Life on the road.

In this new bit of Police Simulator DLC, you're finally able to leave the city of Brighton and take to the highways that surround it, opening up new gameplay scenarios along the way.

Life on the road.

In this new bit of Police Simulator DLC, you're finally able to leave the city of Brighton and take to the highways that surround it, opening up new gameplay scenarios along the way.

Operation Crisis begins.

Insurgency: Sandstorm is getting another major update on all platforms, just under a year on from when the FPS title first arrived on Xbox Game Pass.This particular update is dubbed 'Operation: Crisis', and it brings a new map, new weapons, a new limited-time game mode and more to the fantastic Game Pass shooter.

Almost a quarter of a century later.

This is an old school hack-and-slash game with a distinct pirate theme, and you can definitely tell it's of a certain era, shall we say.

Yesterday's Nintendo Direct livestream gave us some great third-party announcements for Xbox, but we did also stumble across a few more titles that are strangely skipping Microsoft's platform.One of those is the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, and a couple of sources are now suggesting that an old game engine is the reason behind this Xbox omission.

Capcom game aficionado Jawmuncher has suggested on Twitter that the 'MT Framework' game engine has stopped supporting Xbox One in the last few years, and that could explain why only certain Capcom games are skipping Xbox.

Pure Xbox's Craig Reid recently attended Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, where he had a chance to preview a series of upcoming Xbox releases.Today, we're sharing his thoughts on a hands-on demo of The Plucky Squire, where he sat down with All Possible Futures' co-founder James Turner to play a portion of the game's sixth chapter.

Following the successful release of Sea of Thieves on PS5.

Rare, the developer behind modern hits such as Sea Of Thieves, is today celebrating the release of another one of its classics on Nintendo's Switch Online subscription service.

In case you missed it, this time it's the first-person shooter Perfect Dark.

The vault has been opened.

Sometimes it's hard to believe yourself when you type a sentence like 'Xbox owns Call of Duty and Fallout' but its darn true, and later this week the two massive Microsoft franchises will be crossing over in Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.

Yep, the COD x Fallout bundle brings a bunch of Fallout-themed gear to Call of Duty multiplayer on June 20th - including character outfits, weapon skins, charms, and even a Pip-Boy accessory!

AC, Skull & Bones, Avatar and more!

As usual, we've got another fresh selection of Xbox deals available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on the official Xbox Store right now, primarily made up of "Publisher Spotlight" and "School's Out" sales.

We've noted in the headline here that Ubisoft leads the way with the likes of Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Skull & Bones and many other titles all included, but we've also got some other big inclusions such as Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 that you might be interested in.

We have a new Game Pass addition today, June 19th, and this one could be a title worth sinking some time into!My Time at Sandrock delivers a huge life simulation game onto Xbox Game Pass - as the follow-up to 2019's My Time at Portia, which is already in the library.

Here's about more information on My Time at Sandrock, now available on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming:

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Just over a month until the store closes down.

We're getting much closer to the end of the Xbox 360 store on July 29th, and as promised, Microsoft has decided to discount another batch of digital games today, giving you a chance to pick them up before they're delisted permanently.

A remaster of the 2002 OG Xbox game!

Nightdive Studios has been absolutely killing it lately with these remaster efforts, and their next project is tackling 2002's The Thing for a modern remaster in 2024.This upcoming title has been confirmed for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and now the team has sent over a selection of in-game screenshots our way!

With E3 officially going away for good this year, we were afraid that the big summer showcase season would fall a little flat in 2024 - but Xbox and Nintendo had other ideas.With two fantastic livestreams in June, the two platform holders have reminded us that we can still have an exciting showcase season in a post-pandemic, E3-less era.

We thought the June 2024 edition of the Nintendo Direct was an awesome event, and it included plenty of exciting Xbox announcements after the fact, but we were also left a tad disappointed by some of the games skipping our brand.

The big one is the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, which was announced for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam with a late 2024 release window.There's no sign of Xbox as things stand, which is definitely a shame.

Including some big Dragon Quest reveals!

Today marked the arrival of yet another Nintendo Direct showcase, with the June 2024 edition featuring some exciting first-party reveals, but also plenty of third-party games that are making their way to Xbox consoles!

Perhaps the biggest announcement here is not only that we received an Xbox release date for Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D, but we also got confirmation that Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D will be launching in 2025!

The huge Elden Ring expansion is almost here.

Elden Ring was a bit of a phenomenon when it arrived on Xbox back in early 2022, so it's safe to say we're extremely excited about the game's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.This huge Elden Ring add-on lands this week, and ahead of launch, the review embargo has now lifted.

Well, we just got our brand-new Xbox Game Pass roundup for the back half of June, and there's one big surprise included in the form of Robin Hood: Sherwood Builders.This is a PC Action RPG that was previously unannounced for consoles, and now it's confirmed for an Xbox Series X|S release this month - on Game Pass no less!

This recent Robin Hood release has gotten a 'Mostly Positive' reception on Steam so far, and it's described as "an action-adventure RPG with base-building elements".

The second batch of the month.

Microsoft has today announced the second batch of Xbox Game Pass titles for June 2024, which includes today's arrival of Still Wakes The Deep, along with the likes of EA Sports FC 24 and My Time At Sandrock!

Here's the list of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass from June 18-27:

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Talking on the Xbox Two podcast, hosts Jez Corden and Rand al Thor broke down State of Decay 3's appearance at the showcase, with them mentioning that the team is aiming to launch the game in 2025.However, the hosts then went on to speculate whether Microsoft would delay it just for the sheer amount of games it has planned for next year.

"By no means is it just me".

Bethesda and video game legend Todd Howard is an incredibly busy guy right now working on projects like the first Starfield expansion, the Fallout television series, the long-awaited Elder Scrolls 6, and the upcoming Indiana Jones video game.Put simply - he doesn't have any hobbies (gaming is pretty much it), he loves doing what he does and he's got a lot of "amazing people" who do a lot of the heavy lifting.

He's held the CMO role for almost five years.

There's another shake-up taking place inside Xbox HQ this month, as it's been revealed that Chief Marketing Officer Jerret West will be leaving the company to join the ROBLOX team at the end of June.

This was mentioned in a report by The Verge's Tom Warren yesterday, which also included an internal memo from Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

And it's out today!

Playground Games has unveiled a new premium car pack for Forza Horizon 5, and this one brings five movie star cars to the open world racer.Available today for $10, Horizon's finest drivers can go hands-on with five new rides inspired by the likes of Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and Knight Rider.

The long and short of it is that one of the game's voice actors seemingly attached a 2025 release to their work on Clockwork Revolution, before removing this information.InXile spotted it though, and decided to poke fun at what had happened;

He's back!

Larry Hryb, AKA 'Major Nelson', was the face of Xbox for years before announcing his departure from Microsoft last summer - and now the Xbox legend has revealed his next move in gaming.

He's heading over to the Community team at Unity, which develops one of the industry's leading game engines amongst other bits and pieces in the world of gaming.

As part of the series' 10th anniversary celebrations.

The retro-inspired hero Shovel Knight is currently celebrating his 10th anniversary, and as part of this, developer and publisher Yacht Club Games held a special broadcast announcing a bunch of new projects.

Perhaps the highlight of the lot (apart from the announcement of a new game which will thrust Shovel Knight into an "entirely new dimension") was the reveal of Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX - an enhanced edition of the original adventure that started it all.

"I don't think it's bad for people to miss things".

Fallout hype is at fever pitch right now, with Amazon's fantastic TV series and the recent Fallout 4 next-gen update helping fuel interest in Bethesda's post-apocalyptic series.Despite some synergy with the show and existing games in the franchise, fans are wondering why this didn't happen alongside a brand-new Fallout game, and whether some sort of spin-off could be in the works while the team makes The Elder Scrolls 6.

An upcoming Game Pass launch!

Another day one Xbox Game Pass release is right around the corner in Still Wakes The Deep, and early reviews of this spooky Xbox game are now cropping up online - including our own opinion on the title here at Pure Xbox.

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The road ahead.

Up for another horror adventure on Xbox Series X|S in 2024?Well, Saber Interactive and Stormind Games have partnered up to adapt movie series 'A Quiet Place' into video game format - with the "narrative-driven horror game" A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead coming to Xbox later this year.

If you've played any of The Chinese Room's past games you'll have an idea of what to expect from Still Wakes The Deep; something short, sweet, dripping in atmosphere and with a laser focus on the overall narrative.Well, we're here to report that despite some behind-the-scenes changes at the British developer, Still Wakes the Deep mostly delivers on everything we've come to expect from the team - and this is a perfect candidate for a spooky night in on Xbox Game Pass.

The real star of the show here is the game's setting; a Scottish offshore oil rig that's constantly coated in a thick layer of North Sea fog.

"Gears has a pretty clear DNA for gameplay modes".

Developer The Coalition has been quite shy on dropping any nitty gritty details for Gears of War: E-Day just yet, which is perhaps understandable given that the game won't be out until 2025 at the very earliest.However, the studio was pressed about multiplayer modes over the weekend, and while it hasn't gone into specifics, it sounds like fans can expect this to be a fully fledged Gears game - multiplayer and all.

The company continues to cut developers.

Today, Swedish developer Pieces Interactive has announced its closure following this year's Alone in the Dark reboot.The team was acquired by gaming titan Embracer Group back in 2017, having first been established 10 years prior in 2007, but it will unfortunately close its doors in 2024.

One of the employees highlighted the studio's "last day".

Last month, Xbox shared the news it would be shutting down four studios including the developers behind the critically-acclaimed title Hi-Fi RUSH.

As highlighted by our friends at VGC, developer Takeo Kido shared multiple pictures of the Japanese studio - noting how it was the "last day of work" with the studio then closing.

June's second batch of leavers revealed.

Our second batch of titles leaving Xbox Game Pass in June 2024 has been revealed, with five games in total exiting the service at the end of the month.There aren't any huge departures in this list, but there are still some great games on the way out in late June.

We've already seen some fantastic Starfield mods on Xbox since the June update arrived last week, and some of the latest examples allow the Xbox Series S version to reach a high of 120 frames per-second!

This is documented in the video you see above, which shows how certain Starfield mods lower the visual quality in order to provide a smoother experience on Xbox Series S.As shown at the 1:24 mark, the mods that are used here include "Uncap FPS for Series S", "Performance Tweaks (Series S)", "Performance Shadows (Series S)", "Remove Grass", "Crowd Reducer" and "No God Rays".

And hopefully that's not the end of it!

Bethesda's Todd Howard made an appearance on the MrMattyPlays YouTube channel today, where he confirmed that Starfield will get a second year of content alongside another paid expansion following 2024's Shattered Space DLC.

Howard's first mention of a "year two" for Starfield came during a segment in which he was discussing the recent June update for the game, explaining that there might be "more of a gap" until the next major update:

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It's a peach.

Pure Xbox's Craig Reid has spent the past few days at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, where he's had a chance to preview a series of upcoming Xbox releases. Today, we're sharing his thoughts on a hands-on demo of Black Myth: Wukong, which let us get stuck into two hours of an early chapter from Game Science's 2024 ARPG.

For most, Summer Game Fest came to a close once Play Days wrapped on Monday, but not for us! Game Science, the talented developers responsible for the upcoming ARPG Black Myth: Wukong, found time for Pure Xbox the following day, and we’re so glad they did because the game is phenomenal.

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Please Phil, we want some more.

The Xbox Showcase was amazing this year. Seriously, the relaunch of Pure Xbox took place four years ago, and we can't remember a better summer showcase from Xbox since then. Gears, Fable, Perfect Dark, DOOM... the list goes on and on. But if we're being totally honest, there's one announcement that we're a bit sad we didn't get.

Of course, we're talking about the massive selection of Activision Blizzard games that are expected to hit Xbox Game Pass in the near future. Since the takeover, all we've seen from the company on XGP is Diablo 4, and we also know that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be launching day one this October. But what about everything else?

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An early look at what's ahead.

We're only just hitting the middle of the month for June's Xbox Game Pass additions, but as usual, we're starting to take a look at what's ahead for July as well. And it's good news - there's a lot confirmed for next month already!

Some of the highlights here include day one releases for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, Dungeons Of Hinterberg and Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, while Frostpunk 2 is also coming to PC Game Pass at launch.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including this major new expansion!

Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for June 17-21! We've got some major releases on the way next week including Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, and while we don't know much about the Xbox Game Pass lineup yet, we do at least know that Still Wakes The Deep is arriving at launch on Tuesday!

Here's what's coming to Xbox next week:

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How about The Callisto Protocol on Game Pass?

Welcome to the middle of June! We've got plenty to enjoy on Xbox over the next couple of days, including some more new Game Pass titles, another batch of Free Play Days offerings, and plenty of great deals to enjoy on the Xbox Store!

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

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"It's what makes this experience the most immersive".

The Xbox Games Showcase last weekend was packed with fantastic-looking titles across a whole bunch of different genres, but one of the highlights was undoubtedly Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The fact that MachineGames' upcoming adventure is a 2024 game is incredibly exciting, and a couple of members of the studio have just appeared on the Official Xbox Podcast to talk a bit more about the title.

Game Director Jerk Gustafsson and Product Director John Jennings discuss all aspects of the recent reveal, including some of the locations we'll be visiting as Indy and some of the design choices behind the gameplay. Importantly, Gustafsson also touched on the team's desire to go mostly first-person with this game - despite other titles in the genre typically sticking to a third-person viewpoint.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"Console ports will be coming".

If you were paying close attention to the Summer Game Fest 2024 showcase earlier this month, you may have seen a game called "Killer Bean" which ended up attracting millions of views following the event's conclusion.

We talked about the game here at Pure Xbox last year when it seemed like an Xbox version was planned for the future. Now, the developer has confirmed that Killer Bean is definitely coming to Xbox after the early access PC release.

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The Metacritic scores are huge!

Today's the day for Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S!

This brand-new release from ATLUS and SEGA is officially available to purchase on the Xbox Store (starting at £54.99 / $59.99), and if the reviews are anything to go by, it's definitely worth your time and money this weekend!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Everything you need to know for the big expansion.

FromSoftware's huge Elden Ring expansion in Shadow of the Erdtree is coming to Xbox very, very soon after what feels like an eternity! Yep, we're pretty hyped about this one - after all, we did grant the base game an "Outstanding" 10/10 score here at Pure Xbox back in 2022.

Ahead of the big launch next week, we're going to break down exactly when you can play, and how to get ready to tackle Elden Ring's major DLC expansion on Xbox.

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The Series S version looks like a different game!

Last November we took a look at some of the early public tests for Ark: Survival Ascended on Xbox and found some "interesting results", and now the team at Digital Foundry has given the game a pretty scathing review from a technical perspective - roughly six months after launch.

In a fresh face-off from the tech-focused outlet, the 2023 Ark remake is labelled as "the worst optimised Unreal Engine 5 game we've seen on console". If you look at the video up above, the evidence is pretty damning - the Xbox Series S version looks like a different game almost!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Xbox odyssey.

Well-known leaker eXtas1s is reporting that Xbox Game Studios Publishing will be working with Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey dev Panache on a new project. 2019's Ancestors was the much-talked about adventure game from the creator of Assassin's Creed - and at this point it's still the only game to have been released by Panache.

The report doesn't contain much more detail than that, aside from the fact that the game is using Unreal Engine 5, and it might not release until 2026 or 2027. EXtas1s also speculates that it could be a game called '1666: Amsterdam' that's been worked on by the ex-AC developer for some time - but that's just conjecture at this stage.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including a huge 2022 release!

It's that time again where a selection of titles leave the Xbox Game Pass library, and we have five games in total exiting the service this weekend. As you can probably guess, the big leaver this time around is High On Life, which departs Game Pass after roughly 18 months in the library.

All five games are on the way out on Saturday, June 15, so you only have a day-or-so left to try these out before they leave the service.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"A real privilege".

We were treated to a great surprise at the Xbox Games Showcase last Sunday when Perfect Dark reappeared with an impressive glimpse at gameplay, and since that trailer, the actor for lead character Joanna Dark has been revealed!

The role has gone to the award-winning British actress Alix Wilton Regan, who expressed her delight at working on the project in a social media post earlier this week. Here's what Alix had to say at the time:

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Signups are now live.

Amazon is bringing its open-world RPG New World: Aeternum to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S this October, and if you want to try it ahead of time, sign-ups are now live for a closed beta taking place in July.

To participate, you'll need to head over to the official New World website, where all the instructions are outlined. The beta will take place on July 11th at 9am PT until July 17th at 9AM PT for those who are lucky enough to be selected.

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Along with other new features.

It's been almost two years since the survival / crafting / town management RPG Medieval Dynasty first arrived on Xbox Game Pass, and it's about to get a major new update that will transform the experience on consoles this month.

On June 27th, Co-Op Mode will be available for the first time on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, allowing you to play with up to three other friends across Xbox or PC. This is a current-gen feature, so Xbox One players sadly miss out.

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Perhaps even earlier than Fable?

When Gears of War: E-Day was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase this past weekend, we naturally assumed that it wasn't targeting a release anytime soon, especially considering there was no sign of a launch window at all.

However, we might be seeing it much sooner than expected! According to Tom Warren at The Verge, his sources informed him a few months ago that Gears of War: E-Day was targeting a release in 2025. Here's his quote about it:

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Juliet makes a comeback in 4K.

We've heard a fair bit about the Lollipop Chainsaw remake and it's now been officially confirmed Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP will be making its way to Xbox Series X|S on 25th September 2024.

This remastered release of the 2012 Grasshopper title, often described as a "cult classic", is being handled by Dragami Games and is being marketed as the definitive version of the game.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Will you be picking one up later this year?

During the Xbox Games Showcase this year, Microsoft unveiled three brand-new Xbox Series X|S console revisions coming in late 2024 - and we want to know if the Pure Xbox audience is planning on picking up any of these shiny new systems later in the year.

Across the new lineup, we've got a 1TB White Xbox Series S, an all-digital 1TB White Xbox Series X, and a new 2TB Galaxy Black Xbox Series X. The three new systems run the gamut when it comes to pricing - right from $350 on the low end up to a whopping $600 for that Xbox Series X with upgraded storage.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"I think that could be really really compelling".

Gears of War: E-Day is certainly a throwback to the old Xbox 360 days of Gears, and you know what else is? Cliffy B! Yep, one of the series' legendary creators has been away from Microsoft's famous franchise for years now, but he still likes discussing his heritage when the chance arises, and Cliff's most recent thoughts on the series come from a new podcast talking all-things Gears: E-Day.

Sitting down on the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast, Cliff was asked about Gears of War: E-day, and what he thinks about The Coalition's new direction for the franchise. On the whole, Cliff seems pretty positive about it - and he says that he'll "definitely be picking up E-Day" when it launches.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Sea of sales.

Rare's Sea Of Thieves was probably the most high-profile Xbox game to make the switch to PlayStation 5 earlier in the year, and Microsoft's multiplatform move seems to have paid off for the Xbox owner already.

In a new post over at the PlayStation Blog, Sony has detailed its software sales charts for May 2024, and Rare's pirate adventure tops the list in both the US and Europe. Yep, Sea of Thieves is officially the best-selling PS5 game in both regions for May 2024.

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All aboard the hype train.

Call of Duty is always popular, there's no denying that. Every year that a GTA title doesn't launch the franchise seems to break records, but there appears to be an extra bout of hype behind this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - the first one to launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.

In just four days, the Black Ops 6 gameplay reveal trailer — which debuted during the Xbox Games Showcase — has picked up more than 50 million views on the series' official YouTube channel. That now makes it the most popular Call of Duty trailer of all time, surpassing 2016's Infinite Warfare reveal - which has 46 Million views at the time of writing.

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See how the new game looks alongside the 2002 release.

One of the many highlights of the Xbox Games Showcase this year was Microsoft's new take on a classic strategy series in Age of Mythology: Retold. If you've been wondering about the graphical improvements and upgrades coming in this new version of the game, developer World's Edge has now shared some comparisons during a post-show deep dive.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

It won't be out in 2024, though.

One of the biggest surprises from last year's The Game Awards show was Jurassic Park: Survival, a brand-new single-player FPS set in the famous Dino-filled universe. While its showing was an incredibly early look at the game — as you can see by the above cinematic — this one has lots of promise, and developer Saber Interactive has gone into some more detail on the title this week.

Speaking with IGN, Universal and Saber revealed that players will be "revisiting iconic locations from the 1993 film", including "places that were only implied in the film, but never seen". Here's what Universal's John Melchior said in an internal Q&A session with Saber:

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Included with Game Pass Core and Game Pass Ultimate.

Free Play Days returns once again, and this week we have four Xbox titles in total to try for free over the next few days. Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is leading the charge here - there's absolutely loads to go at within Ubisoft's online co-op shooter.

And here's your full Free Play Days lineup this weekend:

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"We'll share insights on the development process".

Avowed seems to be the major Xbox exclusive that's closest to launching right now - with the game recently getting an accidental November release date before being pulled by developer Obsidian. While the Xbox dev has retracted this date for now, the game is clearly fast approaching launch, with the team now announcing a 'Road to Avowed' livestream series.

Kicking off today at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 10pm BST, the team will "revisit Pillars of Eternity I & II w/ guest devs", sharing Avowed development insights along the way.

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A couple of huge additions to the library!

Microsoft has delivered an Xbox Game Pass refresh today, with two titles being added to the library on June 13. Headlining the pack is 2022's The Callisto Protocol, while BlackMill's WW1 shooter Isonzo has also been added to the service.

Here's a closer look at these two new Xbox Game Pass additions:

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Early access to a major new feature.

If you're a big Palworld fan and you've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of dedicated servers on Xbox, you'll be glad to know that they're arrived... kind of. Although they're not fully available yet, you can still access them as of today!

This is via a new service called the Palworld Update Preview, which provides you with "early access to new features and game updates". We're assuming this also means there's a chance of running into more bugs, but if you're happy to take the risk, the good news is that your existing game saves are compatible with this Update Preview program.

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Console at a later date.

What's that? Another Xbox first-party game confirmed for 2024? Oh, go on then!

This one's a little bit different admittedly, as strategy game Ara: History Untold is launching exclusively on PC when it arrives on September 24, 2024 - with the Xbox console release set to take place at some point in the future.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Arriving in Early Access.

This one's for the PC Game Pass fans! Depersonalization has been added to the PCGP library today as part of its early access rollout, which began all the way back in December 2022 on Steam. It's available to download right now.

Depersonalization is described as a tactical role-playing game that bares a resemblance to Clash of Clans. It debuted to a "Very Positive" average rating on Steam based on over 3,000 reviews, so it sounds like it's worth a download!

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It's supposedly coming out next year!

There was a lot going on at the Xbox Showcase last Sunday including reveals for the likes of Gears of War: E-Day and DOOM: The Dark Ages, so to a degree, the re-reveal of Fable was perhaps a little bit overlooked in general.

But hey, we've got a release window now! Fable is officially expected to release on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S at some point in 2025, and for a game that we've been so hyped about for so long, that's extremely good news.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

As part of Update 9.

Everyone loves a freebie, and Forza Motorsport is giving one away right now! At any time until June 19th, you can grab the Porsche 963 Combo for free, which usually retails at £3.99 / $4.99 on the Xbox Store and Steam.

As part of this combo, you get access to the 2024 Porsche #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 along with a special Porsche Racing Suit, with the latter available via the Driver Customisation Menu. Here's a bit more info about it:

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Rolling out this week to Xbox Series X|S & Xbox One.

The Xbox June 2024 update begins rolling out to all users on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S this week, introducing plenty of new features - some of which we've already highlighted about recently here at Pure Xbox.

Here's a short overview of the Xbox June 2024 update, with more details available at Xbox Wire:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

The complete list of all games.

Xbox Game Pass is already starting to fill up for 2025, and if you're looking for a list of everything coming to Game Pass in 2025, you've come to the right place! Below, we've picked out the complete list of games announced for Xbox Game Pass in 2025 so far, and we'll keep updating this as more are announced ahead of next year.

If you want a list of all the 2024 Xbox Game Pass titles, we've provided that elsewhere on Pure Xbox:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"The landscape of remakes has evolved".

We had a good time watching Ubisoft Forward on Monday (especially the Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed segments), but one bit of disappointing news came in the form of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake.

Don't get us wrong, it's great to hear something about it, but we've been waiting for this game since 2020 - and to hear that it's still another two years away is a bit of a bummer. There's a good reason for it though, as Ubisoft Montreal became the lead development studio on the project back in 2022, taking over from Ubisoft Mumbai and Pune.

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Lifting the veil.

Pure Xbox's Craig Reid has spent the past few days at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, where he's had a chance to preview a series of upcoming Xbox releases. Today, we're sharing his thoughts on a hands-off preview of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which provided a sneak peek at what's to come from BioWare's Fall 2024 RPG.

Our group journeyed into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s preview with EA escorting us to a secluded industrial room that felt like Geoff Keighley’s secret on-site brewery. Once there, we perched our bums upon Summer Game Fest Play Days campus’ comfiest seats (you heard it here first!). We were then briefed by BioWare, who introduced us to the upcoming RPG, followed by a 40-minute gameplay demonstration.

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"Explore a world of elemental spirits and adventure".

Square Enix gave us an in-depth look at Visions of Mana as part of the Xbox Developer Direct earlier this year, and it's finally got a release date! The game will launch for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on August 29, 2024.

If you haven't heard of it, the game is a single-player action-RPG that marks the first mainline entry in the long-running "Mana" series since 2006, and the first to ever release on Xbox. In Visions of Mana, you'll follow a young fighter called Val who's tasked with travelling to the Tree of Mana in order to rejuvenate the flow of mana power.

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It sounds pretty meaty!

Star Wars Outlaws is definitely one of our most-anticipated Xbox titles at the moment, with its release less than three months away, and we've been seeing a whole bunch of great footage from the Ubisoft title over the past few days.

We also now know how long of an experience it'll be. In an interview with VGC, creative director Julian Gerighty confirmed that we're looking at around 25-30 hours, while completionists can expect to double that.

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We believe it.

We've already waxed lyrical about how fantastic this year's Xbox Games Showcase was, with the entire two-hour runtime (or 90-ish minutes if you exclude the Call of Duty bit) providing some amazing reveals that left us in awe.

And apparently, there was more that could have been shown! Kinda Funny Host Parris Lilly, who has appeared on Xbox Showcases in the past, mentioned on Resetera yesterday that he'd spoken to multiple people at Xbox about this:

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Better with friends.

Since its major acquisitions, Xbox has mentioned how studios within its ecosystem would be able to collaborate on projects and generally help each other out. We've already seen this before with some games in the past, and it seems the developer behind State of Decay 3 has also had some assistance crafting the next entry in its zombie-themed survival series.

As highlighted on Xbox Wire, Undead Labs is "collaborating" with the Gears of War developer The Coalition and Avowed creator Obsidian. It's been working with Obsidian on the game's "shared world feature" which will enable "more flexible online co-op" (the teams previously collaborated on Grounded with "shared save technology") and it's called on the expertise of The Coalition to "help harness the power" of Unreal Engine 5.

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We're just getting started.

Just a couple of days ago, a surprise June update for Starfield brought mods to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S for the first time, and we're starting to see some really cool creations being made available for download.

The ones that are getting all the attention right now are skins for Batman and various Star Wars characters, courtesy of the creators Tenebris and radiclown. Examples for Star Wars include Ashoka, Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

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BioWare is back.

After a brief teaser popped up during the Xbox Games Showcase, EA and BioWare have finally lifted the lid on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, following what feels like an age of waiting for the next big BioWare RPG.

Up above, we've got a good 20 minutes of raw Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay ahead of its Fall 2024 launch on Xbox Series X and S. There's everything from combat to traversal, cutscenes to conversations tucked in here, and we have to admit that it's nice to finally get an extended look at this title.

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Just a few months left to play these online!

EA has announced that three more Xbox 360 Battlefield games will be closing their doors in November 2024 - following a swathe of Battlefield closures that happened in late 2023. This time around, the Xbox 360 versions of Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 3 will go offline on November 7th this year.

The first two of these losses don't feel like a huge deal - Battlefield 4 and Hardline both have much-superior Xbox One versions that now run with FPS Boost to boot. Battlefield 3 is the big loss here, as the console version is locked to the Xbox 360 era and will go fully offline on console this November.

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Don't let this one pass you by!

Amidst all the craziness of the Xbox Showcase and everything else over the past few days, it may have completely passed you by that Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends launched on Xbox Game Pass earlier this month, and after spending plenty of hours with it between all of these major events, it's proved the perfect way to unwind.

Rolling Hills essentially uses the Diner Dash formula at its core, as it sees you taking control of a Sushi Bot who's just opened their own restaurant, and your goal with each restaurant service is to serve the right meals while also paying attention to quickness, cleanliness and more. The better you do each time, the better your score ends up being.

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Including early access!

Right, at this point we've spoken at length about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, but that's still more than four months away at this stage. However, the upcoming CoD game will have an open beta — as has become the norm in recent years — and Game Pass users will be able to get early access to this at no extra cost.

One of the big Black Ops 6 pre-order bonuses is early access to the game's open beta, which is expected to go ahead around late August to coincide with the game's big multiplayer reveal event. This year though, if you happen to be a Game Pass subscriber at the time of the beta, you can jump into the early access period at the same time as pre-order players. Lovely stuff!

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It's getting a whole new map for free!

As we outlined in our Xbox Games Showcase predictions prior to the show, we really did think that we might have seen Forza Horizon 6 during this year's event, but as it turns out, Ubisoft's The Crew Motorfest might be the best place for Forza Horizon fans to turn this year.

As part of the developer's Ubisoft Forward update, an entire new map was revealed for The Crew Motorfest. The Hawaiian island of Maui is coming to the game as a completely free addition later this year - adding even more incentive to drop into Ivory Tower's brilliant Forza Horizon-like.

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What an unbelievable lineup!

Well, another Xbox Games Showcase is in the books! Many Xbox fans believe that this year's Showcase was one of the best of all time, and we've definitely got an amazing couple of years ahead when it comes to first-party titles.

As we've highlighted numerous times here at Pure Xbox in the past, Xbox fan Klobrille regularly puts together some fantastic Xbox Studio roadmaps, and we've got another one following the conclusion of the Showcase earlier this week.

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"That's the game we're going to build".

Gears of War: E-Day seems to be a real throwback to the old days of Gears, with developer The Coalition channelling what Epic Games did all those years ago in building a dark, gritty third-person shooter. It's a huge pivot away from what the team was building with Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 - and a couple of fresh interviews further detail the gulf between The Coalition's last mainline release and this new effort.

Speaking with IGN, E-Day's Creative Director Matt Searcy says that the team focused on what fans remembered the most from their experiences with Gears of War. Searcy says that "these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments" are what players remember most.

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From Phil Spencer's interview this past Sunday.

On Sunday, Xbox boss Phil Spencer conducted an interview with IGN about a variety of topics, and during the conversation, he mentioned how he didn't want to do "slimy platform things" to force a certain way of playing games.

Here's the exact quote from the conversation, which focused on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 specifically:

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As Microsoft introduces another 1TB model.

During the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft unveiled a fresh lineup of console revisions for Holiday 2024, including a new 1TB model of Xbox Series S. This new version of the Series S looks identical to the existing 512GB model that launched in 2020 - and it appears to be phasing out 2023's Carbon Black model.

Yep, last year Microsoft already introduced a 1TB Series S into its Xbox console lineup, but it was only available in the Carbon Black format. However, once these three new systems arrive later this year, the black Series S will apparently be discontinued.

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She doesn't "believe in living in fear".

Xbox has been through a rough patch recently with the closure of four studios. If you are wondering how other developers at Xbox are feeling about this, Obsidian's Avowed director Carrie Patel has now shared some thoughts.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Patel mentioned how she didn't "believe in living in fear", when games require developers to be "so invested in the creative process" and feels "a strong sense of security" thanks to its history:

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Activision confirms.

In case you missed, yesterday Call of Duty fans voiced their concerns when pre-order page listings for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 suggested the title would require a huge download of around 300GB.

There were some suggestions this was factoring in the "entire" Call of Duty app, and Activision has now officially confirmed this. As for the file size of Black Ops 6, the "actual estimation" of this will be available closer to launch, and you won't have to download other titles or language packs.

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"Another push for curated paid mods".

During the Xbox Showcase this week, Bethesda announced the arrival of its new Starfield update adding 'Creations', new Trackers Alliance missions, and much more.

While it was celebrated as exciting news, this update appears to have upset some players - with multiple complaints about paid 'Creations' and 'Trackers Alliance' missions surfacing online.

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Missed the event? Here's a recap.

Missed the Ubisoft Forward 2024 event earlier today? No worries! You can always go back and watch the on-demand version elsewhere on Pure Xbox, and we've also detailed all the important reveals in this article.

The following list is everything Xbox-related that was revealed during the stream:

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Feudal Japan awaits.

After first being revealed almost two years ago now, we have today seen an extended look at Assassin's Creed Shadows; Ubisoft's first current-gen-only AC title. The series has looked bloody good for a while, but Shadows is really singing with Xbox Series X|S-level hardware now the full focus of the team.

That is very much in evidence up above - Assassin's Creed fans, you'll probably want to check this one out! As was already revealed in the weeks leading up to the show, Shadows launches for Xbox Series X|S on November 15th, 2024 - and here's some fresh info on what you'll be playing on Xbox later this year:

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Give us your verdict.

The dust is now beginning to settle on the Ubisoft Forward 2024 Showcase!

If you haven't had a chance to watch it yet, you can catch the full thing over at our live coverage page, and we've also provided a recap of everything that happened as part of the show.

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PC and console day-and-date!

During this week's Ubisoft Forward event, the team has officially announced 'Anno 117: Pax Romana', the next instalment in its long-running City Builder series. This was a very early look at the title ahead of next year's launch (purely cinematic), but we do have quite a lot of information on what to expect from this Roman Empire-themed Anno title.

Without further ado, here's how Ubisoft sets up Anno 117: Pax Romana:

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The Lost Crown is also getting new DLC.

At Ubisoft Forward today, it was announced that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (the remake) will now officially be launching in 2026. This is the first time it's received a proper release window in multiple years.

Obviously it's a shame we've been waiting so long for its arrival, but at least we now know when to expect it!

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10 minutes of new footage.

We're definitely counting down the days to the launch of Star Wars Outlaws on Xbox this August, and Ubisoft has provided a lengthy deep dive into gameplay as part of Ubisoft Forward today that has left us more excited than ever.

In the "Official Gameplay Showcase" we get a look at Tatooine exploration for the first time, along with plenty of space combat. The gameplay seems smooth, the visuals are excellent, and ultimately we think the game is shaping up incredibly well! There's also another new video (the "Official Game Overview") that you can watch below.

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"Monopoly is back".

At today's Ubisoft Forward showcase, it was announced that a new version of Monopoly is coming to Xbox consoles this September! It's said to feature a "fresh look and an improved game experience" compared to 2014's Monopoly Plus.

We'll throw more details about this new Monopoly game below, and you can watch the trailer above.

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We hope you can choose this on the fly!

In the wake of the Xbox Games Showcase this weekend, we're starting to see additional trailers and info dumps land for some of the titles shown off during the livestream - and the Official Xbox Podcast has just dropped a pretty huge deep dive on Obsidian's upcoming RPG Avowed.

In the video up above, the Xbox team sits down to discuss lots of juicy details on Avowed - but one small snippet of gameplay has us the most intrigued. As one of the clips slows down to an in-game camp area, whoever's playing seems to switch to a third-person viewpoint briefly - in a similar fashion to Bethesda RPGs where the player can choose between first and third-person cameras.

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The final major event of this crazy few days!

It's been a very busy few days in the world of gaming, and we're finishing things off with a Ubisoft Forward showcase today! Today, we're expecting plenty of news on the likes of Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Star Wars: Outlaws and more.

"Ubisoft Forward kicks off on June 10, offering up exclusive looks at Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, XDefiant, and more."

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The Beautiful Game gets even better.

As if Football Manager wasn't incredible enough, SEGA has announced today that ahead of Football Manager 2025's release later this year, the game has acquired a four-year license to the English Premier League.

This means that going forward, every EPL team in Football Manager will be fully licensed with official logos, kits, and player photos, and that'll apply across all versions of the game including PC and Xbox. Here's what Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at FM developer Sports Interactive, had to say about the announcement today:

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Embark on three wild episodes of Night Springs.

Alan Wake 2 was big, bold, stylish and just a fantastic rollercoaster ride from start to finish last year, so you can bet your bottom dollar that we've been all over Alan Wake 2: Night Springs since it was basically shadow-dropped right after Summer Game Fest 2024. Night Springs brings together three individual episodes into the first half of Alan Wake 2's Deluxe Edition DLC plan - and it's every bit as weird and wonderful as the base game is.

One thing you can cross off that introduction in regards to the DLC is 'big', though. Two of these episodes clock in at around 45 minutes long, while the third one is a good hour or so - so we're talking about two and a half hours total gameplay with Night Springs. When you consider that this half of the DLC plan is less than £10 though, you can't really go wrong with another chunk of Alan Wake 2 at that price, even if we'd have liked to spend more time with it!

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What an unbelievable show!

Xbox fans, we weren't dreaming last night, were we? Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase really did go that well, yeah? Because my word, that felt like the best summer showcase we've seen in years - not only for how slick the whole presentation was from top to bottom, but also for the calibre of reveals and the E3-of-old excitement those reveals brought to the Pure Xbox offices yesterday.

Let's run things back for a minute. It's been a rough few months for Xbox fans, with Microsoft's recent studio closures and at-times confusing messaging around multiplatform releases putting a damper on things recently. It's not been all bad, Developer Direct back in January was solid, and Xbox Game Pass keeps on trucking, but it's not been the easiest few months to be an Xbox fan, put it that way.

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The base game is included in the service.

Yesterday's big Xbox Games Showcase delivered the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch date - with the new Call of Duty title arriving like clockwork in late October 2024. However, this is the first year that CoD launches day one on Game Pass, and that means that fans have the opportunity to effectively upgrade the game without having to outright purchase Black Ops 6.

Yep, alongside yesterday's launch date news, Activision has set all of the pre-orders live for Black Ops 6's various different editions. Included in that list is the game's 'Vault Edition Upgrade', which can be combined with standard Xbox Game Pass access for Black Ops 6. The upgrade costs £30 / $30, and here's what's included:

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Including some Game Pass titles!

Just after the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 ended yesterday, the good folks over at PC Gamer held the PC Gaming Show 2024 - and it featured plenty of Xbox games including some upcoming Xbox Game Pass titles!

Some of the highlights here include a new Cities: Skylines-style football game called Copa City, a Game Pass reveal in the form of Star Trucker along with an early 2025 window for Citizen Sleeper 2, and the launch trailer for June's much-anticipated Still Wakes The Deep!

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Someone made a mistake here!

As expected, we were treated to a fresh look at Obsidian's Avowed at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 yesterday, but the trailer didn't come with any kind of release date beyond just "2024". Now though, it seems we've got one!

Following the event, Obsidian accidentally mentioned a release date of November 12th, 2024 for Avowed on the company's official website, before removing it shortly afterwards. Here's a look at the proof:

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"We just see that as a benefit to the franchises we're building".

In case you missed it, during a chat about DOOM: The Dark Ages with IGN, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer snuck in a brief comment about more of Xbox's games going to "more platforms" in the future.

Unsurprisingly, it's raised some eyebrows on social media and other corners of the internet. Here's the quote, which is open to interpretation, although it does follow his explanation about why the new DOOM game is going to the PlayStation 5:

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Following a report late last year.

Fable developer Playground Games has already called on the assistance of some other parties, and following the latest trailer it's now been confirmed Eidos Montreal is helping out.

The studio made it official on social media with the following message earlier on, mentioning how it's been "supporting" development of Fable:

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"To deliver the highest-quality visuals" and reduce storage space.

Xbox kicked off its latest showcase with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, confirming the game will arrive on Series X|S this October.

Since then, some other details have surfaced, and the official game website has now made it clear an internet connection will be required to play the game. While this might not seem like a big deal, it will apparently come with some benefits.

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Phil: "Speed it up, Todd".

Bethesda's portfolio was featured throughout the latest Xbox showcase, but one title (unsurprisingly) missing was The Elder Scrolls 6.

While all the focus for Todd Howard is on Fallout right now, IGN Live attempted to get a status update from Microsoft's Gaming CEO Phil Spencer about this anticipated title. While Spencer is certainly in the know and seems somewhat excited, it appears he can't say anything right now.

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The 'Vessel of Hatred' expansion will arrive this October.

We've already heard a little bit about Diablo 4's growth since its debut on Xbox Game Pass at the end of March, and today during IGN's Live segment, the game's production director Tiffany Wat spoke about how Microsoft's subscription service boosted player numbers.

She described it as "incredible" and can't wait for more players to join in on the fun when the first expansion Vessel of Hatred arrives on 8th October 2024.

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"When everybody plays, we all win".

There's not been the most positive press surrounding Xbox's future in the console hardware business this year, but according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, the amount of users playing on Xbox console platforms right now is historic:

"What I can say sitting here today, from our decisions on cloud, on Game Pass, on console, right now we have more Xbox console users than we've ever had in the history of Xbox."

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Marty Stratton played a part.

One of the major highlights during the Xbox showcase this year was the official reveal of DOOM: The Dark Ages for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Although Bethesda and id Software are now operating under Microsoft's gaming division, it's also been for PlayStation 5. If you're wondering what's up with that, Phil Spencer has now chimed in, explaining how a previous chat with studio director Marty Stratton ensured it would remain available to "everyone".

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He says the ability to play the game locally would be "very important".

Xbox today revealed some new versions of existing hardware, but there was no mention of any "handheld" system despite ongoing rumours.

If you are wondering what's going on there, during the same chat with IGN, Xbox's Phil Spencer has kind of acknowledged these rumours. While he didn't want to say or reveal anything specific, generally speaking, he thinks the "future" for Xbox in hardware is going to be "pretty awesome".

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"The closure of any team is hard".

Xbox has just wrapped up another showcase and while the general vibe is rather positive right now, it hasn't been quite as rosy so far this year for Microsoft's gaming division.

During a post-show chat with IGN, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was asked about the "recent studio closures" admitting it was "hard" decision to make, but reiterating how it's all about running a "sustainable business". Here's exactly what he had to say:

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A surprise update alongside the Xbox Showcase!

Following today's Xbox Games Showcase 2024 and the reveal of a trailer for Starfield's upcoming Shattered Space DLC, the game has also received a free update across all platforms in which some major new features have been added.

The big highlight here is the arrival of community-made "Creations" on Xbox, allowing you to download all kinds of modifications for your game across Series X and Series S. A few are already live, and there's plenty more to come!

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A low-key highlight of the Xbox Showcase.

We saw a whole bunch of amazing upcoming Xbox Game Pass titles at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 today, and that definitely includes the Fallout-like Atomfall, which is being worked on by the Sniper Elite team at Rebellion.

Atomfall will be launching for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in 2025, and it takes the form of a survival-action game where you'll "explore, scavenge, craft, barter and fight your way" through a British countryside that has been devastated by a nuclear disaster.

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Rally the Veilguard.

Late last week, the team at BioWare re-introduced its next Dragon Age title as Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and today's Xbox Games Showcase delivered a fresh trailer ahead of EA's big gameplay reveal later in the week.

This new look at The Veilguard was a pretty brief one, but clearly, the team at BioWare is putting a huge emphasis on its new companions and what you'll all be getting up to in the studio's latest Dragon Age epic later this year.

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"The Zone is what you consider it to be".

There's been so much happening today at the Xbox Games Showcase that Stalker 2 has kinda been overlooked, but it still remains one of the most highly-anticipated Xbox Game Pass titles of 2024 - especially after watching this trailer.

And yes, Stalker 2 is still scheduled to launch on September 5th, 2024 for Series X, Series S and PC!

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"We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5".

Well, the announcement for Gears of War: E-Day is officially out in the wild, and if you can't tell yet - we're quite excited to see Gears go back to its roots. Developer The Coalition says that the opportunity to tell "such an iconic origin story was simply too great to ignore", and to be honest, we agree! However, the team is adamant that the 'new' Gears saga developed in the Xbox One era hasn't been totally abandoned.

Some fresh comments on this new direction for Gears have dropped via Xbox Wire, and the full article is certainly worth a read if you want to be all clued up on Gears: E-Day. This part is sticking out to us in particular though; where the team explains its decision to move away from the Gears of War 4 / Gears 5 storyline:

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Another first-party Game Pass release.

We've been waiting on a date for Age of Mythology: Retold for a while now, and we've finally got one! As revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, this RTS game is coming to Xbox Series X, Series S and PC on September 4th, 2024!

You can check out the brand-new trailer up above, and we'll throw more details down below.

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"Evolved and more immersive than ever".

One of the non-Game Pass related highlights from the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 today came in the form of a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which is heading to Series X and Series S at some point in the future.

Plenty of gameplay clips were sprinkled into the "Official Trailer #1" you see up above, and we're sure you'll agree that Metal Gear Solid 3 has never looked this good! Let's hope this remake plays just as well as the 2004 original.

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Carefully curated for PlayStation.

As you probably saw earlier this evening, Xbox and Bethesda just announced the much-rumoured DOOM: The Dark Ages - with id Software's prequel blasting onto Xbox Game Pass next year. We of course knew that the title would come to Microsoft's subscription service at launch, however, we've also now had confirmation that the game will release on PS5 day-and-date in 2025.

This is the next announcement in Microsoft's push to a more multiplatform future, following the early 2024 releases of Grounded, Hi-Fi RUSH, Pentiment and Sea Of Thieves on various other platforms. DOOM is clearly the biggest name amongst this list though - hinting that major franchises are certainly on the table for a multiplatform launch.

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Here's a closer look at each of them.

Today's Xbox Games Showcase 2024 event treated us to a massive selection of Xbox Game Pass titles, many of which we'd never heard about until today! Those are the Game Pass titles we're focusing on in this article — eight of them in all — although we're also highlighting some of the previously confirmed titles that now have new dates as well.

Below, you'll find the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, DOOM: The Dark Ages and Gears of War: E-Day. This list doesn't include every Game Pass title from the show though - games like Perfect Dark and State of Decay 3 have been left out for now (as we've heard about them before and they don't have a release window as of yet).

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Missed the event? Here's a recap.

Weren't able to catch the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 event earlier today? No worries! You can always go back and watch the on-demand version for yourself, which you'll find elsewhere on Pure Xbox.

If you don't want to watch it all the way through, we've also detailed all the important reveals in this article.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Give us your verdict.

The dust is now beginning to settle on the Xbox Games Showcase 2024!

If you haven't had a chance to watch it yet, you can catch the full thing over at our live coverage page, and we've also provided a recap of everything that happened as part of the show.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

We're going back to the roots!

Gears is back, and the series is returning to its roots! Yep, the next mainline GoW title is called 'Gears of War: E-Day', and it features classic characters Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago for an "origin story of one of gaming's most acclaimed sagas."

Developing...

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Two of them all-digital.

At today's Xbox Games Showcase 2024, it was announced that three new versions of the Xbox Series X|S consoles are coming to market in the near future, including an all-digital version of the Xbox Series X.

The three models are as follows:

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No date yet.

We're still waiting on a release date for Obsidian's Avowed after today's Xbox Games Showcase, but at least we've got a new glimpse at it! Above, you can check out the official "Story Trailer" featuring a mix of in-game footage and cinematics.

Developing...

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A globetrotting adventure on Game Pass.

Machine Games is firing on all cylinders with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and a fresh deep dive gameplay demo has us extremely excited for this globetrotting adventure. Expect to be going hands on with this new Indy adventure on Xbox in 2024, and in the meantime, we certainly recommend giving the above trailer a good watch!

Developing...

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An incredible game gets even better.

As part of the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 today, it was announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is officially heading to Xbox Series X, Series S and PC on November 19th, 2024, bringing a whole bunch of new features to the experience.

You can check out the official trailer (with a rundown of those new features) up above.

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Fable has a release window!

Playground Games has certainly gone in a different direction from Forza Horizon with its upcoming Fable reboot, but we're totally here for it. As part of the Xbox Games Showcase, the British developer gave us another fresh look at the title - featuring all the snarky humour you'd expect from the series.

More than that, Fable has an actual launch window! Yep, the team's new Xbox Series X|S reboot lands on Xbox Game Pass in 2025. Here's what you can expect to explore in this big old open-world RPG:

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Long time no see!

Today's Xbox Games Showcase gave us a surprise in the form of a new trailer for the Perfect Dark reboot! As you can see up above, the trailer features plenty of gameplay footage, although there's no release date or window for now.

Developing...

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Another Xbox exclusive!

Remember South of Midnight from Compulsion Games? The bayou-inspired Xbox title got its big reveal last year - and now we have actual gameplay and a confirmed release window!

Yep, the We Happy Few developer is bringing the game day one to Xbox Game Pass in 2025, and we've dropped the team's new trailer up above. Here's a bit more about the studio's ambition with South of Midnight:

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Plus a new update goes live today!

It didn't get a date at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 today, but Bethesda did reveal an official trailer for Starfield's much-anticipated Shattered Space DLC! Better yet, a free update is also coming to Starfield with new content today.

Developing...

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Coming soon!

Gosh, it's been a while but State of Decay 3 is back! Yep, Xbox's open-world zombie sequel has re-emerged after almost four years of radio silence - and it's looking like development has come along nicely since.

Up above, we've got a brand-new look at the game from developer Undead Labs, who themselves have undergone some major changes over the last few years. They've got a brand new logo and a fresh mission statement, as the first-party team enters "a new era" over at Microsoft.

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We are so ready for this!

As part of the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 today, it's been announced that DOOM: The Dark Ages will be coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC and Xbox Game Pass in 2025! You can watch the reveal trailer up above.

Developing...

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Just a few months to go!

We already know that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, and now we have a launch date! Yep, the next Black Ops title arrives for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on October 25th, 2024.

Developing...

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The biggest event of 2024 for Xbox fans!

The Xbox Games Showcase 2024 has arrived! This marks the biggest event of the year for Xbox fans, with around two hours' worth of reveals and updates coming our way from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision and others.

"This will mark the first Xbox Showcase featuring games from our portfolio of studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios, not to mention our incredible third-party partners. Plus, the Showcase will be immediately followed by a deep-dive into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6."

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"Join up now".

If you've been hanging out for a new Starship Troopers experience on Xbox Series X|S, it's today been announced that Starship Troopers: Extermination will exit its early access phase on October 11, 2024.

This title offers up "pulse-pounding" 16-player co-op first-person shooter action, where you'll join an elite squad and fight against the "bug menace" to save humanity. The latest update on the game also mentions how Casper Van Dien will return as Johnny Rico.

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There were plenty of them!

Today has brought us a few different gaming events including the Future Games Show "Summer Showcase", which was a two-hour extravaganza featuring a whole host of titles that have already been confirmed for Xbox.

So, we've gathered all the trailers below - it's going to take you a while to get through all of them! Some of the highlights for us include new DREDGE DLC, a reveal for Deliver Us Home, a deep dive on The Casting of Frank Stone, and a gameplay trailer (along with an August release date) for the GTA-like The Precinct!

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The two events following the SGF Showcase.

Immediately following yesterday's Summer Game Fest 2024 Showcase were two more showcases in the form of Day of the Devs 2024 and Devolver Direct 2024. We don't blame you if you missed either of these — that's a lot of footage to watch in one day (!) — but fortunately we managed to catch all the Xbox-specific reveals from the two shows.

So, down below you'll find everything Xbox-related from Day of the Devs and Devolver Direct this year. We didn't see specific platforms for certain games, so some of those haven't made the roundup either.

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Some early predictions!

What's leaving Xbox Game Pass in July 2024? Well, Microsoft hasn't confirmed anything just yet, but based on some games that were added to the service this time last year, we can at least make a few predictions ahead of time.

We know that a lot of Xbox users want more advance notice of games leaving Xbox Game Pass, but Microsoft understandably gives us around two weeks right now - and don't forget, publishers sometimes secure late deals with Microsoft to keep their games on Game Pass, even after they've been announced to be leaving!

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It's not Premier League quality yet though.

This weekend marks the very first open beta for new free-to-play football/soccer game UFL on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and after years' worth of hype, we've been very excited to get stuck in over the past 24 hours. For too long now, the FIFA/EA Sports FC series and Konami's PES/eFootball offerings have dominated the market, and UFL has been showing serious intent to offer a viable competitor in the free-to-play space.

So, how has it turned out? Well, to begin with, let me state that football games are my number one passion when it comes to gaming in general. I've been playing them since I was four years old, I have more knowledge about them than any other type of game, and I have a tendency to be very critical when I don't like something! Konami's decision to discontinue the Pro Evolution Soccer series after 2021 and replace it with eFootball was something that left a very bad taste in my mouth, and PES 2021 with mods (on PC) is still my preferred way to play footie games these days.

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Including a major new release from ATLUS!

Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for June 10-14! Hopefully we might have a few more to add after the Xbox Games Showcase this Sunday, but for now, the big release of next week is Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance!

Here's what's coming to Xbox next week:

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It's Xbox Games Showcase weekend!

Welcome to the biggest weekend of the year for Xbox fans! Alongside the Xbox Games Showcase taking place this Sunday, we've got new Game Pass titles to try, some Free Play Days offerings and a huge Xbox Deals Unlocked Sale!

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

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Join the hunt on Xbox Series X|S in 2025.

Following a new look at Monster Hunter Wilds recently, Capcom has now followed up its first trailer with a second one titled 'The Hunter's Journey'.

It's a brief blend of cinematic and in-game footage, teasing fans of the series with a variety of monsters they can expect to encounter in the new game. This title will arrive at some point on the Xbox Series X|S in 2025.

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The next-gen UE5 looter-shooter is almost here.

Nexon's upcoming "next-gen" looter shooter has finally confirmed it will be launching on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and multiple other platforms on 2nd July 2024.

"The First Descendant is a next generation third-person co-op action RPG shooter (looter shooter) featuring high-quality graphics developed using Unreal Engine 5. It presents fun strategic boss fights through 4-player co-op, various unique characters, exciting gunplay, and looting."

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Pre-orders now available.

Bandai Namco has officially locked in a release date for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO announcing it will be released on Xbox Series X|S and multiple other platforms on 11th October 2024.

In case you missed our previous coverage, this game is part of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and promises to ignite a whole "new level of power" in the ultimate showdown. Pre-orders are now available, and as part of this is a special bonus including "early-unlocks" of six characters.

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Including a July date for Capcom's Path of the Goddess!

We were keeping a close eye out for Xbox Game Pass news at today's Summer Game Fest 2024 Showcase, but ultimately we only spotted two reveals to bring your attention to - although they're both pretty awesome ones!

The big news here is that Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is coming to Xbox Game Pass as soon as July 19th, 2024, arriving day one on the service. The other is a massive new update for Palworld on Xbox this June.

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Missed the event? Here's a recap.

Weren't able to catch the Summer Game Fest 2024 event earlier today? No worries! You can always go back and watch the on-demand version for yourself, which you'll find elsewhere on Pure Xbox.

If you don't want to watch it all the way through, we've also detailed all the important reveals in this article. Keep in mind that our list excludes PlayStation announcements for the likes of LEGO Horizon Adventures and Phantom Blade Zero.

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Give us your verdict.

The dust is now beginning to settle on the Summer Game Fest 2024 Showcase!

If you haven't had a chance to watch it yet, you can catch the full thing over at our live coverage page, and we've also provided a recap of everything that happened as part of the show.

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"Forge your destiny".

It's been announced today that Amazon's open-world RPG New World: Aeternum will be coming to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on October 15th, 2024. In fact, pre-orders are already live right now on the Xbox Store!

Until now, the original New World has always been exclusive to PC, so this marks the IP's debut on consoles.

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A beta is coming next week!

After being out on PC for a good four years or so at this point, Riot Games' VALORANT is finally making the leap to console, including Xbox Series X and S. Yep, the team's super-popular hero shooter will be available on Xbox in 2024, and we have a beta to look forward to very soon indeed.

While we don't have a specific launch date for the full game right now, Riot is dropping a limited-time VALORANT console beta on June 14th. The beta will be available to players in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe and Japan from that date - with a "possible" global rollout to follow, depending on how things go.

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Welcome to Night Springs.

Update (Fri, 11:30pm): Well, it's official! The Alan Wake 2 Night Springs expansion is coming to Xbox Series X|S tomorrow, June 8th! We'll drop Remedy's reveal trailer for the new add-on up above.

"Step into the world of Night Springs.

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Welcome to Night Springs.

Update (Fri, 11:30pm): Well, it's official! The Alan Wake 2 Night Springs expansion is coming to Xbox Series X|S tomorrow, June 8th! We'll drop Remedy's reveal trailer for the new add-on up above.

"Step into the world of Night Springs.

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SEGA revealed the title earlier this year.

Update: It's now been revealed as part of Summer Game Fest 2024 that Sonic X Shadow Generations will be releasing for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on October 25, 2024. In other words, the leak was correct!

You can check out the new trailer up above along with a few more details about the game down below.

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Not for the faint-hearted.

We might be missing out on the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake over on Xbox, but Slitterhead is here to fill that gap! Yep, some of the minds behind Konami's famous horror franchise are splitting off to make Slitterhead later this year.

The game is confirmed for Xbox Series X|S, and we have an official release date of November 8th, 2024. You can check out the title's gameplay debut up above - we think Slitterhead is looking pretty good so far and it's nice to see it release so soon!

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An all-new adventure with an original storyline.

Digital Eclipse has announced today as part of Summer Game Fest 2024 that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind will be coming to Xbox in late 2024, taking players on an "all-new adventure with an original storyline".

From what we can tell, this appears to be coming to Xbox One along with Xbox Series X and Series S.

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"Delta Force is back".

Since its announcement last year, Delta Force: Hawk Ops has been getting quite a bit of attention, and the game has just debuted proper campaign gameplay today ahead of its upcoming Xbox release.

That campaign snippet happens towards the end of the above trailer - but the whole clip is definitely worth watching to get a taste of what Delta Force is bringing to the table. For you PC players, the game's multiplayer component is also getting an Alpha test this July.

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"We apologize for the delay".

We've got some sad news to report coming out of Summer Game Fest 2024, as the highly-anticipated Black Myth: Wukong has suffered a delay that's exclusive to Xbox Series X and S, with all other versions still launching this August.

The team says that it hopes to minimise the wait for Xbox owners, but there's no target date as of yet:

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Day and date with PC!

During Summer Game Fest 2024, Firaxis Games has revealed the latest Civ game! Yep, Civilization VII is launching in 2025, and an Xbox Series X|S version is coming day and date with PC.

Up above is the game's first teaser trailer - ahead of a full reveal coming later in the summer. We'll drop a brief introduction to the game down below:

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"Live your Quidditch fantasy".

We've got a date for the Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions game! As revealed at Summer Game Fest 2024, this new take on the Hogwarts sport will be coming to all consoles (including Xbox) on September 3rd, 2024.

It was also confirmed during the show that the game will be launching on PlayStation Plus this September, but there's no sign of an Xbox Game Pass release for now. We also don't know what the price will be at the time of writing.

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"A faithful restoration of the cult classic".

If you're as old as us, you'll probably remember a game called "The Thing" on the original Xbox back in 2002, and today, it's been announced that the geniuses at Nightdive Studios (Quake 2, System Shock Remake, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster) are giving it the remastered treatment for modern consoles this year!

There's no date for this one just yet, but we know that it's definitely coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and will feature up to 4K, 120FPS visuals along with lots of other visual improvements across the board.

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Let's kick off the weekend in style!

It's finally time for Summer Game Fest! A busy weekend of major showcases begins today with the Summer Game Fest 2024 livestream, which is set to provide new announcements, trailers and updates across a two-hour event.

"Live from YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, see what's next in video games at #SUMMERGAMEFEST. A 2 hour live showcase featuring updates from the world's top game development studios."

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As per fresh PS Store leak.

Things are starting to hot up as we approach Summer Game Fest and the Xbox Games Showcase this weekend, and another leak today has all-but confirmed that Amazon's New World MMO is coming to consoles soon.

As spotted on the PlayStation Store before being removed, a 'sponsored' banner appeared for 'New World: Aeternum' on PS5. Of course, at the moment the open-world MMO is only out on PC - but we'd assume that this banner briefly went live a little earlier than planned.

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We are READY.

Okay, so, at this point we're all pretty much expecting a massive Activision Blizzard Xbox Game Pass drop to happen in and around the Xbox Games Showcase this weekend, and another few hints at such an event have cropped up online today.

First off, as part of Microsoft's new 'Next Week On Xbox' roundup, the team has revealed that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 will be added to the Microsoft Store on PC for June 11th. This sort of thing typically means that a PC Game Pass drop is imminent - the game has been available on other PC platforms for some time now.

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Adds an outfit selector!

The latest patch for Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered has now landed, and it contains some pretty major features and updates for Xbox players. The team is "improving combat" when using the modern control scheme in this latest patch - and it's also added a new Outfit Selector option amongst a bunch of other fixes and changes.

Update 3 is now live for Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered on Xbox, and here are the full patch notes direct from developer Aspyr:

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"Gone but not forgotten".

Indie publisher New Blood Interactive has created a fitting tribute to some of the major game developers the industry has lost in recent months - with Bethesda's Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin studios included in the heartfelt message.

The tribute has appeared on a digital billboard in LA, just as Summer Game Fest is kicking into gear in that part of the world. Alongside these two Xbox studios, OlliOlli developer Roll7, Saints Row maker Volition and Sony's London Studio are also featured.

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This should be much simpler moving forward!

If you head over to the "Subscriptions" tab in the Settings menu on your Xbox console, you'll sometimes find that certain tasks can't be performed via this menu directly, and you end up getting redirected to a browser instead.

Xbox is working to remedy this however, with a new update allowing you to change your subscription's plan or update the recurring billing status via your console. This should make the process much easier and less time consuming.

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Xbox One X is lagging well behind.

It's no secret that this generation's 'cross-gen' period is much extended in comparison to previous console cycles - massive games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are still launching this year on Xbox One. However, as we approach that four-year mark for Xbox Series X|S, Digital Foundry has decided to have another look at how modern Xbox One games are holding up these days.

And the results are quite fascinating, to be honest. Now, this video is solely focused on Xbox One X and how those versions stack up to Series S - the team hasn't gone back to the base Xbox One here. Even so, DF is confident across the board in saying that Xbox Series S provides a far superior experience in 2024 - even as Microsoft's budget current-gen console.

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Soar through beautiful landscapes.

Can you keep up with all these Xbox Game Pass announcements at the moment?! We've got another one to share today, as Annapurna Interactive's Flock has been revealed as coming to the service on July 16, 2024.

This one's been earmarked for Game Pass for a while, and it takes the form of a multiplayer co-op experience in which you'll recruit flying creatures to your flock while exploring beautiful landscapes either alone or with a friend.

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Watching alone? With friends? In a cinema? Tell us!

Every year, we circle that one date on the calendar in which the Xbox Games Showcase delivers countless announcements, Game Pass reveals, updates, trailers and much more, and this year it falls on Sunday, June 9th.

Based on the rumours we've been seeing, it sounds like Xbox has another fantastic event in store for us, and we're assuming the vast majority of Xbox fans will be making plans to view the show in some form this weekend.

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Lead your Nation.

We're mighty glad the Xbox Showcase and all the other June 2024 showcases are taking place this weekend, because next weekend, we're going to be too busy watching everything that UEFA Euro 2024 has to offer.

If you're in the same boat as us, you'll probably be glad to know that EA Sports FC 24 now has a free Euro 2024 mode featuring all the licenses you'd expect along with online and offline friendlies, a tournament mode, a Lead your Nation mode and, of course, plenty of Ultimate Team integration.

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Sega revealed the title earlier this year.

It looks like a release date, box art and new screenshots for Sonic X Shadow Generations have potentially leaked ahead of Summer Game Fest.

According to 'billbil-kun' of Dealabs, the remaster of this title will apparently launch this October, with the physical release expected to be priced at $49 USD for all platforms.

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FNAF, Yooka-Laylee and much more!

Today's Guerrilla Collective 2024 Showcase has just ended, lasting around three hours in total, and it treated us to some pretty big reveals during that time! You can watch the full thing for yourself up above if you want to, but in this article, we thought we'd pick out just a few announcements that particularly took our interest.

All of the following games are confirmed to be coming to Xbox at some point in the future:

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First-party releases, PS5 ports & more.

It's that time of year, isn't it? The time of year when there's never a quiet moment for news - when you've done an entire day's work and then a massive report about Xbox's plans for 2024 and beyond suddenly appears on the interwebs.

Not that we're complaining! This report, courtesy of The Verge's Tom Warren, has revealed that Xbox is apparently working on some kind of Halo: Combat Evolved remaster - and there's plenty of other good stuff in here as well.

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Oh my goodness me.

Just as we thought all eyes were now on the Xbox Games Showcase this weekend, a megaton report from The Verge drops on us, containing details about a Halo remaster with a potential multiplatform release plan.

Yep, according to the outlet's reporter Tom Warren, Microsoft is spooling up plans to remaster Halo: Combat Evolved for the current generation - and it's even reportedly considering a PS5 release. Warren is quick to note that it's "early days for this remaster", and that its planned platforms are still to be determined.

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"A poetic coming-of-age story".

We've been sitting and waiting for Xbox to give us some Xbox Game Pass goodness for June 2024 over the past few weeks, and today we've suddenly been treated to it! Not only did Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2 arrive on the service a few hours ago, but we also know of multiple games arriving in the middle of the month.

Let's not stop there though! According to Xbox leaker eXtas1s on Twitter, we'll also be getting either Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl or its sequel on Game Pass before the end of the month, along with the PlayStation exclusive Tchia.

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And it's about to get a huge reveal.

Almost four years after teasing 'Dragon Age 4' at The Game Awards 2020, EA and BioWare are about to re-reveal the game - and it has a brand-new title. The highly-anticipated Dragon Age sequel is now called Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and we're getting a big gameplay reveal very soon.

In a new blog post over at the EA developer's website, executive producer Gary McKay dug a little deeper into the reasoning behind the team's name change. In short, as the game progressed and its characters became more integral to the experience, BioWare wanted to rename the game to better reflect its overall direction.

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And there are rumours of a Director's Cut...

Hogwarts Legacy fans, today's your day! The official Summer 2024 Update is now live on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, introducing a few new features including a Photo Mode along with plenty of bug fixes.

As we mentioned recently, this update also brings the Haunted Shop Mission to all versions of Hogwarts Legacy on Xbox - it was previously exclusive to PlayStation alone. Some of the exclusive cosmetics have also been brought over.

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Killing squad.

Right around the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, publisher Warner Bros. announced that the live service title had led to disappointing results for the team, at least initially. Of course, being direct from the horse's mouth, WB was quite vague on the matter, but a new report from respected journalist Jason Schreier has gone into detail about just how much of a flop Kill the Justice League has seemingly been.

In a new report over at Bloomberg, Schreier says that development has lead to a "$200 million loss on Suicide Squad" over at WB HQ, while the report also goes on to detail accounts from employees who were "surprised when they first arrived at the offices to learn that they would be working on a multiplayer game".

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The Callisto Protocol joins the lineup!

Microsoft has just revealed a fresh batch of Xbox Game Pass titles for June 2024, which includes the likes of the 2022 survival horror game The Callisto Protocol and the highly-anticipated day one release of Still Wakes The Deep!

Don't forget that Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2 have been added to Xbox Game Pass today as well:

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All the information for Friday's showcase.

E3 may be no more, but Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest has basically taken over - gathering up a bunch of summertime gaming events for us all to enjoy. Under this umbrella is the official Summer Game Fest livestream, which effectively kicks off all of the big showcases taking place over the next few weeks.

In our Summer Game Fest 2024 guide, we'll go over the date, start times, confirmed games, rumours and potential Xbox-related appearances for this year's show. Here we go!

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Included with Game Pass Core and Game Pass Ultimate.

Xbox Free Play Days has officially landed! We know that it's going to be a busy old weekend with the Xbox Games Showcase arriving on Sunday, but that doesn't mean we can't all enjoy a few free games leading up to the event, right?

This week, Microsoft is including two games in its FPD lineup - including a very recent release in April's tennis title TopSpin 2K25.

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New signups closing soon.

As part of sweeping changes going on over at UK retailer GAME, Microsoft's Xbox All Access program will soon lose a major distributor. Starting June 26, new customers will not be able to sign up for the program at GAME, which allows users to pay for an Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass in monthly instalments.

Once GAME pulls out of the program, just Smyths and 4Gadgets will offer Xbox All Access here in the UK, while a selection of other retailers still offer the program in other regions.

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"A handful of those are games we've never heard of".

Every minute, we're getting closer to the huge Xbox Games Showcase 2024 taking place this Sunday, and as usual the rumours continue to flood in ahead of the big event. Today, we're highlighting one from GiantBomb's Jeff Grubb!

Grubb appeared on the latest edition of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, where he advised that the Xbox Showcase will last for about 2 hours (presumably including the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct) and feature around 30 games this year, including plenty that we've never heard of before:

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Octopath Traveler II is out now on Xbox Series X|S and One.

Following rumours earlier this week, Octopath Traveler II has now had a surprise release on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Game Pass.

You can buy the game from Microsoft's store or download it via the subscription service. According to Steam patch notes, Square Enix has also added in a new update. Here are the details in full:

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Octopath Traveler II is finally out on Xbox Series X|S.

Following some rumours earlier this week, Octopath Traveler II has now had a surprise release on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Game Pass.

You can buy the game from Microsoft's store for $59.99 USD (or your regional equivalent) or download it with your Game Pass subscription. Alongside this, Square Enix's original Octopath Traveler game has also returned to Game Pass.

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They'll never (?) be purchasable again.

We're getting closer and closer to the end of the Xbox 360 store this July, and when that happens, lots of digital-only Xbox 360 games are set to be permanently delisted - completely inaccessible unless you've already bought them.

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A full reveal is coming.

In and amongst an absolutely stacked 2023 full of amazing games on Xbox, Alan Wake 2 still managed to stand out as a real high point, so, it's safe to say we're excited for Remedy's upcoming DLC plans. Those plans are mostly hidden away in Bright Falls right now, but the team is teasing a reveal for Summer Game Fest 2024.

Taking to Twitter this week, Remedy has posted a typically-cryptic tweet about something Alan Wake-related happening on June 7 - which happens to be the exact date of Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest livestream. Here's the post in question, along with a cheeky response from Xbox developer Compulsion Games:

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"No, Everwild is not cancelled".

Five years. That's how long it's been since Xbox and Rare first revealed Everwild to the world, and as of early June 2024, we still have no idea what kind of game it's going to be. The good news is that it's still being worked on at least.

This is according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, who spoke about it on a recent episode of The Xbox Two podcast. As of late last year, Rare was also still hiring for the game, so clearly it remains a priority for the team.

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The latest freebies for XGPU subscribers.

It's time for another batch of Xbox Game Pass Perks for June 2024! It's early days but we already have a few Perks to mention in the list, including one for the new free-to-play release of MultiVersus along with a survivor pack for PUBG.

Here's the latest list of available Xbox Game Pass Perks for June 2024

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Games, games and more games.

A decade ago this month, Xbox fans around the world were getting excited for Microsoft's E3 2014 showcase - a showcase that needed to deliver after a tumultuous first year with Xbox One. At the time, Xbox Game Studios boss Phil Spencer had just moved up the ladder into his Head of Xbox role, and it marked a pretty big change of direction for Microsoft's gaming business.

As was stressed right at the start of the team's 2014 briefing, Xbox was beginning to focus on games, games and more games. We can all remember the Xbox One reveal event debacle with 'TV TV TV' spreading around like wildfire, but the turnaround from that was quick, and Team Xbox was once again laser-focused on games by mid-2014. Phil was the man to lead that charge, and we're still grateful for his vision to this day.

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"Contraband is a ways off, for sure".

Contraband is one upcoming Xbox title we've not heard about in quite some time, with the Avalanche Studios-developed affair going dark since its summer 2021 announcement. At the time, it was revealed that Microsoft would be publishing the game, and fresh rumours are suggesting that this partnership is still a ways out from paying off.

Speaking on a recent episode of the XNC podcast, host 'Magg' claimed that Contraband has been internally delayed, and it's now aiming for a 2025 release at the earliest. The Verge's Tom Warren also popped up in the comments on this podcast episode, saying that "Contraband is a ways off, for sure".

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The EA Sports FC and eFootball competitor!

If you're bored of what EA Sports FC and eFootball are providing on Xbox these days, then you'll be interested to know that UFL is making its debut with an Open Beta on Xbox this weekend, multiple years since it was first announced.

If you're interested in taking part, we've put together this brief guide with information on the UFL release date, launch time, preload details and more - getting you ready for arrival of this new football game with big aspirations.

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As part of Pride Month.

You may recall that Don't Nod's narrative adventure Tell Me Why has been given away for free over the last few years to celebrate Pride Month, and that's exactly what's happening again this year, with the game once again available to claim for free on Xbox throughout June.

Yep, from now until the end of the month, all you have to do is head to the Tell Me Why store page on your Xbox console to claim the game - and then it's yours to keep forever. This game is already on Xbox Game Pass, but it's well worth adding to your account in case it ever leaves the service!

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Mass Effect, Injustice 2, Max Max & more!

Looking for some cheap Xbox games in the Xbox Deals Unlocked Sale 2024?

As usual when it comes to the Deals Unlocked Sale, there are loads of great offers in the 90% range to take advantage of, including the likes of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat 11, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mad Max and so many more. Yes, some of them are already playable with Xbox Game Pass (such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age), but at these prices it might be worth buying them to keep!

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And it's a modest download!

We're just a few weeks away from the launch of Still Wakes The Deep, and ahead of its Xbox Game Pass release, developer The Chinese Room has now enabled preloads for the highly-anticipated horror title.

Right now, Xbox players can download Still Wakes the Deep on Xbox Series X and S - and the game is a nice, modest download on Microsoft's current-gen consoles. You can expect this Game Pass adventure to come in at just under 10GB on the platform.

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The Match Composer returns.

343 Industries has today launched its Tenrai IV update for Halo Infinite and it comes with all sorts of new content and features.

First of all, is the new Match Composer - a feature players of Halo: The Master Chief Collection will already be familiar with. This allows Spartans to choose which game modes "they would (or would not) like to participate in". Here's a bit from Halo Waypoint about this, including an example:

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One moment please, Guardians.

Bungie today launched its new expansion for Destiny 2, officially titled 'The Final Shape' and you might have already seen there have been some teething issues.

According to multiple player reports, many Guardians are having difficulties accessing the game's servers due to an increase in traffic. In an official in-game notification, Bungie notes how the Destiny 2 login services are currently being throttled and to remain on the login screen until you can get it.

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Come join the PX Game Club!

Want to enhance your Xbox Game Pass experience? Come join the official Pure Xbox Game Club!

We can't take any credit on staff for this — the PX Game Club is the work of ralphdibny, Balta666 and the rest of the contributors over at the Pure Xbox forums, who have established a community that meets up every month to play a game on Xbox Game Pass and share their experiences. Games are voted on every month by the contributors involved.

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"I'm really emotional right now".

We've covered Hypercharge Unboxed a lot recently here at Pure Xbox - there was a review, an interview and some pre-release content that we shared - and perhaps we played a small part in the game launching to very impressive sales!

As things stand, Hypercharge is the #8 "Top Paid" game on the UK Xbox charts and #12 in the US, and back on June 2nd, the team revealed that the game had already sold 40,000 copies in just under three days since the Xbox launch.

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Here's the general consensus.

Elden Ring's first major expansion in Shadow of the Erdtree is just weeks away at this point, and ahead of launch, multiple outlets have gone hands-on with the add-on - delivering a fresh slate of previews for us all to take a look at.

You won't be surprised to read that, well, the general consensus is that this DLC is going to be everything and more that Elden Ring fans are after. Another FromSoftware banger could be on the cards here!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

A summer of Game Pass gaming!

We may be about to head into an absolute whirlwind of Xbox Game Pass news in the coming days and weeks as all of the showcases roll in, but things are kicking into gear already! This week, we've got brand-new trailers for two upcoming Game Pass releases - including one that was previously undated.

That'll be the metroidvania-cooking game Magical Delicacy, whilst we also have a huge new gameplay deep dive for SteamWorld Heist 2 from developer Thunderful.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Our hopes and expectations.

It's officially showcase season! Yep, June's lengthy list of gaming events is just getting started, and of course, the Xbox Games Showcase is the one we're really interested in here at Pure Xbox.

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And you can pre-install it now!

Who's ready for a new football game on Xbox?! After years of development, the free-to-play footie title UFL is officially getting a public beta on Xbox this weekend, with the game set to be playable between June 7th and June 9th.

You can also pre-install UFL right now on your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, with the game clocking in at around 20GB in size. It's called "UFL Open Beta" on the Xbox Store, so you just need to search for that on your console to find it.

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A massive sale for some major AAA games!

The Xbox Deals Unlocked Sale for 2024 has now begun! Over the next two weeks, you can take advantage on discounts for over 700 games, with major AAA titles and some absolute bargains in the mix.

There are too many highlights to count here, but a few you might be particularly interested in are Alan Wake 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

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Insider inklings.

It's that time of year, folks! Showcase season is upon us, and in the run up to Microsoft's big Xbox Games Showcase this coming weekend, a bunch of leaks and rumours are starting to crop up - as is the norm with these sorts of things.

On the back of the rumour that Octopath Traveler 2 is coming to Xbox Game Pass imminently, that very same source is reporting some pretty major things to come from Team Xbox. Apparently, Microsoft will use its upcoming showcase to not only shadow-drop a first-party game, but to also unveil its long-rumoured portable console.

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"We’re excited to rewind time".

It's been a long old road for Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, hasn't it? First announced almost four years ago, the game has since had development completely restarted by Ubisoft Montreal - and now another internal Ubi studio has joined in on the project.

As announced on social media this week, Ubisoft Toronto is now helping out with this new rendition of Xbox classic The Sands of Time. The Canadian developer is also working on the upcoming Splinter Cell Remake - and they were quick to remind fans that this work is still ongoing alongside their new Prince of Persia development duties.

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Including a new day one release!

Welcome to your first Xbox Game Pass update for June! Today, we have two fresh additions to the Game Pass library, including another day one release in Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends alongside the PC-only Firework.

Here's what to expect from these two new Xbox Game Pass titles:

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Xbox also preparing "shadow drop " and portable news, it's claimed.

Following an Octopath Traveler 2 Xbox Game Pass listing being labelled an "error", a new rumour claims Square Enix's RPG will be arriving very soon on Microsoft's subscription service.

This information comes from eXputer, which has been informed by "sources who wish to remain anonymous" that the sequel will arrive on Xbox Series X|S in June (aka "this month"), and it will be a "day-one Xbox Game Pass game".

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Pre-orders for Hyperkin's DuchesS go live next month.

We've seen the mighty Duke controller recreated, and now the American video game peripheral manufacturer Hyperkin is turning its attention to the 'S' model version of the original Xbox controller.

After an announcement earlier this year, pre-orders for this officially licensed wired controller titled the 'DuchesS' will begin on 15th July 2024 for $50 USD (or your regional equivalent) and the launch will take place on 21st August 2024. Hyperkin.com and sites like Amazon will be stocking it.

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Liking the look of this?

Today, we brought you the news that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is making the jump from PlayStation to Xbox this August, and a first glance at the physical version reveals that Xbox is going with a different box art design for its release.

As you can see in the image below, the Xbox logo remains in the top-left corner with a slightly altered style, while the platforms are now being listed in the top-right. It's not a massive change, but it's a notable one nonetheless.

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"A tribute to the iconic series".

We're definitely adding this one to the wishlist! Metal Slug Tactics has officially been confirmed for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S today, and it comes with a release window of Fall 2024.

The game is a fresh spin on the Metal Slug formula in which you'll need to lead your squad to victory amidst hand-crafted maps, a roguelite progression system and a headbanging soundtrack created by Sonic Mania star Tee Lopes.

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"Kudos to the teams".

Less than a year ago we ranted and raved about how much we liked the direction of the first Gears of War game, and we're definitely not the only ones that still have strong feelings for that era of Gears. The first game in the series, and also its Mad World marketing campaign have gone on to become iconic, and former Xbox boss Peter Moore has taken to social media today to talk about how the team put the classic trailer together.

Posting on Twitter, Moore says that the 2006 Xbox trailer was "groundbreaking", and that it was "risky, expensive, difficult and brilliant" to make in Unreal Engine 3 - the same game engine that powered Gears of War itself.

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Everything you need to know for this Sunday.

Here we go again! This week marks the arrival of the Xbox Games Showcase for 2024, which is the biggest event in the calendar year for Xbox fans. This is where we expect Xbox to reveal the biggest announcements of 2024, so you definitely don't want to miss it! Fortunately, we've got all the details you need to know.

In our Xbox Games Showcase 2024 guide, you'll find information on the date, start times for various regions including the UK and US, rumours and leaks on what might appear, and how you can watch the show here at Pure Xbox!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Bigger isn't always better, though.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 looks like it'll be quite a technically impressive adventure when it lands on current-gen consoles, however a fresh report is claiming that Microsoft's Xbox Series S console has impacted the scope of the upcoming title.

First reported on by Czech outlet Zing and translated by Wccftech, developer Warhorse Studios could only make the game "25% bigger" apparently; because Xbox Series S only has roughly 25% more memory than previous-gen consoles. Of course, Xbox Series X and PS5 have quite a lot more RAM than the Series S - 16GB compared to 10GB.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Coming to Xbox this September!

So, we have the big shiny release date now for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, but what about a bit more extended gameplay? Most Solar Crown trailers so far have been fairly brief, but a new video preview from YouTube channel Game Riot provides us with one of the deepest looks at the game yet.

As a result, we've thrown this video preview up above to give you a closer look at the upcoming Test Drive title. In here, there's fresh looks at open world driving, car customization, the new 'Sharps' & 'Streets' in-game factions and more.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Xbox console exclusive games you can enjoy in 2024.

What are the best Xbox exclusives you can play as of June 2024?

The Xbox ecosystem has been home to some truly stellar Xbox exclusives over the years, top-notch titles that you'll only find on Microsoft's family of consoles and PC. What's more, the vast majority of these titles are now available via Xbox and PC Game Pass, making it easier than ever for you to dive into some of the best gaming experiences currently available.

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Hopefully within just a few months.

As if Baldur's Gate 3 wasn't already good enough, Larian Studios has announced today that the game will be getting official mods on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S (as well as PlayStation 5 and PC) in the relatively near future.

Over the next few months, Larian will be preparing the public release of a "Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit" to develop mods on PC, some of which will then be made available on console. Here's how the team describes the console integration:

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Building new bridges.

Indie developer Ember Lab has today announced that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is officially coming to Xbox this August! Yep, after spending almost two years as a PlayStation and PC exclusive, the team's Pikmin-like action adventure title hits Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in just a few months' time.

The actual launch date for Kena on Xbox is August 15th, and we've had an inkling that this announcement would show up soon - ever since the game was ESRB-rated back in April. Anyway, now we know for sure, and we're quite excited to play this one on Xbox!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Building new bridges.

Indie developer Ember Lab has today announced that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is officially coming to Xbox this August! Yep, after spending almost two years as a PlayStation and PC exclusive, the team's Pikmin-like action adventure title hits Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in just a few months' time.

The actual launch date for Kena on Xbox is August 15th, and we've had an inkling that this announcement would show up soon - ever since the game was ESRB-rated back in April. Anyway, now we know for sure, and we're quite excited to play this one on Xbox!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Along with other PC games.

So, over the weekend we were contacted a couple of times by Pure Xbox members about a video that was doing the rounds on Reddit. In this video, an Xbox owner was shown playing World of Warcraft on their console.

How is this possible? Well, we've talked about it before (albeit a few years ago), and it's all thanks to the Nvidia GeForce Now service. With GeForce Now, you can play loads and loads of PC games on your console, including WoW.

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"OK Xbox, there is a need to talk".

There's every chance you've never heard of Solarpunk before, but over the weekend it was getting massive attention on social media from Xbox fans - and it sounds like there's huge demand for an Xbox Game Pass version.

Back on May 31st, the team behind the cosy survival game asked the Xbox community if they'd be interested seeing Solarpunk on Game Pass, racking up 5,000 likes and over 250,000 views on the trailer at the time of writing.

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Something to make the show even better!

Anyone for bingo? As usual around this time of year, lots of Xbox fans have been taking to social media over the past few days to create their Xbox Games Showcase 2024 bingo cards, and there are some great examples of them already.

Our favourite is probably the one by Zztarg on the Xbox subreddit, which looks like this:

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The first batch of departures for June.

The first five games leaving Xbox Game Pass in June 2024 have been revealed, and the list includes some big favourites in the form of Bramble: The Mountain King and High On Life, the latter of which has been a huge success for the service since its arrival in late 2022.

We'll throw the full list below - here's what's leaving Xbox Game Pass on June 15th, 2024:

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Take advantage of super high framerates.

One of the cool features of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is the ability to play games at up to 120 frames per-second, providing a new level of smooth performance never before seen in Xbox history.

Originally, this feature was only limited to a set number of titles, but that number has grown as more developers have taken advantage of the Xbox Series X and S. So, what games are advertised to support 120FPS? Let's take a look.

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Hellblade 2? Immortals of Aveum? Lords of the Fallen? Tell us!

Well, there goes another month! May 2024 is officially in the books, and from an Xbox Game Pass perspective, we were treated to some excellent titles over the past few weeks including Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2!

That was obviously the biggest XGP addition of the month, but don't forget we saw the likes of Immortals of Aveum, Lords Of The Fallen, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and many other great titles arriving on Game Pass as well.

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Shadow of the Erdtree, Still Wakes The Deep & more!

Welcome to our roundup of all new Xbox games coming out in June 2024! Below, we've listed every Xbox game with a June 2024 release date, including all confirmed Xbox Game Pass releases so far.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

New releases and Game Pass titles.

Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for June 3-7! Some of the big releases over the next few days include the next Destiny 2 expansion along with the likes of Killer Klowns From Outer Space and Tour de France 2024, along with more additions to the Xbox Game Pass library!

Here's what's coming to Xbox next week:

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Any Lords of the Fallen on Xbox Game Pass?

Welcome to the first weekend of June! There's plenty to enjoy on Xbox over the next couple of days, including a bunch of recent Xbox Game Pass titles, some Free Play Days offerings, and lots of great deals on the Xbox Store!

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

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20+ games with easy Xbox achievements to boost your Gamerscore.

What are the best Xbox Game Pass Games for earning quick, easy Xbox achievements?

Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service is on fire these days with a steady stream of AAA big-hitters and excellent indie titles being released on an almost weekly basis. There are, quite literally, too many good games to play on there right now!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"A promising new technology".

As a follow-up to an early look at FSR 3 frame generation technology on Xbox, the tech wizards over at Digital Foundry have now provided us with a deeper look at how much performance can be gained using the technique - along with more of an explainer on how it actually works.

Again, just like DF's sneak peek video clip earlier this week, the focus of this FSR 3 test is EA's magic-based FPS Immortals of Aveum - it's the first console game to actually make use of the feature. This time around, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5 are all put through their paces, comparing results with and without FSR 3 applied.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Brand new union.

Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Studios, has today announced that its workers now have stronger rights within Xbox - as Microsoft strikes a 'labour neutrality agreement' with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The Xbox owner first entered into such an agreement way back in summer 2022, amidst the whirlwind of Activision Blizzard news we were all subject to back then. Once the ActiBlizz deal was passed late last year, Microsoft commented that it was still working on the agreement with the CWA, and today's news proves that to be correct.

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Crash-landing a new deal.

After announcing that it was becoming an independent studio earlier this year, former Activision Blizzard developer Toys for Bob has officially entered into an agreement with Xbox to publish its next game.

Announcing the news on social media, the Crash Bandicoot 4 and Spyro Reignited Trilogy developer says that it's "excited to announce" the partnership, and that it "can't wait to share more" on the project further down the line.

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An Xbox One release is also happening!

Earlier this week we got the news that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, and now Microsoft has added a bit more detail to this Game Pass-flavoured announcement.

In a statement provided to Eurogamer, Microsoft has confirmed that this year's Call of Duty title will launch on the existing tiers of Xbox Game Pass. It won't launch on Game Pass Core of course, which replaced Xbox Live Gold earlier this year, but the rest of the tiers are good-to-go.

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Like a ninja!

Hellblade 2 hasn't even been out for two weeks yet, but developer Ninja Theory has today delivered a pretty substantial patch for the Xbox Game Pass title.

Update 1.0.5.0 is now live for Hellblade 2, fixing a number of bugs and glitches found in the day-one version of the title. The game has performed very well on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S so far, but it's always good to see any other small kinks ironed out this close to launch.

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Lick the stamp and send it.

There's something very "wannabe cool dad energy" about F1 as a sport. It's just one of those things. For every spectacular crash, breathtaking win or undeniable display of driving greatness... there's still a wrap-around shades sort of a vibe, a sort-of neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard aspect to the whole thing that it can never escape. In our minds, at least.

Codemasters has been making these cool dad games for a long-ass time now though, (this is their 15th in a row, heck) they are maestros when it comes to putting digital renditions of very expensive sports cars onto immaculately reconstructed tracks and then making them feel all real and whatnot. They're also in the habit of allowing the dad vibes and energy to flow, with drab office environments between races that are full of cringe patter, very tight suits and all the sorts of things that would have us reaching for the nearest window if they were to occur around us in real life.

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Here are the full patch notes.

Capcom has detailed the latest update for Dragon's Dogma 2 - now available on Xbox Series X and S. The big new feature here seems to be a sizeable increase to in-game item storage, while other bug fixes and changes have also been applied.

Interestingly, there's no mention of any further performance improvements in this patch. The game launched with notable frame rate issues, and despite the addition of a frame rate cap in late March, fans are still eager to see more improvements made in this regard.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"I am forever thankful to all of you".

Redfall's final patch landed yesterday for Xbox Series X|S and PC, delivering a load more new features than we were ever expecting to see. Alongside the long-awaited offline mode we've got a new difficulty option, completely revamped Neighborhood & Nest systems, new enemy encounters, improved AI and more.

However, even though this update looks like a massive step in the right direction for Redfall, it of course comes with a tinge of sadness. The game's developer Arkane Austin is now closing down and will not be producing anymore games - which has led to an outpouring of messages from those who worked on Redfall and its final update.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Not for long, though!

The day has finally arrived! Digital Cybercherries' toy-soldier shooter Hypercharge: Unboxed is officially out now on Xbox, and if you're interested in picking this one up, the team is offering a launch discount right now - but you'll have to be quick to take advantage of it.

For today only (and for pre-order players) you can get 10% off Hypercharge: Unboxed from the Xbox Store. That brings the game down to a $26.99 / £22.49 price point - we'll drop a link to the Xbox Store listing down below so you can have a look for yourself and see what you think:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Get ready for the Tricky Trials Update.

After months of updates, Mojang has finally confirmed the Minecraft 'Tricky Trials' update will be coming to Xbox Series X|S and other platforms on 13th June 2024.

This will include the all-new trial chambers, new mobs (the breeze and the bogged), a special new block called the vault and both solo and co-op opportunities. Here's a bit about what to expect from the trial chambers:

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Get ready for the Tricky Trials Update.

After months of updates, Mojang has finally confirmed the Minecraft 'Tricky Trials' update will be coming to Xbox Series X|S and other platforms on 13th June 2024.

This will include the all-new trial chambers, new mobs (the breeze and the bogged), a special new block called the vault and both solo and co-op opportunities. Here's a bit about what to expect from the trial chambers:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

The PS release is getting an 'exclusive' costume.

Following the reveal of the free-to-play shooter Marvel Rivals in March, NetEase Games has now officially confirmed the title is coming to consoles, including Xbox Series X|S.

This 6v6 player verse player experience will enter its closed beta phase across all platforms on July 2024. Here's a bit about it:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Launching on Xbox Series X|S in 2025.

PlayStation's 'State of Play' just wrapped up and one of the third-party highlights was a first look at the gameplay in Monster Hunter Wilds, a title previously confirmed for a 2025 release on Xbox Series X|S.

Over on the PlayStation blog there's another round up of what players can expect from this new entry in the long-running series including - changing environments, a "believable ecosystem of monsters", ultimate hunting action (including 14 iconic weapon types) and a deep story.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Don't worry, they're not all PS5 exclusives!

Today's PlayStation State of Play event for May 2024 included a bit of Xbox related news for various upcoming new releases, including the likes of Marvel Rivals, Path of Exile 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds!

If any other games get Xbox confirmations in the coming hours, we'll update this list accordingly.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

We're looking forward to both of these!

While we're yet to find out Microsoft's full Xbox Game Pass lineup for June and July of this year, the Game Pass calendar is slowly starting to fill out - and two games in particular are pulling us in already. Those titles are June's Still Wakes The Deep and July's Dungeons Of Hinterberg - and both of these upcoming Game Pass titles have just had some fresh Xbox Wire previews ahead of their upcoming launches.

They're both sounding pretty promising here, so, we thought we'd sum up these new previews down below - giving you a fresh take on what to expect from this pair of impending Game Pass releases.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"We’re proud to deliver to you Redfall’s Game Update 4".

Well, this is it folks! Arkane Austin has today delivered the final ever update for Redfall across Xbox and PC in the form of "Game Update 4", which brings a bunch of new features to the 2023 shooter including an offline mode.

The patch notes also contain a final note from Arkane Austin ahead of the studio's closure:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Here's the full top 10.

As you know, we often like to take a look at the "Top Paid" Xbox charts and see which games are selling particularly well on the Xbox Store, but it's very rare that we look beyond the likes of the UK and US stores.

Today, we've taken a peek over at the Japan store, and it's shaping up very differently! In fact, the top 3 games provide the most interesting differences here, with the new release of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord taking the top spot, closely followed by the brilliant Unicorn Overlord and music-puzzle game PuzzMiX.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

And it's out VERY soon!

Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche has today announced that its long-promised summer update is launching for all platforms on June 6th. The main new feature here is a fully-fledged photo mode for the Harry Potter RPG, while a bunch of PlayStation-exclusive DLC will also be making its way over to Xbox next month.

As far as we can tell there doesn't appear to be any other major features coming with this update, although we'd expect to team to probably apply some small bug fixes and changes with its summer update. Anyway, here's a look at what's coming to Hogwarts Legacy on Xbox in a week's time:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

40+ titles that are HEAVILY reduced on Xbox right now!

Looking for some cheap Xbox games in this week's Xbox sales (May 28 - June 4)?

We're definitely spoilt when it comes to the 90% range this week! Over 40 games on the Xbox Store are reduced by 90% right now, including some massive favourites such as Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a ridiculous number of LEGO games and of course, the regularly discounted Mad Max.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Charged chaos.

We've been hearing about Hypercharge Unboxed eventually coming to Xbox for bloody ages at this point, and the day is finally here for us to live out our childhood toy soldier dreams. Make no mistake, this is a bit of a silly shooter at heart, but it's one that definitely has its place on the market amongst a sea of beige, realistic competitors - and we've had a blast playing it in recent days.

If we've not already made it clear enough, here's how Hypercharge Unboxed presents itself. A bunch of plastic soldiers and monsters have burst out of their collectible boxes to take the fight to any bedroom, closet or slice of garden available to them. The scale is a bit like Obsidian's Grounded where everyday objects look absolutely massive as you fight in and amongst them, and this visual spin on the humble shooter is a much welcome one - we never got bored of it during our review time!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

From the hit show 'The Boys'.

If you've kept up with Mortal Kombat 1's DLC so far, you'll know the next character on the way is Homelander from the popular series 'The Boys'.

He's now officially been confirmed as arriving in the game on June 4th, 2024 and will be followed by the addition of the Kameo Fighter Ferra. The video below (courtesy of Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon) gives us our very first look at gameplay of this new DLC and Kameo fighter.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Featuring two huge free trials!

Xbox Free Play Days has returned for the coming weekend, and we have four big Xbox titles to play as part of the program this week. Free trials for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Skull & Bones are headlining the promotion this time out, with two other titles rounding out the four-game lineup.

Here's everything you can play on Xbox Free Play Days this week:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including a former PS5 exclusive!

Welcome to your final Xbox Game Pass update for May 2024! We have two big titles coming to the library today, including the former PlayStation-exclusive platformer HUMANITY.

Here's a closer look at that title, alongside today's other Game Pass addition in 2023's Lords Of The Fallen:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"Experience the ultimate racing & lifestyle experience".

It's finally official - the new Test Drive Unlimited is coming to Xbox this September! Yep, after a recent teaser for a 'major announcement', the team has done just that - confirming that Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will launch for Xbox Series X and S on September 12th, 2024.

If you're as excited to jump into this open-world racer as we are, you can actually go hands-on with the game a fair while earlier than that date. Nacon is opening up access for pre-order players on September 5th - a full week earlier than the standard release date.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

A few of the "Selects" from ID@Xbox.

We've started this thing here at Pure Xbox where we highlight 10 Xbox indie games to look forward to every month, and the team over at ID@Xbox have been doing something similar on the official Xbox website recently.

Their list for May looks quite different to ours - we've only got one game that's the same - but that just shows how many fantastic indie games are releasing on Xbox every month! That game, by the way, is the amazing Crow Country.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including the big Xbox Games Showcase 2024!

It's almost time for the busiest week of the year for Xbox fans! The Xbox Games Showcase 2024 is just around the corner, as are a wide selection of other gaming showcases that we can look forward to in the very near future.

So, we've taken the time to put together all the dates, times and additional details you might need about the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, Summer Game Fest 2024 and various other gaming events happening in June.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

NPD has all the deets.

Whatever we may think of Microsoft's new direction in bringing certain first-party games to other platforms, the results are beginning to speak for themselves. Circana's Mat Piscatella (formerly NPD) has today posted a bunch of figures and statistics about US game sales for the month of April - and Xbox's new PlayStation releases seem to be doing rather well on the whole.

First off, Rare's Sea Of Thieves was the fourth best-selling game in the US last month across all platforms, climbing up from number 55 in March. When talking about PlayStation specifically, the game came in at number three in the best-sellers list.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

The full list of confirmed games so far.

Looking for a complete list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in June 2024? It can be pretty difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings in the world of Xbox Game Pass every week, so we've put together this handy guide to provide an overview of what's coming to Xbox Game Pass in June, as well as the games that are leaving!

Here's a full list of all new games coming soon on Xbox Game Pass in June 2024 (so far):

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Maverick Games has secured a publisher.

Back in January 2023 we heard the news that several lead developers on Forza Horizon 5 were splitting off to make their own studio, and now that studio has struck a publishing deal for its first title. Amazon Games will be partnering with the team on this project - currently known to be an "open world, AAA, premium" release.

As per VGC, the game will release on Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC, marking a departure from the Xbox-exclusive development environment lots of these Forza Horizon devs were once used to.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"We are grateful for your continued support".

Capcom has announced a major milestone for its recent open-world RPG Dragon's Dogma 2. The current-gen title, which launched in late March for Xbox Series X|S, has now surpassed 3 million players across all platforms.

Capcom's first $70 title has managed this number in just about two months on the market, which seems quite impressive to us given that it's current-gen-only and costs $70. Dragon's Dogma 2 also dodged any sort of subscription service release, meaning the vast majority of this player count should equate to full game sales as well.

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Was it all worth it?

Sorry to remind everyone, but it's been well over 10 years since CD Projekt RED released its first-ever teaser for Cyberpunk 2077. Yep, it really has been that long since the Polish developer started talking about its sci-fi RPG, and as part of a recent financial report, the team has revealed that development is officially over on CP77.

The earnings report, posted online, contains a chart showcasing exactly what its 600+ strong team is working on these days. Back in February, CDPR still had a slim team of 17 people working on Cyberpunk 2077, but that has since shrunk to zero as the developer fully moves on to other projects.

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They got us all excited for a minute!

We've yet to hear about the majority of June 2024's Xbox Game Pass lineup (Microsoft appears to be waiting until next Tuesday for that), but last night, it looked like a major addition had joined the list courtesy of Atlus.

In an Instagram post about the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Xbox Game Pass was mentioned amongst the platforms that the game is coming to, which attracted plenty of attention across social media:

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Hundred Star Games was founded last year.

The former Rocksteady co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, who founded Hundred Star after their departure, have reportedly done a deal with Xbox Game Studios on their next game.

This information comes from eXputer, which claims the studio is working on its "first project" - a "AAA-standard, single-player, action-adventure game" running on Unreal Engine 5.

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Redlining it.

After a short period of time on other platforms including Nintendo Switch, the sequel to 2018's fantastic Horizon Chase Turbo is finally coming to Xbox. Yep, Horizon Chase 2 is almost here, and we've been well up for this one ever since it was announced for the platform. The good news is that this high-speed sequel largely delivers on exactly what you'd want from a Horizon Chase follow-up, even if this second lap can feel a little threadbare at times.

If you never played the first game and happened to just stumble upon this sequel, Horizon Chase is a bit of a love letter to old school arcade racing. Think SEGA's classic Outrun series or Kemco's retro SNES racer Top Gear with a modern touch, and you're about there. Everything moves at breakneck speeds in this arcade racing series and you're tasked with almost 'guiding' the car around the circuit rather than fully controlling its every mechanical move.

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Free to download and play right now!

In case you missed it, MultiVersus is back! The Super Smash Bros. style brawler officially relaunched on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S earlier today, and it's entirely free to download on the Xbox Store right now.

Since it previously closed down back in early 2023, the game has received a massive number of improvements including Unreal Engine 5 integration, new characters and stages, and a brand-new campaign mode.

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Launching on Xbox this Friday!

This week, it's finally time to get hands-on with the action-figure-shooter game Hypercharge Unboxed on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, with the game releasing across all three platforms this Friday.

Ahead of launch, we had a chance to speak with Joe Henson (Creative Gameplay & Marketing Director for Hypercharge Unboxed) about the team's journey bringing the game to Xbox over the past few years. You may have seen some snippets from this over the past few days here at Pure Xbox, but now we're publishing the full interview.

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The team's major expansion is almost here.

It's been a long time coming, but Destiny 2: The Final Shape is almost upon us. Following a four month delay late last year, The Final Shape has finally taken shape - as Bungie looks to deliver its latest big expansion for Destiny 2.

Although somewhat shrouded in mystery, this new add-on looks like something of a 'wrapping up' expansion for Destiny 2. The name goes so far in suggesting that of course, while the DLC's description of "ending the war of Light and Darkness" also sounds suitably ominous.

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For the morbidly curious.

Look, we know that bad games are bad games and you probably shouldn't buy them, but when something gets such negative reviews that it becomes noteworthy, it's impossible to not be at least a little curious about just how bad it is.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is one of those games (we talked about it last week), and thanks to the new Xbox sales, it's now on offer with an 80% discount. But it's not just Gollum, as both The Walking Dead: Destinies and Skull Island: Rise of Kong are also reduced by 60% and 75% respectively for the next week on Xbox.

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"If it's the truth you seek, look in the dark".

Just as Microsoft confirms that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will indeed be launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, developer Treyarch has dropped the game's 'Live Action Reveal Trailer' ahead of its big June Direct showcase.

As the name suggests, there's no gameplay in today's trailer; it serves more as a tone piece for what the team is going for with Black Ops 6. That tone is quite dark and edgy compared to what we've seen in more recent Black Ops titles - in many ways it harkens back to the spirit of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops on Xbox 360.

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There's also a new Simulator Sale.

Another Tuesday means another set of fresh Xbox deals, and the big highlights arrive in the form of "50%-off" and "ID@Xbox Simulator" sales, along with the usual batch of exclusive discounts for Xbox Game Pass members.

Although it's called a 50%-off sale, there are plenty of games with even bigger discounts to be found here, and the likes of Assassin's Creed Mirage, Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat 1, Skull & Bones and Suicide Squad are all included.

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The Flames of Fate was announced in 2021.

As part of this year's Dragon Quest Day celebrations, Square Enix has shared an update on its next major entry Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate.

After some concerns were raised about the status of this project, it seems progress is still moving along - with the series creator Yuji Horii providing a brief update on social media (thanks, Gematsu):

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Some early access reviews have landed.

Friday the 13th developer Illfonic is having another crack at the multiplayer horror experience this year in the form of Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game, and some initial reviews are starting to arrive as the game enters its one-week early access period.

So, here's a quick look at what the critics have been saying about this new take on the cult classic horror franchise:

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The Game Pass app has a new message.

After much speculation about whether Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will release day one on Xbox Game Pass, we now have confirmation of Microsoft's plans. The team has started sending out Game Pass app notifications today; telling users that Black Ops 6 will indeed be coming to the service later this year.

What's more, the message is also directing players to an Xbox Wire post with a URL that literally contains 'Black Ops 6 day one Game Pass' - and that post is set to go live later today at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST.

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Game Pass & EA Play updated.

We have two new additions to Xbox Game Pass today, with one of them arriving in the form of a fresh EA Play trial for the upcoming F1 24.

As usual, this will be a 10-hour free trial of the game available for both EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members - while today's other addition is a standard Xbox Game Pass addition in the form of Moving Out 2.

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Figuring out a sequel to infinity.

It feels like a long time since we first started talking about Halo Infinite, doesn't it? That's probably because despite the game only launching in late 2021, Xbox actually unveiled Infinite during its E3 showcase in mid-2018 - more than three years before the game ever released. The thing is, we're now almost three years the other side of Infinite's launch, so we're starting to think about where the team might go next.

As its name perhaps suggests, we always thought Halo Infinite would end up being this long-term live service beast - think something like Destiny 2, where seven years in we're still getting major expansions. And, while 343 Industries hasn't officially announced that it's moving on just yet, the team has wound down development on seasonal updates, and a strange trailer from earlier this month suggested that 343 is perhaps satisfied with the game staying largely as it is in 2024.

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"From a 46.68fps average to 80.43fps".

A few days ago, EA's Immortals of Aveum became the first ever game on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5 to support AMD FSR 3, introducing special upscaling and frame generation technology to boost performance on consoles.

With the update now live, the experts at Digital Foundry have been analysing FSR 3's frame generation on Xbox Series X, and the outcome is largely positive! As shown in the video above (which is timestamped), Immortals of Aveum "rose from a 46.68fps average to 80.43fps" with FSR 3 turned on, which represents a 72.3% boost overall.

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We can't wait for this one!

Hands up, who remembers Aaero? This rhythm-action rail shooter was given away as part of Xbox Games with Gold a few years ago, and we've had an amazing time with it ever since. If you haven't played it, it comes highly recommended!

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We didn't know you could do this!

After almost a decade on the market we weren't sure there was much of Fallout 4 that we hadn't seen before, but a new clip doing the rounds on Twitter has alerted us to a feature that we didn't know was a thing - and it looks like lots of other players didn't know about it either.

Basically, the video down below shows that if you hold down the VATS button when using the targeting system in Fallout 4, you can completely 'free aim' while scouting for enemies. Here, take a look at the feature in action:

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Unreal Engine 5 upgrade.

Avowed is currently one of Xbox's big releases for this calendar year, but it seems that developer Obsidian is still working on some core elements of the game. Back in February, the team said it was "actively working" on improving first-person combat following its Xbox Dev Direct showcase, and a new rumour suggests the game is still getting Unreal Engine upgrades too.

As posted on Twitter by Windows Central's Jez Corden, Avowed has apparently moved to 'Unreal Engine 5.3' with support for new features - and Gears developer The Coalition is seemingly supporting the team's UE5 development as well.

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How to get Microsoft Rewards points fast.

We know how amazing Microsoft Rewards is, but did you know that if you live in a certain region and you have access to all the MS Rewards benefits on offer, you can make around 10,000 Microsoft Rewards points per-month?

That's the equivalent of almost £10 / $10 worth of free Xbox credit every single month! Sure, it's not as much as it used to be (20,000 was very possible up until 2024), but £120 / $120 worth of credit in a year isn't bad at all.

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And one is actually quite dynamic!

Over the last couple of days, two new dynamic backgrounds have become available on Xbox Series X and S, with both of them being Warhammer-themed to celebrate last week's Skulls Showcase.

We've got one new background for the highly-anticipated Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, while Microsoft has also added a Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader option for Xbox Series X|S users as well.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"We could be getting an announcement".

As much as we've enjoyed our time with EA Sports FC in recent years (and even eFootball to a degree), it's always great to see more competition in the football/soccer space. The free-to-play release of UFL is just around the corner, and now if this rumour is to be believed, 2K might be preparing to take on the FIFA license in the near future.

You may have seen this gaining traction over the weekend courtesy of retailer MohPlay Inc, although a source for the information wasn't provided. We were a bit skeptical of that tweet in all honesty, but Insider Gaming's Mike Straw also followed up by claiming that an announcement could be on the way:

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Will we finally get an Xbox release date?

So, it's about time we got a release date for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, right? Nacon's upcoming open-world racer has been publicly announced for years at this point, even if we've never had a proper, nailed-on release date for the title. However, that looks like it might be about to change.

The team has started sending out emails regarding a "major announcement" for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. To go even further, the email says that "a major milestone is about to be reached" for the upcoming Xbox Series X|S title.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Here's what's on the way out.

It's that time again where a selection of titles leave the Xbox Game Pass library, and we have six games in total exiting the service this week - including the pictured JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle up above.

These six games are all on the way out on Friday, May 31st, so you have just a few days left to give any of them a go before the leave the service.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"The legacy begins.".

Let's kick this Monday off with a bang! Square Enix has subtly announced that a new Dragon Quest game is coming to Xbox Series X|S, and it carries the "HD-2D" banner that was previously fitted to the Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake.

That game had never been confirmed for Xbox before today, so it's great to see Square Enix confirming it for Microsoft's two latest consoles. That said, the teaser doesn't actually mention Dragon Quest 3 by name, leading to speculation about what else might be in the pipeline for the franchise in the near future:

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The one with the least issues.

We probably should touch wood or something before saying this, but in the multiple years since the Xbox Series X and Series S launched, none of us at Pure Xbox HQ have ever encountered any major issues with them.

Sure, they're a little bit dustier than they used to be, and perhaps they're running a bit louder as a result, but otherwise we've been really happy with the reliability of these consoles. At least for me, the Xbox One is very much in the same boat - it's still running very well (aside from a slightly dodgy disc drive) 11 years since I bought it!

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Including plenty of big releases!

Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for May 27-31! We've got plenty of good stuff on the way next week including MultiVersus, F1 24 and Hypercharge Unboxed, along with three Game Pass titles highlighted by Lords of the Fallen!

Here's what's coming to Xbox next week:

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How about some Hellblade 2?

It's time for the weekend! Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is the obvious highlight for the next couple of days, but don't forget we've got more Xbox Game Pass additions along with Free Play Days titles and some great deals on the Xbox Store!

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

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And it's supposedly coming to "PlayStation as well".

There have already been some signs a new DOOM game could be appearing at this year's Xbox Games Showcase and a new "exclusive" has now independently verified this while also providing some new information about the title.

According to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, the final name of the new entry is believed to be 'DOOM: The Dark Ages'. It has supposedly been in development for "at least four years" now and could be potentially be 'medieval inspired':

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Did you end up buying this?

So here we were, just casually minding our own business on a Friday afternoon, and it was suddenly brought to our attention that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launched on Xbox (and other platforms) exactly a year ago this Saturday.

Forgive us for shuddering a little bit when we hear that name, but wow... what a shame this turned out to be. This was a very poorly reviewed game that resulted in a bunch of terrible feedback, and worst of all, the closure of a dev studio.

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Get creative.

If you're in the mood to treat yourself or you've racked up a sizeable number of Microsoft Rewards points, Xbox Design Lab is a great way to personalise your Xbox experience with a custom controller for Xbox One, Series X and Series S.

One of the personalisations you can add along the way is an engraving at the bottom of the controller, and as of today until the end of the month, this can now be added for free. Here's the confirmation of this courtesy of Xbox:

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Series S users are in good hands.

Much has been made of the Unreal Engine 5 tech powering Ninja Theory's Hellblade 2, but that focus so far has largely been placed on the Xbox Series X and PC versions of the game. However, in a new video from the folks over at Digital Foundry, lower-end devices like the Xbox Series S and Steam Deck have been put through their paces.

And, generally speaking, Xbox Series S seems to hold up really well in regards to Hellblade 2. Sure, there are some cutbacks — namely the overall resolution and some different reflection techniques — but this still very much looks like the full Hellblade 2 experience on Microsoft's cheaper console.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"She’s genuinely wonderful".

The release of action figure shooter Hypercharge: Unboxed is just around the corner on Xbox, and as mentioned earlier this week, we recently had a chance to talk to Joe Henson - Creative Gameplay and Marketing Manager on the title.

We'll wait until next week to reveal the entire interview, but to give you a another little snippet until then, we asked Joe what it was like working with Team Xbox and whether the likes of Sarah Bond or Phil Spencer had provided their thoughts on the game - and here's what Joe had to say in response:

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Getting back to basics.

Xbox 360 era Call of Duty was a special time for Activision's long-running FPS franchise. Call of Duty 4 burst onto the scene with unprecedented popularity back in 2007 — pairing smooth, fast-paced gunplay with a deep, addictive progression system — and most of the series' Xbox 360 follow ups built on the formula fairly successfully. Now, in a world full of bloated, self-serious COD games, Ubisoft has hired one of the series' long-time leads to create a proper competitor - one that mimics that golden era to a pretty successful degree.

Enter XDefiant, then, Ubisoft's answer to players hankering for some old-school FPS fun. This particular title takes what made the competition successful, throws in a bunch of Ubisoft IP, and brings it all together on the company's Snowdrop Engine for a more modern look. It all works rather well, and all we can say is we've had a very good time with this game so far - even if it isn't without fault.

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Movin' right along.

Disney Speedstorm happens to be one of our favourite free-to-play games here at Pure Xbox (we even included it in our Best Racing Games guide), so it's pretty awesome to see that none other than Kermit The Frog is joining the lineup!

Yes, as part of Season 7 of the game, Kermit is being added as part of a Limited Time Event. As far as we're aware, you'll be able to unlock him either as part of this event, or buy paying real money for him on the in-game store.

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The latest freebies for XGPU subscribers.

It's time for another batch of Xbox Game Pass Perks for May 2024! It's been a quiet month for Perks on the whole, but there are still some nice freebies to take advantage of, including special bonuses for Minecraft and Sea Of Thieves!

Here's the latest list of available Xbox Game Pass Perks for May 2024:

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Saving a sinking ship?

Skull & Bones is getting a week-long free trial shortly, just as the game's second season of content washes ashore. Ubisoft has announced that players across all platforms can try the game out for free from May 30th through June 6th, and there'll be "no content limitations" during this time.

That should mean that free trial players can experience all of what Skull & Bones Season 2 brings to the table - as the game's second season has been announced for a May 28th release as well. For what to expect from Season 2, check out the above story trailer which provides a sneak peek at what's to come.

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"Hellblade 2 is a defining moment".

Ever since Hellblade 2 was unveiled alongside the Xbox Series X, we've expected the game to be a looker, and that's exactly what Ninja Theory's sequel delivered earlier this week. Of course, that means that the tech aficionados over at Digital Foundry have been keeping a close eye on the game as well - and now the outlet's official tech review is out.

We've dropped the video version of the big DF review up above, and you only have to look at the video title to know what we're in for here. Hellblade 2 has been described as "the best looking example" of a proper current-gen Unreal Engine 5 game so far - making use of a full suite of UE5 features.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

And it runs until the Xbox Games Showcase.

We've got a few more games to add to this week's Xbox deals, as a new Activision Blizzard sale has just kicked off on the Xbox Store featuring a bunch of titles from the Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot and Diablo franchises in particular.

Something to keep in mind here is that the sale runs until June 8th, which is exactly one day before the Xbox Games Showcase takes place on Sunday, June 9th. We're expecting at least a few Activision Blizzard titles to be added to Xbox Game Pass around that date, so it may be worth holding off if you're an XGP subscriber.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

A double XP weekend is also coming!

XDefiant launched earlier this week on Xbox Series X|S, and the team at Ubisoft San Francisco already has a patch ready to go for the coming weekend. XDefiant Patch 1 goes live 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST today, and there'll be roughly one hour of server downtime while the patch is applied.

Once Patch 1 has been successfully applied, Ubisoft is set to double weapon XP rates for the coming weekend. XDefiant 2x weapon XP starts today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST and runs until the same times on May 28th.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"We've loved hearing your impressions".

It's been another big week in the land of Xbox with UK-based studio Ninja Theory launching Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 on the Series X|S, PC, Cloud, and also Game Pass.

It's already one of the highest-rated Xbox games of the year and with this in mind, the team has now issued a brief message on social media, thanking everyone for the "incredible response" to the game. Here it is:

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New release dates and updates!

Today marked the Warhammer Skulls Showcase 2024, which revealed a bunch of Warhammer announcements for Xbox. Below, you'll find a complete roundup of everything we saw (Xbox-related) at the event.

Here's the complete Xbox rundown from the Warhammer Skulls Showcase 2024:

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Klowning around.

Good heavens, it's been more than 18 months since we first learnt about Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game! What's decidedly less righteous than heaven is what you'll actually be getting up to in this new Xbox title, as you can see in the fresh video clip up above (warning: contains lots of Klown bashing).

Yep, developer Illfonic has just released an uncut gameplay clip from one of the game's newly-revealed levels; 'Downtown Crescent Cove'. If you've ever seen anything of Dead by Daylight you'll know what to expect from this video - plenty of skulking, stalking and eventual death in a spooky setting.

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In response to the franchise's creator.

When we talk about Xbox games that are underrated here at Pure Xbox, the Mad Max game from 2015 is often one that enters the discussion - and it's also a game that's regularly discounted by 90% in the weekly deals on the Xbox Store.

Despite the love for it though, it didn't review that well, racking up a 72 Metacritic average for Xbox One. And in an interview with Gaming Bible this week, Mad Max franchise creator George Miller admitted that he was a bit disappointed by it:

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No longer redacted.

Well, it's official! The next CoD game is titled Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, with the game being teased this week through a cryptic website and various short video clips to hype up the announcement.

For now, we don't have an official release date for Black Ops 6, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it's coming out sometime this fall. In fact, we should know for sure in just over two weeks time, when Microsoft fully unveils the game during its Xbox Direct showcase.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

One more patch is coming.

Right at the tail end of last week, Redfall developer Arkane Austin announced that one final update is coming to the game before the studio's impending shutdown, and we're starting to think about what exactly could be included in the game's closing patch.

The team has already confirmed that an Offline Mode is coming, alongside single-player pausing and revamped Neighborhood & Nest systems, but what else could be included here? We already know that "'more" will be featured, so it's just a case of what Arkane has been able to sneak into this patch before development has to wind down.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

As part of the game's 2024 relaunch.

Next Tuesday marks the relaunch of MultiVersus on Xbox consoles (and other platforms), bringing the free-to-play brawler back to market for the first time since June of 2023. Ahead of the relaunch, we had a chance to go hands-on with the PC version recently, allowing us to sample all the new features that are being added to MultiVersus 2.0.

And there are a lot of new features! Amongst other things, MultiVersus is switching to Unreal Engine 5, adding new characters (including Jason Vorhees and Agent Smith) and stages (including Dexter's Laboratory), implementing rollback netcode for a smooth online experience, and introducing a new campaign mode called "Rifts".

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Better late than never.

SNK rolled out an Xbox Series X|S upgrade for its fighting game Samurai Shodown back in 2021, but for a long time it's gone without rollback netcode.

Fortunately, all of this changes today. After it was originally scheduled to arrive in September last year, this update has finally been released. You'll be prompted to update your copy of the game next time you launch it.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

There are a whopping 9 games to play!

Microsoft is bringing a special Free Play Days lineup to Xbox players today, with a total of nine games playable for free on Xbox consoles this weekend.

The reason for such a stacked lineup is because all of this week's games are Warhammer themed, ahead of the 2024 edition of the Warhammer Skulls showcase. The showcase takes place later today, and this Warhammer-flavoured Free Play Days lineup is now live!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

And no, Microsoft isn't buying Valve.

Closed beta footage of Valve's new "6v6 4-lane third-person shooter MOBA" has apparently leaked online.

Allegedly codenamed 'Deadlock', this new title is expected to follow in the footsteps of games like Counter-Strike and DOTA, and will supposedly feature more than 19 heroes.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Both are new day-one releases!

Welcome to another Xbox Game Pass update! Microsoft is adding two more games to the library today, and they're both brand-new day one releases on Xbox.

Here's what to expect from your two new Xbox Game Pass additions:

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Senua takes her place in the top ten... just.

There were a few question marks surrounding Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 ahead of launch and whether Xbox Game Studios was onto a winner, and although we didn't go higher than a 7/10 at Pure Xbox, it's certainly been received well.

In fact, it's now creeped into the top 10 highest-rated Xbox games of 2024 according to Metacritic, albeit only just. Hellblade 2 has an average of 81 for Xbox, which it shares with various other games, but it still takes tenth position - seemingly due to having a larger spread of reviews than those other titles (there are 86 reviews for the Xbox version).

Read the full article on purexbox.com

How about Gears 6?

It's exciting and a bit scary to say that we're only two weeks away from the start of Summer Game Fest 2024, which includes the big Xbox Games Showcase on June 9th! As usual, we're expecting some major announcements this year.

If you listen to the rumour mill, we're hearing all kinds of things about the 2024 show already. A new game in the Gears of War series may be announced, lots of Call of Duty games may be coming to Xbox Game Pass (along with various other Activision Blizzard titles), and the likes of Perfect Dark and even DOOM could show up as well.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

The truth lies within.

June's 'Redacted Direct' following the Xbox Games Showcase this year is already pretty-much confirmed to be about the next Call of Duty, and although that's not been confirmed by Microsoft yet - developer Treyarch has started teasing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 today.

The long-time CoD dev is now hosting a cryptic website called 'thetruthlies', and the site features a short video clip embedded into a digital TV set. You can mess about with up to six channels on the set (another hint at the game's title), but for the moment only channel one actually shows anything.

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Standard, linear, reverse s-curve.

So, we've starting getting stuck into XDefiant today with Ubisoft ironing out any day one server issues with its free-to-play FPS, and one of the next hot topics we've seen relates to controller settings on console.

While we've been largely happy with the default controller settings in XDefiant so far (save for swapping to the 'Brawler' button layout of course), we have noticed some handy options under the 'Aim Response Curve Type' setting - and they could be useful if you're struggling to get to grips with gameplay so far.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including one that arrives next week!

It's amazing to have EA Play as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass memberships, and one of the big bonuses is that we get to try many new releases for up to 10 hours at no extra charge.

That remains the case with the upcoming releases of F1 24 and EA Sports College Football 25, both of which will be getting free trials with Xbox Game Pass on May 28th and July 16th respectively.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

"I've even got a codename for it...".

With more Xbox games hitting other platforms these days, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft might be looking at ways to bring all these versions together - and one of the ways of doing that could be with a "consistent social UI".

This was mentioned on the latest episode of the Xbox Two podcast this week, where Windows Central's Jez Corden advised that it may take the form of a "mini Xbox guide" that appears no matter where you're playing these Xbox titles:

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Stuck between a rock and a hard face. Sorry.

There are a total of 17 hidden faces to find in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, and each one marks the location of a secret Yggdrasil Tree that imparts a little more world-building lore upon our ferocious heroine.

Much like the Lorestangir collectibles, these hidden faces aren't particularly difficult to spot, this is a game that has you push along tight corridors with very limited freedom of movement after all, but there are a few that take a little examination of your surroundings. So, let's take a look at exactly where you can nab them all in Hellblade 2.

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"Survive the Undead arrives in the Combat Workshop today!".

Core development on Halo Infinite seems to be wrapping up these days, but that isn't stopping some pretty amazing-looking Forge creations from being made. Earlier this month, 'The Forge Falcons' made a Call of Duty Zombies style mode in Halo Infinite - and now 343 has given the mode its own public matchmaking slot.

Live now for the next two weeks, players can experience the PvE 'Survive the Undead' mode in Halo Infinite. This is an endless, round-based survival mode just like its main inspiration is, and here's a bit more information on what Survive the Undead brings to the table:

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The list continues to grow!

We're almost a year into the existence of Antstream Arcade on Xbox, with the cloud streaming service bringing well over 1000 retro games to Xbox consoles during that time - and that includes eight games from the PS1 so far.

Yes, although we only started with two, we've now got eight! This includes some classics such as the original Worms, puzzle-platformer Glover and tactical warfare game Hogs of War, along with plenty of other intriguing PS1 titles.

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Here's how it looks during 'Preseason'.

Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter XDefiant is officially out now on Xbox, and with it being a competitive FPS, players are wondering how the developer has implemented skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) into the game.

The controversial SBMM feature is present in XDefiant, but it's easily avoided if you'd like a more casual experience on Xbox. Here's where SBMM is used at launch, and how to avoid the feature in XDefiant:

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Here's how it looks during 'Preseason'.

Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter XDefiant is officially out now on Xbox, and with it being a competitive FPS, players are wondering how the developer has implemented skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) into the game.

The controversial SBMM feature is present in XDefiant, but it's easily avoided if you'd like a more casual experience on Xbox. Here's where SBMM is used at launch, and how to avoid the feature in XDefiant:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Xbox Series X|S owners can look forward to an upgrade.

Throughout the Xbox Series X|S generation there's been debate about whether games should still support the previous generation. With this in mind, developer Crytek has now confirmed it's dropping Xbox One support for Hunt: Showdown this August.

This decision is due to a "new era of Hunt" including a new map and performance improvements, as well as an upgrade for current-generation platforms. Here's what general manager David Fifield had to say about this update rolling out on 15th August 2024.

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It's the "best way" to experience the game.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is now available on Xbox and Game Pass, and while it's already quite different to a lot of other games, the developer Ninja Theory wants players to take the experience to the next level by wearing headphones.

When you boot up the game, you'll receive a message recommending you put on some headphones. If you're wondering what the deal about this is (and didn't play the first game) Ninja Theory's audio director David Garcia has gone into a bit more detail about why it's so important.

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It's the "best way" to experience the sequel.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is now available on Xbox and Game Pass, and while it's already quite different to a lot of other games, the developer Ninja Theory wants players to take the experience to the next level by wearing headphones.

When you boot up the game, you'll receive a message recommending you put on some headphones. If you're wondering what's up with this (and didn't play the first game), Ninja Theory's audio director David Garcia has gone into a bit more detail about why it's so important.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

One of the best you've seen?

It's been a few hours since Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 officially arrived on Xbox Game Pass, and although it's still early days and you might not have had a chance to play just yet, we're keen to get your earliest impressions on the graphics!

In our 7/10 review, we praised Hellblade 2's visuals as being one of the best parts of the game, stating that its graphical fidelity and audio work is "leagues above anything else we've seen this generation". Here's that bit of the review:

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The OG trilogy makes its physical Xbox premiere!

It's been a good few months since Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered arrived on Xbox in digital form, and now the teams at Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics have unveiled their plans for multiple physical editions of the game.

In total, three different versions of the newly-remastered Tomb Raider trilogy are coming, but only two will launch on Xbox. We'll drop all of the information down below - just note that the 'Deluxe Edition' appears to be skipping an Xbox release for now.

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A glimpse into the future.

Yesterday, Microsoft hosted a special Keynote introducing a range of Copilot+ PCs which are designed "with AI at the center" to allow their users to achieve things that weren't possible in the past. You can watch the full Keynote up above.

The bit we're most interested in though relates to Xbox and PC games. During the show, there was a small snippet of a Minecraft player using Copilot AI to ask questions about how to play the game, with the Copilot responding in real time:

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Not long to go now!

For the first time since its initial unveiling back in February, FromSoftware has returned with another look at Elden Ring's epic new expansion; Shadow of the Erdtree. This time around, the Japanese developer has given us a closer look at some of the story details we can expect to explore this summer.

Shadow of the Erdtree is all sounding rather intriguing indeed - in that typical FromSoftware mysterious kind of way. Anyway, here's some information on the upcoming story expansion, straight from the team:

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"An Xbox made for the myth and torment of Viking Iceland".

With Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 now officially out in the wild for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC, it'll come as no surprise to hear that Microsoft has created a custom console for it - although as usual you can't buy this one directly.

Instead, you'll need to enter the social media sweepstakes - a link for which can be seen down below:

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The complete list of all games.

Xbox Game Pass continues to fill up for 2024, and if you're looking for a list of everything coming to Game Pass in 2024, you've come to the right place! Below, we've picked out the complete list of games announced for Xbox Game Pass in 2024 so far, and we'll keep updating this as more are announced throughout the year.

If you're looking specifically for news on all the games coming soon and leaving soon in May 2024 on Xbox Game Pass, we've provided a separate guide elsewhere on Pure Xbox.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Jetting off.

Starfield's huge May update was a big one, bringing loads of new performance modes and other fixes and tweaks to Bethesda's 2023 RPG. Shortly after last week's release the update was getting very good feedback from fans, and now it seems to have produced a big bump in player numbers as well.

Per figures gathered by outlet True Achievements, Starfield has climbed nine places in the latest Xbox gameplay charts - now breaking into the top 20 games played on the platform. According to TA, the numbers have jumped up by 72% since the update, which arrived on May 15th.

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Lore of the land.

Lorestangir, that's lore stones to you and me, make a welcome return in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, giving us lots of extra background info on the game's world via stories from the ever-excitable Druth.

There are a total of 18 Lorestangir collectibles to find across the six chapters in Hellblade 2, so let's take a look at exactly where you can find each and every one of them. Oh, and make sure to check out our full video to all locations, which you can find linked above.

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"We narrowed the timing because we are highly confident".

Late last week, we got the news that GTA 6 was aiming for a Fall 2025 release date following last year's debut trailer for the title, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has now put some extra weight behind that schedule.

Talking to CNBC about the company's recent financials — and that new GTA 6 launch window — Zelnick said that while there is release date "slippage" in the industry, the team is "highly confident" that it can hit the newly-announced window.

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2024's upcoming Xbox launch dates.

What new Xbox games release dates in 2024 are coming up? If you're looking for a list of 2024 Xbox release dates, including for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, you've come to the right place. 2024 is shaping up to be a massive year for the platform when it comes to new releases and Xbox Game Pass, with some major titles on the way. On this page, you'll find a list of every major upcoming Xbox game with a release date of this year, and we'll updating this guide on a weekly basis throughout 2024.

Don't forget that we've provided a separate guide for every Xbox Game Pass game announced for 2024. You'll also find a roundup of Xbox games to look forward to in May 2024 elsewhere on Pure Xbox.

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More great discounts for your Xbox library!

It's time for yet another refresh of the Xbox Store "Deals" section, with over 200 games added to the list this week! The big highlight here is a SEGA Publisher sale, along with some new deals for Xbox Game Pass members.

Additionally, plenty of returning offers from last week are still sticking around from the Action/Adventure and Publisher Spotlight sales, so there's plenty to get stuck into over the next few days. Some of these discounts are very tempting!

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A lot of varied opinions on this one!

Ninja Theory's Hellblade 2 launch is finally upon us, marking the first major Xbox Game Studios release of 2024. We've already delivered our thoughts on the team's highly-anticipated sequel earlier today, so now it's time to take a look around and see what other folks are saying about the Xbox Game Pass title.

Down below we've gathered some critics' impressions of Hellblade 2 at launch:

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Diminishing Returns.

If we cast our minds all the way back to 2019's The Game Awards, all the way back to that very first reveal for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, it's a strange thing that, amidst all of the next-gen hype and excitement of that specific time, we still clearly remember considering a sequel to Ninja Theory's 2017 tour-de-force a weird, and maybe even quite bad, idea. Well, that and Geoff Keighley's jacket. But mostly the bad idea thing.

It was an obvious choice to make, of course, Senua's Sacrifice is quite rightly beloved by gamers and critics the world over. It was a big fat mega-hit, baby. It's also a singularly raw, personal and very angry blast of a game that throttles you with something approximating the ins and outs of dealing with mental health issues on the daily. It's dangerous, intoxicating, otherworldly and unique whilst also getting proper real about mind stuff, innit. There have been countless articles and discussions, we all have our own reasons to speak on why we connected so deeply with this character first time around. But why revisit, why go again when it seemed as though everything of import had already been said for Senua?

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"In addition to Project Mara".

While all the focus is currently on the launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, the Cambridge developer Ninja Theory is apparently already looking ahead.

According to Windows Central's "trusted sources", the studio's "next game" has already been greenlit and this is "in addition" to the previously revealed "experimental game" Project Mara.

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"In addition to Project Mara".

While all the focus for Xbox is currently on the launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, the UK developer Ninja Theory has apparently already got its next game confirmed.

According to Windows Central's "trusted sources", the studio's "next game" has already been greenlit and this is "in addition" to the previously revealed "experimental game" Project Mara.

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Prior to Hellblade 2.

It's time for another edition of Pick One! With Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 launching on Xbox Series X and S this Tuesday (along with PC), we thought we'd take a look back at the rich history of the company's games on Xbox.

We know that Hellblade 2 might overtake the rest for some Xbox fans this week, but in the interest of fairness (considering it hasn't yet launched at the time of writing), we're going to restrict this list to games pre-Hellblade 2.

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A great game gets even better.

Cassette Beasts made its Xbox Game Pass debut last year to critical acclaim, and it's getting even better today with the arrival of a multiplayer update which adds various new ways to play, including co-op raids and PvP battles.

Specifically, Cassette Beasts's multiplayer update adds the following across Xbox, PC and Nintendo Switch:

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Tomorrow's the big day!

We're really counting down the hours now until the release of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, which officially arrives on Xbox and PC Game Pass this Tuesday, May 21st. In the meantime, we've also got a new trailer to take a look at!

This is the official launch trailer, which shows off Hellblade 2's stunning visuals to the tune of "Animal Soul" by AURORA. It's a beautiful trailer that's bound to get the hype levels rising, and fortunately it seems pretty much spoiler-free.

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Nice jump...insect.

System Shock is just one of those games innit. It's one of those "classic" computer games that the old folk tell you about. You know those old folks, the ancient gamers (not me, obviously), just constantly yammering on at bus stops about System Shock and "oh, you shoulda seen SHODAN" and you're like "I did see SHODAN" and then they go "yeah, but you had to be there, it was like The Beatles. Like Khe Sanh." Something like that.

Anyway. We get it, this was good once. But it's 2024 now, grandma, it's 30 years later for crying out loud, why should we be arsed? Just because a game comes along and redefines a genre, sets a new standard and goes on to influence stuff like Bioshock and Arkane Austin's stupefyingly great Prey, we're supposed to drop everything and play it? Yeah right. Oh, and RIP Arkane Austin, you deserved so much better than to be destroyed by the greed of lesser people.

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Worth a download if you're on PC Game Pass.

I'll be honest and say that Starfield has seemed a bit out of my reach over the past few months. The game is cool, there's plenty to enjoy, but the abundance of arachnid-type creatures makes me want to avoid the experience.

If you're like me and waiting for Xbox mods to arrive, the sad news is that there's still no release date for console mods as of yet. If you're playing on PC Game Pass though, there's a fantastic mod that's aimed specifically at people like us.

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"Get it FOR FREE and keep it forever".

Anyone fancy a freebie? The team behind Pinball FX has announced that the new table "Super League Football" is being given away for free right now across Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, redeemable until Thursday, May 23rd.

The table is based around football (or soccer) as you might expect, and can be acquired via the Xbox Store on browser or on your console itself. Just search for "Super League Football", and you should find it easily.

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Mysterious monkey.

Black Myth: Wukong has been highly-anticipated ever since the gaming community laid eyes on it way back in 2020 - and the game still has loads of hype around it, as evidenced by the team's latest trailer.

As you can see up above, IGN's new peek at the title has well over 500k views in less than 24 hours; this time introducing us to "new visuals, cutscenes, and gameplay" from the title. We'll admit we're not entirely sure what's going on for half of this trailer, but the game does look very impressive regardless.

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"There are no pay-to-win mechanics".

XDefiant launches for Xbox Series X|S this week, and ahead of release the team at Ubisoft San Francisco has explained how it will be tackling DLC content - with a very specific 'no pay-to-win' mantra.

Basically, all additional content for XDefiant that affects gameplay will be unlockable in one form or another. In some instances, the team will provide a paid option for those who'd like to fast-track progress, but Ubisoft is making a strong point that anything which is exclusively paid DLC won't affect gameplay and will be cosmetic-only.

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"Working with this hardware was awesome".

We're really looking forward to the release of Hypercharge: Unboxed on Xbox later this month, so we recently talked to the game's Creative Gameplay & Marketing Director (Joe Henson) who provided us with an interview that you'll be able to read in its entirety on Pure Xbox very soon.

Before then though, we thought we'd tease you with a couple of answers that you might want to be aware of ASAP, and that includes the resolution and FPS targets for the game across all four Xbox consoles.

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Could we see a price hike?

Last week we saw a fresh report from the Wall Street Journal on Microsoft bringing brand-new Call of Duty games to Xbox Game Pass, and some follow-up rumours have circulated over the weekend suggesting that the service will make "changes" in order for this to happen.

Well-known insiders Shinobi602 and eXtas1s have both commented on this in recent days. First off, in response to a suggestion on the Reset Era forum about potential new Game Pass tiers, Shinobi simply responded with "There will be changes, yes." but didn't elaborate further on their comment.

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Celebrate 6 years of SOD2!

Microsoft's Undead Labs has created a new dynamic background for Xbox Series X|S users, to mark the six year anniversary for State of Decay 2. The background itself stems from the team's 'Juggernaut Edition' artwork for the title, and you can take a look at the dynamic version of the art down below.

This marks the second State of Decay 2 dynamic background currently available on Xbox Series X|S, following 2022's downed-plane scene. We must admit that we'd like to see a bit more animation to this new one - but it's another welcome addition to an ever-growing lineup nonetheless.

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Was it the games? The hardware? The marketing? Tell us!

We're fast approaching the 25th anniversary of Xbox (look out for it November 2026!), and over the past couple of decades, the brand has racked up millions of fans who have spent thousands on consoles, games and more.

It might be a fairly short history all things considered, but so much has happened in that time. Each of the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S eras have come with their own ups and downs, from major successes like the release of Halo and the glory days of the Xbox 360 library, to the Red Ring of Death and the botched Xbox One launch.

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Hellblade, Killing Floor, Rogue Legacy & more!

Looking for some cheap Xbox games in this week's Xbox sales?

Well, we've been treated to a whole bunch of them over the past few days! Loads of games are discounted by 90 or even 95% at the moment, including the likes of Back 4 Blood, GRID Legends, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Killing Floor 2, Rogue Legacy and Yooka-Laylee. All of these are absolutely worth the money in our opinion!

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Including a massive Xbox first-party release!

Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for May 20-24! We've got some major releases on the way next week including the likes of System Shock and XDefiant, along with three Game Pass titles highlighted by NInja Theory's Hellblade 2!

Here's what's coming to Xbox next week:

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Returning to Starfield?

Welcome to the weekend! There's plenty to enjoy on Xbox over the two days including the recent Starfield update, new Xbox Game Pass titles, a selection of Free Play Days offerings, and over 500 generous deals on the Xbox Store!

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

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We officially have a launch window.

Yesterday's news of a fresh release window for GTA 6 has once again brought Rockstar's upcoming epic back to the forefront of our minds, with publisher Take-Two now full steam ahead towards a fall 2025 launch.

While that might seem like ages and ages away right now, we're sure the time will fly - especially once 2024's big launches come around and we get a few more early looks at the next Grand Theft Auto along the way. The question is, how hyped are you to play GTA 6 after just the one trailer so far?

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According to some sneaky website coding.

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 has been on Xbox Game Pass before, but a new rumour is suggesting that the famous developer could be planning to bring the original Red Dead Redemption to the service for the very first time.

As posted over on Reddit, a fan has found a string of code within the Red Dead website that lists where RDR can be played. The coding reads as follows: 'Available for Nintendo Switch, PS3, PlayStation Plus Premium for PS4 and PS5, Xbox 360, and Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S'.

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"Thank you all".

Redfall isn't dead yet! It's been announced today by Bethesda that the Xbox first-party title will receive one final update before Arkane Austin closes down, and it'll include some important features such as an Offline Mode.

The news was announced on social media earlier this afternoon - here's a look:

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Featuring a 2-piece design with Hall Effect Sticks.

We've spoken before about how we love GameSir's offerings when it comes to Xbox Cloud Gaming (the X2 Pro is still the one we're using all the time), and the company continues to pump out fresh designs such as the new "X4 Aileron".

What's interesting about the X4 Aileron is that it features a two-piece design for portability's sake - it essentially splits into two so you can put it in your pocket, and then joins together magnetically when you want to play something.

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According to the Wall Street Journal.

A new report has just dropped that claims Activision's upcoming 2024 Call of Duty title will be included in Xbox Game Pass on day one. The Wall Street Journal is the source on this one, with the outlet claiming that the plan is "expected to be announced at the company’s annual Xbox showcase next month".

About a week ago, Xbox's Sarah Bond doubled down on Microsoft's commitment to Game Pass, reiterating that Xbox will be bringing its titles to the service "across the whole slate". Of course, today's report backs that up, even if Bond didn't state Call of Duty specifically.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

You'll need internet to install it, though.

Since Wednesday's Assassin's Creed Shadows reveal, there's been some controversy surrounding the game's online nature - mainly because fans spotted that the game 'required' an internet connection according to early store listings. In the wake of this online-only outcry, Ubisoft has responded, and the news is largely good.

The team has cleared up that Assassin's Creed Shadows can indeed be played offline. You'll need a connection to install the game — we'd expect a chunk of the data to be downloaded — but once that's all set up, the single-player adventure can be played in full without being connected to the internet.

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Worth keeping in mind for Xbox users!

It's not unfair to say that Microsoft Rewards has suffered for Xbox users over the past year, but clearly the company is still committed to the program, with multiple new features rolling out for Xbox fans and beyond over the past few days.

These new features aren't specific to Xbox, but they'll still come in handy. The most notable one is the ability to protect your daily streak on the Microsoft Rewards browser version/app - perfect for things like vacations, for example.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

What are they teasing?

Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Team Rumble developer Toys for Bob appears to be teasing some sort of announcement, as its website transitions to a simple static logo on the back of going independent earlier this year.

For now, the team hasn't accompanied this website change with any sort of public teaser, so who knows what happens next. As for what the the logo could mean, who knows, but the image looks eerily similar to the 'Aku Aku' character from Crash - and it's also purple which is of course synonymous with Spyro The Dragon.

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Everything you need to know for the free-to-play launch.

Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter XDefiant is officially heading to Xbox Series X|S next week, after several delays pushed back this brand-new FPS. However, its release is finally on the horizon, so here's all the information you need for the Xbox launch.

Below, you'll find all the release dates, release times and preload details for XDefiant on Xbox Series X|S, along with how much space the game will take up on your console storage.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

How are you getting on with it?

One of the biggest releases of this week was the massive Starfield update for Xbox Series X and Series S (along with PC), and the good news is that overall, most players seem to be really impressed with what Bethesda has delivered.

In particular, we're seeing a lot of praise for the ability to customise gameplay in a variety of ways following the new update, with all sorts of weird and wacky combinations being cooked up by the Starfield community.

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Showcase season is upon us.

Gaming event guru Geoff Keighley has revealed a bunch of 'partners' for the upcoming Summer Game Fest - a collection of livestreams that take place throughout June. Xbox has been confirmed as one of "more than 55 partners", with Microsoft's own Xbox Games Showcase also included in the Summer Game Fest Calendar.

As we already know, Microsoft's show (likely featuring Call of Duty) takes place on June 9th, but SGF actually kicks off with its own livestream on June 7th. We're not sure if Xbox will show up during this particular stream, but each year it tends to bring together a bunch of different gaming companies (similar to The Game Awards), so there's every chance Microsoft appears with some sort of reveal during the show.

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Could an announcement be on the way?

Microsoft's Minecraft has already had tremendous success over the years across multiple platforms, but there are still some platforms it's not available on. One, in particular, missing out is Steam - while Minecraft can be downloaded through the Microsoft Store on PC, it's not yet expanded to Valve's launcher.

This could all be set to change, based on a recent discovery. As "verified" by Windows Central, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have spotted a new anniversary perk where users can receive 500 Minecoins for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and one of the platforms apparently supported is Steam.

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Take-Two confirms platforms and release window.

Take-Two has confirmed today that Grand Theft Auto VI will officially be heading to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S (along with PS5), and the release window is currently set as the "Fall of Calendar 2025".

Developing...

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Spoiler: there's quite a few to choose from!

So, we're still waiting for Call of Duty to become a part of Xbox Game Pass in some form, with the top dogs at Microsoft still figuring things out since the company's big ActiBlizz purchase. While we've already asked which classic CoD you'd like to play first on the service, today we thought we'd gauge opinions on the whole series in general. Basically, which is your absolute favourite Call of Duty game on any Xbox console?

As pretty big fans of the series this is a tough one indeed. Call of Duty Black Ops absolutely deserves a shout for ushering in the ever-popular subseries, as does Treyarch's 2008 classic in Call of Duty: World at War. However, we'd have to turn the clock back to 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for our absolute favourite in the series.

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Yes, a new boxing game on Xbox!

We've been following the progress of Undisputed for years here at Pure Xbox, and we're delighted to share that the game finally has a release date for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S - it's launching on October 11th, 2024.

Undisputed first arrived in early access on PC last year, and it currently has a "Mostly Positive" rating on the Steam platform. The Xbox release coincides with the 1.0 launch of the game, which means it'll be coming out of early access.

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'Elsewhere Entertainment' is a-go.

Microsoft's newly-acquired Activision team has today announced the opening of a brand-new development studio in Poland. The team, which is confirmed to not be working on Call of Duty, is setting out to build a "state-of-the-art and next-generation gaming experience" at 'Elsewhere Entertainment'.

The studio also seems to be doubling down on narrative experiences, with ex-Uncharted, The Last of Us, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 and Destiny developers helping form the team. The plan is for Elsewhere to "craft a franchise with an enduring legacy that resonates far beyond games".

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Madden NFL 25 arrives one month later.

We never thought we'd see the day, but College Football 25 is officially heading to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in just two months' time! The game's release date has been confirmed today as July 19th, with pre-orders now available.

Full details on College Football 25 will be arriving tomorrow (May 17th) along with a reveal trailer, so it's worth keeping an eye on the game's socials for more information. In the meantime, you can grab a pre-order for $69.99 on the Xbox Store (with 10% off for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members), or you can opt for the more expensive Deluxe Edition which comes with various benefits including three days of early access.

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"The Killing Floor franchise is officially 15 years old!".

During last year's Gamescom convention, the folks at Tripwire Interactive announced Killing Floor 3; the next entry in the studio's 15-year-old zombie FPS series. We've not really heard much about it since, but the team returns today with a chunky dev diary looking back at the history of the franchise - while also teasing more of its upcoming sequel.

We've thrown the 5-minute ViDoc up above, which is well worth a watch if you're a big Killing Floor fan - or if you're just mildly curious about the third entry for Xbox Series X|S. There's not loads of new footage in here, but the team does talk about its overall goals with KF3 and what it's learnt from developing the series so far.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

A quick catchup.

So, our big Hellblade 2 release guide is now live as we prepare ourselves for this month's major Xbox release, but what about those of us who could do with a quick recap on the first game? Well, Xbox and Ninja Theory have us covered.

As you can see above, the dev team has posted a nice, succinct recap of the events in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - useful for anyone who wants a quick refresher on the 2017 original ahead of Hellblade 2's impending Xbox arrival.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Microsoft CEO apparently sees "no red line" for Xbox games on PS5.

Earlier this year, we saw four fantastic Xbox exclusives making their way over to PS5 (along with PS4 / Nintendo Switch in some circumstances) in the form of Grounded, Pentiment, Sea Of Thieves and Hi-Fi RUSH.

Ever since the announcement, we've been wondering if more Xbox first-party games will follow the same pattern, and according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, it sounds like plans are already well underway for this at Microsoft.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

The chase is on.

After revealing a rough launch window right at the tail end of 2023, Horizon Chase 2 officially has an Xbox release date! You can go hands-on with this beautiful retro racing sequel on May 30th, 2024.

The upcoming old-school racer will be playable on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and it'll launch with a 20% discount on the platform for the first two weeks of release. Here's a little bit more about what to expect from Horizon Chase 2 when it lands on Xbox:

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Everything you need to know ahead of the Xbox Game Pass launch.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is officially heading to Xbox Game Pass in the very near future, marking the first major Xbox Game Studios release of the year. As we get closer and closer, it's time to look at all the details you need to know!

Below, you'll find all the release dates, release times and preload details for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 on Xbox Game Pass, along with a few other bits of information such as the download size and how to access it on Xbox One.

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"We have made the tough call to halt development".

As part of a big earnings call over at mega game maker Ubisoft, The Division: Heartland has officially been cancelled. In development for a number of years over at Red Storm Entertainment, Heartland was set to be a free-to-play, extraction-themed spinoff of Ubisoft's The Division series.

Now though, the game has met the chopping block as the company decided to "redeploy resources to bigger opportunities". Here's a bit more about the team's decision to cancel The Division: Heartland:

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Included with Game Pass Core and Game Pass Ultimate.

Microsoft's latest Xbox Free Play Days lineup is here, and we have a couple of crackers to get stuck into this week - including Killing Floor 2 which is paired with a pretty incredible discount this weekend.

Anyway, here's the full Xbox Free Play Days lineup:

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Available today with Game Pass Ultimate.

We have two new Xbox Game Pass additions today, folks - both via the EA Play library. The major addition here is Ascendant Studios' magic shooter Immortals of Aveum, while Cloud users can also get stuck into NHL 24 on Game Pass later in the afternoon.

Here's a brief introduction to today's two new Xbox Game Pass titles:

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The Proteus Controller is a collaboration with ByoWave.