Why the delay? Developer Sad Cat Studios notes that the game is "technically finished" but the team needs a few more weeks for polish. The company says it wants the day-one release to be "polished, stable and true to the vision" of the original concept. This is something to be commended, in my opinion, given the sad state of many game launches in recent years.
February has already seen the arrival of a preview build of RTS Menace and the arrival of Diablo II: Resurrected and High on Life 2 to Game Pass, which is hard to sniff at (until you remember that Microsoft increased the price of the subscription from $20 to $30 a month last year). But the second half of the month is much more busy, starting today with the addition of Aerial_Knight's DropShot, and Ubisoft's surprisingly great Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Today marks the beginning of Xbox's Free Play Days, which temporarily gives Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential subscribers access to a handful of this year's hits as well as a few older titles. There are two exceptions, however. Parts of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 are available for all players until December 22, whether you have Game Pass or not. Similarly, Fallout 76 is free for everyone through December 23, and you don't need Game Pass to enjoy it.
The past year also saw the announcement of Valve's newest Steam Machine, the industry's first $80 game in decades from an unexpected source, EA announcing a take-private deal with Saudi Arabia, the retirement of a longtime Nintendo executive, Microsoft putting its games on rival platforms, the return of Game Informer magazine, and a voice-actor strike. Beyond big news and announcements, 2025 saw a continuation of trends from previous years, including ongoing mass layoffs, along with consumer behavior continuing to shift away from buying new games.
Fresh from sweeping the Golden Joysticks and poised to do the same at The Game Awards, Sandfall Interactive's phenomenal debut RPG is one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year, so it should surprise no one when we announce that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the biggest new third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass of 2025, Microsoft announced in a new blog post.
Digital Sun's Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault launched in early access for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. The PC version of the highly anticipated Zelda-inspired roguelike is already seeing a nice discount over on Fanatical. You can pick it up for $20.09, saving you nearly $10 off the $30 launch price. This is the lowest price for the game so far, as Steam is offering the game for $24.89.
Black Friday technically starts tomorrow, but early sales are going in full swing already. Thanks to that, Amazon has dropped the price of the 16-inch Alienware Aurora gaming laptop to just $900. You're saving a straightforward $350 on its retail price of $1,250, and the sale is open to all shoppers. Even better, there are no coupon codes required to score the drop. Just add the laptop to your cart, and the discount applies automatically.
Announced as part of November's Xbox Showcase, Vampire Crawlers marks a significant departure from the simplistic gameplay of Survivors, adding increased depth and strategy via its strong focus on deckbuilding while still retaining a similar visual style and a penchant for chaos. Other notable features include the village, which serves as a central hub for your Survivors, as well as a shift to a 2.5D perspective.
That includes access to the current Fortnite battle pass, along with the OG pass, Lego pass, music pass and Rocket League 's rocket pass premium. On top of that, Fortnite Crew puts 1,000 V-Bucks in subscribers' wallets every month. Microsoft announced Fortnite Crew as a perk for Game Pass Premium in early October, when it jacked up the price of the service to $30 per month.
By all appearances, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 features a not insignificant amount of AI-generated art, Kotaku reports. The game's over 680 Calling Cards - collectible backgrounds earned through in-game achievements or purchases - appear to be the main offenders, featuring art that imitates the knockoff animation style of ChatGPT. While it's hard to authoritatively claim that Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations are a smoking gun, the Calling Cards players have spotted do at the very least seem unpolished for a splashy $70 game.
Xbox Cloud Gaming was launched in India on Tuesday by Microsoft as its latest cloud gaming service. The new feature will allow users to play various Xbox-exclusive and non-exclusive titles, such as Arc Raiders, Call of Duty: Warzone, Asphalt Legends, Rainbow 6 Siege X, and Halo Infinite, on their iOS and Android phones, tablets, Mac, PC, select smart TVs, and Amazon Fire TV stick.
Have you heard the whispers? According to my sources, Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed again. It's weird, because a guy promised me this wouldn't happen. Anyway, PlayStation Plus subscribers can somewhat console themselves with word from the extremely reliable leaker billbil-kun over at Dealabs: GTA V seems to be making its way back onto PS Plus yet again later this month.
On October 23, Game Pass will add two day one titles - PowerWash Simulator 2 and Bounty Star. The sequel to the indie hit PowerWash Simulator brings new locations and new ways to clean. Bounty Star, on the other hand, is a 3D mech combat action title with base building mechanics. Both games join Game Pass day one for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members.
Newegg is selling three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $52, which is a fantastic deal. The list price is $60, but drops down to $52 by entering the code SSE2589 at checkout. The sale ends soon, so don't dilly-dally. This is a discount of $38, thanks to Microsoft mandating a price hike that brought a single month of Game Pass Ultimate up to $30. That controversial move has irked fans of the subscription service.
After Microsoft decided to jack up the price of its Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to up to $30 a month, it has another unwelcome surprise for members. In a statement provided to multiple outlets like Insider Gaming, a spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed it has removed the discounts for DLC that come with a Game Pass subscription, replacing them by offering points for its Rewards program.
No matter how you look at it, this was a wild week for the games industry. Electronic Arts, the massive publisher behind multiple sports franchises and BioWare games, has been acquired for $55 billion by an investment consortium that includes the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia; Xbox announced it was overhauling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and increasing its price by 50%; and Harmonix announced it is delisting Rock Band 4 this Sunday, meaning you only have two days left to buy it before it's gone forever.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate just shot up another 50%, jumping from $20 to $30 per month. Folks are canceling subscriptions left and right with reports of the web page to change you Microsoft subscription plan going down due to overwhelming traffic. $30 every month for a service is a bad price. Microsoft should know better, but not all of their services are that excruciating on your wallet.
