#game-pass

#game-pass

If you're picking up some of the great Xbox game deals in Amazon's early Black Friday sale this week, you may also want to check out the retailer's deal on Western Digital's official Xbox Storage Expansion Card. The WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card is on sale for only $100 (was $150), which is 10 bucks less than the price we saw during Prime Big Deal Days. The C50 is a plug-and-play storage upgrade for Xbox Series X and Series S.

The Backbone Pro Xbox Edition looks like an improvement over the pre-existing One controller in nearly every way. It's still a USB-C shell that wraps around a phone or related device, but the actual controller is now more in league with an actual Xbox gamepad. It features full-size control sticks, hall effect triggers and two customizable back buttons. Most of the inputs can be remapped.

First, a bit of background with a disclaimer. I have been writing about video games in some capacity for over a decade and playing much, much longer than that. My handheld gaming experience extends back to the Game Boy, through the Nintendo DS, diverted by the PlayStation Vita, and as a regular player of the Nintendo Switch (and now its sequel).

During the Halo World Championships today, Microsoft and Halo Studios officially announced Halo: Campaign Evolved. It's described as a "faithful yet modernized" remake of the 2001 game, and it's set for release in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It will launch into Game Pass. And to be clear right up front, this is called Halo: Campaign Evolved because it's campaign-only. There is no head-to-head multiplayer, though online and local campaign co-op is supported.

Current-gen Xbox dev kits used to cost $1,500. They'll now be $2,000 for any game studio who wants to make a game for Xbox Series X/S and doesn't already have one. That's according to a new report from which says developers received the updated pricing in a recent email from Microsoft. "The adjustment reflects macroeconomic developments," the email to game development partners apparently reads. "We remain committed to providing high-quality tools and support for your development efforts."

The Moon Man Couch-Panion is three feet tall and includes a popcorn bucket holder in its head, weird stress-ball squishy hands, and straps designed to hold a TV remote and an Xbox Wireless Controller. It's also got a creepy face that only a nightmare could love. And while these Couch-Panions aren't going to heading to stores, fans will get their chance to win one.

In the music, TV and film industries, streaming has completely upended the business model. Instead of buying albums and films, most of us pay for a few subscriptions depending on what we want to watch, and maybe supplement that with the odd vinyl or special-edition Blu-ray. This has been pretty terrible for musicians, who earn approximately $0.004 per play on Spotify, while Spotify itself made $1bn in profit last year (admittedly after many years of operating losses).

Just the other day, Microsoft made a rather ballsy and probably stupid move when it announced that Game Pass Ultimate would be getting a 50% price increase amidst other changes to the subscription. Well, it looks like people were not too chuffed, and the surge of folk trying to cancel resulted in the website facing some technical problems.

Really, I just wanted to play some games; to chip away at the mystery of Majora's Mask, or solve a few puzzles in BoxBoy, without the headaches of system updates or subscriptions or any of that stuff. It's been refreshing. And my choice has felt especially prescient of late, given just how much more complicated and expensive modern game consoles have become.

During Sony's latest State of Play, the company announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming to PS5 on December 8, 2025. Based on the trailer showed during Sony's event, the PS5 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, will carry over the same graphical detail and giant commercial aircraft of the original, along with support for the PS VR 2 headset for even more immersive cockpit gameplay.

Nearly two years after leaving the Fallout and Elder Scrolls maker, the veteran video game marketer shared his concerns about subscription gaming's long-term impact on the industry. "You need to properly acknowledge, compensate, and recognize what it takes to create that content and not just make a game, but make a product," he said in a new interview with DBLTap.

Speaking to The Game Business, design director Jens Andersson said the aim was to make The Great Circle "the most accessible MachineGames game so far," and it being on Game Pass meant that anyone with a membership could give it a shot. The data coming back to MachineGames showed that Game Pass players would "jump in for five minutes and they drop out."

After about 45 minutes with the ROG Xbox Ally X, Microsoft's beefy handheld collaboration with Asus, I can safely say that the two tech giants have succeeded in bringing another excellent option to this growing market. But while the device itself is an enjoyable way to access your Xbox library and beyond, the real measure of its value will be how it stacks up against the numerous options already available.

Herdling, developed by Okomotive and published by Panic, allows players to control a shepherd for enigmatic creatures, protecting them during their journey to the mountains.