Xbox Games Showcase and a Direct for What’s Probably the Next Call of Duty Dated for June

Xbox fans, and some of their employees, were blindsided earlier this month when Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered, including the “gut stab” closure of Arkane Austin, developer of the acclaimed Prey and the more troubled Redfall. Following the announcement Arkane Austin was shutting up shop, it was reported that the team had been working on additional updates for Redfall, including one that would deliver a long-promised offline mode. Unfortunately, at the time, it seemed unlikely any of these promised updates would come to fruition.

Is Call of Duty coming to Xbox Game Pass? When Microsoft first began pursuing it’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many assumed using Call of Duty to bolster Game Pass was one of their goals, but things have changed since then. Game Pass growth has slowed, badly missing growth targets, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has admitted there’s a ceiling to its success. While some Activision Blizzard games like Diablo IV have been added to Game Pass, recent reports suggested that Microsoft was still “evaluating” whether to do the same with the headliner that is Call of Duty.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is available on PC as of today, and it offers the full suite of upscaling options, including DLSS 3, FSR 3, and XeSS (check out the game’s performance with DLSS 3 here). Interestingly, Ghost of Tsushima also offers something other games don’t – the ability to combine DLSS upscaling with FSR 3 frame generation.

Sony has announced the latest lineup of games coming to their PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers this May. The headliner is definitely Rockstar’s blockbuster Red Dead Redemption 2, but some other solid additions, including Deceive Inc. and Stranded: Alien Dawn are also on the way. Meanwhile, Premium subscribers have some deep cuts coming, including snowboarding game 2Xtreme and a Worms pinball game I’ve never heard of.

Earlier this week Ubisoft finally shone a light on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the new Feudal Japan-set RPG-style adventure from the team at Ubisoft Quebec, that was originally known by the codename Assassin’s Creed Red. Since then, a few other tidbits have leaked, including a release date and some details about the game’s DLC and pricing plans. That said, fans were understandably still hungry for more.

WWE 2K24 has been on the market for a couple of months now and developer Visual Concepts is expanding the experience with the game’s first DLC pack. CM Punk made his surprise return to WWE this past November at Survivor Series, and in years past, fans would likely have had to wait over a year to see him in a WWE game, as the deadline for setting the roster for the next game would have passed. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, as Visual Concepts got to work and managed to get him into the ECW Punk Pack, which also includes Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, Sandman, and Terry Funk.

Update: Whoops! It looks like one of Ubisoft's channels accidentally leaked the Assassin's Creed Shadows release date before the official reveal -- November 15, 2024.

One of the focuses of the recent RPG-shooter Remnant II is build crafting, with the game’s Archetypes (the game’s name for classes) being at the core of that experience. The new Remnant II: The Forgotten Kingdom DLC adds a additional Archetype, the Invoker, and like many of the game’s classes, it needs to be unlocked in a very specific way, but don’t worry, we’ve taken the mystery out of it.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered, including Arkane Austin (Prey, Redfall), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush), and Alpha Dog Games, while Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios to work on The Elder Scrolls Online. This follows nearly 1,900 layoffs earlier in the year, largely from Microsoft’s newly-acquired Activision Blizzard teams. Unfortunately, it seems this isn’t the end of the pain.

For a while in the late 2010/early 2020s, it seemed liked gaming subscriptions may be the future of the hobby. Microsoft certainly wanted us to think it was the future, pushing Xbox Game Pass every chance they got, and Sony eventually joined the party with their own expanded PlayStation Plus service.

Electronic Arts has released its Q4 2024 earnings, and overall, it was a solid 12 months for the company. Overall, EA has brought in revenue or $7.43 billion, up 1 percent over FY2023, with both EA Sports FC 24 and Madden NFL 24 having record-setting years in terms of revenue generated (Madden was the best-selling entry in the series since the early 2000s).

Despite having the best-selling game of all time in Grand Theft Auto V, and GTA VI on the way, mega publisher Take-Two Interactive have been going through some belt-tightening, recently cutting 5 percent of its workforce and canceling some projects. When the news of the cuts were first announced, we didn’t know exactly who was impacted or which games had been canned, but we may now have a better idea.