Hoglund reviewed the game, giving it a 90, stating:

“Forza Horizon 6 is the series at its most confident, most refined, and most fun. Everything that made the earlier games iconic is back, but with a slicker sheen and events that pop. If you love racing and want an open-world experience that’s equal parts heart and horsepower, Forza Horizon 6 is a no-brainer. It’s the top dog for a reason, and this chapter just cements it.”

Across reviews, there’s a pretty consistent message: Forza Horizon 6 is a fantastic game. I’d like to say I’m surprised, but quite frankly, I’m not. Still, I’ll show you some scores from elsewhere to help you make up your mind if you’re still on the fence:

• Insider Gaming: 100, “Banksy-level vistas of Japan are breathtaking”
• IGN: 100, "full of dense, authentic details and stunning driving roads"
• Game Informer: 93, “Forza Horizon 6 impresses at each turn”
• DayOne: 90, “Forza Horizon 6 is the best the franchise has ever been”
• EuroGamer: 100, “Playground Games does it again”
• DualShockers: 95, "one of the best racing experiences you’ll ever have"
• Gamesreactor UK: 70, “Horizon 6 disappointed me”

Reviews are also currently fairly consistent across both Xbox Series and PC, both maintaining around a 90 as of writing.

I’ll also jump into some positives and negatives to give you an even better idea of what you’re in for, starting off the positives:

• Amazing recreation of Japan
• Great performance and visuals
• Improved progression whilst being fun and approachable
• A lot of content to enjoy

Okay, now over to the negatives:

• Feels very similar to past games in the franchise
• Some reviewers disliked the progression
• Some activities and events lacked variety
• The game can start to feel repetitive after awhile

Overall, Forza Horizon 6 is shaping up to be one of the best entries in the series, with many reviews praising the game for its long-requested setting, Japan, which offers a vibrant and immersive playground to drive around in with enough content to keep players busy for hours.

However, while most reviews agree that the setting is fantastic, some critics feel the game is too familiar to previous entries and believe the formula can start to feel stale after a while.

I’ve actually been wanting to jump back into a Forza game for the longest time. I don’t think I’ve properly played one since Forza Horizon 3 maybe way back in the day, so I’ll definitely be checking this one out when it releases, but how about you?

Will you be getting Forza Horizon 6 through Game Pass, buying the game outright, getting early access, or perhaps skipping the game entirely?

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

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Xbox’s latest Insider update is here. After Xbox CEO Asha Sharma promised to deliver regular updates, the latest rollout for Insiders has arrived, bringing another neat update to achievements alongside the recently revealed new boot-up animation, so let’s go over just what’s here in the latest update.

First off, Xbox’s recently teased new boot-up animation is finally here for Insiders. After Asha Sharma revealed the new animation on X, formerly Twitter, it’s now beginning to roll out for testing.

More impressively, however, are the new tiered Gamerscore badges. Players will earn these badges based on their lifetime Gamerscore, with the designs evolving as your score grows, all the way up to a massive 5 million Gamerscore, while 10 million has also been teased, likely for some time in the future.

In addition to this, users can now access new filters designed to make navigating their game library much easier.

If you wish to join Xbox’s Insider Program, you can follow the guide linked here. However, do so at your own risk, as the experience may still have issues, including bugs and glitches.

I must say, I’m impressed with the progress being made at Xbox lately. While yes, there’s still a boatload of work left to be done, we are seeing genuine efforts being made to improve the overall user experience, and I imagine this is just one of many things currently in development.

I, for one, as I’m sure many others are too, am eagerly awaiting a much bigger overhaul to achievements, but introducing profile badges to showcase your Gamerscore is pretty neat and a welcome change. Now, it’s not quite the PlayStation Platinum Trophy equivalent many people want, but it certainly feels like a step in the right direction, and one can hope there's more achievement updates in the future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this latest Xbox Insider update, so make sure to leave a comment and, as I always say, be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Aliens: Fireteam Elite was a solid 3-player co-op shooter, similar in vein to the likes of Left 4 Dead. It was also a pretty big win for Xbox PC and Xbox Play Anywhere a little while after it launched, joining the platform alongside its Xbox Series X|S version with cross-play and cross-buy capabilities. Sadly, Daybreak Game Company doesn't seem to think it was worthwhile.

Confirmed to us last week, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will not only skip Xbox Play Anywhere, but it's skipping Xbox PC all up.

"We currently only support Steam and EGS stores for PC," Daybreak told us via their PR firm, in what is ultimately a pretty embarrassing moment for the Xbox PC store. Why is this happening, and is it indicative of a broader trend?

"Organic" adoption of the Xbox PC store has been fairly miserable. It's a huge problem for Microsoft's future plans for the ecosystem, and it's one that new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has identified in recent memos to staff internally.

"We have to be honest about where we are. We’ve got work to do. Players are frustrated with us, they feel like we haven’t updated our console enough, they feel like our PC presence isn’t very strong," Asha recently said to Xbox staffers, noting that she plans for Xbox to "sweat every detail."

A big gulf remains between what players expect of the Xbox PC storefront experience and what today's experience is actually like. I'm told that a big update is coming for Xbox PC later this year that should help. And Asha Sharma has also recently hired some platform discovery and search experts to boost the usability of the Xbox PC store on that side, too. Sharma's appointment of David Schloss in particular is potentially compelling on this side. He was instrumental in growing Instacart into a huge operation, and I'm told he's also a big PC gamer as well who understands the expectations therein.

But the dev side also seems to be a bit of a mess, judging from conversations I've had with developers over the years. Sharma has also brought in engineering expertise from Microsoft's GitHub and tooling teams to help in this area as well.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite didn't show up on Xbox PC and Xbox Play Anywhere on day one, but it did adopt the platform post-launch as part of an Xbox Game Pass deal. The same is true for other titles, as well. Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7 are on Xbox PC and Xbox Play Anywhere, although Resident Evil 2 and 3 at least seem to be abandonware with updates several years behind that of their Steam counterparts. Resident Evil 8 only arrived recently as part of Xbox Game Pass. Resident Evil 9, as expected, was a total no-show.

Therein lies one of the problems: increasingly, it looks like developers are only willing to join the Xbox PC store with some form of upfront marketing deal, as opposed to organically. It's another Xbox problem for Asha Sharma to solve, as part of a growing list.

Steam doesn't have to ask any dev to come to its platform. It's the de facto default store for variety core gaming, and that doesn't look set to change any time soon — even if younger cohorts armed with Roblox continue to eat into the traditional user bases. Microsoft is gunning for a slice of this PC pie, and it has pretty huge advantages. Xbox PC comes pre-installed on Windows 11. It's giving developers an 88% cut of the revenue, rather than Steam's 70% cut. The initial dev fees have also been removed, too.

I'm told footfall through Xbox PC is higher than that of the Epic Game Store, but Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will be day one on Epic's platform ... and won't launch at all on Xbox PC, Xbox Play Anywhere or not.

Are developers potentially holding Microsoft hostage for Xbox Game Pass money here? It could be a double-edged sword in essence. Getting a Game Pass deal has helped Microsoft grow the Xbox PC store very rapidly, but on the downside, both users and developers seem to see it as a "Game Pass" store, rather than an organic, traditional PC store. Microsoft has trained its users to wait for Xbox / PC Game Pass drops on the Xbox PC app, and it has trained developers to only show up in exchange for a Game Pass deal. I'm not sure that's sustainable long term.

Xbox PC is key to Microsoft's gaming future

I'm not sure how you solve the problem. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Users won't show up if the games aren't there, and devs won't show up if the users aren't there. I suspect users aren't buying many games outright via Xbox PC, and are mostly using it for PC Game Pass and Xbox Play Anywhere. Developers probably don't see the value in giving away "two licenses" of their Xbox games, even if there's little evidence that gamers are willing to buy games twice. On the contrary, Microsoft says Xbox Play Anywhere games see higher sales and engagement, and speaking for myself, I'm far more likely to buy a game if it has the feature.

Given the memory price and supply route right now, Microsoft is missing out on a big opportunity to meet users and developers on platforms where they already are. People are going to be keeping their existing devices, PC, console, and otherwise, far longer than usual. The price of memory is absolutely blowing up, and analysts suggest it won't come down until 2028 at the earliest.

They should've been building the Xbox PC store up decades ago to weather storms like this, but hey, better late than never.

It has improved a ton. The Xbox PC mode makes PC gaming from a TV incredibly convenient, and opens up new opportunities for the best mini PCs from the likes of GEEKOM to act as "video game consoles." But, there's still a ton of small, weird pain points. Absolum on Xbox PC, for example, still doesn't have a play button for some reason. New games don't show up in search for days after launch in many cases. And, the store is missing out on mountains of classic staple PC titles. If you want older games like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, and even some of Microsoft's own games — you need to look elsewhere. That's a problem.

But given Windows K2 and the big shakeup at Xbox, it seems Microsoft is now, at least, very much on the case. Better late than never.

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Xbox Game Pass is always a hot topic. You either love it, hate it, or maybe you’re even jealous of it(?) I quite like it, although perhaps I’ve been brainwashed by services like Spotify and Netflix into not owning my content anymore. I joke. Kind of.

Anyway, Game Pass is good, and I still buy games if I enjoy them enough. As someone who is technically Gen Z (by a fraction of a hair), I suppose I have at least a little authority to talk about this newly conducted study claiming “62% of whom no longer purchase full price games,” and frankly, I’m not surprised.

For those unaware (as was I), Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2012. But, before I dive into why I’m not surprised by the stats, let me first break down the study published by IGN and Dentsu: “Generations in Play: 2026 Audience Insights Report.”

While the report surveyed multiple generations, it did focus on younger audiences and how Gen Z in particular engages with entertainment, subscriptions, and gaming habits. One of the biggest findings claims that 62% of respondents no longer purchase full-price games, with audiences increasingly shifting away from ownership and instead rotating through whatever they’re currently playing.

Alongside this, the report describes subscription services as more of a “discovery engine,” with younger audiences, particularly Gen Z, appearing far more comfortable with the idea of subscription-based entertainment compared to older generations such as Gen X.

The report repeatedly frames Gen Z as a generation built around algorithms, feeds, instant discovery, and rotating through content rather than permanently owning it, something I'm guilty of myself.

And when I think more about it, it’s no wonder Gen Z is gravitating more toward subscription services. Everything is getting more expensive, and sometimes it genuinely feels like a deliberate attempt to bleed our wallets dry and keep us living paycheck to paycheck.

Still, services like Game Pass fit neatly into what younger audiences already know from platforms like Spotify and Netflix, both of which are built around streaming content rather than actually owning it. Whether people like it or not, that’s clearly become a practice that younger generations, and even older ones too, are getting increasingly comfortable with.

Back to gaming, though, and I'm constantly hearing fears that games will jump to $80 with Grand Theft Auto 6 potentially setting a dangerous standard. Even now, $70 already feels excessive for certain titles, especially when there’s no guarantee you’ll actually enjoy what you bought.

Fortunately, indie games are often the exception here. They’re usually cheaper, easier to take a chance on, and regularly explode in popularity thanks to content creators, livestreams, and short-form content across platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

Now, with all of this said, it does beg the question: Is Xbox Game Pass actually the answer? We know the service exists in this strange space alongside other subscription platforms, yet it has struggled to fully catch on and meet the expectations Microsoft originally had for it.

People often say it’s too late for Xbox, but honestly, I don’t think it is. Xbox has an uphill battle for sure, but recent leadership changes, and Asha Sharma taking over as CEO, have certainly shifted perception around the brand online; however, her uphill battle with Microsoft will be the real test.

The report itself even states that “Subscriptions are no longer expressions of loyalty,” highlighting how audiences frequently subscribe and unsubscribe from services like Netflix purely for a single show. Realistically, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine people eventually treating Game Pass the exact same way, as I imagine some already do.

If Xbox can consistently provide enough value, whether through major first-party launches, indie discovery, or benefits of some kind, then maybe Microsoft was early to an industry shift that the rest is only now beginning to fully understand.

I may or may not sound like I’m waffling a little here, but it’s all to drive one point home: Xbox has spent years building Game Pass around a shift in consumer behavior that is only now becoming increasingly more obvious.

So, is Game Pass the answer? Honestly, I think it is for many people. Is it the answer for everyone? No, of course not. Nothing ever is.

But if audiences are becoming more comfortable with subscriptions, rotating through content instead of owning it, and avoiding increasingly expensive upfront purchases, then maybe Microsoft wasn’t completely wrong after all. Maybe Xbox really was just early.

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Back in April, my colleague Brendan Lowry covered an exciting new Insider update where Xbox revealed it was finally giving achievements a bit of a refresh. Now, a full month later, that refresh is starting to roll out to all users, adding to the seemingly unstoppable run Xbox has been on since new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma took the reins.

It’s fair to say that Achievements have been a core part of the Xbox experience since they were introduced with the Xbox 360. Despite receiving little attention from Xbox in recent years, we’re now finally getting a small refresh to tide us over.

Now that this update is rolling out to everyone, let’s go over what’s included and what fans can expect from a refresh they’ve wanted for years.

Users can expect a complete visual overhaul for achievement unlocks, including new icons and animations that match your chosen color scheme. On top of that, users will finally be able to hide games from their profile, meaning if you’ve played a game you’re embarrassed to admit to, you can now quietly make it disappear.

For me, that would probably be the one time I let my sister play a My Little Pony game on my account; that can definitely be hidden. Hidden games will still count toward your Gamerscore, though, so don’t worry about losing any of your Gamerscore.

Xbox has also added improvements to profiles, so games you’ve fully completed will stand out more clearly when browsing your achievements list.

I, for one, am glad this update is happening, though I still hope we get a more complete refresh to achievements at some point this year. That’s something I’m sure Xbox has heard loud and clear after openly asking fans for feedback not too long ago.

Let me know what you think, though. Is this a good update, and are you pleased with the changes, or do you want Xbox to do more with achievements moving forward?

Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments and take part in our poll below:

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

It's a strange time to be an Xbox fan.

After two or more years of self-defeating decisions, Xbox is at a cross roads. Phil Spencer's tenure has ended, with new CEO Asha Sharma taking the reins.

Sharma is someone who has never known defeat throughout her career. She grew Instacart and Facebook Messenger into massive platforms, and helped polish Microsoft's CoreAI tools into viable products. Now, she takes on her biggest challenge yet: growing Xbox at a time where there's more threats to the brand than ever before.

Whether it's Steam or PlayStation, tariffs and component shortages, social media algorithms taking away from gaming as a hobby, or the simple fact traditional gaming has become "uncool" for younger audiences — Asha Sharma's opportunities to deliver Microsoft's the "infinite" growth it seeks seem thin.

As an analyst, there's a lot to be concerned about with regards to Xbox's future. But as a customer ... I don't necessarily need to care about all of that. What about the state of Xbox as of right now?

Honestly, the state of Xbox in 2026 is actually pretty damn great.

On paper, Xbox's gaming ecosystem is more vibrant and interesting than ever.

There's a lot of fun things on the horizon right now. Things like the fact Xbox has a new logo, she's brought back regular Xbox Series X|S console updates, and announced a project name for its upcoming Xbox "Helix" next-gen console. Microsoft has also been teasing a fresh batch of backward compatible Xbox games too. It's all exciting stuff, but today I just want to talk about being a regular old Xbox gamer, and not necessarily someone who is plugged into predicting Xbox's future.

Xbox has more IP than ever, marrying Blizzard titles, Call of Duty, DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and many more within its ecosystem. And while the roll out has certainly been bumpy in many ways, gradually Xbox ecosystem users are starting to see some real fruits of that labor.

Fallout 4 picked up Xbox Play Anywhere support late last year, and Elder Scrolls Online picked it up this week too. It makes both games ideal for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds, which launched last year. The Xbox Ally has totally transformed how I play and engage with Xbox content, and undoubtedly extended my playtime across tons of games. I can't tell you how much I love the Xbox Ally X, and while it is pricy, if you end up using it as much as I have I definitely think it's more than worth it.

Many of this year's upcoming Xbox games also sport Xbox Play Anywhere. The uptake from third-parties has been incredibly encouraging. The recently announced Stranger Than Heaven, 007: First Light is slated for Xbox Play Anywhere too, as well as the next Metro game. I was disappointed Microsoft couldn't land Resident Evil 9 and Pragmata, despite Capcom's sporadic support of Xbox Play Anywhere, but we are getting it with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth from Square Enix, among others.

The fact Microsoft has been retroactively updating some games like Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Online has been great too, and for those that aren't available, Xbox Cloud Gaming has been surprisingly capable too. I don't have great internet where I am, but any single player game feels great to play on Xbox Cloud Gaming now, and all Microsoft first-party titles are supported. Now that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate got a price revision, the 1440p streaming quality is also more accessible than it was previously.

Then there's the games. I often see this common negative sentiment about Xbox's ability to deliver games, but it's ridiculous in 2026 in my view. This year, Microsoft will release Fable, Gears: E-Day, Halo Campaign Evolved, and Forza Horizon 6 — all of which are likely to be pretty great.

Beyond that, we've had Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, which has been truly amazing. I don't care if this is an unpopular opinion too: Overwatch is better than ever. I've sank hundreds of hours into World of Warcraft: Midnight already, despite some rough edges. Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls Online, and other Microsoft games are getting big updates this year. We have Blizzcon to look forward to in September, as well as the Xbox Showcase in June. Even smaller games like Kiln and Keeper have been fun to play with.

Most of these games are available day one in Xbox Game Pass, too, which thanks to the price drop you can once again say represents the "best deal in gaming," Call of Duty or not.

Indeed, this is all first party too. I mentioned third-party bangers like Resident Evil 9, Crimson Desert, and Pragmata, but there's so much to play on Xbox right now. Despite claims that "Xbox is dead" big publishers are still showing up on the platform with the same regularity as they always did. ID@Xbox has had some amazing games show up too, including Replaced, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacriledge, Super Meat Boy 3D, Reanimal, Dread Delusion, Absolum, Vampire Crawlers, and tons more. I frankly can't keep up.

The Xbox OS is more polished than ever, we have more games to play than ever, in more ways to access your content than ever.

It's Schrödinger's Xbox: If Xbox can fix doubts about its long term viability, there would be little to complain about right now.

When you look around mainstream gaming forums, YouTube channels, and comments sections, negative sentiment around Xbox as a brand seems as strong as it ever was. People actively hate Xbox, but perhaps it's more accurate to say they actively hate Microsoft.

Microsoft is a big proponent of artificial intelligence, which has the potential to literally destroy humanity — if it's indeed going to end up as "smart" as the techbros claim. If it isn't going to be as smart and capable as claimed, then Microsoft could end up being partially responsible for creating the biggest financial bubble in history, and will own the following economic crisis.

Negative sentiment towards Microsoft is at least partially earned. Whether it's the privacy-shy features in Windows 11, the on-going degredation of quality across its entire product line while also posting record profits, or price gouging customers with last year's Xbox Game Pass price hike and attempted $80 game price rout ... I'd say Microsoft has a lot to prove here.

But at the same time, social media has produced an era of digitized, binary thinking. Everything is either good or bad, virtuous or evil, alive or dead. The truth is more likely somewhere in the middle, whether it's AI, gaming, or otherwise. We'd all do well to remind ourselves of that sometimes, myself included.

Xbox has made some terrible decisions over the past few years, owing at least in part to Microsoft's greed. But it has been dealing with some historic challenges, along with the rest of the gaming industry on top.

RELATED: To save Xbox, Asha will have to defeat Microsoft itself

When you zoom out, there's a ton at Xbox that needs to be addressed. But when you zoom in ... The day to day experience on Xbox still represents a world-class consumer ecosystem. Too many of us are eager to take Xbox for granted, myself included.

Long may Xbox live.

Have your say. How do you rate your day to day Xbox experience? Drop your rating here, then hit the comments!

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It seems that since coming into power at Xbox, Asha Sharma is doing what she can to usher in a new era and a fresh start for the brand. Part of that has meant moving away from the boring minimalist designs we’d come to expect over the years.

After taking on her new role a little over two months ago, we’ve already seen a new Xbox logo, one that really brings back that "Team Green" vibe many fans still associate with the brand. It’s a change that both I and plenty of longtime Xbox fans have appreciated.

Now, in a new post on X (formerly Twitter), Sharma has revealed that Xbox consoles are getting another fresh coat of paint with a brand new boot-up animation.

In Xbox’s defense, though, plenty of other companies have gone down the same route with their branding and logos. Just look at PlayStation. Much of the flair and personality the brand used to have back in the day has slowly faded away.

The same thing happened with Xbox. The green never fully disappeared, but the brand shifted toward a flatter, more minimal design language that didn’t really capture that Xbox feeling people grew to love during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era.

It’s certainly a pretty slick new booy-up animation. I would like to see a light mode version too, if possible. My colleague Alexander Cope also mentioned that it sounded like the old Windows 98 boot-up sound, offering an extra layer of nostalgia.

What do you think of all the moves Asha Sharma is making at Xbox? She has already introduced new leadership, bringing in people from CoreAI, and to help dispel AI concerns, Xbox has also canned plans for Copilot on console while winding down Copilot in the Xbox mobile app.

It certainly seems like things are changing over at Xbox. I've even noticed that the company’s online presence feels more pronounced and overall more positive.

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

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Halo Infinite was 343 Industries, now Halo Studios, the last attempt at a Halo game. Of course, there's more on the horizon with the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved this year.

I will say too, before we get into the details, and despite its troubled development, I actually found Halo Infinite to be their best effort from a gameplay perspective. Of course, it’s hard to mention the game without immediately thinking about its rocky launch and lack of content.

That said, that conversation has been done to death. Instead, I bring some good news, as Halo Infinite has surprisingly received a brand new update, adding a fresh mode and more, so let’s take a look at what’s new.

In this new update, Halo Infinite is receiving a new gamemode, Firefight: Gauntlet, in this new mode four players must band together and survive various challenges featuring endless waves of enemies and a boss battle to boot.

With this mode, if you take too long to defeat the boss, or arena champion, as they’re called, the Harbinger will join the battle, adding to the increasing difficulty as you fight across five arenas. The mode also features a point system, where players can spend points on upgrades such as increased damage, resistance, recovery, and speed.

It’s honestly impressive that we’re even getting a new mode in Halo Infinite, a game which has, for all intents and purposes, ended its development.

With this new mode also comes two new Forge maps, and given how strong Halo Infinite’s Forge is, they look quite decent. Alongside this, the Ranked Legacy playlist is also in rotation, featuring classic gameplay and maps.

As I’ve already said, I’m genuinely surprised we’re even getting new content in Halo Infinite, let alone an entirely new mode, so hats off to Halo Studios, or whoever worked on this update. It’s actually made me want to jump back in and check the game out after not touching it for a long time.

Are you as surprised as I am to see Halo Infinite get a new update? Do you even care that it’s received new content, or have you moved on to other games?

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

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Backward compatibility is still a hot topic, whether it’s worth the effort or not. Some argue it isn’t used as much as people think, and to those people, I say shush.

Xbox remains one of the most consumer-friendly platforms, respecting a library that stretches back to 2001. That level of commitment to older titles is something you simply don’t get elsewhere.

Earlier this year, Xbox confirmed that its backward compatibility efforts would return. VP of Next Generation Jason Ronald stated, “we’re committed to keeping games from four generations of Xbox playable for years to come. As part of our 25th anniversary later this year, we’ll be rolling out new ways to play some of the most iconic games from our past.”

What that actually meant, though, was unclear, or at least it was to me. Did it point to more games being added, support for Project Helix, or even broader compatibility on PC?

Now, it seems Jason Ronald may have given a clearer indication that more titles are indeed on the way, though I’d still take this with some sort of grain of salt, as well; you never truly know.

Over on X (formerly Twitter), VP of next generation, Jason Ronald, replied to a fan who asked whether users can request new games for the backward compatibility program in response to now resolved issues of Xbox 360 games not launching on Xbox Series X and S.

In response to this, Ronald stated:

“There is a community driven site where you can make your requests known. @Flaassing”

In that post, Ronald also links to XboxGamePreservation.com, a community-run website where fans can vote on what games they’d like to see return via Xbox’s backward compatibility efforts.

We’ve covered the website before, but seeing someone at Xbox actively point people there is enough to get people, myself included, a bit excited.

What do you think? Does this suggest Xbox is actively looking at what fans want added through backward compatibility, or does it not mean much?

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

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After previously teasing that Xbox was working on a dynamic background featuring its new logo, the glass-like reflective design that brings back that striking green, the turnaround has been quick.

Just four days ago, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma replied to a fan asking for a dynamic background of the new logo with a simple “working on it!” That direct, to-the-point response has become something of a trend lately.

Now, it’s already here, or at least some time today it is. Sharma took to X today to confirm, “Dropping today: our new logo in dynamic backgrounds, profile backgrounds, and gamer pics!”

That marks a surprisingly fast rollout for a logo that was only revealed a little over a week ago, from what I can tell there’s four new Dynamic backgrounds already, themed after Xbox One, Xbox Series and Xbox 360, but we should get the new one today at some point too.

For those who don’t know, Xbox has had a solid lineup of dynamic backgrounds, profile backgrounds, and gamer pics for a while now. If you’re looking to change your dynamic background, here’s how to do it:

• Press the Xbox button on your controller.
• Go to Settings and select it.
• Under General, select Personalization.
• Go to “My background.”
• Select “Dynamic backgrounds.”
• Choose the dynamic background you want.

It’s great seeing Xbox deliver on what it says, and do it quickly. That kind of follow-through has been noticeable lately, and it’s impressive.

Sure, revenue is down, but the overall vibe of being an Xbox fan right now feels genuinely positive. It’s a welcome change.

As for the new dynamic backgrounds, profile backgrounds, and gamer pics, I’ll be sticking with my tried-and-true Halo Infinite background. For some reason, I still love the franchise, despite what feels like a decade or more of missteps, but hey, that’s just me.

Will you be using Xbox’s new dynamic backgrounds, profile backgrounds, or gamer pics? Or will you stick with what you already have?

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

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The new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has only been leading Microsoft's gaming brand for a little over two months now, but she's already made some very popular changes and additions to the platform in that timeframe. Last week brought us a hugely popular Xbox Game Pass price drop, and before that, it was confirmed that upgrades to customization and Achievements are in testing and on the way.

Now, as April comes to a close, Microsoft has fully released some of these features, along with some others that have been in consideration and testing for a while now. These upgrades add more options to both Xbox consoles and the Xbox on PC app, giving players more ways to refine and personalize their experience.

On Xbox, you now have the ability to create up to 10 groups (up from two) to organize your games with on the Home screen, and it's been made easier to move and pin individual groups around your interface as well. In the spirit of customization, Microsoft has also implemented the ability to give the Xbox UI a custom color, complete with options to tweak brightness and saturation.

Quick Resume — the popular Xbox Series X|S feature that suspends games when you close them, allowing you to quickly reopen them later or rapidly switch between titles — can now also be disabled on a per-game basis, which is useful for games that have issues causing them to run worse the longer they're open or when they require a constant internet connection to keep you in-game.

Some other minor additions include a new Play History tab in the My games & apps section of the UI that makes it easier to see your recent gameplay, along with a cleaner horizontal display for it, and also the option to choose your preferred resolution while streaming and a Network Quality Indicator (NQI) that provides "lightweight, real-time visibility into your network’s health.

Moving onto PC, the Xbox on PC app has finally gotten a feature I've wanted for years now: the ability to add any installed game or app on your system to the Xbox app, no matter where you've installed it or what client or storefront it originates from. This is effectively Xbox's version of the convenient "Add a Non-Steam Game" feature available on Steam, complete with options to customize names, icons, launch options, and mod parameters.

As Microsoft continues to build for a multiplatform future for Xbox with the console-PC hybrid Project Helix device on the horizon, this is a huge step towards helping the Xbox on PC app rival other PC gaming storefronts.

Additionally, you can now pin up to three games from your Jump back in and Most Recent lists of games, making it easier to quickly start playing your current favorites without having to dig through your library a bit. Once pinned, games will be moved to the front of your lists until you unpin them.

You now also have the option of using a controller like a mouse with the new Gamepad Cursor feature you can enable in More settings > General in Xbox Game Bar's Settings widget. Once Gamepad Cursor is on, your left thumbstick will function like a computer mouse would.

Finally, you can now also reposition where notifications appear for things like unlocked Achievements and invites from friends in Xbox Game Bar. In the Settings widget > More settings > General, you'll see an option to have notifications pop up in one of nine sections of your screen.

All in all, these are all excellent changes and improvements, and paired with new Xbox Ally enhancements, the Xbox ecosystem as a whole has become smoother and more user-friendly to use no matter where you're engaging with it. It's been great to see all the positive changes and additions that've come since Asha Sharma began leading Xbox, and I hope many more are on the way, too.

What do you think of all these new improvements to the Xbox experience on console and PC? Share your thoughts in the comments, and vote in our poll as well.

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"Just got hit with Xbox One flashbacks."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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For Xbox, the changes have been coming in thick and fast.

Under new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Microsoft's gaming division has already made a flurry of pro-consumer changes to the platform. From the return of feature updates for Xbox Series X|S, the revival of Xbox FanFest shows, to the reversion of the wildly unpopular 50% Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike of last year. Sharma has the Xbox community energized in a way that I haven't seen in at least a couple of years.

Yesterday, Asha Sharma and content lead Matt Booty published a blog post on Xbox Wire detailing the division's new mission statement. "Microsoft Gaming" is dead; we're now returning to Xbox, and Asha and the team spoke on re-evaluating various aspects of its business.

Microsoft has done some deep damage to Xbox with its decision-making in recent years. A disastrous 30% margin demand from Microsoft corporate effectively had Xbox running on austerity measures, at a time when competition is more aggressive than ever. I understand that margin pressure has now been lifted, and Microsoft has (at least for now) indirectly admitted that its profit goals were ridiculous and unprecedented, frankly.

This gives Asha Sharma a decent amount of breathing space to improve Xbox and prepare it for the next phase of its life cycle, whatever that may look like. It's with that in mind that I present this: a list of the biggest issues I think Xbox is facing today, both from my own perspective and inspired by community sentiments I read every day across social media and in my DMs. Xbox has already identified most of the issues quite adeptly, but there's a lot of context that I feel should be out there.

For sure, Asha Sharma and the team have made all the right moves so far, but difficult decisions will lie ahead. She might just have the most difficult job in all of gaming right now.

Xbox marketing (and lack thereof)

One of Asha Sharma's recent moves was to kill the anti-Xbox "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, which paradoxically suggested that users shouldn't buy Xbox products. Instead, it advertised competitors' platforms and systems, including Google's Android of all things, to the detriment of Xbox hardware.

It's probably no shock that Xbox hardware has been in free-fall decline over the past couple of years. It's not entirely attributable to this marketing cycle, but for me, it certainly doesn't help that Xbox hardware marketing is practically non-existent.

RELATED: Xbox needs to stop apologizing for its existence

Perhaps there's not much point in marketing Xbox Series X|S at this point, but with Grand Theft Auto 6 on the horizon, it's insane to me that Microsoft hasn't made more of an effort. This is going to be a major, landmark, console-exclusive game (at least for a time), and Microsoft's hardware marketing presence capitulation is going to quite effectively hand over an entire generation of younger gamers to PlayStation.

For a very basic example: Microsoft owns Call of Duty; it owns Minecraft. It makes zero effort whatsoever to tie these absolutely massive brands to its console hardware. This needs to change immediately for the brand's visibility, in my view.

Xbox PC presence and discoverability

Microsoft identified Xbox's PC presence as a major pain point, and a pain point it indeed remains. The Xbox PC app has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, but sadly, it's still nowhere near where myself and many others would like it to be. It's still at times disgustingly slow and unresponsive, especially on gaming handhelds like the Xbox Ally. And navigability and discoverability are relatively poor through it, too, compared to Steam.

I don't think the Xbox PC app does a good enough job at showcasing games at a glance, either. The console-like tiled interface doesn't do enough to leverage mouse navigation or desktop use, where platforms like Steam, for example, make finding new games and content very easy with mouse-over glanceable information, superior community tools and curation, and perhaps more crucially, solid performance.

The Xbox PC app may need some kind of overhaul to get to where it needs to be, throwing out the sluggish codebase they have now for something more responsive. I'm not sure what the answers are here, but if the next-gen Xbox Helix is indeed a full-blown Windows PC, as I expect, the Xbox PC app as it is today cannot be the standard interface. It's still not good enough.

Furthermore, organic developer support is also not good enough. It can't be the case that Xbox PC users are consistently second-class citizens in this ecosystem. Whether it's on sales (often Microsoft's own games are on sale on Steam but not on Xbox PC), content and developer support, or general performance — a lot of work needs to be done here.

Developer back end systems

Perhaps Microsoft could win some more organic developer support if the back-end systems were more robust.

One thing that really, really bugs me about being an Xbox-first "game journalist" is the fact that developers often skip out on Xbox review codes. I'm told part of this revolves around difficulties generating codes vs. Steam or PlayStation. If you ever wonder why there are so few reviews for Xbox versions of games on Metacritic vs. other platforms, the ease of access to codes is at least part of it.

I'm no developer, but I'm told through various conversations that Xbox's developer environment is a weird mishmash of old systems and overlapping processes. Developers tell me that Xbox certification is among the most aggressive and slow, making shipping games more difficult in the Xbox ecosystem. Developers also can't set up and manage their own sales easily on the store, and even big publishers struggle to set up Xbox Play Anywhere entitlements and things like that, owing to their complexities.

Microsoft has already been doing some great work in this area, but I suspect Asha Sharma's dev tooling and platform background will help here. This is in addition to reduced margin pressure, allowing Asha and the team to more deeply invest.

The AI angle, and keeping Microsoft "happy"

At a recent event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described how he's all-in with Xbox gaming for the long haul, donning an Xbox hoodie in the process. But you have to wonder to what extent in reality.

Microsoft is a company dominated by its share price and shareholders, much like any other publicly traded entity. The current hotness in tech is AI and adjacent computing paradigms. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, but its own consumer-grade AI projects haven't really seen much, if any, real traction with the public.

Copilot has found its way into government ops and big corporations, but the gaming audience, especially, generally seems to hate AI anything these days. Even if the monthly active users for the tech are in the billions.

Asha Sharma has an AI tools background within Microsoft. There's doubtless some sort of "AI play" for Xbox in amongst all of this down the road, whether it's AI super resolution upscaling tech or something we have yet to even conceive. Sharma is nailing the basics right now. But Microsoft has this uncanny knack of stepping on rakes. Will there be a point when Microsoft's c-suite shows up to ask how Xbox plans to somehow contribute to its "AI" vertices?

Customer support (and lack thereof)

I remember back in the Windows Phone days when Microsoft had a retail store presence and a pretty, actually great customer service layer. When I had issues with my old Surface Book 1 or Surface Pro 3, Microsoft support was pretty adept at getting them solved promptly. You could talk to humans fairly easily via chat interfacing, too.

These days, you're lucky if you get to talk to a human at all. The same is true across Microsoft's service game-oriented subsidiaries as well, including Blizzard and Bethesda.

This isn't necessarily an Xbox-specific issue, since Microsoft joined practically every big company on earth in outsourcing and hamstringing its customer support operations. Its retail stores have all been closed, save for a couple of flagships, and human-led customer support is skeletal and underfunded. If you have an issue with your Microsoft Account, a Kafkaesque maze of AI robots and canned responses awaits you.

At least weekly, often twice weekly, I receive DMs from people who have been banned from Xbox Live and Microsoft's entire ecosystem by extension. Many tell me stories of how Microsoft's support acknowledges that a hack or breach has taken place, but offers no help or support in regaining access to accounts. For many, this often represents thousands of dollars in digital games or decades worth of lost digital photos and documents in OneDrive.

I'm actually planning a larger article on this point, but Xbox, and honestly, Microsoft all up, could do with some serious investment in this area.

A global Xbox

Another point of contention pertains to how Xbox shows up in non-English regions.

Microsoft is a U.S. company at the end of the day, but its Anglo-centricism has been an issue across its entire stack for a long time. Microsoft products and services are staples in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and so on, but even just finding an Xbox at a retail store in Germany has always left me confused.

Microsoft has painfully underinvested in Europe, Asia, and other major markets across Xbox's entire life span. There have been efforts to change that, but none of it goes anywhere near far enough.

Finding stock of Xbox Series X|S hardware outside of the U.S. and UK has often been a point of contention. Social media presence and supply for the Middle East, Latin America regions, South and East Asia, and other major markets have been anemic. We all know about Xbox's battles in Japan, too.

If Xbox is going to be world-class and compete with the best of them, more effort should also be focused on regions where Xbox can potentially win support. Xbox FanFest going global is a great start, mind.

Xbox hardware and ecosystem desirability

The Xbox Series X|S roared out of the gate when it launched in 2020, and even managed to beat PlayStation in certain months in the U.S. when supplies were constrained, but those times are over.

Over the past few years, Xbox has posted near free-fall declines in its console hardware ecosystem. Xbox isn't exactly suffering in a vacuum, though, as other companies have also seen declines in interest. Youngsters simply aren't coming into the ecosystem at the same cadence they once were, with new users effectively stagnant for the segment. Roblox and other cheap forms of entertainment, such as TikTok scrolling, have eaten into interest in video game consoles. But even among enthusiasts, Xbox hasn't exactly been showing up as well as it could be.

There's been little to no marketing of Xbox Series X|S consoles. Microsoft has also joined other consumer electronics companies in struggles to keep costs down, owing to tariffs and other supply chain issues emanating from the United States' current administration. But that hasn't stopped PlayStation and Nintendo from quite adeptly outselling Xbox in the United States, which should be its home turf.

I'm not sure exactly how I would solve it. There's a big desirability gap between Xbox and its competitors. For many, though, it starts with exclusive games.

The Xbox exclusive games issue

Last year, Microsoft effectively ripped the soul out of Xbox by announcing its most iconic home-grown character, Master Chief, would appear on competitor platform PlayStation for the first time.

We all knew it was coming, but it was an inflection point for the Xbox community, and represented, wholesale, Xbox's decline as an ecosystem, a community, and a brand.

There's not a ton of real evidence that exclusive games would help Xbox hardware to sell. But if not exclusive games, then what?

I can't help but feel like if Xbox had stayed the course, and spent at least 5 years advertising high-quality, exclusive content, it would have had a net positive impact on Xbox's competitiveness against other gaming platforms.

Assuming the games are actually good, Xbox had a real opportunity here to show up strong in 2026. Halo Campaign Evolved, Fable, Forza Horizon 6, and Gears E-Day could've and should've been an opportunity to showcase what Xbox is willing to do for users who show up in their hardware ecosystem. Marketing against Call of Duty, a big 2026 Showcase, 25th anniversary celebrations, and co-branding with Blizzard at BlizzCon. Advertising the Xbox Series S as the "most affordable" way to play GTA 6.

Xbox could've done a lot with content recently, but instead, it spent the last couple of years helping PlayStation and other platforms make more money instead. Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls 6 being exclusive to Xbox absolutely, surely, would sell consoles. Right? Well, maybe not.

I don't have all the data Microsoft does, and maybe it wouldn't work. But it's still the hottest topic being discussed among Xbox fans right now. And it's something that Asha Sharma and the team at Xbox will struggle to keep ignoring long-term. Sharma says she's "re-evaluating" Xbox's approach to exclusive content, but whatever form that takes has clear pros and cons for the business.

I think ultimately Microsoft needs to compete harder for the types of players that exist today, given that youngsters are patently disinterested in the medium for whatever reason. At the very least, compelling exclusives could convince people to pick up an Xbox as a companion device, and then world-class features and services might gradually win them over into regular users on top.

But for those users, Microsoft needs to answer this: Why buy an Xbox if PlayStation offers the same content, in addition to Sony's exclusive games?

That's the biggest and most simple question Asha Sharma and Xbox need to answer for me, and most likely the wider market.

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Just after Xbox canned its Social Clubs last month, I'm left wondering — as TweakTown pointed out — whether Xbox is going through and gutting features that were never really used. I’ll be the first to admit I never really used Social Clubs, but seeing them go is still a bit sad, even if it made sense and they were just "in the way" at times.

With that said, when I think back to what got me hooked on Xbox, it was Halo: Combat Evolved, then Halo 2, and finally Halo 3 on Xbox 360. Those weren’t just games; they were social experiences.

It's those experiences that made Xbox feel like this unstoppable force back in the day, and now, Xbox doesn’t feel social. As much as things are looking brighter thanks to the new CEO, it’s still a shame we’re missing what was once core to the Xbox experience. The removal of Social Clubs feels like another step away from those previously iconic, built-in social experiences.

Instead, Xbox is pushing players toward other platforms where it has less control, like Discord. For all intents and purposes, Discord has become what Skype and even Social Clubs could have been.

Now, Discord operates at such a massive scale that, despite ongoing concerns around privacy, it’s hard to see it going anywhere anytime soon.

With Xbox Social Clubs on the way out, it does raise a bigger question. What’s next? What other features on Xbox aren’t being used, and could be cut in favor of a more streamlined experience next generation for Project Helix?

It got me thinking. While I’d rather see some of these systems improved, I could just as easily see Microsoft removing them entirely instead. So, in no particular order, here are a few that could potentially be next, based purely on my own speculation:

• Avatars
• Looking for Group
• Activity Feed

It’s not a huge list, I know, but it is food for thought. I could spend the rest of this article asking for these features to stick around, but that wouldn’t be all that constructive. Instead, it’s probably more useful to look at what could be done to make them relevant again.

That feels especially important right now, as Xbox appears to be paying closer attention to feedback than it has in the past. Xbox did pretty much already kill Avatars in 2025 due to "low engagement". However, you can still use them to create a gamerpic, but I suspect that will eventually be phased out entirely.

It’s honestly a shame Avatars went the way they did. They added a lot to the social side of the Xbox 360. Turning your Xbox on used to put you right at the fingertips of what your friends were up to, right next to their avatars. Losing that has taken something away from the experience.

So, fully bring Avatars back, but make them matter again. Xbox is one of the biggest publishers in the world, so tie Avatar customization to achievements. Add unlockables, and even a store. Yes, unfortunately, they would need to bring in revenue to be worth the investment, but I am willing to invest if Avatars were more like the Xbox 360 variants over the Xbox One versions that we got, that is.

If Xbox also leaned into something closer to how Steam handles profiles, but built around Avatars, it would at least feel like its own thing rather than a copy.

"Looking for Group" is another interesting one. I still think the feature has value, but it’s hard to ignore how much spam it’s filled with. On top of that, I don’t know many people who actively use it anymore. That’s a shame, because it adds a layer of social interaction that Xbox should be doubling down on. Right now, it feels like an afterthought.

If Xbox gets serious about rebuilding its social layer, Looking for Group needs more visibility on the dashboard. At the same time, it should have the option to be turned off for players who prefer to keep to themselves.

Of course, none of that matters if the service isn’t cleaned up, so addressing spam and moderation has to come first.

Then there’s the Activity Feed. I checked mine recently, and I’m not even sure it works the way it’s supposed to anymore.

I thought it was meant to show what you and your friends are doing, things like achievements, clips, and general activity. Instead, mine just showed my own achievements, and even those weren’t up to date.

That makes it feel like a shell of what it could be. Again, this comes back to visibility and purpose. If Xbox wants to build a more connected experience, the Activity Feed should feel alive. It should update regularly, surface meaningful activity, and actually give you a reason to check it out.

There’s also an opportunity here with broader integration. Since Xbox is moving toward a console and PC hybrid, and we can already connect accounts like Steam, then why not reflect that in the Activity Feed? Let me see what my friends are playing across platforms, not just inside Xbox.

At the same time, it’s hard to ignore what all of this eventually points to. With Xbox moving toward a unified Xbox and Windows experience, features like Social Clubs were never going to survive in the form they were in.

The focus feels more like a shift away from keeping everything inside the Xbox ecosystem, and more toward connecting players across platforms instead. While that does make sense on paper, especially as other services continue to dominate, I worry it leaves little room for Xbox to still be Xbox.

At least for me, giving up on social features that were a big part of what put Xbox on the map in the first place is a real shame, and I hope Xbox realizes that's what made the brand so special back in the day.

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