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All the way back in 2019, before the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were even fully revealed, there was skepticism that Xbox would be ditching consoles and/or turning into a third-party publisher. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked about this at the time in an interview with Kotaku, and as pointed out by the interviewee (Stephen Totilo) on Game File this week, it's a fascinating look back at a strategy that still remains very relevant here in 2025. For example, Phil spent a lot of time discussing the idea of playing "the games you want, with the people you want and on the devices [you want]", mentioning the team was "driven by that". He went on to explain that a lack of crossplay support between consoles was driving him "crazy" and he felt it needed to change to "grow gaming". Phil then talked about console and how "having the world’s most powerful console" was a "critical component" for the brand and growing the platform, but that ultimately the profits would come from selling software and services. Interestingly, he made a point that measuring console sales wasn't all that useful either: As part of this, he advised that the focus for Xbox was on the player and not the device: Phil was also asked multiple times about whether we could see the likes of Gears of War on the PlayStation 4 at some point, and he certainly didn't outright deny it. Instead, he chose to focus on how Xbox games needed to have a "connected ecosystem with the players, where people’s save game and their state and their friends list and their entitlements move seamlessly from every ecosystem", which wasn't possible on PS4 at the time. Nevertheless, he highlighted how Xbox valued its relationship with other companies and that everyone could assist with adding "cross-play, cross-buy, cross-progression" facilities in order to enhance that "play anywhere vision". There's a lot more in the full Kotaku interview if you want to check it out. From our standpoint, this is a fascinating look back at a vision that still rings very true six years later, despite all the changes we've witnessed at Xbox. This whole idea of "Play Anywhere" and "This is an Xbox" feels like it's only just been implemented, but it's actually existed for a long time now, and the marketing behind it has significantly ramped up over the past year-or-so. Some of the things Phil Spencer has said in the past have obviously changed a little bit to align with the modern-day strategy, but this is an important reminder that there's been plenty of consistency in Xbox's messaging as well. Go and have a look for yourself, and let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!

It's been an ambitious year for Xbox Game Pass in 2025, with so many incredible games joining the service over the past 11 months, and it's about to deliver another amazing slate of titles in 2026 as well. In fact, Microsoft is promising 75+ "day one" games on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate per-year moving forward, which is a massive step up on what we've been getting to date - it apparently represents a 50% increase altogether. With that in mind, they're going to need a lot of developers and publishers to remain on board. Fortunately it sounds like that's the case, as explained by the Xbox GM of Portfolio and Programmes (Chris Charla) in a recent interview. Chris, who's known primarily for his work with the ID@Xbox team, advised in the interview with GameReactor that "enthusiasm for game developers for Game Pass has never gone down", and the fact that many are returning for their second, third or even seventh games on the service shows that Team Xbox is doing something right. Now, to be fair, we have heard pockets of disgruntlement about Xbox Game Pass over the years and how it's potentially a bad deal for developers and even players, but we've also heard how it's been a massive benefit for other developers and publishers, particularly in the indie space. It's very true that some publishers have repeatedly put their titles on Game Pass as "day one" launches, to the point where basically everything in their catalogue is on there! And again, that figure of 75+ "day one" games per-year suggests that plenty of developers are on board with Xbox Game Pass going into 2026, which is set to benefit subscribers in a major way. We've already seen multiple Game of the Year candidates join XGP in 2025 alone, and we're expecting many more to land on the service next year. Is it worth the money now that prices have gone up? That's another question entirely, but you can bet that Team Xbox will be working extremely hard to bring as many quality titles to Xbox Game Pass throughout the next calendar year.

Well, here's a welcome surprise! Hot off the back of Silent Hill 2 and Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team has shared with us the next project that it's working on for Switch 2, and it's none other than an all-new Layers of Fear package. Layers of Fear: Final Masterpiece Edition will arrive on Switch 2 on 19th December, bundling together Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear 2, every DLC expansion, and brand-new chapters into one spooky edition fully optimised for the new system. There are the added bonuses of HDR, ray tracing, and dynamic lighting, too, and you have the option to play with motion controls or touchscreen inputs if you see fit. Here's the official blurb from Bloober Team and a handful of screenshots: Images: Bloober Team It all sounds like a pretty strong way to experience these psychological horror titles. The full Final Masterpiece Edition will be available on the eShop for $39.99 (or your regional equivalent) next month — because the holiday season really needs some more scares, right? For those curious, we had a perfectly good time with Cronos: The New Dawn when it arrived on Switch 2 back in September, describing it as "a celebration of survival horror, paying homage to all the genre greats effectively. View full article

If you like your retro first-person shooters to be colorful, gory, and feature extravagant, larger-than-life characters, then Captain Wayne - Vacation Desperation could be exactly the game you're looking for. Released earlier this month exclusively on Steam, the "fast-action" shooter has previously been described by its creators as "half game, half cartoon" and features detailed hand-drawn graphics, gallons of blood, and a charismatic "cigar-huffing", "hot pink-wearing" ship captain as its lead. It is the creation of a small studio, called Ciaran Games, and was built using GZDoom, a fork of the ZDoom source port of the original Doom games. As you'll see, though, from looking at any of the screenshots or trailers that are already available, the Doom resemblance is pretty much non-existent, with Captain Wayne instead featuring a much more humorous and far less hellish take on the popular genre. Images: Ciaran Games The story of the game sees players step into the shoes of the titular sailor, as he is attacked by mercenaries and marooned on Orca Isle. Shipless and hunted by the merciless mercenary group, the Killer Whales, he finds himself turning to his trusty shotgun arm, Ol' Reliable, and his personal stash of explosives, to get him out of the jam, blasting his way through the waves of enemies that dare to get in his way. In total, the game features 8 humongous areas to explore, from a picturesque resort to ancient ruins, which will end up taking players all across Orca Isle, in their quest to defeat the Killer Whales and get back their ship. Here are some of the features you can expect: If this sounds like something that is up your street, you can grab it now for £6.74 (as part of an introductory offer lasting until December 7th). View full article

A new ROM hack adds full 60FPS support to the GBA classic Mario Kart: Super Circuit. While the game has always rendered at 60FPS, Nintendo originally updated the track rotation at only 30FPS, causing a mismatch between the sprites, backgrounds, and the Mode-7-style track. This new hack updates the track rotation to 60FPS as well, creating a fully cohesive gameplay experience with no extra performance hit. Source MKSC60fps.zip

GOG is working hard at bringing back a lot of great titles, be it classic or modern, into their library, and not only that, they are also adding them to their own Preservation Program, which aims to make titles released on their service available for posterity, with the buyer having complete ownership of the product that they buy. One of the most recent additions to the GOG Preservation Program is the title "Cold Fear", a third person survival horror title published by Ubisoft for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC back in 2005, amidst the craze of the original Resident Evil 4, with many people comparing Cold Fear to RE4, even though both titles were released during the same year. Cold Fear sees a US Coast Guard, Tom Hansen, take on a rescue mission to during a heavy storm, only to find out the vessel is abandoned with no humans on sight, with something still lurking on it. This re-release of Cold Fear on GOG brings the following features: Full support with Windows 10 and 11. Included all 7 localizations: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Polish. Added native support for 16: 9 widescreen monitors. Added native support for high resolutions including HD, Full-HD, Quad-HD and 4K. Added native support for high refresh rates. Added support for integrated graphics cards. Implemented resolution select fallback mode for uninterrupted reconfiguration. Optimized default graphics settings. Fixed game speed issues without locking framerate. Fixed broken alpha blending after Alt+Tab task switching. Fixed brightness/contrast sliders in graphics options. Added support for modern controllers (including Sony DualSense / DualShock 4, Microsoft Xbox Series / Xbox One / Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch 2 Pro / Switch Pro, Logitech F, Amazon Luna) with same button layout regardless of hardware. Added support for controller wireless mode and hotplugging. Added support for controller D-Pad and trigger buttons. Added support for Force-Feedback controller vibration. Optimized default controller button bindings based on Playstation 2 scheme. Fixed incorrect mouse button state after switching tasks with Alt+Tab. Fixed mouse cursor clipping on multi-monitor configurations. Fixed music playback on the title screen. Fixed game window responsiveness during video playback. Added support for Cloud saves. Added support for Galaxy overlay. Cold Fear is just one of the titles that GOG recently re-released and added to their Preservation Program, with the other titles being the following: I Am Alive Rayman 2: The Great Escape Eternam Syndicate Plus™ Epic Pinball: The Complete Collection Alien Rampage Screamer Dangerous Dave Pack Wing Commander™: Academy If you are interested in Cold Fear, or any of the other titles listed above, be sure to visit GOG.com and purchase the title you're interested on, as this also helps to support GOG's efforts towards videogame preservation with their program. Source Cold Fear on GOG

Fireproof Games, the British studio behind the acclaimed puzzle series The Room, is soon to release its latest title on PSVR2. It's called Ghost Town, and it's set for release on Sony's virtual reality hardware on 1st December 2025: You play as Edith Penrose, a witch who turns her talents to ghost hunting in this supernatural thriller. You'll use her magical abilities to solve puzzles and track down clues to the whereabouts of her missing brother. Here's the Steam version's launch trailer to put you in the mood: The Room series is held in high regard, so there's every reason to be hopeful about this new title. Ghost Town was very well received when it launched for PC VR formats earlier this year, so PSVR2 and puzzle fans should definitely take note. Are you interested in this one? Tell us in the comments section below. View full article

Two legendary developers have joined forces once again, and it's a game that's a teensy bit outside what they're best known for. From Steve Ellis and David Doak, two of the minds behind renowned shooters GoldenEye 007 and TimeSplitters, comes Beyond Words, a strategic, roguelike word game. Coming to PS5 in early 2026, the easiest way to describe Beyond Words is that it's a combination of Scrabble and Balatro. You'll be spelling out words in a similar vein to the legendary board game, and it seems combos, alongside hundreds of gameplay modifiers, will help you reach enormous scores. Each board will challenge you in different ways, and there are even bosses, seeded runs, time attacks, and "negative scoring" challenges to overcome. Published by PQube and developed by the pair's new studio Mindfuel Games, it looks like the kind of thing word game fans, as well as fans of numbers getting bigger, will certainly love. What do you make of Beyond Words? Tell us in the comments section below. View full article

Techland has unveiled update 1.4 for Dying Light: The Beast, an enormous update for the action title that incorporates brand new features and hundreds of improvements. Largely based on feedback from the community, update 1.4 brings fixes, improvements, and features requested by players. Here's a quick rundown of all the major additions in the update: New Game + mode: New Game + is added to the game, meaning you can replay the adventure while keeping all your gear, weapons, and character progression from your first playthrough. Each time you start New Game +, the level of challenge increases, but so does the power and rarity of the weapons you find. Legend Levels: This is an endgame progression system that allows you to continue building your character beyond the main skill tree. After reaching level 15, XP you earn converts to Legend XP, which allows you to invest in passive upgrades like more health and better stats. Visual improvements: The update fixes "over 70 graphical issues", with improvements and fixes to textures, clipping, misaligned architecture, and more. Refined gameplay: There are "over 200 parkour and environment navigation" fixes, according to the press release, based on input from the community. On top of all this, Techland is offering an exclusive in-game item, the Bloody Bowie Knife, to anyone who logs into the game between now and 2nd December. There's also a double XP period happening between now and 30th November. We really enjoyed Dying Light: The Beast at launch, but it sounds like Techland has delivered a meaningful update here that makes some serious improvements to the experience. Will you be hopping into the game to check out this big new update? Tell us in the comments section below. View full article

PS5 console sales in Japan have skyrocketed in the past week, as the new model designed specifically for the country enters the market. Accounting for around two to three days' worth of sales, there were exactly 23,381 purchases of the PS5 Digital Edition in Japan through until 23rd November. In comparison, PS5 sales the week before slumped to just 5,855. This means that the Japan-specific PS5 model, which has launched at a lower price and is essentially region-locked to Japan, has resulted in roughly four times as many sales upon its first few days on the market. The Switch 2 is still very comfortably outselling it, with 126,000+ purchases recorded between 17th and 23rd November, but the PS5 has at least seen a noticeable uptick in sales. The new model of PS5 for Japan comes with a price drop (from ¥72,980 (~$473) down to ¥55,000 (~$350)) and can only be used in the Japanese language, also requiring the use of a Japanese PSN account. This renders the unit almost useless outside of the country, as Sony specifically targets sales improvements in the Japanese market. Nintendo does offer a similar version of the Switch 2, and its sales successes are clear to see. Here's how the Japanese hardware sales look overall for 17th-23rd November (via Gematsu): Switch 2 – 126,953 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 23,381 Switch OLED Model – 12,486 PlayStation 5 Pro – 11,367 Switch Lite – 10,908 Switch – 5,976 PlayStation 5 – 2,235 Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 201 Xbox Series X – 118 Xbox Series S – 30 PlayStation 4 – 17 View full article

It's been a few months now since Dying Light: The Beast launched on Xbox and other platforms, and the game has just received its biggest update since release today - perfect timing considering it's part of the Xbox Black Friday Sale 2025! This update adds a New Game+ mode, ray tracing on PC, three new finishers and Legend Levels that provide you with the "classic Dying Light end-game progression system". Here's a bit more on the main two features on Xbox: In addition to all this, there are over 400 improvements as mentioned above, spanning the likes of environmental & navigational fixes, gameplay fixes, graphical improvements and much more. If you're interested, the full list of everything is available on the official Dying Light website. So, if you fancy grabbing Dying Light: The Beast on the Xbox Store, you'll be glad to hear it's been reduced by 20% for the Xbox Black Friday Sale, bringing it down from £59.99 / $59.99 to £47.99 / $47.99 until early December! View full article

Fancy topping up your Microsoft Rewards earnings over the next week? Well, there's a new promotion on the Microsoft Rewards dashboard that's allowing you to "double your points" until early December through Bing searches, which you can do on PC, mobile or through the Microsoft Edge browser on Xbox. To find it, you just need to head to the Microsoft Rewards dashboard and look for the relevant banner and "activate now" button that'll hopefully show up in your region. Here's what it looks like: After this, you'll get a brief explanation of what "double your points" means: For me personally, I can see that the cap of earning 90 Microsoft Rewards points through Bing searches on PC every day has now risen to 180 points, and the cap of earning 60 points on mobile every day has now risen to 120 points. If you're someone who makes these Bing searches part of their daily routine, you're set to earn a lot more Microsoft Rewards points with this! Just make sure you go and activate it first - it doesn't apply unless you specifically ask it to. View full article

Like most first-party Nintendo games, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond contains some bonus material unlocked by tapping amiibo figures onto the Switch 2's NFC spot. The new amiibo figures are Samus, Samus & Vi-O-La, and Sylux. Meanwhile, previous Metroid amiibo figures are also compatible, but other franchises – like Mario and Zelda – are not. Nintendo's Japanese amiibo website has detailed what each of these amiibo do in the game, so let's take a look at all the unlockables, shall we? Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - All amiibo UnlocksBefore we begin, please keep in mind, this information was obtained via machine translation from Nintendo's Japanese website, so there may be some minor inaccuracies. We'll update as and when we're able to confirm for ourselves. Samus Tapping the MP4 Samus amiibo into the game will unlock two key features. The first is the ability to listen to background music tracks while riding Vi-O-La in Sol Valley. Meanwhile, a shield is awarded only once daily to boost Samus' health by 99 points while also replenishing any health lost in battle. Once it's been depleted from enemy attacks, you can't use it again until the next day. Samus & Vi-O-La Tap the Samus & Vi-O-La amiibo and you'll again unlock two features: the ability to change the colour of Vi-O-La, and a daily perk to Vi-O-La's boost regeneration. You'll also see the total distance travelled in Vi-O-La upon each scan. Like Samus' shield bonus, the boost regeneration can only be activated once per day. Sylux Tapping the Sylux amiibo (available on launch day - 4th December 2025) will unlock a specific cutscene. Nintendo states that this cutscene can be viewed without the amiibo, but only once 100% of items and logbook scans have been obtained through gameplay. You'll also hear a random line from Sylux every time you tap the amiibo. Metroid Series amiiboPrevious amiibo from the Metroid series, including Ridley, Metroid, Samus, and E.M.M.I., will apparently play a simple jingle from the game. Yeah, that's it! View full article

As far as micro consoles go, The C64 Mini has been a resounding success, and, according to its manufacturer, is the best-selling 'mini computer' yet released. I can certainly believe that – The C64 Mini was one of the first devices of its kind to hit the market, and the allure of the Commodore name carries significant weight among retro gamers. Now, Retro Games Ltd. is back with a new variant of the system that sports a new colour scheme and a totally new selection of pre-loaded games. While the original beige model came with 64 titles that included the likes of Attack of the Mutant Camels, Boulder Dash, Impossible Mission, Monty Mole and Speedball 2, this new variant ships with a much smaller array of titles – and all of them are 'modern' classics that have been released in the past couple of decades. Here's the full list of games: Yeti Mountain Spinning Image Steel Ranger A Pig Quest Hessian Joe Gunn: Gold Edition Hunter's Moon Remastered It's Magic 2 Runn 'N' Gunn Guns 'N' Ghosts Metal Warrior Ultra Millie & Molly Rocky Memphis: The Legend of Atlantis Good Knight Planet Golf Nixy and the Seeds of Doom PO Snake Grid Pix Caren and the Tangled Tentacles Ooze: The Escape Sam's Journey Shadow Switcher Pains 'N' Aches Knight 'N' Grail Galencia To be fair, Retro Games Ltd. has been very clear on this point: the Black Edition is primarily about celebrating the efforts of modern-day homebrew coders, and the 25 pre-installed titles are all highly rated by the C64 community. Outside of the colour change, the Black Edition is very much the same deal as the original machine – I noticed that the Micro USB port has been upgraded to a USB-C one, but that's about the only difference I could spot. It features an HDMI output for 720p HD gaming, two USB-A ports and the welcome ability to load C64 ROMs from a USB flash drive. That latter point is essential, as it mitigates some of the sting of losing access to the 64 titles that came bundled with the original variant. The joystick bundled with the system is insanely clicky, and while it works perfectly fine with most titles, it's pretty uncomfortable to use for prolonged periods. Fortunately, you can use an alternative USB controller with the C64 Mini. Given how small The C64 Mini is, it should come as little surprise that the keyboard is only for show, which is perhaps the biggest shortcoming of this particular venture; while most C64 games are perfectly playable with a joystick, the keyboard is a major inferface method for home micro computers, so you might encounter some problems when booting up ROMs (an on-screen keyboard is a button click away, but it's not as good as using a physical one, in my opinion). If you already own the C64 Mini, then I'm not sure the Black Edition is worth a double dip – unless, of course, you really like the new colour and want to power it via USB-C. However, newcomers might want to give this a look if they haven't yet taken the plunge. View full article