All articles tagged with #game pass
An expansive roundup of upcoming Xbox titles from Aug 24–28 across Series X|S, One, PC, and Game Pass, featuring new releases and pre-orders such as Star Wars Zero Company, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Blood Dungeon, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, and many more; dates are subject to change and some titles support Game Pass or Play Anywhere.
The August Xbox and PC Game Pass slate features Resonance: A Plague Tale as a day-one release (from Asobo) and Blood Dungeon among the new arrivals, with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered leaving the service by the end of August (and Sept. 6 on some platforms) as a new expansion heads your way; additional titles join throughout the month, while a batch including Another Crab's Treasure, I Am Your Beast, Neon Abyss, One Lonely Outpost and NBA 2K26 exits Game Pass on August 31.
Next Week on XBOX previews a packed slate of new releases for Aug 17–21 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Game Pass, led by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope DLC on Aug 20, plus Backyard Baseball, The Sinking City 2, Mortal Shell II, Black Flower and many more indie and genre-bending titles arriving this week.
The free Chaos Stacks update for Monsters are Coming! adds a new RNG-based hero called The Joker, a new Townhall (The X-Fortress), a codex, balance tweaks, and nine DLC achievements totaling 225 Gamerscore; the patch arrives as the game gets an Xbox Series X|S port and joins Game Pass Premium on PC and console.
A Kotaku piece quotes longtime Id Software developer Chris Hays saying the wave of layoffs gutted entire departments, making it effectively impossible to craft AAA games like Doom with half the staff, and accusing Microsoft/Xbox of not understanding art or video games. He criticizes management’s talking points, questions Game Pass’s impact on sales, and notes significant studio restructures and divestitures that followed Xbox’s layoffs.
Next Week on XBOX previews a broad August lineup (Aug 10–14) across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Game Pass, led by Madden NFL 27 on Aug 13 with early-access perks and Deluxe Edition benefits, alongside a mix of indie and arcade titles releasing throughout the week with several titles supporting Game Pass or Play Anywhere.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault exits Early Access on September 2, 2026 and will launch on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2 with Xbox Game Pass at launch; the original Moonlighter will be free on Steam August 5–9 to celebrate, and a Moonlighter 2 demo is available now. The sequel has evolved through two major updates adding new combat paths, weapons,Companions, and the Bomb Path, plus a new post‑release mode Infinite Endless Vault and a Hardcore Mode, with the 1.0 release concluding the main story and expanding content like armor, weapons, and town customization.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Xbox is giving away free dynamic themes and avatars designed by community creators, plus a 25th-anniversary badge for players who log in across console, PC, or the mobile app, and a Game Pass spotlight featuring classic titles like Fable Anniversary, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Fallout 4, and Psychonauts 2.
Microsoft reportedly plans to bring Xbox 360 titles to PC through backward compatibility for the forthcoming Project Helix, a PC-based platform, with developers able to set prices and potentially include games on Game Pass; a disc-to-digital program to convert physical copies to digital is also expected, building on a broader effort to port Xbox and original Xbox titles to PC using emulation, with a rollout likely over the coming years.
Next week brings 19 new Xbox titles across Series X|S, One, and PC, led by day-one Game Pass entry Beast of Reincarnation and life-sim RPG Kynseed on August 4, with Montabi arriving August 6, plus a variety of indie and puzzle games throughout the week.
A leaked Microsoft roadmap shows Disc to Digital launching this August for Xbox One and Series X, allowing players to insert discs to obtain digital licenses tied to their accounts; publishers may participate and retain control over rights, pricing, and branding; Microsoft also plans to bring Xbox backwards compatibility to PC by October via Game Pass or the Xbox Store, with a broader plan to migrate Xbox 360 catalog to next-gen consoles for continued compatibility.
Microsoft isn’t quitting Steam, but it is dramatically expanding its PC gaming push: boosting the Xbox PC app and Windows 11 gaming optimizations, pushing Xbox Helix to treat PCs as a core platform, opening Battle.net to third‑party content while maintaining cross‑store efforts with Ubisoft and EA, and rolling out Positron and stronger backward compatibility to bridge console and PC libraries. The goal is a larger PC‑gaming footprint that still leverages Steam as a key channel.
34 games, including three original Xbox titles Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Conker: Live & Reloaded, are now playable on Xbox Ally and PC handhelds; the OG Xbox games will gain achievement support on PC in the future (not retroactive); several Game Pass titles are also handheld-compatible.
New data shows Xbox Play Anywhere adoption is climbing toward 50% for new releases, with recent AAA wins like 007: First Light helping, but many major titles and older games still lack support. Ubisoft’s PC/Play Anywhere experience is notably inconsistent, and indie developers face costs to port to PC/Xbox. While the feature is highly valued, Microsoft must do more to persuade developers to adopt it across more titles to strengthen the ecosystem.
Microsoft expands Xbox Cloud Gaming to VIDAA OS-compatible smart TVs (including Hisense models), letting Game Pass subscribers stream a growing catalog of titles directly on supported TVs via a new Xbox app. Requirements include a supported region, an active Game Pass (not PC Game Pass), and a compatible controller; players can access both Game Pass titles and their own Cloud Gaming library. This marks another step in Xbox’s cloud strategy, following prior TV support expansions, amid leadership shifts and a continued emphasis on the console experience.