Gaming News

Grand Theft Auto fans eagerly awaiting the historic release of GTA 6 this November know the drill by now: console players get first dibs, while PC players must wait patiently on the sidelines. While this staggered release strategy has been standard operating procedure for Rockstar Games for decades, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has shed new light on exactly why the gaming juggernaut prioritizes consoles over PC. In a recent interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier at the iicon event

For most of its history, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has treated modders as adversaries rather than allies. Rockstar has a long track record of sending cease-and-desist letters to third-party modding platforms, and GTA 5 — nearly 13 years into its life cycle — still doesn't have so much as a Steam Workshop page. On paper, that history makes betting on GTA 6 modding support look like a losing wager. But dig past the surface-level pessimism, and the evidence starts pointing the other way. While

With Grand Theft Auto VI looming just a few months away, the gaming world is bracing for what is undoubtedly the biggest entertainment event of the year. But behind the scenes, a quiet crisis is brewing for Rockstar Games. A report published by data analytics firm Ampere Analysis reveals that while Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online can still draw massive crowds for short bursts, the game is suffering from a severe, long-term player retention problem. As Rockstar prepares to launch a new era of G

With GTA 6 now out, one lingering question fans keep circling back to is whether cheat codes will make the cut. Rockstar's growing emphasis on GTA Online and user-generated content has some wondering if the classic cheat system still has a place in the series — or whether it's being quietly phased out in favor of a more curated, monetized experience. There's no official confirmation either way. But the franchise's own track record gives us plenty to work with. The Case for Cheats Returning Cheat

Xbox has a new long-term partner in Take-Two Interactive, and Grand Theft Auto VI is the first beneficiary. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the 10-year agreement on November 10, nine days before the game's release. Sharma wrote that the day marked "the first step in our new 10-year strategic partnership with Take-Two." She said GTA VI will be playable on Xbox One through cloud gaming at launch, and that it is already the most pre-ordered game in Microsoft Store history. What's confirmed for GTA 6

As part of today's November 2025 Update, Microsoft has announced new features for Xbox Cloud Gaming, including a new 'User-Selected Resolution' option that brings "enhanced stream quality for select titles". Yep, following on from the likes of Digital Foundry spotting that certain Xbox Cloud Gaming titles were now streaming at up to 1440p, Microsoft has confirmed the resolution bump; now adding the option to "choose your preferred video quality when streaming games". As part of this November up

Xbox's latest partnership has been revealed, and we've got some new shoes on the way! Yes, the Xbox-Inspired "Crocs Classic Clog" will be going on sale from this Tuesday, November 25th. Xbox is only teasing a first look right now, which you can see in the social media video below: The Xbox "Crocs Classic Clog" has already been revealed on the official Crocs website though, with lots of details being shared along with some all-important screenshots. Firstly, let's look at the description: Fixed d

Back in September, we learnt that Microsoft Flight Simulator was jetting off to PS5 this year - and now an interesting interview with an Xbox developer talks about the series' interesting journey to PlayStation platforms. Speaking with XDA, Microsoft's Flight Sim lead dev Jorg Neumann talked about the upcoming port and how it all started. Neumann says that he suggested moving the series over to PS5 after 2020's Microsoft Flight Simulator (an idea that MS shot down), before a Sony dev came back t

Over the last 18 months or so, we've seen Microsoft pivot to releasing games on rival platforms - including PlayStation of course. While the reaction to this move has been mixed, shall we say, within the community, it sounds as though Xbox developers at large are pretty pleased with the decision. Talking with 404 Media, Bloomberg's ever-reliable Jason Schreier spoke about the situation, and how "a lot" of these studios are "thrilled that they get to release their games on PlayStation". Schreier

Anyone fancy a free Xbox gift card for the holidays?! Well, we've spotted Xbox giving these away to some lucky users for the month of December, and they're being received across console, PC and even Xbox Cloud Gaming. At first glance this does seem to be quite rare, although there are multiple examples online of people who have received theirs already. Here's some of the proof we've come across so far: And as mentioned, these are appearing not only on console, but on PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming as

It's been quite an underwhelming Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 from a console perspective for Xbox fans, with just a few small discounts scattered around for the two systems, but that's still managed to make some people happy! Over on the Xbox subreddit, there are a few people showing off their new Series X and Series S purchases, although it's unclear what specific deals they've taken advantage of here. As mentioned last week, many of the Black Friday deals were in the UK, although we spot

Following the rumours, Xbox has officially announced its Partner Preview showcase. The presentation will take place on Thursday 20th November at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm GMT. As expected, Xbox Partner Preview will focus on third-party games, meaning this will definitely be worth tuning into regardless of your preferred platform. In the Xbox Wire post, three games are highlighted as part of the show — 007 First Light, Tides of Annihilation, and Reanimal will all be present. The post also teases some "b

Xbox has pushed back hard against claims that PlayStation is running away with Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders, insisting that its own numbers are setting records — even as outside data suggests Sony has a sizeable lead. The spark: an 8-to-1 claim The controversy began when IGN's affiliate/commerce team shared data suggesting that PS5 pre-orders for GTA 6 were outperforming Xbox Series X|S pre-orders by a margin of roughly 8-to-1. Earlier reporting had pegged the gap closer to 6-to-1, but the num

Microsoft has implemented multiple price increases for the Xbox Series X and S over the past few years, and a new report suggests this might not be the end for current-gen Xbox price hikes. Coming from Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube — a tech insider who we've covered here on the site before — Microsoft has apparently not accounted for potential RAM cost increases that are likely to come as a result of a new deal struck between OpenAI and several manufacturing partners. The YouTuber says that Son

There's been an unfortunate narrative doing the rounds on social media this weekend about Xbox consoles, and it's all to do with some new Black Friday 2025 data that suggests the Series X and Series S sold poorly during BF week. Specifically, Mat Piscatella of the analysis group "Circana" took to Bluesky on Sunday to share how the PlayStation 5 dominated Black Friday week with 47% of gaming hardware sales in the US, followed by the Switch 2 at 24% and the little-known NEX Playground at 14%. The

As part of today's Xbox Partner Preview event, Microsoft has brought two new titles to Xbox Game Pass - yes, two XGP shadow drops on one day! The games in question are Total Chaos and CloverPit; both bringing different flavours of horror to the service on November 20th. Of course, we're going to detail both of these new Game Pass titles down below so you have a better idea of what you're looking at here - and do bear in mind that as these additions have only just been announced, it may take a li

Alright, so you probably saw the news about this "Banjo-Kazooie: Mumbomania" project that was cross-posted to Pure Xbox by our friends at Push Square yesterday - a game made in Dreams for PS5 that's gone viral this week. The gist is that someone made their own version of Banjo-Kazooie inside of the PS5 creation tool, and it's so impressive that even the Xbox Studio "Rare" (the original developer of Banjo-Kazooie) highlighted it as some "incredible work". The big problem with this is that it's re

Earlier today, Microsoft dropped its December Xbox Game Pass roundup - with 14 games coming to multiple tiers of the service in the next few weeks. The update stops at December 11th with the addition of Bratz: Rhythm & Style, and that's seemingly going to be our final XGP update for 2025 as the team begins to tease its 2026 lineup. Yep, snuck at the bottom of today's Xbox Wire roundup is a little closing message regarding Xbox Game Pass in 2025 and 2026. The team wishes us all "a chill rest

The Xbox Winter Demo Fest for 2025 (otherwise known as the Indie Selects Demo Fest) has now kicked off, allowing you to play over 20 games for free. It's not officially being promoted at the time of writing, but we've done some sleuthing and discovered these 20+ titles that are part of it — with 30+ set to be announced in total. With that in mind, we'll be updating this list as more demos become available over the next 24 hours. As of December 9th, you'll see a tab for the Xbox Demo Fest on your

A report that Xbox had locked up exclusive streaming rights to Grand Theft Auto VI lit up the community on Tuesday. Within hours, the claim was being scaled back by the reporter who broke it and by Xbox's own strategy chief. What was reported The Verge reported on Tuesday that Xbox had landed exclusive game streaming rights for GTA 6, with Xbox Cloud Gaming as the only way to stream the game when it launches on November 19. The report said Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees at an internal all-h

It's been a while since we last saw a new free-to-play (or just entirely "free") game release on the Xbox Store, but that's all changed today with the arrival of Card Storm Idle - a game that actually has three separate versions to try. That makes it extremely lucrative for achievement hunters, as there's a potential 3000G worth of achievements up for grabs here across the Xbox One (1000G), Xbox Series X|S (1000G) and Windows PC (1000G) versions. It's really simple to complete as well, described

The Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise is now officially 20 years old, and RGG Studio has produced a rather touching little video to celebrate. Said video shows the past 20 years of a man's life, as he goes from being an overwhelmed university student to a stressed out office worker. Granted, this doesn't sound very celebratory, but at each pivotal point in his life, he recalls words of wisdom from Kazuma Kiryu himself, and he finds the strength to push on. He's even got Kaz's chin scruff by the e

SEGA has confirmed that those who own Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, or Yakuza Kiwami 2 on PS4 can take advantage of discounted upgrade paths when buying the new versions on PS5. All three PS5 re-releases are due to launch on the 8th December, but there is a catch in that these upgrade paths only apply to the digital versions of the PS4 games — and any games claimed through PS Plus subscriptions unfortunately don't count either. At the time of writing, SEGA has only detailed the upgrade pricing in the

SEGA has confirmed that those who own Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, or Yakuza Kiwami 2 on PS4 can take advantage of discounted upgrade paths when buying the new versions on PS5. All three PS5 re-releases are due to launch on the 8th December, but there is a catch in that these upgrade paths only apply to the digital versions of the PS4 games — and any games claimed through PS Plus subscriptions unfortunately don't count either. Here's a quick summary of the upgrade pricing, which differs between game

Bafflingly buried within the questions and answers section of SEGA's Japanese website, the publisher finally confirms that Yakuza Kiwami 2 will run at 60 frames-per-second on PS5. The fantastic remake is being re-released for Sony's current-gen system on the 8th December, and it'll be a free upgrade for those who already own the PS4 version digitally. However, up until now, we've had no mention of any technical improvements, leading fans to question the point of even having a PS5 version to begi