AMD and Microsoft this week took the lid off plans for expanding FSR 4.1 tech to Xbox Series X|S, AMD Ryzen gaming handhelds (like the Xbox Ally X), Ryzen APUs, and older Radeon RX 6000 GPUs.

The official announcement comes after teasing the move earlier this month.

I can't help but see this as one of the most important things that Microsoft could possibly do for current-gen Xbox owners who likely just found out that their consoles will need to last longer than expected.

A longer life for your gaming devices? No better time than now.

To say I'm relieved about FSR 4.1 coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox gaming handhelds is an understatement, and I don't think the news could have come at a better time.

Xbox's next-gen Helix device has reportedly been pushed to 2028. That puts the current generation, which launched in 2020, at roughly eight years of required service before it "retires."

That's a long time to ask the flagship Xbox Series X to remain relevant, and the situation only worsens for the weaker (but more affordable) Xbox Series S.

In our new world of inflated hardware prices, caused by AI-fueled memory and storage shortages, landing a free performance upgrade of this caliber is an outright life preserver for the entire Xbox lineup, including consoles and gaming handhelds.

With so many gamers already feeling the burn of high prices within (and outside) their favorite hobby, improved upscaling is basically the cheapest hardware upgrade I can think of.

The Xbox Series S has the most to gain

Where I live, the Xbox Series S is essentially the only console I can buy for less than $1,000.

It's great for plenty of people, but it has undoubtedly always been living in the shadow of compromise compared to its Series X sibling. Less performance, lower resolutions ... you get the idea.

This is where an improved upscaler like FSR 4.1 that can work better with fewer pixels should make the most difference. But it's not going to be a magic bullet that solves every issue.

The reality of what to expect from the FSR 4.1 upgrade

I'm not looking to oversell FSR 4.1. It's not just going to suddenly arrive for every game. Developers need to patch the update into their games, and the timeline for that is still muddy.

My colleague Jez Corden believes it will be "sooner than you think," with FSR 4.1 becoming available for Xbox game developers "in the next couple of weeks."

The first wave of Xbox games with FSR 4.1 is expected to be small, with a "handful" of titles ready for the 2026 holiday season. More will then trickle out through 2027 (and beyond).

There's also the performance factor. Yes, FSR 4.1 is going to boost framerates on Xbox, but the Series S likely won't see the same boost as the Series X due to its weaker hardware that uses INT8 shaders.

We won't know just how well this change affects the Xbox devices until it arrives, but don't expect your Series S to suddenly feel like a Series X.

Xbox's future is becoming clearer

There's an overarching ecosystem theme here that I think many are overlooking.

With this update, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Ally handhelds, and PCs will all sit at the same upscaling table, making it easier for developers to implement.

Add this to the news that FSR Diamond will arrive as an upgraded upscaling technique for Xbox Helix, and it certainly feels to me like Microsoft is laying a strong foundation for developers who want to create across the entire Xbox ecosystem, now and in the future.

If that actually pans out as I imagine, Xbox Series S owners will continue to benefit from upgrades and updates intended for other devices, which is a great place to be.

What I'm keeping an eye on

The biggest hurdle now? Developers going back and adding FSR 4.1 support to their Xbox games. Once a steady stream begins, this will all start to feel a lot more real. Especially if they're games that already require performance mode to run at an acceptable framerate.

I'm not rushing out to buy an Xbox Series S with this news, but it is certainly heartening. If you're already a Series S owner, you should be feeling pretty good about your device.

Do you plan to stick with your Xbox Series S until Helix arrives? Are you no longer on the fence about buying a Series S in 2026? Let me know in the comments section below!

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Final Fantasy fans on Xbox are eating good this month. Not only do we have the Final Fantasy Resonance (which I personally found to be amazing) coming out this week, but Microsoft has announced (via Xbox Wire) that Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is finally coming to Xbox Game Pass as part of its latest batch of new games.

The batch also includes some more niche titles like Planets Vs. Zombies: Replanted and The Séance of Blake Manor, but Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is the star of the show.

Here's the full list of games coming and leaving Xbox Game Pass for the second half of October 2026.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (October 31)

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dead Static Drive (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Deep Rock Galactic (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Full Throttle Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Grim Fandango Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wartales (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wildgate (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (November 10)

• Football Manager 26 (PC)
• Football Manager 26 – Console Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Windows Central's take

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is an action-RPG reimagining of the classic 1990s JRPG, Final Fantasy VII, that tells the beginning of Cloud's journey to save his planet from destruction at the hands of the evil megacorp Shinra and the megalomaniacal Sephiroth.

While I prefer the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for its hilarious mods featuring Darth Vader, I can't deny that it coming to Xbox Game Pass finally feels like a satisfying full-circle moment.

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We've gone from speculating about rumors of an Xbox version for years, to Square Enix announcing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's Xbox port while shadow-dropping Final Fantasy XVI's Xbox port, to making the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy available on Xbox, and now this.

With its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass, Xbox fans will now have more ways to enjoy Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's thrilling combat, complex characters, and in-depth story.

Plus, it will serve as a great appetizer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's eventual inclusion in Xbox Game Pass and the epic finale of the FF7 Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII: Revelations, which will drop on April 8, 2027, for Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.

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Xbox Ally and Xbox Series X|S consoles are about to get a big AMD-shaped boost.

Yesterday, AMD and Microsoft revealed that FSR 4.1 is coming to the entire suite of current-gen Xbox devices. That includes Xbox Ally (base model), Xbox Ally X, and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

FSR 4.1 is an upscaling technology that allows games to render images at a lower resolution, passing overhead to performance. Then, FSR 4.1 upscales the image to create a sharper image, granting the appearance of higher native resolution. Technologies like FSR and DLSS have been boosting the lifespan of older and less-powerful hardware for some time now, and given the on-going RAMpocalypse and component crisis, anything that extends the usability of more affordable hardware is a win in my book.

But, when can we expect to get our hands (and eyes) on it? Here's what our sources are telling us so far.

FSR 4.1 will become available to Xbox Series X|S game developers in the next couple of weeks. Some partner developers have already had early access in preview builds, and will enable FSR 4.1 earlier than others. In the AMD video above, the firm used Blood of Dawnwalker to demonstrates FSR 4.1 boosts on Xbox Ally devices, so you can probably expect that to be among the first batch.

For Xbox Ally X and the Xbox Ally base model, AMD and ASUS will ship updated drives to the Armoury Crate's new "Preview Update" segment by Friday, Oct 23. The new preview segment which lets users test out early builds if they don't mind risking some bugs and polish, similar to the Xbox and Windows Insider programs.

Developers that have enabled FSR 4.1 on existing PC games will automatically get enhanced when the drivers go live on Xbox Ally devices.

On Xbox Series X|S console, FSR 4.1 won't be retroactively injected into existing games. Developers will have to implement it into their existing games via updates, or support it out of the box in future games.

Sources tell me that there is a "handful" of FSR 4.1-enhanced titles slated for the holiday season on Xbox Series X|S, with a steady feed of new games gaining FSR 4.1 throughout 2027 and beyond.

FSR 4.1 should provide a meaningful quality bump for all sorts of games across Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Ally X and the base model, but perhaps more so on the lower-end devices. The Xbox Series S has been notorious for performance trade offs, with developers struggling with the irregular RAM allocation.

Games on Xbox Series X|S that presently trade resolution down for frame rates should get noticeably sharper even in performance mode when implemented.

People have been using apps like Optiscaler on Github to inject FSR 4 on devices like the Steam Deck, and the results have been impressive, but setting it up can be a chore. Native, official support should bring a ton of performance benefits for the Xbox range across the board without the headaches of using workarounds.

As soon as it's available, I'll be demonstrating how it all works in practice right here on Windows Central.

The big question is ... will GTA 6 support it? Time will tell.

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Over the past couple of weeks, I've been investigating an apparent wave of undeserved bans across the Forza Horizon community on Xbox, particularly in Japan.

Japan has a strong and unique car culture, and Playground Games acknowledged that Japan has been the most-requested setting for their popular Forza Horizon franchise. Forza Horizon is now in its 6th installment, which is currently available exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Indeed, general Xbox adoption in Japan has generally been anemic at best. Microsoft has historically struggled to compete against PlayStation and Nintendo in the region for a variety of reasons. Microsoft's U.S.-centricity has long prevented it from achieving reasonable penetration outside of its traditional English-first markets.

Forza Horizon set in Japan should've been a chance to change Xbox's fortunes in at least one region, but the RAMpocalypse has put a stop to that. But even beyond simply maintaining Xbox Series X|S stock levels, Microsoft has drawn the ire of some Japanese Forza Horizon players, who have once again put a spotlight on its haphazard community management systems.

Ban waves have been hitting some Forza Horizon 6 players in Japan and beyond over anime-styled skins

Japanese "Itasha (痛車)" user-generated liveries seem to be at the center of the ban waves Playground Games has been handing out for Forza Horizon 6 players.

Itasha is a car subculture, literally meaning "painful car," ironically celebrating overly flashy or "cringy" car liveries. The culture represents a nexus of sorts between car culture and anime culture, going all the way back to the 1980s.

As vinyl printing got more sophisticated and affordable, full-blown car skins became prevalent in Japan and even in the West, with otakus with more money than perhaps good taste (or armed with a strong sense of irony) jumping on board. Even major brands have been on the trend in recent years, too.

Naturally, since Forza Horizon 6 allows users to generate their own custom designs, Itasha car culture has proliferated within the game as well. However, sometimes the designs have fallen afoul of Forza Horizon's "E for Everyone" rating. Or at least, on paper.

Some of the skins that have caught bans are pretty clearly in violation of the policies like the above, but others seem relatively innocuous, making users wonder if Microsoft is being a bit heavy-handed.

One user told me that they had been banned for a month, potentially for the above livery, which they had designed and then kept in storage. I say potentially, because Forza doesn't exactly tell you why you've been banned or for which livery.

"This game has a forum for appealing penalties, and although I submitted a post there, I haven't received a reply in over a month," he said. "Consequently, I have no idea which livery caused my ban."

"Furthermore, there are people who received harsher penalties than I did—such as permanent bans or device bans—despite creating vinyls featuring female characters that were clearly less revealing than mine."

Other livery creators have seen their entire Xbox accounts permanently banned without so much of an explanation. If you live in the U.S. or UK and have ever had to deal with Microsoft's Kafka-esque AI-powered support systems, imagine how much worse they are outside of Microsoft's core markets. There's little viable recourse to appeal bans, seemingly, and Microsoft's systems aren't transparent enough about the reasons as to why a user might catch a ban, permanent or temporary.

Some users have speculated that Forza Horizon is using some form of auto-banning system, AI-powered or otherwise, handing out false bans. There are also conspiracy theories of mass reporting to trigger the automated ban systems. Forza Horizon's Code of Conduct claims that all reports are reviewed by a human moderator and now contains a segment regarding "Itasha-style" designs.

"Itasha-style designs are permitted; however, explicit sexual content and sexually suggestive content are forbidden. While we cannot show specific examples of suggestive imagery in this article, designs that depict provocative poses, associated gestures and facial expressions, and attention to specific body parts can be examples of suggestive imagery."

The problem here could pertain to a lack of "specific examples" more than likely. When it comes to art, what could be deemed "sexually suggestive" is subjective across cultures and demographics. But it also continues a general trend of Microsoft's opaque systems for enforcement across its platforms.

A former Xbox staffer told me that the teams that handle moderation within Forza and other games had effectively been gutted by Microsoft's layoffs, leaving a big gap for community management in general across Microsoft's platforms.

Indeed, even beyond the Itasha ban waves, I've been investigating hacked Xbox users being locked out of their accounts due to the way Microsoft handles account support for Xbox as well, and the above could just be symptomatic of overstretched staff unable to handle the workload placed upon them.

The situation underpins Microsoft's struggles in Japan, but also account management systems in general

Microsoft has struggled to get Xbox stock to its main markets, let alone some of its smaller markets like Europe, the Middle East, and indeed, Japan itself. But there's a cultural issue too. Microsoft generally doesn't make or publish games that have strong appeal outside of its U.S.-centric markets, and Japanese publishers have historically arrived on Xbox last.

The situation has improved over time with companies like Square Enix, Capcom, and Konami pledging greater support, but I would argue things still aren't where they should be.

Forza Horizon 6 is currently Xbox exclusive, and if the RAMpocalypse wasn't destroying stock levels, it might've been a good source of progress for the brand in Japan. Regardless, the situation with the Itasha liveries highlights, again, Microsoft's opaque systems for enforcement and account management.

Over the summer, a Brazilian user who was locked out of his account by a hacker actually sued Microsoft and won after the big M admitted he was hacked but claimed they couldn't do anything about it. Since then, Xbox has been working through a backlog to help users locked out of their accounts to regain access, but it shouldn't be this hard.

As more of our content goes digital, and with AI-powered mods and user-generated art becoming more commonplace, the systems that govern access to our digital platforms need to improve a ton. Losing access to years of content and hundreds or thousands of dollars of investment shouldn't come without a clear explanation of why you lost access. Nor should appealing those bans be so slow and difficult.

It'll probably end with some form of legislation, but that won't help today's users.

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Microsoft's next-gen Xbox hardware lineup is beginning to come into focus. According to a new report from Fortune, the company is gearing up to ship new hardware in the form of a handheld in 2027, followed by a full-blown console in 2028.

It's unclear if the handheld project is a first party Xbox device, or a third-party device designed and manufactured by an OEM partner like ASUS and the ROG Ally X. The console is expected to be first-party, and is likely to run a specialized version of Windows.

The report claims that Xbox and Windows have been at odds about how the OS should run on Project Helix. Windows leaders wanted the consoles to run a modified version of Windows desktop, but Xbox leaders wanted a more boutique OS experience designed for gaming.

"Tensions ran high enough that a senior Xbox executive threatened to scrap the handheld project rather than adopt the Windows build ... Xbox is now largely controlling the direction of the operating system for the project" Fortune claims.

Microsoft's Xbox CTO, Scott Van Vliet has taken to X to refute Fortune's claims, stating that the report "misrepresents both the technical work and the relationship between the teams." But Windows and Xbox have a long history of clashing, and is the least surprising part of this report.

My own sources tell me that both Windows and Xbox teams have disagreed over the direction of the platform for certain gaming-specific experiences, but that doesn't mean the teams aren't still working together.

Windows already powers the current Xbox Series consoles, as well as Xbox One. It's a modified version of the OS that the Xbox team has customized, built on top of the Windows OS core that is developed by the Windows team.

It sounds like the Xbox team has decided to maintain this approach with Project Helix consoles, expanding and building upon it with new features and capabilities such as running PC games.

This is why you've seen an uptick in Xbox OS features for existing Xbox consoles over the last handful of months, as the Xbox org has started reinvesting in the OS experience they already control. This work will naturally also benefit the next-gen consoles.

Alarmingly, Fortune claims that Microsoft is currently expecting the next-gen Xbox console to cost somewhere between $1,200 and $1,800, making it the most expensive gaming console ever. It's possible that Microsoft may choose to subsidize the cost, which would bring it closer to $1,000, but nothing is confirmed.

Of course, these rumors are unconfirmed. Plans could change and schedules could slip, so nothing is set in stone until Microsoft is ready to formalize its plans officially. For now, we know that Project Helix is still in development, with first devkits expected to debut in early 2027.

Let us know in the comments what you think about Project Helix so far.

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Before the DMZ Beta went live in 2022 as a bonus mode for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it was widely considered one of gaming's worst-kept secrets. Pretty much everything about it had leaked in the months leading up to its launch.

When players did get their hands on it, the fledgling extraction mode was notably undercooked. The smarter AI for the time was impressive, but there was just not enough substance to keep a large player base active and excited.

Don't get me wrong, there were definitely DMZ die-hards in the Call of Duty community, but I was not among them. I liked the premise, and it certainly wanted to fill a void that had been left empty since I completed The Division's "Survival" DLC. But ultimately, I was convinced that I just wasn't meant to be an extraction shooter girly, and I made my way back to multiplayer and Warzone, where I belonged.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit Infinity Ward's studio and be among the first to see the reveal for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. This included the upcoming third mode — DMZ.

I'm not going to act like I wasn't surprised. Signs were pointing to DMZ's potential return, especially with the rise in the success of extraction shooters like Arc Raiders, for example, but I just wasn't sold on the idea that the previous DMZ Beta had warranted enough fanfare to justify spending 4 years of resources on this extraction mode over some other third mode like classic Spec Ops.

I grew even more nervous about the state of DMZ after the reveal, as launch inched closer and closer with absolutely zero marketing or reveals for the returning mode. No mention of DMZ during the MW4 Open Beta.

Finally, we had "DMZ Week", with a rush of information about the new mode flooding Call of Duty's marketing. When I returned to the studio to go hands-on with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 this month, it was DMZ that I was most looking forward to playing, surprisingly. I was starting to warm to the idea of the mode in general, at least.

For me, these hybrid PvEvP modes can be a hard sell. In the original DMZ Beta of yesteryear, I often felt like the AI combatants were more of an annoyance than an actual threat — just an obstacle in the way of finding the next squad to take down because I was thoroughly Warzone-brained. While there were tasks to complete on the inside, they felt menial and didn't really add much to the overall experience. Looting was an option, but it just didn't mean much at the end of the day.

We started our hands-on time in the Forward Operating Base, the opening hub world for all things DMZ. It's nicely designed, but I do find that overall the HUB itself is a bit disjointed. There's a laptop for every feature. Walk over to this side of the HUB to check your dog tag collection; go back to that side to buy intel on Lieutenants you can hunt. Certain features are locked until you reach the minimum level requirement. Once we were familiar with the layout, we were placed into teams and turned loose to explore Hajin.

Welcome to Hajin

Before I get too deep into overall gameplay, I want to talk about the design of Hajin. The map for DMZ is absolutely massive, especially when compared to the previous map used for the DMZ Beta, Al Mazrah. Al Mazrah felt spacious, but barren. Hajin, however, is a massive map that feels dense and alive. The large buildings tower against the DMZ's skybox, teeming with enemy AI that pose legitimate threats to your safety in the zone. Lush open outdoor areas offer plenty of trees with beautiful foliage and tall grass as cover, making it possible to take a stealthy approach when hunting targets.

The world of Hajin feels real. If you're looking for bandages, check a hospital. Need ammo? Head to a police station. This isn't a new concept, not even for Call of Duty. The original DMZ and the first attempt at Warzone 2.0 both relied on this mechanic of lootable items being found in areas that made sense instead of just stuffed in a box against the wall. For DMZ, it serves an added benefit of forcing players to explore areas outside of popular hot zones.

It's easy for communities to lock into certain areas of maps, especially ones this big, and only want to fight for control of a certain building or lootable box. But the most basic mechanics of Hajin are designed around that. If you're going to level up your operator, you're going to have to eventually go into dangerous areas to collect valuable gear and crafting materials.

Gameplay with meaning and depth

My biggest complaint with the original DMZ Beta was that completing tasks felt like they had little to no purpose. I'm happy to report that Modern Warfare 4's DMZ is overflowing with opportunity. From the story missions that continue the events of the campaign, to the dynamic ops that piece together new challenges with every deployment, to lieutenant hunts, and PvP encounters, this year's DMZ has plenty to offer players of all skill levels.

In my first attempt at DMZ during the hands-on period, I was paired up with a Sherpa from the development team and another player. We were pretty amenable to just exploring Hajin, taking in whatever came our way. Our Sherpa set us up with some dynamic ops that would let us get a little extra XP, and we dove in with the intent to free roam. We didn't start empty-handed; we had beginner-level vests and basic free loadouts to get us started.

Before long, we were collecting the necessary gear to take on bigger challenges, exploring areas with increased threat levels. Collecting gear and returning to the FOB gave us the opportunity to upgrade our operators' skill trees, making our progress feel even more meaningful than just "go in, grab things, get out." We became attached to our operators and their kits.

That is, until another team saw us heading for an exfil and opted to run us over with their trucks.

With my operator now MIA in the exclusion zone, I was left with a choice: Pay the ransom to get her back, or take the loss and go in as a fresh little newbie again.

I paid the ransom.

But then I decided to return to the DMZ for another run, this time solo. I'm too agreeable for my own good, and playing with a squad had left me following along with what they wanted to do. I wanted to see what happened if I went in and followed my own whims. I headed to a laptop in the base and ponied up $10,000 for intel on the location of a Lieutenant, a sniper with a ghillie suit and deer skull mask.

I didn't head straight for the marked lieutenant; I gave myself some time to look for important gear in case I ran into trouble. A med kit, some bandages, extra ammo. When I felt confident I could handle the fight, I headed that way. The lieutenant I had picked wasn't a particularly challenging one, but for a solo player with lower-tier weapons and armor, it certainly proved to be a challenge. I grabbed the dog tags when all was said and done and made my way to exfil, where I threw up a truce flag from the menu wheel and hoped for the best.

My next deployment into DMZ was once again with two additional players. This time our group took a more adventurous approach, diving into some of the more extreme areas of Hajin. We were grossly underleveled, but that didn't stop us from tackling the enemies that were coming at us. By playing it smart and working together, we were able to slowly fight our way through the mission and take down its in-world boss. We hadn't yet finished the mission in its entirety, and there was one other problem: the gas was coming.

We had a choice to hit the only exfil left, which was 900+m away, or we could attempt to finish the mission and hope that an in-place exfil would drop as a reward. Right as our helicopter took the air, the gas overtook the zone. We made it out, but only barely.

DMZ is an exhilarating addition to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Call of Duty's third modes have always been a bit of an enigma. Treyarch's Zombies mode is an actual gold mine, building up a completely separate world that still ties in with the mainline title it's attached to and creating an intense alternative to multiplayer and Warzone that you can easily get lost in for hours, both solo and as a squad. It's genuinely impressive, but Infinity Ward's third mode, namely Spec Ops, never quite hit the community the same way that Zombies did.

The DMZ Beta was a dice roll for Modern Warfare 2, and whether it genuinely paid off at the time is dependent entirely on who you ask. But if we scope out and look at how the DMZ Beta has evolved into the DMZ that is part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, I think it is safe to say that Infinity Ward has finally struck third-mode gold.

And I've finally found something to fill the void left behind by The Division.

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I've reviewed loads of controllers in my time, but one particularly memorable one was the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra as it was the first I'd seen with an in-built screen. Today Turtle Beach have announced a sequel in the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra 2 and I'm intrigued on how they can improve on the previous model.

I originally walked away thoroughly impressed by how premium the OG version felt with its clicky micro-switch buttons. Still, the companion software was buggy at launch and the social notification capabilities felt a bit gimmicky and worse, kind of useless. Ironically, while the promo art looks like it was yanked straight out of a GTA 6 trailer, Turtle Beach seems to have dropped the social gimmicks entirely. So instead of replying to your real-life girlfriend on your gamepad, you can just focus on Lucia in peace.

The Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra II High-Performance Wireless Controller is available for pre-order today at $199.99 / £179.99 / €199.99 ahead of its November 12, 2026 launch, and Turtle Beach seems to have focused on some serious, meaningful hardware upgrades this time around.

TMR sticks and a 8kHz polling rate

The biggest change that stands out to me is the addition of TMR thumbsticks. The original had Hall Effect, which is perfectly fine, but TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance) sensors will be more precise and have improved power efficiency and I'm always glad to see manufacturers moving ahead with this tech (while Xbox still haven't adopted Hall Effect...) Competitive players also get an upgrade with the pad now supporting up to an 8 kHz wired polling rate and up to a 1 kHz wireless polling rate for ultra-responsive input tracking.

As for the Connected Command Display on the controller, it's making a comeback, but with some far more practical on-the-fly adjustments (meaning less fiddling with that software). From the screen, you will now be able to tune audio profiles, trigger modes, Pro-Aim focus sensitivity, button remapping, and RGB lighting. The list goes on. Turtle Beach seems to have pivoted away from phone notification gimmicks altogether and toward pure, functional controller customization.

Rounding out the package, you get tactile microswitch face buttons, adjustable trigger stops, four mappable back buttons, Bluetooth support for Android and Smart TVs, and up to 12 hours of battery life out of the box (extending to 34 hours in Eco mode).

Pre-orders are live today ahead of its November 12, 2026 launch. At $199.99 / £179.99 / €199.99, it remains an investment strictly for the hardcore crowd, but just like the first model, it comes bundled with a Rapid Charge Dock and a hard-shell charge-through travel case, which helps make the premium price tag that much easier to swallow.

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Surprise! Hot on the heels of PlayStation's own upscaling tech announcements, Microsoft and AMD just revealed that the firm's flagship FSR 4.1 tech is coming to the Xbox platform.

FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) is a technology from AMD that renders games at a lower resolution, and then uses machine learning to generate a sharper image. Since the hardware isn't working as hard, that overhead can be used for performance.

FSR 4.1 is a big leap over previous versions, and Microsoft has partnered with AMD to bring it not only to Xbox Series X, but also Xbox Ally X, Xbox Ally S and Xbox Series S — the latter two of which should benefit from very, very big performance boosts as a result.

"At Xbox, we're building a gaming platform designed to meet players where they are, and make it easier for creators to reach them," Xbox CTO Scott Van Vilet explained. "AMD has been an important partner in that journey for more than two decades. Together our teams have been pushing gaming forward, across Xbox and Windows. From the silicon at the heart of our consoles and handhelds, to technologies like DirectX, Advanced Shader Delivery, and AutoSR that helps developers get more from the hardware and deliver better experiences for our players."

"Today, we're excited to take another step forward together. With FSR 4.1 coming to Xbox. Now, we've worked very closely with AMD to optimize this technology, giving developers another powerful tool for great performance and visual quality for players. Now, whether you're playing on an Xbox Ally handheld, as well as coming soon to Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. And this is just the beginning. Our teams are continuing to work together across hardware and software, and there's even more ahead with Project Helix, leveraging FSR Diamond to power what comes next."

It's unclear exactly when these technologies will roll out to Xbox devices. It sounds as though FSR 4.1 will hit Xbox Ally X before the year end, but Xbox Series X|S are listed as "coming soon," with no exact window offered.

Sadly, it seems the Xbox Ally base model is fully incompatible with FSR 4.1, which is a bit of a shame, but it should prove transformative for those with the Xbox Ally X and the just-released Xbox Ally X20, as well as the Xbox Series S.

The Xbox Series S has historically been difficult for developers owing to its irregular RAM allocation, but if FSR 4.1 can do some of the heavy lifting, it should ease the pressure on developers to deliver a native 1080p image.

We're reaching out to Microsoft for some clarification on timelines for Xbox Ally and Xbox Series X|S consoles, and will get back to you if we hear from them.

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This year marks Xbox's 25th anniversary on November 15th, and over the last 6 months, we've seen more marketing from the brand than I've seen in the past decade. From a completely unexpected IKEA collaboration to the return of the Xbox Gear Store, Microsoft and third parties have teamed up to tempt Xbox fans with their hard-earned cash for some nostalgic goodies, as well as touring the globe with Xbox Fanfest.

I can't really complain, as there is some fantastic stuff available right now or for pre-order. Well, unless you wanted the limited-edition Xbox Series X25, of course, which got scalped in minutes. On the bright side, plenty of awesome collectibles won't cost you $900 buckaroos. Here’s everything worth checking out to help celebrate Xbox's 25th anniversary.

Even if you missed out on the $900 console, you can still get your hands on the official Xbox Series X|S Controller (X25 Edition) ($79.99). I’ve been practically begging Microsoft for an official transparent green gamepad ever since the Cipher series hit store shelves in Blue, Red, and White, but predictably, Xbox held out until the anniversary for the iconic Team Green aesthetic. Units start shipping on October 20, and like standard Xbox pads, it offers full cross-platform compatibility across PC, Android, and Xbox consoles.

If you’re looking for a slightly more budget-friendly route, the 8BitDo Ultimate 3-Mode Controller ($59.99 at Best Buy) is a stellar alternative. While it does require a wired connection when playing directly on Xbox consoles, it connects wirelessly to PC and Android, and it comes bundled with a charging dock right out of the box. It looks gorgeous on a desk setup, especially if you're pairing it with other retro-styled PC accessories.

Speaking of docks, the standalone 8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock for Xbox Controllers (X25 Special Edition) ($39.99 at Amazon US) solves a very specific pet peeve of mine. I was so annoyed when my green 8BitDo controller originally shipped with a plain black charging cradle, so seeing them release a matching translucent green wireless dock for official Xbox Series X|S pads feels like a personal victory. Built specifically for official Xbox controllers, you simply drop your gamepad onto the magnetic contact points and charging begins automatically.

While not created strictly for the 25th anniversary, this green version of the 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard (Xbox Edition) $94 at Amazon matches the Team Green aesthetic too well to ignore. Since it’s been on the market for a while, you can often catch it on sale. It sports a matte finish, very clicky Kailh Box Jellyfish switches, and 8BitDo’s iconic programmable Dual Super Buttons that let you map custom shortcuts.

If you’re grabbing the keyboard, pairing it with the matching 8BitDo R8 Wireless Mouse (Xbox Edition) ($59.99 at Amazon US) is a no brainer. The big advantage here over competitor options is that it comes bundled with its own magnetic charging dock right out of the box. Its design leans heavily into chunky 2001 retro vibes too, just like the keyboard.

For gaming on the go, PowerA has created a delightful leatherette PowerA Xbox Sling Bag ($39.99 at PowerA) that’s custom-built for handheld PC gaming, and specifically sized to fit an ROG Ally. It would easily fit a Steam Deck or Lenovo Legion Go though, so pick your poison. There are four storage compartments, internal cable pass-throughs for charging, and 25th-anniversary green accents. It’s currently showing as out of stock on PowerA’s site, as it hasn't officially gone up for sale yet, but it should be available very soon (we've reached out to confirm an exact date because I want it!).

Razer has delivered some of the absolute best-looking gear for Xbox’s 25th Anniversary (see our hands-on with them), and predictably, some of the priciest, but hey, it's Razer, and you're worth it. The translucent green Razer BlackWidow V4 75% ($209.99 at Razer) is stunning and serves as a tactile, much quieter alternative to 8BitDo’s loud, chunky retro board. Thanks to the clearer finish across the keycaps, the Razer Chroma RGB lighting shines through with a neater glow. Pre-orders will officially ship from October 20 onward.

If you're looking for a matching mouse, the Razer Basilisk lineup has long been hailed as one of the best gaming mice in the business, and the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K ($179.99) now comes Xbox-flavored. Beyond the shell, it packs up to 140 hours of wireless battery life, the customizable HyperScroll tilt wheel, and plenty of that all-important Razer Chroma RGB.

I wasn't completely sold on the concept of dedicated gaming earbuds initially, but having a lightweight pair for gaming, whether plugged into the Xbox or connected to my ROG Ally, has totally won me over. I'm currently using the SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds, but these Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed for XBOX ($119.99) look the business. They have up to 35 hours of total battery life (10 hours on the buds plus an extra 25 from the charging case) and offer seamless multi-platform compatibility across Xbox, PC, and mobile (oh, and PS5 if you like)

Backbone was one of the first to ever hit the mobile controllers market, making them a natural fit for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Rather than sticking purely to translucent green, the Backbone Pro XBOX 25th Anniversary Edition ($179.99) comes in the real deep cut throwbacks like Halo Orange, Smoke Blue, and Crystal White. It’s an awesome nod for those of us old enough to remember. The catch is they are in blind boxes, and you have no way of knowing which color you will get!

Then onto GameSir, which makes some of my absolute favorite handheld controllers. They are seriously hard-wearing, ridiculously good value for the price, and come packed with drift-resistant Hall Effect sticks to boot. The GameSir X5 Lite for XBOX ($44.99) wraps all of that into an anniversary special edition.

Finally, the IKEA x Xbox "YXSTABY" collaboration has some surprisingly tasteful gaming chairs and more in-your-face gear-stick stools to wall-mounted controller shelves. But if you just want a small, fun piece of memorabilia without redecorating your whole living room, the XBOX x YXSTABY D-pad cushion ($17.99 at IKEA) is an easy win. It’s cheap and adds a subtle splash of gamer flair to any couch.

The Xbox Gloss Sweater ($59.99) is just one highlight from the official Xbox Gear Store, which features a surprisingly understated line of official 25th-anniversary apparel. Alongside minimalist sweaters and graphic tees, there’s even a bona fide "throwback" bucket hat if you really want to embrace early-2000s fashion. While a few popular sizes have already sold out, remaining stock is expected to ship by the end of October.

Over on Culture Kings, streetwear label 73 Studio has dropped its own collection, offering a broader and much more imaginative lineup of anniversary gear. My personal fave is the 73STUDIO X XBOX 25th Anniversary Console T-Shirt ($39), featuring a graphic of the original 2001 Xbox console across the back alongside the chonky Duke controller. Unlike pre-order drops, 73 Studio’s collection is available to buy and ship right now.

Another pick from me is the 73STUDIO X XBOX 25th Anniversary Play More Zip Hoodie ($95), which might be the ultimate cozy gaming hoodie for Fall.

Could there be more in store?

Now that's a hell of a lot of merch to choose from, and with the anniversary itself just around the corner on November 15th, it makes you wonder if Xbox still has a surprise or two up its sleeve for the big day. We've just had the Xbox Nano Controller drop (but only in white, boo!), but what else could be in store?

My money is on a long-awaited Xbox Elite Controller Series 3, which would make fans thrilled regardless of whether it comes in translucent green. I’d also be happy if they just sorted out proper Xbox Gear Store shipping to Europe (shakes fist)! Either way, I'm pretty sure we're in for at least one more unexpected drop when the big day finally arrives.

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When I think of turn-based JRPGs where you explore vast worlds, Final Fantasy was once the first thing that came to mind. Yet for over two decades, Square Enix has deprived the Final Fantasy franchise of the gameplay style that made it a household name by taking it in an action-RPG direction with mixed degrees of success.

Over the years, I cynically grew to accept that Final Fantasy would never return to the classic turn-based gameplay style I loved and instead opted for Square Enix's other turn-based franchises like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler.

That is, until this year, when Square Enix announced Final Fantasy Resonance. This game is the franchise's first HD-2D JRPG, and it aims to bring back the classic turn-based combat and open-world exploration gameplay that made retro fans like me love it in the first place.

It felt too good to be true at first, but after being impressed by Final Fantasy Resonance's playable demo, I decided to give the game a chance when I was given an opportunity to review it on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Square Enix.

After playing it for the past few weeks, I can confidently say that, despite some minor issues, Final Fantasy Resonance (available for $49.99 on the Xbox Store) is a heartwarming return to form that players who grew up on Final Fantasy's 16-bit and PlayStation One golden age should not miss out on.

Final Fantasy Resonance launches on October 22, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Windows and Steam.

This review was made possible thanks to an Xbox Series X code provided by Square Enix. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review before publication.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Story, setting, art

Final Fantasy Resonance is a home console adaptation of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’s first story arc, a 2015 free-to-play mobile game that was shut down in 2024.

Like its source material, Final Fantasy Resonance tells the story of Rain and Lasswell, two noble knights hailing from the kingdom of Grandshelt, and a mysterious girl with magical powers named Fina.

They're on a quest to save their world's life-giving crystals from being destroyed by a group of evil knights who call themselves the ‘Sworn Six’. These despicable knights have dark, vengeful goals that they seek to accomplish by any means, regardless of collateral damage or casualties.

The story of Final Fantasy Resonance is a fairly standard JRPG fantasy adventure laden with tropes and clichés that players experienced in the JRPG genre will see coming (although it did a couple of admittedly surprising twists).

The story also has a couple of annoying moments that disrupted the pacing, which could've been fixed if they played out as cutscenes instead of pointless boss fights, but I won't get too deep into that as it's very spoilery.

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However, these are minor quibbles, as Final Fantasy Resonance's story beats, lore, and action set pieces are well put together with satisfying dramatic payoffs. Not to mention, its story is refreshingly easy to understand and follow, which is a blessing because many modern Final Fantasy games tend to have needlessly convoluted plots.

Additionally, Final Fantasy Resonance does have moments where it actually managed to make me laugh as the game snuck in some cheeky jokes that will tickle the nostalgia funny bones of long-time Final Fantasy fans like me.

As for its characters, Final Fantasy Resonance does have a cast of interesting villains once you start to discover who they are underneath their armor. Its playable heroes are also competently written and likable, with some decent character development but nothing too thought-provoking.

What helps Final Fantasy Resonance's story and characters resonate with the player is its presentation. This is the first Final Fantasy game to use HD-2D graphics, and Square Enix spared no expense in making them look absolutely STUNNING.

The pixel-art character sprites and 3D models look so immaculately detailed and animated with their charming facial expressions and epic battle moves. The HD-2D art style gets even more lavishly detailed during cinematic cutscenes and in-game boss battles to create some magnificent works of digital art.

Final Fantasy Resonance's presentation elevates its story further with some respectable voice acting in both English and Japanese and an incredible soundtrack that's filled with extremely catchy tunes, epic battle themes, and emotional melodies.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Gameplay

The gameplay of Final Fantasy Resonance follows the classic formulae set by earlier Final Fantasy games. You travel across a world map, visiting towns for quests, gear, and lore, exploring dungeons to loot treasure, and fighting monsters and bosses in turn-based combat.

It starts very linear, but the game opens up fairly quickly with plenty of side-quests to complete, optional dungeons to explore, and hidden areas you can only find with a trusty airship.

You have no idea how much this game filled me with nostalgic joy riding in an airship and exploring a world map to find all its secrets again after being restricted to grounded corridors for decades in modern Final Fantasy games.

Its dungeons, however, are somewhat disappointing, as Final Fantasy Resonance took a quantity-over-quality approach. Many dungeons in this game are painfully short, as they feature two or three rooms with very basic puzzles to solve.

I would've liked these dungeons to be made in-depth, with more labyrinthine layouts so the player could get into more random encounters to stress-test their dungeon-crawling and resource-conservation skills like the older games.

Let's move to the main reason that made me want to play this game in the first place: turn-based combat.

Like the first ten mainline Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Resonance's turn-based combat system has your party take turns to defeat enemies using weapons and magic, while keeping each other alive with healing magic and restorative items.

The turn-based combat is simple at first, but Final Fantasy Resonance quickly adds lots of fun mechanics to improve its complexity as you progress, keeping it from becoming stale.

These mechanics include Limit Bursts, which allow you to unleash a player character's ultimate attack if their Limit Gauge gets filled in battle by either getting hurt or stunning enemies; summoning Espers in battle to aid you for a few turns and also depleting an enemy’s Stagger Gauge by hitting their elemental weakness to stun them for a turn.

Once you stagger all enemies at once, you will be rewarded with a free round of turns to batter the stunned enemies for extra damage without fear of retaliation, culminating in a devastating super-move performed by your Visions.

What are Visions, you may ask? Visions are spiritual manifestations of heroes from previous Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Resonance-exclusive heroes who grant the player characters powerful abilities and passive traits to help them excel in battle.

Some of these abilities include being able to stagger enemies more easily, protect the entire party from incoming damage, prevent incoming status effects, perform multiple actions in a single turn, and so much more.

I love the Visions system because it offers so much character-building potential on par with Final Fantasy's classic Job System from previous games.

You can use it to double down on a player character's inherent skills (like turning the main hero Rain into an unstoppable tank) or turn a character into a jack-of-all-trades fighter (like giving a healer character a damage-dealing Vision so they can hurt enemies and heal allies).

Experimenting with Visions to create the ultimate party and using their newfound powers to stun-lock challenging bosses before they got a single turn was so empowering and cathartic.

Yet after playing the game for 75 hours, I still felt like I was scratching the surface of what the Visions system can do, so I can't imagine what will happen once pro JRPG players get their hands on it.

Granted, level-grinding the Visions to gain all their abilities can be pretty tedious and repetitive. But it's so worth it in the end, especially when you hit Final Fantasy Resonance's late-game and post-game bosses because they do not mess around.

They hit fast and hard, have tons of health, and are hard to stagger (especially on Expert Mode). Plus, these endgame bosses will often require you to change your Vision builds to defeat them due to their varying strategies and countermeasures that will punish players for being too aggressive or too passive.

They're extremely tough but so satisfying to beat once you figure out their gimmicks and get the right Vision abilities equipped.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Conclusion

Overall, I was thoroughly astonished and surprised by how good Final Fantasy Resonance was.

It's a loving tribute to Final Fantasy's classic turn-based era that's able to stand on its own merits with addictive combat, an in-depth Vision system, and an entertaining story with decently written characters. Not to mention it has a great wealth of side-quests and difficult optional bosses to take on even after finishing the main campaign as icing on the cake.

If you're an old-school Final Fantasy fan who doesn't like the action-RPG direction the mainline Final Fantasy games have been taking, or just love turn-based JRPGs you can play on go via Xbox Play Anywhere, then I highly recommend not sleeping on Final Fantasy Resonance.

If this game is just based on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius's first story arc, then I hope Square Enix makes more adaptations of this mobile game so I can see the rest of its story arcs in full HD-2D glory.

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The console industry continues to reel from the RAMpocalypse, and Xbox is certainly feeling it.

Circana analysis suggested a few weeks ago that Xbox hardware sales are at their lowest level ever, with PlayStation also suffering their lowest hardware sell-through situation since 2013. Without a doubt, the so-called RAMpocalypse is to blame, with companies like Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and indeed, Microsoft itself buying up all the RAM for their AI-tinted ambitions.

That leaves little left over for "niche" consumer electronics scenarios, such as video game consoles ... ballooning Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo console prices to their highest levels ever in some cases.

The timing couldn't be worse really. Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in a month from now, and its mainstream appeal would've driven huge amounts of users to upgrade older consoles or perhaps enter the hobby for the first time. With global stock levels battered and prices otherwise impossible for most to consider, Microsoft is turning towards a novel approach to try to increase stock availability.

Spotted by users on X (cheers H!) and covered first by PowerUP, Microsoft is actually sending out emails to users who have dormant Xbox Series X|S hardware, recommending that they trade them in, offering links and advice on how to do so. The email specifically cites Best Buy, which has a trade-in system here you can explore for Xbox hardware.

It seems the emails are going out specifically to users who have hardware that they aren't actively using, including users who own multiple consoles potentially.

Indeed, the economics on console hardware is so bad right now that any user sitting on a dormant PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or Nintendo Switch potentially represents a big net loss for the big three. The margins are so bad, and the stock availability so low, that trying to convince users to move their consoles to others who might actually become more active players (and spenders) is more than preferable.

Ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6's launch, Microsoft and its competitors are working around the clock to source components for their hardware provisions. Call of Duty has also stopped shipping on past-gen consoles, and it seems fairly likely given how popular Modern Warfare 4 has been so far that many users would want to upgrade for that as well ... if indeed there was stock available.

Stock availability of new (and very pricy) Xbox Series X|S hardware has generally remains stable in Microsoft core markets like the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and so on. In Asia, mainland Europe, the Middle East, and South America Xbox console stock has been almost non-existent. Tariffs, the RAMpocalypse, and general global economic instability has left the console market in a precarious state ... despite an unprecedented density of high-quality games.

Some analysts expect the "RAMpocalypse" to last through to 2028, maybe even 2029, with consumer electronics expected to take a battering between now and then. Smartphone, PC, laptop, and of course, game console shipments are all down as a direct result of the AI build out. It doesn't look like things will change any time soon.

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In this episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel Rubino and Zac Bowden regroup following a week of extensive hands-on hardware testing and benchmarking. The central focus is the initial review wave for the Surface Laptop Ultra and the broader Nvidia RTX Spark mobile platform.

Zac details his full review of the Surface Laptop Ultra, highlighting its MacBook-inspired design improvements, haptic touchpad, outstanding audio, sleep battery efficiency, and magnetic USB-C connector—while contrasting its 2,000-nit Mini-LED display against competing Tandem OLED panels. Daniel shares first impressions of two rival RTX Spark flagships: the ultralight 3.9 lb ASUS ProArt P16 and the robust HP OmniBook Ultra 16.

The hosts dig into real-world local AI and agentic workflows (including tests with Hermes Agent and local LLMs), explain the critical architectural advantage of configurable unified memory allocations for GPUs, discuss gaming performance with DLSS/frame gen, and showcase the newly launched ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 handheld console bundle featuring XREAL AR glasses.

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• [01:44] – Introduction: Daniel and Zac kick off Episode 407, outlining their week spent benchmarking and testing retail RTX Spark laptops and handhelds.
• [05:51] – Surface Laptop Ultra Design & Build: Zac breaks down the chassis aesthetics, MacBook Pro styling parallels, lack of a notch, seamless lid lip design, and weight (4.5 lbs).
• [08:00] – The Mini-LED Display: Deep dive into Microsoft’s 2,000-nit Mini-LED panel, evaluating ghosting zones (1,344 dimming zones), glossy reflections, and comparisons to Tandem OLED screens.
• [13:09] – Battery Life & Standby Sleep Performance: Real-world longevity on the 92 Wh battery (10–12 hours light use) and standout sleep endurance matching Apple Silicon.
• [15:18] – Magnetic Breakaway USB-C: Testing the breakaway angle, data capabilities, and custom charging brick interoperability.
• [18:04] – RTX Spark CPU & Gaming Benchmarks: Breakdown of 20-core multi-threaded CPU output versus single-core scores, plus gaming results with DLSS in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 (approaching RTX 4070/5060 laptop levels).
• [25:59] – Local AI & Unified Memory Allocation: Why configurable system RAM sharing to the GPU CUDA cores enables large local LLM deployment that traditional gaming laptops cannot match.
• [29:11] – Agentic AI Experiments: Practical workflows with Hermes Agent, desktop automation in Photoshop, automatic folder cleanup, and local data safety risks.
• [46:00] – Speakers, Haptics & Missing Copilot+ Features: Praise for the class-leading haptic signals and audio alongside the notable delay of Windows Recall and semantic search on RTX Spark.
• [53:56] – ASUS ProArt P16 Review Preview: Daniel highlights the 3.9 lb featherweight design, dual-fan thermals, 4K anti-reflective touch options, and port selection.
• [58:50] – HP OmniBook Ultra 16 Breakdown: Frame build quality, rear tower exhaust design, Zero-Lattice Gen 2 keyboard, and compact 140W GaN charger.
• [01:06:08] – PCIe SSD Speed Shootout: Massive speed discrepancies across devices—Surface’s 14,000 MB/s drive vs. HP's 10,000 MB/s and ASUS’s variable read speeds.
• [01:14:55] – ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 Handheld Impressions: Translucent chassis, 7.4-inch 120Hz anti-reflective OLED panel, Z2 Extreme performance, and testing the bundle with XREAL AR glasses.
• [01:24:02] – Live Audience Q&A: Viewer questions regarding boot/restart bugs, NVMe expansion, OneDrive Microsoft 365 storage allocation backlash, and future low-tier RTX Spark silicon.

Have a question you want us to answer on the podcast? Send it to us at podcast@windowscentral.com

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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Xbox Game Pass is, by far, one of the best deals in gaming. It gives players access to hundreds of titles at a relatively affordable price (at least after the price cut a few months ago), but PC Game Pass has always been tied to needing a Windows-based device. That meant handhelds running SteamOS were out of luck.

That has now all changed, thanks to Xodus Nexus, an independent and unofficial project that lets you natively play Xbox games on your Linux devices, including the Steam Deck and Steam Machine.

Could this convince Xbox gamers to switch to Linux?

You might be wondering how this works. Well, essentially, it lets you sign in to your Microsoft account, browse your library, and then use Proton as a translation layer to play your games natively on Linux.

According to the project documentation, you can browse the Store, install games you own or access through a subscription, and play with one shared runtime. Xbox sign-in and cloud saves are also available for supported games.

Right now, it can’t play every Xbox game on Linux, but the list so far is still impressive. It includes titles like Gears of War: E-Day, Deep Rock Galactic, Minecraft Dungeons II, Forza Horizon 6, No Man’s Sky, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Sea of Thieves, all with the usual Xbox bells and whistles and multiplayer support.

The full list of compatible games can be found here.

I always hoped Xbox would release their games on Linux at some point, though I understand how that could be a bit counter-intuitive to Xbox’s plans for Windows and their own gaming hardware. Despite Linux being home to a small number of players, it’s still a competitor in the space. And well... Xbox porting to competing hardware didn’t really go over all too well last time, with Xbox consoles now returning to exclusivity.

Still, seeing community projects like this is great, and I hope to see the project continue to expand. The Steam Deck used to be a great bit of kit, at least before the price hike, and whilst the Steam Machine seemingly released, never to be spoken about again, it is still awesome to see the community tackle Game Pass on hardware it was never meant for.

Do let me know: do projects like this mean you’d switch from Windows to Linux, or is it more of a novelty? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day has come and gone, and the game appears to have been a success. At least, that’s what the reports suggest, and ot’s hard to deny that people are genuinely enjoying it.

Critics and players alike have praised both the campaign and multiplayer modes, and if you haven't already you should check out our review here. As for E-Day, we’ve already started to see mods crop up on PC, including one that turns your entire squad into characters from Halo. Letting us see Noble Team and the Master Chief in E-Day, and having them look as good as they do is fantastic.

Speaking of mods, one user, @rockonthehillc, took to X (Formerly Twitter) to show off an extremely impressive virtual reality mod for E-Day. It features full body tracking, manual weapon reloads, and more.

Is it time for a first-person Gears of War game?

The short demonstration uploaded to YouTube has seriously made me consider dusting off my Oculus Quest 2. But perhaps more surprisingly, it has made me want a first-person Gears of War game. To some, that might seem sacrilegious, but hear me out. Gears has already expanded into turn-based strategy, and I’m a firm believer that Xbox needs to do more with its IP. Experimenting with different genres is a smart move.

Halo is the perfect example of a mishandled IP. It should have been expanded into third-person shooters, horror, and other genres long ago. I think Gears of War could equally be turned into a first-person horror game set around the Locust.

E-Day does a fantastic job at making the Locust a terrifying threat. Seeing that unfold from a different angle would be incredible.

For now, though, fans will have to make do with the virtual reality community project, which is extremely impressive in its own right.

With that said, let me know your thoughts. Would you play a virtual reality Gears game, or even a first-person one? Leave a comment down below and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Recently, I covered how the Xbox One could run a PlayStation 5 emulator, or how Original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles were being played on a jailbroken PS5. Now, the tables have turned, and we have Xbox One games running on iOS (and macOS).

In fact, just a few months ago, I wrote about an Xbox 360 emulator for iOS. At the time, that was impressive enough on its own, particularly given it could run games like Halo 3. This new development feels like a natural progression, especially considering how recent advancements in AI have seemingly propelled emulation and modding to a whole new level.

It is a wild timeline we are living in. I do suspect AI is a major driver behind this acceleration, but regardless of the cause, it is still pretty cool to see.

Utsuro, the project bringing Xbox One games to iOS and Mac

The project, created by @leviidev01 on X, works not through traditional emulation, but rather as a translation layer. It runs the console’s own "Windows-derived userland as x86-64 under FEXCore", supplying the system components that the hardware would normally provide. I will admit, some of the deeper technical specifics are lost on me, but the fact that it works at all is fascinating.

For now, the project has been shown running Minecraft with touchscreen controls relatively well, and it does include controller support.

Thinking back to the Xbox One era, it was around the time Xbox began porting its games to PC. That makes it hard for me to pinpoint exactly which Xbox One titles I would want to take on the go. However, projects like this serve as a stark reminder of just how shortsighted Microsoft was in shuttering Windows Phone.

Given the sheer volume of IP at Microsoft’s disposal now, having a dedicated smartphone capable of legitimately playing Original Xbox, Xbox 360, and even Xbox One games with full cloud saves and achievement support would have been a unique selling point.

I do think it could have really given Microsoft a genuine edge. Instead, we are seeing community projects fill that void, while Android devices are busy running full-blown Steam games. All I can do is shed a tear over what could have been.

Still, I’d be interested to know what you think. What Xbox One games would you like to see running on iOS or even Android? If anything comes to mind, let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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It feels almost like Halo: Combat Evolved is becoming the new "Can it run Doom?" benchmark. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen the game run on everything from iOS and Android to Linux and even the Nintendo 64. Now, we have it running on the SEGA Dreamcast, one of my favorite consoles growing up.

The project, dubbed Halo: Dreamcast Evolved, is quite ambitious, aiming to port the entire game to the Dreamcast. That is a considerable ask, given that the console is significantly weaker than the original Xbox. The Dreamcast has four times less memory, and if we look at the FLOPS metric, it comes in at 1.4 GFLOPS while the original Xbox clocks in at 20 GFLOPS, roughly 14 times more.

Halo on Dreamcast shouldn't be possible, yet here we are

Despite this massive gap in raw power, developer @JiltedValkyrie has managed to hit around 60 FPS in certain areas, which is impressive in itself. However, I wouldn’t call the game fully playable just yet. Outside of those brief moments, you are generally looking at frame rates between 10 and 20 FPS.

The developer does mention that the build is still extremely early, with culling, lower LODs, and the math pass still needing review. The CPU is the primary bottleneck here, as the Dreamcast’s processor is more than three times slower than the Xbox’s, and the game’s animations and enemy AI eat into those resources massively. To help smooth out gameplay, dead enemies and marines now despawn instead of staying on screen, something that doesn't happen in the Xbox version.

Still, I’m considerably impressed, and I urge you to check out the 24 minutes of gameplay uploaded to X to see for yourself.

It’s truly bizarre for me to see the Dreamcast capable of running Halo. Back in my day, the Dreamcast was my main go-to console until the original Xbox released with Halo. Since then, I have admittedly been an Xbox guy, but I’ve always had a lot of love for the Dreamcast. Being a Sonic fan, how couldn’t I? Seeing a game that basically went on to define my entire early childhood now run on hardware that defined another part of my childhood is truly insane to witness.

Of course, this is likely hot on the heels of all the recent AI modding and decompiling efforts, something Xbox itself has acknowledged with the sprouting of Xbox Labs to explore projects very much like this.

Enough babbling from me, though. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you share the same feelings towards this as I do, or do you find it an abomination? Either view is fine, but let me know what you think in the comments.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is almost ready to leave early access as its October 23, 2026 full release rapidly approaches.

However, as with most AAA Xbox titles these days, it's going to take up a huge chunk of your console's storage space, as its campaign mode alone requires 137GB to install.

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While this isn't as extreme as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)'s 219GB requirement (without Warzone), it's still a massive number that will only get larger once Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 adds its multiplayer modes after leaving early access.

So, we've scoured the web for the best Xbox Series X|S storage expansion devices to help you fit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 onto your Xbox Series X|S while leaving more for upcoming Xbox blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto 6.

Also note that when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches, you will be able to uninstall what you want to reclaim space. For example, you can uninstall the single-player campaign once you're done with it and still be able to play the game's multiplayer modes.

External hard drives

External hard drives allow you to store Xbox games and other forms of media like music and movies (depending on how you format) and transfer them to other platforms with ease via USB connections.

They can come in a variety of storage sizes (ranging from 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB), and they're more readily available compared to Xbox storage expansion cards.

Plus, they're cheaper than Xbox storage expansion cards. However, considering the constantly rising prices of tech thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, there's no telling how long those external hard drives will be affordable.

Do note that you can’t play Xbox games directly from an external hard drive. You need to manually transfer games from the external hard drive onto an Xbox’s internal hard drive to play them.

Plug & Play expansion cards

Plug & Play expansion cards fit into an Xbox’s dedicated expansion card slot, so they can not only store games and play them directly from the card without the need for shuffling files onto the console's internal SSD.

They're also extremely compact, so they don't take up too much desk space compared to regular external hard drives.

However, Plug & Play expansion cards are rarer and more expensive than external hard drives. Plus, you can't reformat them to store and run other forms of media, as these Plug & Play expansion cards were designed only for Xbox consoles.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Our die-hard Call of Duty expert, Cole Martin, reviewed the campaign mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and judging by her reaction, it's shaping up to be a massive return to form for the series.

She calls the campaign a cinematic masterpiece for its stunning, cinematic presentation, captivating story, and thrilling gameplay filled with intense action set pieces and dramatic moments.

As for the quality of its multiplayer game modes like the much-anticipated DMZ, you will have to wait until the game launches later this week to find out, as it was unavailable during Cole Martin's review.

Needless to say, though, Call of Duty fans are about to eat good this holiday season just from the campaign alone.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Windows and Steam on October 23, 2026.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's campaign mode is currently available to play in early access for players who pre-order the game's Standard or Vault Editions.

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I recently covered how PS5 games are now running on the Xbox Series X, made possible by Xbox’s Developer Mode and an AI-driven port of KytyPS5, a PC-based emulator adapted for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps.

Performance on the Series X leaves a lot to be desired, with Astro Bot running at around 10 FPS. The project is still early in development, so we can expect performance to improve over time. But 10 FPS on a Series X isn’t exactly playable, which raises the question: How does the Xbox One fare?

Somehow, PS5 emulation works on the Xbox One

Over on X (formerly Twitter), @Maccosomo, the person responsible for porting KytyPS5 to the Series X, has also managed to get the emulator running on the Xbox One. They’ve been playing lighter titles like Quake II and Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which don’t demand as much from the hardware.

It’s worth mentioning that you likely won’t be able to play demanding PS5 titles like Astro Bot on an Xbox One; the CPU and GPU power just isn’t there. But with a PS5 emulator now running on an Xbox One, I’d be interested to see what else is possible.

Maybe PS4 emulation on an Xbox One? To me, the PS4 was Sony’s last great console, packed with fantastic games like Spider-Man and The Last of Us. That doesn't exist yet, but given the AI-driven modding we’re seeing, it feels only a matter of time. Xbox has even acknowledged this trend with Xbox Labs, a new initiative focused on exploring AI-driven games and mods.

That said, as cool as this is, it’s mostly for the novelty of it. I wouldn’t expect much else to emerge in this specific scene. However, I could see Nintendo Switch emulation appearing on an Xbox One, especially since we already have it working on the Series X and, I believe, the Series S.

Do let me know your thoughts. Is all of this getting out of hand, or is it exciting? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Senior Business Strategy Manager at Microsoft (Xbox), Brandon Stirrup, has recently taken to social media to address the elephant in the room: AI. Having spent his weekend creating what he calls his “little bad game” with no prior experience in game development, Stirrup has made a bold acknowledgment that Western fans likely won’t be happy to hear.

It is true, mind you, that you can prompt a game into existence. The quality of those games will always be up for debate, but it’s no secret that the barriers to entry for game development are shrinking, whether for better or worse, as Stirrup says, with an apparent sense of unease.

"Watch and see" — Is Stirrup breaking rules?

Stirrup argues that the gaming industry is uniquely resistant to this shift. “Gaming is the only industry slow-walking the transition because users have negative sentiment. Everyone else accepts reality,” he claimed.

He also added, “Gaming is the only industry where leaders are afraid to talk about ai. Users want the truth. We’re using AI.”

It’s quite the admission, but it doesn’t come as a surprise, at least to me. While Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been rather hesitant to fully embrace AI, we did just recently get Xbox Labs, an initiative to explore AI-driven game development and modding.

For what it’s worth, I hope Stirrup doesn’t get fired over these comments. As weird and scary as AI can be, I imagine many developers are using it, even ones you might not expect, like Capcom, which has admitted to its use.

The issue comes down to how AI is being used. As good a tool as it is, developers still need to understand what is being created by AI; otherwise, you end up with a hotbed of spaghetti code, which just leads to more issues down the line.

Do let me know how you feel about Stirrup’s comments. Do you agree, disagree, or land somewhere in the middle? And don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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Microsoft might be planning to take a sharp left turn on the whole digital games argument, with this new Xbox job vacancy.

The summer has been quite fractious for the gaming industry. Xbox has laid off hundreds and divested, closed down studios. And Sony nuked all the good will it has built up over the years by announcing PlayStation will no longer support physical discs, while reiterating in court testimony that it doesn't consider purchases to represent true ownership.

Xbox has pulled in the opposite direction so far, in some ways. Xbox's new Disc-to-Digital program gives disc-based game owners digital rights simply for inserting the game into a compatible Xbox One or Xbox Series X console. But, Microsoft alone can't really stop the tide. It remains true that the only mass-market use case for Blu-ray drives these days are video game consoles, and if PlayStation is pulling out, the supply chain generally won't be viable at scale. Disc drive manufacturers are pivoting their assembly lines to adjacent industries, like lenses and lasers, ditching mechanical disc drives and putting disc-based games on notice.

But, could there be an alternative?

Users on X noticed last night that Microsoft has posted a vacancy for a "Xbox Games Supply Strategist" specifically focused on physical games.

"The Xbox Games Supply Strategist will coordinate the launch of physical Xbox games across all platforms, lead development & oversee execution of global supply positioning strategies across all stages of the product lifecycle, ensure that inventory is positioned to deliver working capital/cost/service goals, and oversee the sales & channel execution of those games. You’ll work closely with Product Marketing, Finance & various groups within Supply Chain to establish & manage supply and sales plan of record. Every day will bring a new challenge, and you’ll be continually looking for ways to drive business profitability by planning and executing a predictable, reliable & low-cost supply chain."

Notice that the copy makes no mention of discs here specifically ...

Indeed, with disc drives for laptops, Blu-ray players, and even CD players being phased out, it doesn't seem entirely likely to me that Xbox Helix will have a traditional disc drive. But, it increasingly seems like Microsoft may be looking at alternatives. The Nintendo Switch range for example uses SD cartridges to deliver game licenses, and in some cases entire games when the speed is adequate. Could Microsoft be looking to follow suit here?

Will Xbox Helix support physical games?

Microsoft has stayed fully quiet on its plans for physical games, even as PlayStation leaps head-first into self-imposed brand damage by telling users it's going all-in on digital.

Digital-based games are the norm now, owing to convenience and often times price. Xbox Game Pass delivers hundreds of games for a low monthly fee, all digital. Steam accelerated the death of disc-based games on PC, and the Steam sales, cloud saves, and family sharing, and offline playback have become the gold standard for a digital games platform. Mobile games too have converted entire generations to assume gaming is a digital-first medium.

Yet, in the core gaming audience, the hobbyist audience that makes up Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation's bulk customers — perhaps there's an opportunity for Microsoft here with Xbox Helix.

Retail presence, physicality, that sense of ownership, and resale viability are all hugely popular aspects of the hobby. Microsoft would score a huge win with large swaths of the most passionate fans were it to announce long-term support for physical games delivery. But, Microsoft would also be swimming hard against the tide. The quiet majority has signalled pretty loud and clear they prefer digital, whether it's via Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, or gaming itself. But ... vinyl, 4K Blu-Ray, and even music cassettes have fought back in recent years, as discussions about ownership heats up.

Perhaps Xbox could do something similar to Nintendo with Helix, delivering games via cartridges. Perhaps they could come up with something alternative, low cost and proprietary, even if it was just discs. Perhaps they could revive Skylanders toys and put game licenses on NFC chips inside action figures. Who knows? I guess we'll have to wait and see what Microsoft's ultimate play here is.

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Windows 11 has a new Gaming Task View for XBOX mode that helps users hop back to the desktop or adjust power options for a device. That feature is now in testing among Windows Insiders.

Microsoft released builds in every Windows Insider channel to wrap up the week. I've listed all the changes below except those exclusive to the Release Preview channel since those features have largely been in testing before today.

While the update to XBOX mode is the headline feature of these builds, there are several other welcome changes. For example, Windows Hello can now temporarily brighten your screen to help you sign in when in a dark room.

Gaming (Beta, Experimental)

• We're introducing a refreshed Gaming Task View experience in XBOX mode, featuring a new navigation bar that provides quick access to Exit to Desktop and Power Options. This update makes key system actions easier to access while gaming.

Magnifier (Beta)

Magnifier now understands each of your displays

• More and more of the work people do happens across more than one screen. You draft on one display and keep source material open on another. You fill in a form while a reference document sits beside it. Those extra displays can be more helpful when each one can do its own job, and now Magnifier supports exactly that.
• To use this update, set your monitors to Extend in System > Display, not Duplicate, so Windows treats each screen as its own space.
• Every screen keeps its own view at its own zoom. In earlier versions of Magnifier, zooming in stretched a single magnified view across all of your displays, so one screen's zoom followed you everywhere and screen edges blurred together. With this update, each monitor's boundary is respected, and each monitor can have its own zoom percentage. Your writing screen can be at 300% while your reference screen stays at 150%, and the magnified view no longer spills from one display into the next. This behavior matters because different tasks and screen resolutions often require different levels of magnification to remain comfortable to read.

Setting the zoom on each screen is easy. Choose whichever method feels natural:

• Move your mouse pointer onto the screen you want to adjust, then press Windows key + Plus (+) or Windows key + Minus (-), or hold Ctrl + Alt and rotate your mouse wheel.
• Set the percentages directly in Accessibility > Magnifier.
• Drag the Magnifier toolbar onto a specific screen to adjust that screen from its on-screen controls.
• Per-monitor zoom is turned on by default. If you prefer the classic behavior where a single zoom spans all of your displays, you can turn per-monitor zoom off at any time from either the Magnifier toolbar or Accessibility > Magnifier. You can turn it back on whenever you like.

Keep the view that matters, right where you need it

• As you move your mouse from screen to screen, the magnified view naturally follows your pointer. Sometimes this might cause you to lose sight of the content that you're actively working on.
• Viewport locking keeps that view in place. For example, you might be drafting an email based on a section of a document open on another display. Position that display so the paragraph you need is in view, press Ctrl + Windows key + K, and the screen holds its view steady while you move your cursor over to write. The locked screen stays fully live and interactive, so you can glance back, click, or copy from it whenever you need to, and its view stays put until you release it.
• A message appears on the screen when it's locked, so you always know what's being held. To lock or unlock a screen, point your mouse at that screen and press Ctrl + Windows key + K again. To release everything at once, press Windows key + Esc to dismiss all locks. You can change the lock shortcut to Ctrl + Alt + P in Accessibility > Magnifier.

Settings - Home (Beta)

• We're beginning to expand the new Device Info Card experience for Settings Home to additional markets globally. Available for Windows Insiders signed in with their Microsoft account, the Device Info Card provides a quick snapshot of your PC's key specifications and usage. From the card, you can go directly to Settings > System > About to see more detailed information about your PC.

Settings - Privacy & security (Experimental (26H1))

• The improved Privacy & security page in Windows Settings helps you find the Camera, Microphone, and Location privacy controls more easily. It groups similar controls across the page and brings usage information from deeper linked pages onto this page.

File Explorer (Beta)

• Key file information, such as name, location, and date, now appears in a consistent layout on the File Explorer search results page, making search results easier to scan.

File Explorer (Experimental)

• Improved responsiveness of folder views so they update and sort correctly when files and folders are added or renamed.

Family Safety (Beta, Beta (26H1), Experimental (26H1))

• Improved family safety messaging when applications are blocked because of age-restricted parental controls.

Other (Beta, Experimental)

• Improved shutdown reliability, reducing the chance of a hang on shutdown in certain cases.
• The dialog for certain system messages, like low battery and permissions, should use the expected modern design again.

Other (Beta (26H1), Experimental (26H1))

• Fixed an issue with msmpeg2ac3dec.dll which was leading to some apps and games crashing recently.

Web sign-in (Experimental)

• Web sign-in now works on Microsoft Entra hybrid joined devices. Before this update, it was only available on Microsoft Entra joined devices. You can sign in to Windows at the lock screen with a passwordless credential: a FIDO2 security key, a passkey on your phone, or a Temporary Access Pass (TAP). You don't need a password. Once you're signed in, Windows gets a Kerberos ticket, so on-premises file shares and internal sites keep working. For more information, see Use web sign-in to enable passwordless sign-in in Windows.

Windows Hello (Experimental)

• Windows Hello facial recognition can temporarily brighten your screen to help you sign in when you're in a dark or dimly lit room.
• To turn on this feature, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Facial recognition (Windows Hello) and turn on Automatically adjust screen brightness during face recognition.

Windows Search (Experimental)

• Addressed underlying issues that could cause search to appear missing or stop working after the previous update, including if you rapidly clicked the search icon repeatedly.

Search (Experimental (26H1))

• Search home has been simplified to reduce visual clutter and make it easier to get back to recent searches quickly.
• Search does a better job showing where a result comes from, whether it's an app, setting, file, web result, or Store suggestion, so it's easier to tell what you're looking at and where you'll go before you click.
• A new setting in Settings > Privacy & security > Search lets you choose whether web and Microsoft Store suggestions appear alongside local results.

Run (Experimental)

• Improved the window position when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.
• Improved performance of the Run dialog when navigating to very large folders.
• Fixed an issue where your text might unexpectedly disappear if you started typing too quickly after opening Run.
• Made a few other small visual fixes and refinements.

Pointer Indicator (Experimental (26H1))

• We're introducing the Pointer Indicator accessibility setting. This feature enables Windows users with low vision to easily locate and use their cursor to increase productivity and efficiency when using a Windows device.
• To enable this experience, go to Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch, and enable the Pointer indicator setting. You can also search for the setting by name. When the setting is enabled, you can toggle it on or off with the keyboard shortcut, Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + X.

Live Captions (Experimental (26H1))

• We're improving Live Captions with a new Include Screen Reader audio setting, which is off by default. With the setting off, Live Captions won't transcribe audio from screen readers such as Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, keeping captions focused on microphone and system audio.

Taskbar

• New! This update improves animations of app window previews when you move the mouse across app icons in the taskbar.
• This update improves the underlying state persistence of taskbar settings related to multiple monitors across monitor connections and disconnections.

Since revamping the Windows Insider Program earlier this year, Microsoft has sped up its release schedule for builds. As a result, we often end the week with a batch of five or six new builds to check out.

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It feels like the emulation scene is having a moment. Not long after reports surfaced of a PlayStation 5 emulator running on the Xbox Series X, we now have a Nintendo Switch emulator appearing on the platform as well.

Similar to the PS5 port, this requires you to be in Developer Mode. The emulator appears to be based on Eden, with gameplay footage showing Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Wonder, and Metroid Prime Beyond successfully booting.

I covered the possibility of a Nintendo Switch emulator arriving on Xbox just a few months ago, though that specific project never really materialized. However, given the current landscape of AI-assisted development, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a straightforward UWP port of Eden, brute-forced into existence through vibe coding.

Emulation is always a tricky topic to discuss. Many people get a bit cagey about it, and it’s no surprise, given that the scene is rife with piracy. But emulation itself isn’t illegal. Assuming you can legitimately source your copies of the games, this could actually be a great way to experience titles that would otherwise be exclusive to Nintendo hardware.

As for the state of this specific emulator, not much is known yet. I just happened to stumble across a post on X (formerly Twitter) showcasing it. If I had seen this a year ago, I would have jumped out of my seat in shock. But honestly, it’s par for the course given the current technological landscape, and even Xbox’s own admission of these AI-driven experiments through Xbox Labs.

It is a wild timeline to have both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 capable of emulating a Nintendo Switch. I must admit, that is a shock. But with that said, I’d love to hear how you feel about this.

Would you emulate a Nintendo Switch on your Xbox console, or would you rather stick to the proper hardware? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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As Xbox gears up for its 25th anniversary, we're reflecting on an extraordinary journey that evolved into one of the industry's most influential brands. From the original Xbox and the success of Xbox Live to the impact of Xbox 360, Game Pass, cloud gaming, and an increasingly platform-agnostic future, the road has been anything but predictable.

Here at Windows Central, we're celebrating Xbox with editorials, retrospectives, and more opinion pieces exploring the brand's past, present, and future. Just as importantly, we'll look ahead, analyze Microsoft's strategy, and share our perspective on where Xbox could go from here as gaming continues to change.

It looks like the early-stage Halo 2 and Halo 3 remakes were planned to far exceed the bare-minimum content that Halo: Campaign Evolved offered. It’s no secret that Halo: Campaign Evolved was a polarizing remake, releasing with very little content and bonus missions that I’d describe as on par with Halo 5's level of bad storytelling.

But I’m not here to pour my heart out over that. In a new report from @Mr_Rebs_, he provides us with some insight into how vast in scope a Halo 2 and Halo 3 remake was going to be before Halo Studios was gutted and the mantle of responsibility was handed over to Activision.

Multiplayer, Forge, Firefight, and more: What could have been

According to Rebs, Halo Studios reportedly conducted a survey among select community members regarding what they wanted from a Halo 2 and a Halo 3 remake, with the studio allegedly referring to the trilogy of remakes as “Project Manihi.”

For the Halo 2 survey, Halo Studios reportedly asked the following questions:

• Bringing back dual wielding and how important it was to the experience.
• Including a full multiplayer component retaining Halo 2's classic gameplay.
• Having a complete selection of multiplayer playlists available at launch.
• Adding Firefight.
• Reusing Blur Studio's Halo 2: Anniversary cinematics.
• Potentially introducing entirely new bonus missions.

Rebs claims that participants pushed back against reusing Blur cutscenes because Halo Studios wanted to reuse assets from Campaign Evolved, creating a visual mismatch. Respondents also believed that dual wielding was essential to a Halo 2 remake, and on that, I do agree.

As for multiplayer, participants reportedly wanted the classic gameplay preserved while ensuring it remained appealing to casual and competitive players, with a full selection of playlists available from day one.

For Halo 3, however, Rebs alleges the studio's ambitions were even greater, with Halo Studios looking to take everything it had learned from Campaign Evolved and the proposed Halo 2 remake and apply it to Halo 3.

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The survey reportedly evaluated how important it was to deliver the complete experience, and participants essentially said yes to everything: multiplayer, Forge, Theater, and additional modes like Firefight.

One of Rebs' sources suggested that Halo 3 was intended to become the flagship project of the entire remake initiative, with Halo Studios apparently looking to invest more resources into making it the most complete experience of the three.

It is also reported that Halo Studios were planning to do more bonus missions similar to what we got in Campaign Evolved, and that these next two remakes would also exist alongside the next mainline Halo game.

Since the layoffs at Halo Studios, though, all these plans are pretty much dead in the water, and I can’t say I’m not happy about that. I had zero faith in Halo Studios' ability to even remotely deliver one more remake, let alone two remakes alongside a new mainline entry, but maybe that’s just me.

Let me know how you feel in the comments. Would you have been excited for the prospects of a Halo Studios crack at a Halo 2 and Halo 3 remake, or are you like me and glad we’ll never see them?

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Microsoft recently shared a lengthy roadmap detailing massive changes coming to Windows 11 over the course of November 2026. They include new Photos app features, improvements to the Search app, expanded phone integration, and enhanced performance for gaming.

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Plus, Microsoft is also offering a special surprise for PC players during this time in honor of Xbox's 25th anniversary as part of these updates. Starting in November, customers who buy eligible Windows 11 PCs will be able to claim PC versions of 25 Xbox games with a total value of over $500.

This collection includes classics like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Minecraft Dungeons, and Gears of War: Reloaded, to name a few.

Who is eligible for the free Xbox PC games?

This free collection of games (all digital, no discs) will only be valid with the purchase of select Windows devices sold from participating U.S. retailers from November 2, 2026, to December 31, 2026. Microsoft describes in its small print that offers to 'claim this collection' for your eligible device in the Microsoft Store app will be available until November 30, 2026.

You must activate your PC and claim the digital game bundle for your Microsoft account by December 2, 2027. You'll be able to check aka.ms/XBOXbundle on November 2, 2026, for game compatibility, system requirements, ratings, and full offer terms.

When you claim these titles, their PC versions will be linked to your Microsoft account and will become playable on any compatible Windows PC. Plus, some select titles will also be playable on Xbox Series X|S consoles with Xbox Play Anywhere support.

Note that some devices eligible for this giveaway will not be able to play all the games within this collection.

Christmas is coming early for Xbox fans in November

This free Xbox giveaway list is already stacked with some incredible titles from the few confirmed titles alone. We have Gears of War: Reloaded, the HD remaster of the iconic third-person shooter that still holds up today with its brutal gunplay, gritty story, and addictive multiplayer.

There's also Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the first HD remaster of the first Halo that completely retains the gameplay of the original game while improving its graphics. Plus, unlike Halo: Campaign Evolved, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary comes with PvP multiplayer modes to keep players busy long after beating the campaign.

Then there's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Bethesda Softworks' magnum opus of an open-world RPG that people still play to this day for its immersive world and lore, engaging gameplay, and near-infinite modding compatibility.

We also have the cutesy Minecraft Dungeons, which is a fun, beginner-friendly ARPG that combines the hack-and-slash and looting gameplay of Diablo with the universe of Minecraft. Finally, we have Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, a full-blown remaster of the genre-revolutionizing real-time strategy game that features co-op, competitive multiplayer, mods, and full crossplay.

With such high-profile games, I can't wait to see what the rest of the free Xbox games being given away by Microsoft are as we inch closer to Xbox's 25th anniversary. Needless to say, it's going to be one heck of a birthday party.

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Last week, I demonstrated the new Xbox PC app which ended up being uploaded prematurely to some users' devices (including mine, apparently!) but, some of you were asking how it works on an Xbox Ally. The answer is: pretty damn great.

The Xbox PC app has improved leaps and bounds over the past couple of years as Microsoft turned its attention more seriously to Windows and PC gaming in general. Steam OS has been giving Microsoft a well-deserved kick up the backside both in the usability and performance space for gaming, and the competition has led to improvements for those in the Xbox ecosystem on PC, both via Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox / PC Game Pass.

The Xbox PC app is undergoing a big revamp later this year, and here's a video detailing a very early build you can expect to see (in a far more polished form) in the coming weeks.

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The primary gain here is raw performance. The Xbox Ally paired with the Xbox PC app offers very middling navigational responsiveness, with this weird "rubber banding" quirk where the cursor gets stuck, and you have to wait for it to become unstuck for a couple of seconds. If you get frustrated and spam buttons, as I often do, the inputs will queue up and then all play out instantly, leading to the highlighted object flipping all over the place.

In the new Xbox PC app, the rubber banding is completely gone I'm happy to report, even on this early build. Navigating through even massive lists of games is smooth and pleasant, and the loading speed is vastly improved across every panel. Whether it's your own library, the Xbox Game Pass library, the store page, individual game pages, and beyond. Navigation also now feels a lot more "d-pad" native. On the existing app, sometimes the cursor moves in a diagonal direction unexpectedly, adding to the sense that it isn't truly native for console-style use.

RELATED: Hands-on unboxing with the new Xbox Ally X20

The new Xbox PC app doesn't offer much by way of new features yet, but I am told that there are plans to add new stuff before it all goes live. Indeed, this is an early, unfinished build as mentioned, and some of the things I saw people dislike from the video I put out last week have already been addressed on internal builds I'm told.

It's unclear exactly when this will ship. I'm expecting it to go out to Xbox Insiders on PC at least towards the end of the year, by which time it should be a lot more polished and refined over what I've been messing around with now. It's unclear if the Xbox Game Bar guide will get similar treatment, but I would hope so, since now it has a very different visual style to the Xbox PC app itself.

Xbox is getting serious about PC gaming

I would like to see more customization, with custom backgrounds to give us a greater sense of "ownership" in our increasingly-digital investment in the hobby. I'd like to see more data surface more quickly when navigating the store too. I shouldn't have to enter a store page to see screenshots of a game or try to figure out what it is from its thumbnail in my view. Also, I think Xbox could still improve the search tool a bit, although some of this is on the developer's side with regards to tagging their games properly and so on.

For sure, some of Xbox's issues on PC move beyond the app itself, and emerge on the developer ecosystem side. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon for example shipped with two builds simultaneously when it hit Xbox Play Anywhere a couple of weeks ago, allowing users to download the Xbox console version to their PC (which naturally wouldn't run). It's small issues like this which simply shouldn't be possible, and wouldn't be possible on Steam. Xbox needs to look towards fixing a litany of small things with its PC gaming ecosystem overall, and address things like native modding ecosystem support, systems for developer interactions with the community, social features potentially, and beyond. Perhaps the new Xbox Labs team will have some interesting things for Xbox PC up its sleeve in the future too.

In any case, it's great to see Microsoft double down on all of its endpoints. Xbox console has had a ton of new features lately, with Mythic Achievements, 1440p remote play streaming, and voice clipping in the Game DVR. Xbox Cloud Gaming is also getting a new interface that looks very close to the new PC app, and we should be seeing a new Xbox Elite Series 3 controller emerge soon.

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This is all becoming very commonplace now, and I am even starting to not be surprised when something like this comes across my feeds. This time, it's Halo: Combat Evolved running on a Nintendo 64, of all things.

The project, known as Halo-64, is playable, but it does require the Nintendo 64 8MB Expansion Pack. You also need a copy of the original Xbox version of Halo: CE to get it working. The setup process seems a bit complicated if you are uncomfortable with the Command Prompt, but the project itself is really cool and appears to be working pretty well.

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We are in the midst of pretty unprecedented times, what with all the AI modding happening and Xbox itself essentially jumping on the bandwagon with Xbox Labs. However, there’s currently no indication that this project uses AI, and I thought that was important to mention before I dive into what you can expect from Halo-64.

Halo on the Nintendo 64 shouldn't be possible, yet here we are

The game supports all 13 multiplayer maps with up to four-player split-screen, including game modes we’ve all come to know and love, like Team Slayer and Capture the Flag. It also supports bots in-game, with up to 8 AI players at four different skill levels. In a nice touch, those bots take random names from a "list of about 300 Mario, Zelda, GoldenEye, and Rare N64 characters."

Most impressively, the game features a Firefight mode. For those who don’t know, Firefight is Halo’s PvE mode featuring wave-based enemies, and it’s something that Halo: Campaign Evolved, the latest remake, doesn’t even have. The port also includes Rumble Pak support, so you can feel the shots and such on your controller.

Unfortunately, there’s no campaign, and I’d be surprised if we ever did get something like that. It’s crazy enough that we get multiplayer and Firefight, but Halo: CE’s campaign on a Nintendo 64? Now I do think that would be impossible.

I do love little projects like this, and I’ve been doing my best lately to highlight community-driven Halo creations, whether it’s Halo 5 on PC, Halo 3’s resurgence thanks to a new launcher, or Campaign Evolved getting multiplayer. It’s clear now more than ever that Halo’s community is what is driving the game forward, at least until we see what Activision cooks up with the franchise.

Do let me know your thoughts on Halo-64 in the comments, and don’t forget to take part in the poll above!

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Gears of War: E-Day is off to a fantastic start. The game has hit the top of the charts across the globe, becoming the second biggest Xbox launch this year, and that’s without even mentioning how well it has been reviewed across the board, including here on Windows Central.

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I’m not here to hype up how great the game is; fans who’ve played it already know that much. Instead, I’m here to explain the latest updates. The Coalition, the game’s developer, took to X to reveal that the game is finally getting Ranked Versus. The team says:

“It's time to lock-in, Gears. Ranked Versus is available now in E-Day... Gather your squad, choose from four playlists - Demolition, Crucible, Conquest, and Team Deathmatch, and grind your Rank for exclusive rewards.”

The Coalition rolls out dozens of E-Day fixes

The introduction of Ranked Versus came with a caveat, however. The Coalition quickly noticed an issue with placement matches that resulted in some players being placed in the wrong skill division. That issue has now been addressed, so placement matches should accurately determine your rank moving forward.

That’s not all, either. Alongside the new mode, the team has deployed a second patch for the game that addresses a range of bugs impacting the entire experience. I’ll do my best to highlight the ones I think are most important.

On PC, Xbox, and handhelds, the patch includes numerous improvements to stability and optimization across devices. It also makes multiple memory improvements to address crashing and performance degradation during long play sessions.

It also addresses multiple account linking and login issues, fixes problems with the Social Menu and friends list, and makes further improvements to server anti-cheat protection. Plus, it fixes an issue causing certain colorblind settings to not display as described, and in both Campaign and Horde Siege, it corrects multiple issues causing certain Weapon Mods to not perform as intended.

What about the story mode?

For Campaign players specifically, the patch fixes multiple issues causing parts of the War Journal and Achievement progress not to track, which is something that actually happened to me in my playthrough. It is worth mentioning, however, that missing collectibles are unable to be automatically re-granted.

Players will be able to see which collectibles are missing in order to re-collect them. Similarly, missing in-game rewards, such as skins and titles earned through Campaign completion, cannot be automatically re-granted. To work around this, players can start a new campaign from a completed mission and replay that mission to re-earn the missing rewards.

You can, of course, read the full patch notes linked here. For now, though, that’s the update. It’s great to see The Coalition hot on the heels of the launch with these updates, addressing important issues. When I played the campaign, I did come across a few bugs here and there, but nothing game-breaking.

Let me know your thoughts on E-Day’s patch notes and the introduction of Ranked Versus in the comments.

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I’m sure we’ve all seen the socials by now. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is proudly claiming that Linux support for Fortnite was “vibe coded,” and the official @EpicGames account on X (Formerly Twitter) is doing the same for the new Epic Games Launcher. They’re boasting about faster speeds than Steam, citing improvements of up to 46%.

I will admit that it is impressive on paper. Steam takes roughly 10 seconds to boot, while Epic’s new launcher clocks in at around five seconds. At least, that’s what Epic says, and that was likely true 48 hours ago. But on the same day Epic decided to vibe code their way to success, Valve had already decided to update Steam.

Somehow, Valve managed to cut that 10-second startup time down to around five seconds as well. Which does put a bit of a damper on Epic’s bold claims.

Is the new Epic Games Launcher actually better?

As for Epic’s launcher itself, it does look rather buggy, though it is still a work in progress. I don’t have the technical know-how to know or understand what they’re cooking under the hood, and I imagine neither do the people making it, since the code is written by AI.

I'm joking, of course, but as silly as people make vibe coding seem, I do wish Epic the best in making a better launcher. At the end of the day, all we can hope is that it will push Steam to be better too, because competition is good for the industry.

I would love to see a battle of the launchers, including Xbox, which is in the middle of releasing a new and improved launcher. My colleague Jez Corden recently broke news about it, and I must admit that launcher is looking better than what we have had to put up with from the current Xbox PC app, which by all accounts is awful.

Do let me know your thoughts on the battle of the launchers. Do you appreciate Epic’s vibe-coded efforts, or will you be sticking to another launcher? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Big Walk is one of the biggest indie game releases of this year, selling over 1 million copies in just six days following its release on August 4, 2026. It's a light-hearted, co-operative adventure game that requires friends to work together to explore its world and solve puzzles.

The game is currently available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2, which has led many fans to wonder why the Xbox release hasn't arrived yet. Well, now we have our answer. Developers House House have broken their silence, citing a line that the studio refuses to cross.

House House is boycotting Microsoft and Xbox

In a new blog post, the studio behind Big Walk and Untitled Goose Game has explained its decision not to bring the game to Xbox:

“We have made the decision not to release Big Walk on Xbox, in accordance with the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement’s call to boycott Microsoft, and their designation of Microsoft Games (and Xbox) as a priority boycott target. If you need help understanding our motives, we would recommend reading about why Microsoft is a BDS priority target, the successes this kind of pressure has already had on Microsoft, and especially, watching this great introductory piece by People Make Games.”

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement that calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and companies it considers complicit in violations of Palestinian rights. Since the announcement, I've seen plenty of discussion online about the decision. Ultimately, it's up to the developer to decide which platforms it wants to release its games on.

How is Microsoft connected to this?

According to BDS, Microsoft is considered a priority boycott target because of its provision of Azure cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, which the movement alleges have contributed to Israel's military operations. House House goes into some more detail in its statement, acknowledging that the decision will prevent some Xbox players from enjoying Big Walk with their friends:

“It has always been our intention for Big Walk to be played by groups of friends, and we know that keeping the game off Xbox runs counter to those intentions. This decision means that some people will miss out on playing Big Walk with their friends, and we understand the disappointment we’re causing. We are disappointed too. We would love for people to be able to play the game on Xbox, but not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets.”

For now, Xbox players hoping to jump into Big Walk with their friends will have to look elsewhere for an alternative, as House House has made its position clear. Whether that changes in the future is unknown, but the studio hasn't ruled out bringing the game to Xbox forever. However, unless Microsoft or Xbox is removed from the BDS movement's boycott targets, it seems an Xbox release of Big Walk is off limits.

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Microsoft announced (via on Xbox Wire) a brand new Xbox controller called the Xbox Nano Controller, and it will be released in November 2026 for Xbox consoles, Windows PC, iOS and Android mobile devices, and select Smart TVs.

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The Xbox Nano Controller is an extremely small gamepad (5 inches long and 3.5 ounces in weight) that can fit into your pocket for easier portability while still packing the form factor and standard 18-button layout of regular Xbox controllers.

Additionally, its smaller size makes the Xbox Nano Controller easier for players with smaller hands to use who struggle to use larger controllers.

The Xbox Nano Controller also includes a rechargeable battery, an extra reprogrammable Action Button, and Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth support.

Plus, it's designed for Xbox Cloud Gaming and casual use. It mimics a TV remote in form factor and weight, so it can sit on the sofa or coffee table without taking up space.

You can pre-order the Xbox Nano Controller right now on the Xbox website for $49.99.

It will be made available in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad & Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with additional markets to follow.

For a limited time, Xbox is partnering with Samsung to offer a special Xbox Nano Controller with two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership (for new users) in the US for anyone who purchases select Samsung TVs during the holiday season.

Additionally, Xbox is partnering with Meta to offer an Xbox Nano Controller with two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership (for new users) in the US for anyone purchasing a Meta Quest.

The Xbox Nano Controller has a cool nostalgic design, but some of its spec choices and price leave it to be desired

Upon first impressions of this controller, I got a wave of nostalgia, as its design reminds me a lot of the Super Nintendo controller I used as a kid. However, my interest in the Xbox Nano controller suddenly dropped upon looking at its MSRP and specs.

$49.99 is a lot of money for a controller these days. For that price, it better have some advanced tech like Hall Effect or TMR thumbsticks to justify such a cost.

Sadly, the Xbox Nano Controller does not have any such tech. On top of that, the Xbox Nano Controller has no direct WiFi connection for Xbox Cloud Gaming and instead relies on Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth connections, which are more laggy and unresponsive by comparison.

So on paper, the Xbox Nano Controller doesn't sound like a good controller at that price point. However, that won't stop us from reviewing the gamepad in the future to see if its performance, design, and ergonomics can make up for the Xbox Nano Controller's omissions of advanced tech and its steep price.

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It's no secret that Microsoft's gaming division has struggled to keep pace with PlayStation and Nintendo for active console users, and this Xbox survey suggests the firm might be considering the nuclear option to fix things.

Yesterday, a new survey appeared for a subset of Xbox users on the Insider Program, presumably among those who Microsoft tracks as having multiple devices. A user sent us the below survey screens, which Windows Central has verified as real.

Microsoft's problematic Xbox multiplatform strategy has left many users who own multiple devices with fewer reasons to actually turn their consoles on. In that universe, it reduces Microsoft's chances to earn users in it's own ecosystem considerably, impacting both first party revenue and third party port viability. Microsoft sells mountains of games on PlayStation, but it has to pay a 30% cut for the privilege. Many PlayStation users already own an Xbox too, so Microsoft is potentially handing away potential users for no real reason.

These new surveys suggest Microsoft may be considering some drastic moves to change the situation.

The survey asks a variety of questions of users across multiple ecosystems, asking how likely they would be to invest in the Xbox platform if various games went timed, or even fully console exclusive.

Microsoft asks if users would switch to Xbox on a per game basis, including pitches of exclusivity for games like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Hideo Kojima's PHYSINT, Diablo, and even Minecraft itself. The survey even stresses that existing titles wouldn't be removed from other platforms, but would no longer receive new content.

There's even a nuclear option question, asking users how they'd change their habits if every single Xbox game (except Call of Duty, likely owing to acquisition requirements) went fully console exclusive.

It asks users to consider the hypothetical scenario, offering multiple choice responses below it.

"Imagine it was announced that all future title releases from every XBOX-developed gaming franchise except Call of Duty will be console-exclusive to XBOX," the final survey question reads. "For Minecraft only, existing titles would no longer be available for purchase on PlayStation or Nintendo consoles, and would not receive any new content updates. However, there is no impact to any of the existing titles or content you already own. Nothing changes on PC in this announcement."

It asks users if they would move to an existing Xbox console they already own, buy a new one, switch to PC, or skip it entirely in this scenario.

Going multiplatform didn't work, would going maximum exclusivity work instead?

In the near term, even if Microsoft did create massive desire for its platform and was somehow able to make even GTA6 magically exclusive, the RAMpocalypse has driven hardware sales to historic lows. Even if there was Xbox stock available globally, they've become prohibitively expensive for many. But, that situation (hopefully) won't last forever.

If games like Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls 6, and Diablo 5 were Xbox Helix exclusive, it would undoubtedly drive masses of sales for Xbox hardware. But would the stock even be available? Microsoft has historically struggled with global distribution even before the component crisis. As much as I think Xbox desperately needs exclusive content, the risks are undeniable on paper.

But sacrificing the entire platform is just as risky potentially. PlayStation itself just massively clawed back from Steam and Windows PC gaming too.

There's little point in maintaining Xbox as an entity if it was to become a simple publisher. Microsoft is more of a hardware company than it has ever been arguably, powered by data centers and increasingly home grown silicon, like its new Maia chips which has driven the stock to new highs recently. Microsoft has already sacrificed mobile as a platform endpoint, greatly limiting its ability to distribute and train its AI platforms. I can't imagine they'll seek to make the same mistake with Xbox.

Surveys are just surveys, and it all might amount to nothing. It could also be a hint around Xbox's thought processes. Perhaps there's math that exists that proves that the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. Halo Campaign Evolved on PlayStation likely did irreparable brand damage to Xbox as a hardware entity, even though the game itself wasn't spectacularly well-received.

The future of Xbox could end up being more interesting than expected.

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Three years ago, we were graced with the release of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a first-person shooter inspired by classics like DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, set in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000.

It was a simple yet immensely cathartic boomer-shooter with fast-paced gunplay, satisfying weapons, and charming yet grim retro-style graphics that I gave 4/5 stars.

Fast-forward to today, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun's sequel is here with more heretics to slay and a new, second playable character with more weapons to purge them with.

Is it as fun as, or more fun than, the first game? Let's find out as we ready our Bolter rifles and review Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 launches on October 14, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Windows and Steam. This review was made possible thanks to an Xbox Series X code provided by Devolver Digital. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review before publication.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Story, setting, art

The story goes that the forces of Chaos, led by the towering Greater Daemon, Vashtorr, are wreaking havoc across worlds controlled by the Imperium of Man.

In response, the righteous Space Marine, Malum Caedo, has returned from the first Boltgun game to purge the heretical daemons out of existence. Except this time, Malum Caedo is joined by the equally zealous Sister of Battle, Nyra Veyrath, who hopes to torch the daemons to cinders in the name of the God Emperor.

Just like the first Boltgun game, the story serves as a simple excuse to go blasting Chaos cultists, Chaos Space Marines, and daemons into red mist. That's cool by me, as I was in the mood for an action game without being bogged down by endless cutscenes.

However, if you're looking for an FPS with a complex narrative and character development, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 continues to embody the series ' retro throwback art style of being a long-lost 1990s PlayStation 1 game (with 2D sprites set against 3D backgrounds and models), and it's beautifully well done.

The jagged, grotesque, and gothic scenery of Warhammer 40,000's war-torn fortresses, temples devoted to the Chaos gods, and environments slowly being corrupted into daemonic blemishes are a sight to behold at times in this game.

The 2D sprites (and sometimes 3D models) of enemies are crisp, detailed, and faithful to their Warhammer 40,000 tabletop counterparts, which makes them all the more satisfying to chop up as they explode in showers of gratifying pixelated blood and guts when you kill them.

On top of that, the performance is rock solid. The game ran at a consistent 60fps at 1080p resolution with absolutely no framerate drops, even when all kinds of chaotic explosions, gunfire, and combusting bodies were happening on-screen.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Gameplay

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2's gameplay structure has you running across multiple planets via chapter-based missions where you must reach the end of massive levels while eradicating any heretic and daemon standing in your way.

Along the way, you will come across a wide variety of weapons, hidden collectibles, and secret power-ups to give you an edge when taking on some of the game's tougher enemies.

The first thing I like about Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is that its level design is more varied than its predecessor.

Some of this game's levels will have you clearing out space ships and Imperium facilities of daemons; exploring dank swamplands mutated by the Chaos god Nurgle; storming daemonic fortresses dedicated to the Chaos God Khorne; and escaping collapsing, burning buildings before being melted by rising magma, just to name a few.

It helped keep the gameplay fresh, so it didn't feel like I was constantly running and gunning through linear hallways. Plus, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 has alternating chapters you can only select once per playthrough, which sometimes unlocks secret optional chapters where you can find more hidden collectibles, increasing its replay value.

On a side note, Boltgun 2 manages to fix my biggest problems with the first Boltgun game (at last on the Xbox version): remappable controls. You can now keybind all your actions to any button you want to fit your playstyle instead of its default layout, making its controls feel more natural and enjoyable.

Anyway, it's time to talk about the meat and bones of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2: its combat. Combat is just as chaotic, gory, and satisfying as its predecessor while offering more variety with two playable characters with their own unique weapon loadouts and gameplay styles.

Malum Caedo is a slow-but-durable walking tank who can endure tons of gunfire while retaliating twice as hard with Bolters, Shotguns, and heavy ordnance. Malum can smash enemies to paste with a shoulder-tackle charge, lunge at enemies with homing Chainsword attacks, and throw grenades that will blow weaker enemies in an instant.

Meanwhile, Nyra Veyrath is a squishy but extremely mobile warrior who cuts down enemies with a sword while annihilating them with Bolters, Flamers, and Meltas. Nyra can also perform slide moves to dodge certain attacks while piercing enemies with her sword, and chuck slow-detonating but devastating Melta Bombs that even the heaviest armored daemon won't be able to survive,

While they're both fun to use, I ended up enjoying Nyra the most. Her fast, hit-and-run playstyle is so fitting for the boomer-shooter sub-genre; her chargeable melee attack is useful for knocking back aggressive melee fighters, and I love seeing heretics screaming in agony as I burn them to pixelated ashes with Nyra's flamethrowers and Meltas (which shoot scorching laser beams the size of cars).

Nyra's abilities and weapons proved very helpful for the enemies ahead because Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 has a greater rogues' gallery of enemies to fight this time. You will be fighting heretical cultists, iconic Chaos Space Marines devoted to every Chaos God (Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh), daemon hordes, massive Greater Daemons, and other hidden surprises.

They're all fun to fight, and especially challenging on harder difficulty modes where you must keep on running to survive getting shredded in a few hits. However, I did notice some enemies and bosses had some really dumb AI where they would get stuck in the terrain, leaving them helpless for me to gun them in an unsatisfying manner.

It didn't happen too often, but often enough for it to be noticeable, and it's probably the only major gripe I have with this game. The only other issue I have is the lack of Xbox Play Anywhere support, as this game would've been a killer app to play on the go with an Xbox Ally.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Conclusion

Once again, the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun series provides sweet catharsis to players yearning for arcade shooters light on story and heavy on pure video game violence. Compared to the first game, Boltgun 2's gameplay was more fun and varied thanks to its multiple playable characters and weapons, improved level design, and a wider bestiary of enemies and bosses.

Not to mention, it has plenty of easter eggs and cheeky references to the vast lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe for hardcore fans like me to geek out over.

An average playthrough on Normal difficulty will take you around 6-10 hours depending on if you're looking for collectibles, and possibly more if you try to beat it on harder difficulty modes.

So, if you have some spare time to kill over the weekend as we await the next DOOM game, then I recommend giving Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 a go for all your boomer-shooter FPS lovers out there.

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It's time to finally wrap up this Gears of War: E-Day review, having now been able to grab a significant chunk of time in the multiplayer Siege mode.

For the review build, Gears of War: E-Day's new PvE multiplayer Siege mode was disabled. It felt odd to me to score a game I hadn't fully experienced as I and many others likely intended to play it. As such, this had previously been a review in progress. But now I'm ready to put a final say on proceedings.

Gears of War: E-Day is something of an important game for Xbox. It carries the flag for Microsoft's return to exclusive Xbox Series X|S games, and likely has some oversized pressure upon it to deliver. We're not here to review that aspect of the product, though — only what is here sitting in front of me.

Even upon reflection, my feelings on the campaign are a bit mixed. Thankfully, Gears of War: E-Day is a multi-faceted game, and Siege mode is an undeniably fun and genuinely well-considered evolution on the Horde-style gameplay, vastly elevating the overall package.

Gears of War: E-Day has some of the most stunning visuals I've ever seen committed to the medium, with absolutely immaculate lighting treatment, immense and meticulous city detailing, and gorgeous character work. The gunplay is also fantastic, smoothing off some of the series' rough edges with boosted mobility, without sacrificing the Gears feel.

But the overall campaign gameplay structure does the overall game a pretty sizeable disservice in my view, preventing it from reaching its full potential. Thankfully, Siege provides a satisfying canvas for future play, and the problems are by no means unfixable. Let's get into it.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Story, Art, and Tech

Gears of War: E-Day takes place over a decade before Gears of War 1, offering us a front-row seat to the brutal and genocidal opening to the Locust's attack on humanity.

The city of Kalona serves as ground zero for that invasion. Kalona is known as a city of science and technological progress, and was instrumental in developing the COG's weapons tech and industrial war economy during the civil war against the UIR. E-Day takes place six weeks after the UIR surrenders, and Dominic Santiago and Marcus Fenix are picking up the pieces and mourning lost friends and family.

The character work on offer in E-Day is absolutely top-shelf. The trauma of loss and the shock of the Locust invasion comes through incredibly well in every single aspect of the game's delivery. The cityscape is immaculately detailed, with interiors fully rendered with a lived-in feel, complemented by some of the best lighting I've ever seen in a video game.

I wish Gears of War: E-Day ran better on my Xbox Ally X, but it's hard to expect such a visually rich game to perform well on every potentially niche device. On its main platforms, namely Xbox Series X|S and compatible desktop PCs, Gears: E-Day absolutely sings. Make no mistake, Gears of War: E-Day is at the absolute apex of Unreal Engine technological prowess, and the game deserves awards on that basis alone, most likely.

Rendering the city in so much detail really helps serve the story. Gears of War's more recent games take place in a ruined world, where the Locust have effectively already won and decimated humanity and most of its cities. For E-Day, The Coalition had to show a city that was still thriving and populated, and the horrors therein.

From the very first cutscene, The Coalition pulls no punches: this is a horror story, a war story, and a tale of survival and desperation. The COG army is decimated and blindsided, besieged by an unknown threat that they immediately underestimate as monsters without a plan, only to discover later just how smart and organized the Locust actually are.

Civilian NPCs litter the city, sometimes fleeing, sometimes in dismembered puddles on the ground. The reactions from the characters and their development throughout the game really help to elevate that sense of loss and fear — they're not the battle-hardened survivors of the original Gears trilogy. They're young, war-weary from fighting the UIR, and in some cases wholly traumatized already.

I don't want to give too much away about the story, but this very much felt like the first game in a new planned trilogy ... there were aspects of the delivery that suffered as a result. Some plot threads felt designed to be resolved in future games (or DLC?), leaving me wanting somewhat. But the fact that I am eager to learn more about this Emergence Day story arc is probably a plus. It would be far worse if I didn't care, and I find myself caring a lot about the new characters, their struggles, their past lives, and what will ultimately end up happening to them ... given that some clearly aren't present in future installments.

Gears of War: E-Day's setting, visuals, and story delivery represent its best aspects. The game's performance on Xbox Series X is top-tier, with slowdown only occurring during some particularly heavy sequences towards the end. I didn't experience a single crash, and it's great to see a modern game offer split-screen co-op in the modern age as an option.

The new characters are interesting and engaging, and finding out new layers of existing characters is also rewarding as a long-time fan. I think Gears of War: E-Day could've benefitted from leaning more into civilian-oriented side stories potentially ... but as I'm going to explain in the gameplay section, Gears of War: E-Day's campaign is let down a fair bit by its gameplay structure all up.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Campaign Gameplay

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first: this is still very much Gears of War. Everything you've loved previously about Gears is still here, and in most cases, elevated to the 11th degree.

E-Day boosts the player character's mobility by a huge amount. Sprint is now more instantaneous and on the left stick like a standard modern shooter. Cover is far more dynamic than it was previously, with the ability to take cover in lower spaces than before, making environments feel more varied and natural. You can now also climb and vault, allowing The Coalition to build on the game's verticality. Given that Kalona is a city-state with large buildings and urban environments, having these features serves the game incredibly well.

The gunplay is also very polished. Chainsaw-ing dudes in half is more rewarding than ever, with almost embarrassingly satisfying sound treatment and chunky gore physics. Watching a severed torso flip onto the floor never gets old.

There's a variety of new weapons which are also instant classics. The Locust have been scavenging the battlefields of the Pendulum wars, adapting old UIR guns with horrifyingly inhumane enhancements. As such, that satisfying M1 Garand "ping" returns from the UIR Markza, repurposed into the axe-hilted Locust Breechshot rifle, for example.

The gunplay lets itself down a bit when it comes to fighting some of the game's bigger enemies, though. Drones, wretches, and some of the earlier enemies are by far the most satisfying to fight, reacting to your bullets and even having destructible armor that makes combat feel more dynamic and modern. I'm not sure why The Coalition didn't extend this gameplay style to some of its bigger enemies, which is where I would argue it'd be far more crucial.

Indeed, in Act 1, Gears of War: E-Day starts so strongly, and I was sitting there wondering if this was going to end up being the best game Xbox ever shipped, but over time, that feeling began to unravel.

Reavers, Brumaks, and other larger enemies barely react at all to gunfire, making them feel like robots or bullet sponges — something Gears 4 was heavily criticized for. You end up just watching the enemy's health bar in some cases for at least some semblance of reactivity, instead of the visuals The Coalition's art team painstakingly worked towards. Towards the end of the game, these types of enemies become more common too, robbing the game of some of its dynamism.

Another irritating aspect of Gears of War: E-Day pertains to its open-but-not-actually-open world design, which to me smacks of rushed or changing game design priorities throughout development.

Kalona is a fully realized 3D city, with a huge variety of urban exterior and interior locations. It's a great canvas that The Coalition can build upon when designing future content, potentially both for Siege and Versus mode. The problem is, it doesn't lend itself particularly well to the campaign mode.

Gears of War: E-Day starts incredibly strongly, with a linear cinematic segment that really sets the tone for the game. Then, it opens up into this odd semi-open world structure that seemed interesting in previews, but in practice, it doesn't really reach further than the glimpses we got over the summer.

There's a map that offers the illusion of large explorable spaces, but in practice, all the segments are very linear. Even the side objectives take place in a structured way, undermining the need or desire to really explore. It felt like The Coalition tried to shoehorn in more reasons to explore by spreading weapon mods and collectibles around, but I just found this aspect of the game to be irritating and pace-breaking.

There's dozens upon dozens of weapon mods to find in the field, but half the time it'll be for weapons you don't really want to use. The game pings you with an annoying pop-up every few seconds saying "hardcase nearby," which just served as a distraction given that the reward was mostly just junk items. Even the collectibles were annoying to find, given that you had to jump through several menus then go manually searching for the item you just found from a huge list. There were more mods to find than there was gameplay canvas upon which to place them ... E-Day really would've benefitted from some kind of vendor system instead here, allowing you to buy mods at your leisure, rather than feeling forced into boring hide-and-seek gameplay every 3 minutes.

These might seem like minor gripes, but given that there's not much else "new" here on offer across the general Gears formula, they stand out a bit like a sore thumb.

It doesn't help that, as a result of the game's structure, you end up revisiting the same locations multiple times as part of the story, which felt anticlimactic and choring, particularly towards the end of the game.

The campaign does have some incredibly epic, cinematic, and deeply emotional moments — don't get me wrong. There are some fantastic sequences spread throughout the game, showcasing Emergence in all of its reptilian, subterranean horror. I just wish they'd doubled up on these moments instead of trying this odd "open" world experiment, which seems ill-conceived and poorly executed, with features that detract rather than elevate the overall experience.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Siege Mode

Let me preface this by saying I've never been a big fan of Gears' brand of PvP combat, and you might want to look elsewhere for a take on that. Instead, my preference for Gears multiplayer has always fallen to its Horde mode, which has taken on a whole new life in E-Day.

Siege Mode takes twelve players split into teams of four, and drops them into a portion of Kalona's devastated township. Here, you take on the role of one of the Gears during E-Day in progress, tackling side objectives, battling waves of enemies, setting up killzones, and grinding upgrades. This is where some aspects of the campaign's "open world" gameplay really shines through in ways that it didn't when there was a cinematic story to tell on top of it all.

The new mobility gives Siege maps a great deal of verticality and strategical elements. Four character classes offer some soft class roles, with snipers lending cover while medics revive fallen players. As you progress, you can hybridize a bit, equipping your medic with a sniper rifle for example from the outset, while still maintaining access to your "ultimate" ability kit items that can change the tide of battle for your squad.

It's impressive how well Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer maps work in practice, they're incredibly large and have a lot going on simultaneously across the play space, giving it a sense of frantic urgency. As you're completing your missions, you may cross paths with another squad as is often the case in the campaign, leading to epic and emergent gameplay moments.

Invasion events spawn huge bosses like Brumaks and Corpsers, charging all 12 players to come together to bring them down. My complaint about them feeling a bit "spongey" persists here, but it's far more exciting tackling these towering behemoths in a big multiplayer setting, all while getting swarmed by lesser enemies like wretches and drones.

There's some mild and quite forgiving extraction gameplay here too. Side objectives and invasion events reward you with parts to upgrade your weapons and classes. If your squad fails to complete your mission for whatever reason, you will lose those weapon parts. Siege does give you a lot of leeway to avoid failure, though, even on the higher difficulties, detracting from the sense of urgency a bit.

I think The Coalition could've done a bit more to enhance the "emergent" gameplay moments and social interaction aspects. There are no emotes for example, which feels odd. Siege clearly takes some inspiration from Helldivers 2, but omits some of its more interactive and engaging innovations, which is a shame. But hey, it's all potential things to include in future seasons and updates, maybe?

We're not reviewing the future though, we're reviewing the now. And the now of Siege mode is already fantastic. Getting a capable squad together and putting yourself through the meat grinder is a ton of fun. Setting up batteries of mortar sentries and watching them rain down shells like an explosive hailstorm is endlessly satisfying. The potential here is clear and exciting.

What The Coalition has built here is as technically impressive as it is infectious. If the update cadence is solid, I can see me sticking with Gears of War: E-Day's Siege Mode remaining in my multiplayer rotation for some time.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed Gears of War: E-Day overall, and am already enjoying my second playthrough on a higher difficulty, but I would be lying if I said the game didn't have large campaign issues — particularly given how easily avoided many of them could've been.

Kalona is an immaculate canvas ripe for telling epic stories. The new, horror-laden tone is absolutely the right direction for Gears of War: E-Day. The existential dread oozes throughout every character delivery, and the city design is among the best the medium has ever seen.

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The gameplay structure placed on top of the campaign becomes the problem. It could've used a lot more iteration and forethought. It felt a bit like E-Day was originally intended to be some form of open-world, but at some point, they retreated, leaving it feeling disjointed. The "open world" aspects work far better in Gears of War: E-Day's siege mode, where side objectives, upgrades, and mission rewards actually feed a far more satisfying upgrade loop. In the campaign, they feel a bit more like irritants and roadbumps.

If I were to score the game based on the campaign alone, I'd probably give it an 8/10 overall — it's still incredibly fun, and the downsides are frustrating but not game-breaking. Siege mode elevates the overall package to a 9/10 for me. What doesn't work as well in the Campaign works incredibly well in Siege, and the potential for its future is quite clear.

The Coalition could probably do a little more to think outside of the box to stave off franchise fatigue and defy expectations, but the consistency of this franchise feels like coming home every time — which certainly has its own merits in today's times.

Long may Gears live.

Gears of War: E-Day launched October 6, 2026, exclusively on Xbox Series X|S on console with Xbox Play Anywhere for PC, it's also on Steam and Xbox Game Pass.

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Microsoft has been responsible for some pretty compelling innovations in the gaming space over the years, from everything including DirectX in decades past to more recent stuff like Xbox's disc-to-digital program or Xbox backwards compatibility on console and now Windows PC. Microsoft is now formalizing a team dedicated to exploring these unique and potentially transformative features.

Dubbed "Xbox Labs," Microsoft is formalizing the team that will research and work on new technologies across its gaming stack. The team there will work on new compatibility layers, such as bringing Xbox games to Apple silicon and WebGL, while also exploring the rise of reverse-engineered AI mods and games such as the recent 128-player Halo title that went viral a few weeks ago.

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Microsoft, like many in the gaming industry, are wondering about how to reach more users. Xbox announced "XP" recently, designed to bring more of its franchises into the real world via marketing collabs, merchandising, and even theme parks. Microsoft has also been putting its biggest franchises onto PlayStation as it seeks more users therein, and also pushing Xbox Cloud Gaming as an option for those who don't want the upfront cost of buying a console.

Microsoft has struggled to maintain pace with the growth of the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch platform, or Steam on PC, but made a sprint of acquisitions in a bet to at least sell games on those platforms. Titles like Call of Duty, Minecraft, and Forza Horizon are dominant off Xbox, but the decline of Xbox as a platform has been painful for fans to watch.

Incoming Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is charged with reviving Xbox's fortunes in this space. There's been a lot of promises to fans, including returning to exclusive games (starting with Gears of War: E-Day), and doubling down on new updates for Xbox Series X|S consoles, which recently included the addition of Mythic completion achievements. However, it has come at the cost of thousands of Xbox job losses via redundancies and divestitures, leaving a vast trail of disrupted lives in its wake.

Sharma noted in a town hall meeting with Xbox staff last week that it can't rely on past wins as it seeks to shape the future. AI and other technologies are rapidly disrupting what gaming will actually be in the next decade, as attention and access gets disrupted by AI-borne RAMpocalypse. The content cadence is likely to vastly saturate the addressable audience too, leading to a dilution in attention and spend.

In my view, it's pretty clear Sharma is right that technological platform innovation is absolutely necessary to navigate this "new world" being foisted upon us (by, well ... Microsoft itself), but it remains unclear when Xbox Labs' first innovations will materialize for users or developers. For those interested, a bit more "wait and see" is likely on the menu.

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I grew up a SEGA and Sony kid, at least until XBOX started tempting me with exclusives. I didn't make any of my own money until the XBOX 360 era, but when I did, one studio had the killer apps in my eyes: Remedy Entertainment.

During the OG XBOX era, I split my gaming between a PlayStation 2 and the family PC, which was chiefly used to play Max Payne.

Its slow-motion, John Woo-esque gunfighting gameplay landed at the perfect time; I was already obsessed with The Matrix, after all.

Obsessively playing Remedy's noir shooter while dipping my toes into the PC modding scene convinced me that Remedy were icons.

Indeed, I held them in the same regard as Rockstar Games and Valve, as gaming stalwarts that could seemingly do no wrong, especially after Max Payne 2 delivered everything I had hoped. For their next adventure, I'd need Microsoft's new console, so I started saving my money.

XBOX 360 — Alan Wake

Mechanically, Alan Wake isn't much different from Max Payne. It's a third-person shooter with a strong narrative focus, pushing me toward cutscenes and literal story scraps as I unravel a mystery of light vs. darkness. Enemies creep out of the shadows, totally invulnerable until I burn away their armor with a flashlight, flare, or whatever other luminous weapons I have on hand.

It started as a more open-world game, but the clever twist on the otherwise familiar run-and-gun mechanics drew me in. I didn't even mind giving up the slow-motion 'Bullet Time' feature that defined Max Payne, because it still lingered in Alan Wake's gameplay loop, showing up in well-timed dodges. This time, Remedy's writing was less clichéd and more sincere — I wanted more.

Of course, I had plenty of other games on the XBOX 360 to tide me over, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Gears of War, so I wasn't bereft of choice after buying into this iconic console. Besides, Alan Wake's American Nightmare arrived soon after as the game's largest DLC expansion, but we wouldn't see a true sequel for another couple of generations.

XBOX One — Quantum Break

Would another time-bending action shooter convince me to buy into Microsoft's latest console? It did, and I went all in on its unified platform with the XBOX One, a Nokia Lumia 735 running Windows 10 Mobile, and, of course, a Windows 10 PC. I even bought the console's official digital TV tuner, fully adopting the all-in-one media pitch, though I'd never get my hands on the promised DVR feature.

And what better game to start with than Quantum Break with its live-action cinematics, cut like a TV mini-series? It certainly had some interesting combat mechanics that let me completely freeze time in isolated bubbles, but it felt more like a treat for the eyes. Visually, the game was (and still is) incredible.

If Alan Wake were a Stephen King novel blended with David Lynch's Twin Peaks sensibilities, then Quantum Break is more like Tenet's time-twisting motif wrapped around the gratuitous slow-motion bullet barrages of The Matrix. It's still easy to recommend, with Remedy's refined storytelling DNA on full display, and it can be beaten in a single weekend if you have the time.

XBOX Series X — Alan Wake 2

Thirteen years after the first game, I finally had the Alan Wake sequel within reach, and I wanted to savor every moment. This is the game that not only convinced me to pick up the XBOX Series X console, but also a 4K OLED TV with HDR and all the other trimmings. It annihilated my savings, but it was worth it in the long run, since my wife and I play on this console almost daily.

Alan Wake 2 had some launch bugs, but they were soon cleaned up, and it didn't tarnish my view of this brilliant sequel. It's Remedy in top gear, running at maximum speed with a twisting story, gorgeous visuals, and layers upon layers of references and outright fan service. I loved almost every minute.

There are some sudden stops, like a playable representation of the co-protagonist's "Mind Place" that had me connecting yarns to various photographs and clue scraps. It betters the story, but ultimately, I always wish I could speed past some of this part when I replay the game. Nevertheless, it's one of the best games I've ever played, and I easily forgave its missteps. Don't miss out.

Project Helix — Will there be another killer app?

Microsoft's plans for a follow-up console fall under the 'Project Helix' codename as an "XBOX-PC hybrid", with no set release date. Game studios might expect to receive developer-centric hardware sometime in 2027, but for now, the company is simply encouraging those devs to keep "developing for Xbox on PC". You know, I'd be more excited if it weren't for the ongoing memory shortage crisis.

Remedy announced a 'Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake' in 2022, and I haven't heard much about it since then. It's a partner project with Rockstar Games, and Take-Two still owns the series IP, making it the most mysterious project that I've ever felt this excited for. If this silence continues, it might just launch on Project Helix, but will it be unique (or exclusive) enough to keep me from playing it on PC?

It's almost impossible to predict, but I'd rather be an optimist when I can. With any luck, RAM and storage production costs will gradually return to more reasonable levels over the next year, which could kick-start an exciting lead-up to the reveal of whatever Project Helix calls itself. What kinds of games do you hope to see in the next generation of XBOX?

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Gears of War: E-Day is seemingly still full of surprises, and according to the latest Xbox US store data, the game is flying off (digital) shelves. It has secured the number one spot, overtaking titles like Minecraft Dungeons 2 and the critically acclaimed Star Wars: Galactic Racer.

Gears of War: E-Day reaching the top spot in the US isn’t the only news, too. The game also topped the UK store and many others across the globe, which is great to see.

I will say, I am a bit surprised, obviously given the games on Game Pass, that does come with a certain, how would you say, online drama? Especially as it's often thought Xbox gamers don’t buy games, which of course has been debunked time and time again, but I digress.

We also know, thanks to reporting from TrueAchievements, that Gears of War: E-Day is 2026’s second-biggest Xbox launch. It surpassed Halo: Campaign Evolved by 8.6% but fell just shy of Forza Horizon 6, managing only 67.3% of Forza’s player count at launch, which of course was a massive success on both Xbox and PC.

I’m impressed with how well Gears of War: E-Day has done, and it's honestly well deserved. Having beaten the game myself, it has given me the Gears itch, and I am probably going to run through Gears 2, 3, 4, and 5 on Insane, just like I have done with the first game and E-Day.

Hopefully, everyone has enjoyed E-Day as much as I have, and I hope the game continues to perform well. There was, of course, reporting from Alinea Analytics, which estimated 230,000 copies sold across both Steam and Xbox. Steam accounted for 168,000 of those, with Xbox (console and PC) selling 62,000.

Alinea also estimated that 1.7 million people played the game via Game Pass, and of that 1.7 million, 722,000 paid for the five-day early access upgrade. Alinea also reported that the game grossed $37 million in revenue, and they called for the game to be released on PlayStation 5 too to help recoup development costs.

I won’t dive into that drama, though. Don't worry. For now, let me know your thoughts on E-Day, how it's performed, whether you're impressed, or if you expected it to do better, in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Following Xbox's recent push to simplify development for its platform, we have a new engine joining the party with official hardware support: Defold. For those unfamiliar, Defold is a game engine originally created by King, the studio behind Candy Crush, which is now owned by Microsoft.

Naturally, given its origins, the engine was heavily utilized for mobile titles like Blossom Blast Saga. However, it has since evolved into a solid option for indie developers, with existing support for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles.

While Defold might not be the first engine that comes to mind for most people, I’m a strong believer that making development easier across whatever engines people choose is a fantastic move. In this case, it seems Defold has managed to make Xbox support as straightforward as possible.

According to its creators, Xbox support is now available in Defold 1.14.0, provided free of charge to approved developers. This completes a major expansion of the engine’s console capabilities, meaning it now supports all three major platforms.

Developers must first be approved for Xbox console development through programs like ID@Xbox before they can access the specific resources. Once approved, they can request access to the Xbox extension, which includes platform integrations such as user management and game saves, along with the necessary tools and workflows for building and testing Xbox games.

The engine itself has been around since 2008, so it’s been a long wait for official Xbox support. When asked why it took so long by @Danielon5538 on X (formerly Twitter), Defold responded:

“We (at Defold Foundation) developed Xbox support alongside our ongoing work on Defold, using the Foundation's own savings. Defold is free and all its console ports are completely free for approved developers too. We sustain development through partnerships and community donations. It took some time and sweat, but we're happy to finally make it available!”

You can also help fund Defold, which helps pay developers, and support core services, donations can be made here.

Hopefully, this is a sign of more things to come to make development easier for Xbox. While I can’t speak to what other engines might be lacking in the Xbox development space, lowering barriers in any way possible is one of Xbox’s best chances of getting as many developers on board with their platform as possible.

Let me know in the comments if you use Defold, if you’re glad it now has Xbox support, or if you just heard of the engine today. And, as always, don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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Xbox has been "restructuring" over the past summer, which has seen thousands of job losses via cuts and divestitures, and has left Xbox fans wondering what the aftermath will ultimately look like.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has made no secret of her intent for content moving forward: Microsoft will double down on its biggest and most visible Xbox franchises, including the likes of Fallout, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, among others.

Some of Xbox's more eclectic studios, such as Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Compulsion have either been spun off as separate, or outright shut down. These studios were all working on new franchises generally speaking, and while they didn't become financial success stories, the creativity was often award-winning.

Sharma's comments about Xbox's biggest franchises have left many wondering if there'd still be space for creativity and newness at Xbox, and it seems the answer is "yes," complete with a warning on over-relying on existing franchises.

"On content, I think this is probably the thing that you are all seeing the most about as we're making a lot of changes," Sharma said at the Xbox Town Hall this past week, in wholly unauthorized transcripts shared to Windows Central via multiple trusted sources.

Sharma reiterated the plan to focus on the biggest Xbox franchises, but also noted that relying on past victories won't help Xbox win the future.

"We're backing our strongest franchises. I want our great games to become great global billion-dollar franchises. I would also like to see us continue to create enduring new IP. We will not survive if we only revive on the past. We have to find new ways, and courage, to have invention on new IP, that reaches new sets of audiences."

Sharma remarked upon opportunities to grow King and the casual gaming segment in general, where titles like Monopoly Go and Block Blast have eaten into Candy Crush's casual gaming market share in recent years. Asha Sharma also talked about simplifying their studios, reiterating decisions to move some IP, like Halo and Sea of Thieves under Activision, hinting that more "simplification" could be on the way ... what that "simplification" might look like remains to be seen.

"Everything big once started as something small."

Xbox has been aggressively exploring ways to drive down costs in general this year. The opportunity within Xbox's ecosystem has diminished as hardware stock levels collapse, owing to the RAMpocalypse. Xbox's disastrous multi-platform strategy of yesteryear saw the platform lose relevancy while boosting competitors, leading to declines for major third-party games like FIFA, Fortnite, and NBA 2K titles on Xbox Series X|S as well.

Moving back to exclusive games has given Xbox a boost, with users returning to the platform for titles like Gears of War: E-Day and Forza Horizon 6, but growing Xbox again will probably take a multi-year, multi-game, multi-franchise effort, coupled with some sort of miracle on the hardware side. Xbox Series X|S and console hardware in general has moved wholly to being a luxury purchase, putting pressure on Xbox's chances.

In an interview with Windows Central at the start of the year, Chief Content Officer Matt Booty remarked that "everything big once started as something small," in reference to investing in new IP, which has always resonated with me. Indeed, Microsoft has partnered up with Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame for PHYSINT, complete with movie and TV rights in development with Xbox's new XP entertainment licensing division.

It'll be interesting to see if Sharma's Xbox does more in this space ... even if Xbox has made stark, quite devastating cuts within its existing teams. AI is muddying the water and blowing up component costs. There are more games than ever, and for many, less free time and money than ever. Micro-spend in service games continue eating up all the spend and users, and finding new cohorts seems more difficult than ever ...

The challenges on Xbox's plate are numerous, but being able to land exclusivity over the next Fortnite, Roblox, or indeed, Minecraft, is doubtless the dream of every major entertainment company. Does Sharma's Xbox have it in them? As usual, only time will tell.

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For the second time today, I’m writing about PlayStation, and I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I discuss Sony’s console. The jailbreaking scene is offering a whole slew of reasons to revisit what I once considered Sony’s worst console to date. Thanks to community efforts, it’s quickly becoming a machine I might actually pick up secondhand.

If you’ve been out of the loop and aren’t sure what I’m talking about, the PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. This allows users to install custom software on the platform, ranging from Xbox Cloud Gaming, which lets you play the latest Xbox exclusive, Gears of War: E-Day, on a PS5, to Xbox 360 and Original Xbox emulation.

Honestly, I’ve started to not get shocked by what people are doing with their jailbroken PS5s. We’ve even got a mod that allows you to insert PS2 games into your PS5 and play them directly on the console, with work currently underway to get PS3 games working as well.

It feels like the Wild West out there for PlayStation right now, and Xbox emulation is just the tip of the iceberg. Currently, fans can play titles like Gears of War 2 and 3, with the list of compatible games expanding as more work is done. The software itself is actually just a port of the existing Xenia emulator for PC, which allows 360 games to run on Windows through emulation.

As for Original Xbox games, it’s a similar story. XPSEmu can let PlayStation fans experience Halo 2 and even Forza. It’s honestly extremely impressive what modders are doing here. Whether these mods are being rushed through thanks to recent advancements in AI, I really don’t know. We’re seeing some genuinely crazy stuff happen with games lately, from Minecraft in Elden Ring to all sorts of whacky mods.

I’ll be honest, I do have concerns over where all this eventually leads, especially with people reportedly making open-source versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe’s suite of apps, all made thanks to AI. But for now, seeing the PS5 do all these things is impressive at the very least.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Do you find this cool, or does it worry you? And don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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The PlayStation 5 is currently going through a bit of a nightmare, at least for Sony. For fans, however, they’re in for quite the treat.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t particularly like PlayStation. The PS5 is the first Sony console I’ve actively avoided. But there’s been a lot happening in the jailbreak scene that actually makes it seem like it could be the best console to buy, at least second-hand anyway.

For those unfamiliar with what I’m referring to, the PlayStation 5 has basically been cracked open. Users can now install custom software and do as they please, though that comes at the cost of accessing PlayStation’s servers for games on the console.

It’s not the only thing developing in the PlayStation scene, either. The console is also being emulated on PC lately, much to Sony’s dismay, I imagine. But let’s get back on topic. Users who jailbreak their PS5 can now play Xbox games with the console, thanks to a new app that’s appeared on GitHub: PSBox Cloud Gaming. It natively runs Xbox’s cloud gaming service on the PlayStation 5.

A year or so ago, this wouldn’t have really mattered much. Xbox was in full swing with its multiplatform strategy. But given recent changes, specifically with the return of Xbox exclusives like Gears of War: E-Day never releasing on PlayStation, fans of the franchise who are willing to jailbreak their console can experience what I’d personally describe as a fantastic game. I finished it myself on Insane difficulty last week with a friend, and enjoyed every second.

Of course, cloud gaming isn’t as good as actually playing the game on the console itself. But I’d say it’s a pretty good compromise, and something I’ve started to come around to lately. Granted, Xbox just threw a massive spanner in the works by egregiously limiting cloud gaming hours to pitiful numbers. But if you’re willing to put up with that, you can play through E-Day on Insane and get all the collectibles in about 20 hours or so. At least that’s what it took me.

Let me know your thoughts. Would you jailbreak a PS5, or do you think this is all far too silly? At the very least, it’s interesting to see. So do be sure to leave a comment and take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day is out, and I’m personally having a fun time with it. I’ve been running through the campaign on Insane with a friend, and while it hasn’t been a struggle, collecting everything has genuinely been fun.

So much fun, in fact, that I’d be disappointed if the next Gears of War was years away. Luckily, we might not have to wait that long. In a recent interview with the BBC, The Coalition studio head Mike Crump discussed what it means for the series to be exclusive to Xbox, whilst also hinting that the development timeline could be shorter going forward.

“The next game will not take nearly as long,” Crump said, noting that E-Day provides a “great foundation” for future entries.

There have, of course, been concerns floating around online about whether Gears will perform at the level it needs to, with some even speculating about potential layoffs at the studio.

Critics have questioned the exclusivity strategy given the game’s long development cycle and estimated budget, arguing that keeping it away from other platforms could make it harder to recoup those costs. However, contrary to that, I believe titles like this are essential in proving that Xbox deserves to stay around.

That said, current numbers seem to be good. According to Circana, E-Day is off to a strong start on console. That’s without even mentioning its solid performance on Steam, where it peaked at 30,000 concurrent players.

I’m currently enjoying the game through Game Pass on my PC, but it’s definitely a title worth purchasing. As I typically do when I enjoy a game on Game Pass, I’ll probably pick it up at some point. Who knows, I might even grab the physical version thanks to Xbox’s generous disc-to-digital program.

As for Crump’s remarks on exclusivity, he emphasized the franchise’s long history with the console. “Gears has been an exclusive franchise to Xbox for 20 years now. It's sort of entwined deeply with the brand... and we’re proud of that,” he said. He added that the series gives people a “reason to be in the Xbox ecosystem.”

It’s great to see one Xbox flagship franchise deliver this year. Yes, I am a longtime Halo fan, and I can’t resist taking a slight jab at a franchise I’ve seen butchered over the years, but at least Gears of War fans have been treated well, and I really do hope the next installment is no more than three years away at most.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Are you enjoying E-Day, or are you finding it a slog?

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Surprise! Here's a quick look at Xbox's new PC app, potentially set to go live to Xbox Insiders before the end of the year.

Over the summer, Microsoft began testing a new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface codenamed Bastion, which aimed to bring the user experience closer to the Xbox Series X|S console. The Xbox PC app looks a lot different from this general ident at present, and has a variety of performance concerns, particularly when loading into large libraries or the general Xbox PC game store.

This week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma noted her intention to elevate Microsoft's gaming offering on PC, and here's an early glimpse at at least part of what that looks like.

Microsoft is preparing to ship the below interface, codenamed Garrison, some time in the near future. I got access to an early version of the app this evening, and thought I'd give you a quick run through.

In the video above, I give you a quick tour guide of the new app's interfacing on PC, which includes designs for both mouse and keyboard and controller. You can set this app as your default home screen when loading into Windows 11's new "Game Mode" setting, and it will default to the controller scaling — ideal for devices like the Xbox Ally.

First impressions revolve around performance for me. This is a lot faster than the previous app, particularly when it comes to loading in my large 1400+ library of Xbox titles from across the years. It's a lot easier to see when something is actually installable now, or just stream-capable from Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The navigation between game listings is also a lot more streamlined. There's no longer two separate pages for games, and both the store listing and game listing now share a single interface.

For the most part, there isn't a ton of new functionality on offer just yet. This seems to be about boosting performance and usability first and foremost.

Xbox's PC offering has diverged immensely from Steam, as Steam offers a lot more community tooling, developer dialogue systems, and more visible reviews. Steam arguably has better curation too, and while the store pages on this version of the app aren't fully implemented yet, I'm eager to discover if Microsoft has improved visibility for developers through this app. It would be good if developers end up with more tools to communicate with their audiences on the Xbox PC app too, and Microsoft has an opportunity to integrate Minecraft and its other live service games more deeply to boost its community-building chops potentially.

I suspect this version of the app could go live to Xbox Insiders on PC in the coming weeks given that it's already getting bundled into Windows 11 builds now.

Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear over the summer, restructuring its business, divesting studios, and re-focusing its efforts on Xbox Series X|S consoles. It's encouraging to see Microsoft hasn't left its Xbox PC efforts fall by the wayside either. This week, it announced a huge partnership with NVIDIA for their new RTX Spark Arm laptop line, which includes the Surface Laptop Ultra — which is a gaming powerhouse in its own right. Microsoft also announced Xbox XP this week, focused on building player retention and community outside of its traditional console channels. I wonder if the Xbox PC app will play a role here too.

In any case, let me know what you think of the new Xbox PC app in the comments, and what you'd like to see added to Xbox PC in the future!

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One of my favorite Xbox games this year has been, without a doubt, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Reflection, the latest entry in Capcom's JRPG series that combines the monster-capture gameplay of Pokémon with the action-hunting thrills and awesome beasts of Monster Hunter.

However, when Monster Hunter Stories 3: Reflection launched earlier this year on Xbox Series X|S, many of my Xbox friends (including Jez Corden) were sad it didn't have Xbox Play Anywhere support, as this game was made for gaming on the go due to it being on Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam.

However, Microsoft has come forward to rectify that missed opportunity by announcing via Xbox Wire that Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will finally receive Xbox Play Anywhere support and also launch on 'Xbox on PC' on November 18, 2026.

With this, Xbox players will be able to play Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on Xbox consoles, Windows 11 PCs, and compatible gaming handhelds like the Xbox Ally with just one purchase on Xbox digital storefronts at no additional cost.

Plus, Xbox players can carry over their save data, achievements, and DLC content seamlessly across all the aforementioned platforms, so they won't have to worry about losing progress.

Here's hoping Monster Hunter Stories 3 gets a DLC expansion in the future

As a longtime fan of turn-based JRPGs, Pokémon-likes, and Monster Hunter, I loved Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection.

It has an intriguing plot with charming characters, beautiful anime-style graphics that performed amazingly at launch, a fun turn-based combat system that isn't afraid to put the player in danger early on, and an incredibly addictive Habitat Restoration system that puts a unique twist on the monster-taming genre.

However, I was extremely annoyed that this game didn't come with a proper High Rank post-game like previous titles, and its post-launch support has been middling at best, with just cosmetics, beefier versions of regular monsters called Royal Monsters, and a single DLC quest chain.

I'm hoping that this game gets a proper DLC expansion like the mainline Monster Hunter games because Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection's base game has an extremely solid foundation that deserves to be expanded upon with more areas, challenges, gear, and playable Monsties.

So, if you've been holding out on Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection's Xbox version because of a lack of Xbox Play Anywhere support, you'll have no more excuses to sleep on one of my personal Game of the Year contenders when it receives it on November 18, 2026.

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In among the litany of failures across Xbox and Microsoft in general, there are at least a few dozen undeniable epic business wins. One of those is undoubtedly Minecraft.

The blocky craft 'em up adventure already had huge momentum when Microsoft acquired it, but the firm has since turned Minecraft into a cultural powerhouse, with a merchandising and licensing empire that is often overlooked in general gaming discourse. Microsoft thinks there are more opportunities like this ... and that's why it is creating a new division under Xbox today.

"XP" is a new department under Microsoft's gaming team, led by new XP CEO Kayleen Walters, former president of Minecraft.

During Xbox's internal Town Hall meeting this week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described "four Cs" of focus for Xbox, with the session focusing mainly on Core and Content, i.e. console growth and uplifting Xbox's first and third-party content. Sharma described XP forging ahead with the Creator and Connection segments of the plan, aimed at developing other Xbox franchises to the same heights as Minecraft itself.

Microsoft put out a blog post today outlining the vision for XP, which will essentially operate as a licensing pipeline across all of Xbox's major franchises.

"Xbox Pictures" will focus on opportunities to bring Microsoft gaming franchises to the big and small screen, in the forms of movies and TV shows. Microsoft has already revealed a range of content in this area, including content for Gears of War, Wolfenstein, Diablo, among others. Big wins here include the Minecraft movie and Fallout TV show, both of which were huge successes in their own right, and vastly boosted interest in the games.

"Xbox Products" will extend what Walters has already done for Minecraft in the form of merchandising and other product lines. Microsoft says that these will be "authentic" to the fandoms. Toys 'R' Us recently announced plans to open dozens of new stores, focusing on the new adult toy-collector cohort. I suspect Microsoft may seek to join in here ... perhaps we could see Skylanders return?!

"Xbox Places" will be a new division focusing on fan events and theme park experiences. Microsoft specifically referred to BlizzCon in the press release here, and I recently heard whispers that Microsoft was interested in extending the BlizzCon model to other major Xbox franchises. Microsoft also has a theme park for Minecraft going live in the UK next year, set as a test bed for this type of thing. Perhaps the Overwatch map "Blizzard World" will become a reality some day ...

Finally, we have "Xbox Partnerships," which will continue the work Microsoft already does bringing its universes into other brands. The recent IKEA Xbox furniture line is an example of this, as well as the Blizzard McDonalds promotion in the UK, and the recent Fanta Xbox Game Pass integrations.

Kayleen Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm doing the same kind of work between Disney's theme parks and merchandising empires for Star Wars, and delivered the same for Minecraft during her tenure at Xbox. Now, Microsoft is hoping to extend that even further to franchises like Fallout, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and more.

Reaching Xbox fans outside of Xbox

Speaking on the appointment, Kayleen Walters had this to say about XP and the potential that exists in Xbox's franchises.

"XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world's most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself. Fans don't just play our franchises. They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping XBOX franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways."

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Microsoft has also appointed former Reddit and Meta executive to run Minecraft in Walters' stead, with a goal of growing Minecraft's chops as a developer platform, taking on Roblox and the like.

This era of Xbox revolves around synchronizing and utilizing Microsoft's acquisitions of the last few years, identifying the clear opportunities that the Minecraft movie and Fallout TV show has presented. Other big media properties of recent years, spanning Cyberpunk, to Castlevania, to Resident Evil, have all seen significant uplift as a result of successful delivery of these shows and movies.

Of course, those movies and TV shows have to actually be good. And as the Halo TV show has taught us ... a flop can actually do more harm than good to a gaming brand and its potential. There's no guarantee Microsoft and its partners can easily emulate the success of the Fallout TV show and Minecraft movie with other properties. I would like to see them take another stab at a Warcraft movie, though.

In any case, Microsoft has explored this segment before with Xbox Entertainment Studios, which fell apart quite rapidly. Microsoft knew this segment was going to be big, as far back as 2012. Although it seems Microsoft now has the good sense to work with external experts (like Netflix and Amazon Prime) rather than try to develop some of these products in-house.

It remains to be seen if the results of this venture will actually deliver. There's definitely a clear and obvious opportunity here, and Xbox's primary competitors, Nintendo and PlayStation, are leaning heavily in this direction already.

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Splitting up with your partner usually leaves both parties on rather poor terms, or is that just me? In the case of Undead Labs, the developer behind State of Decay, that seemingly isn’t the case.

In a recent interview with Game File, Undead Labs Studio Head Philip Holt was asked why the studio is still sticking with Game Pass, and here’s what he said:

Shocking many I'm sure, as again another developer comes out in defence of Game Pass, but Holt does go on, stating:

"Even today, we have several thousand people coming through the door every day. The benefit of State of Decay is that it’s a very retentive game. Last time I looked, something like half of our monthly active users have been in the game for close to two years, and a quarter for more than five. A lot of players from Game Pass come in and they’re like ‘this isn’t for me’ and leave. There is a high churn rate. But of the players we capture, we capture for a long time. And then they become franchise fans and consume other titles, and they’re excited for State of Decay 3. It’s really helped us achieve scale."

He continues, lamenting Game Passes reach:

"How do we make the most of that for State of Decay 3? Our biggest investment by far is the four-player co-op shared world, so a large audience that comes through Game Pass becomes a huge benefit. They play State of Decay 3, it is a great experience with friends, they invite their friends, and many of them will be on other platforms. It is a vector of growth for us."

The full interview dives into a plethora of additional details, including how the studio is working with three co-development teams to keep the project on track, so I do suggest you dive in and read it yourselves. But it’s great for us Xbox fans to see Holt take this position and recognize the value of a service like Game Pass despite the split with Xbox.

Thankfully, State of Decay 3 is full steam ahead for next year. As quite the zombie fanatic, I’m excited and hopeful that the game does well. It remains the one game I wish Xbox hadn’t chucked out amid their restructuring, but alas.

Do let me know your thoughts on Holt’s comments down below!

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