Xbox Game Pass Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Persona 3 Reload is receiving several pieces of DLC this year, it was announced yesterday (March 6), and will be available through an expansion pass.As was announced during a Xbox Partner Preview, three separate pieces of DLC will be available through an expansion pass this year. The expansion pass is included at no extra cost to subscribers of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, though will cost £28 ($35) on other platforms.The expansion pass will include background music from Persona 5 Royal and Persona 4 Golden, releasing on March 12, new costumes and music from The Velvet Room in May, and a full epilogue in September titled Episode Aigis: The Answer.

11 Bit Studios has confirmed the release date for Frostpunk 2, with the game set for release this summer.Originally announced in 2021, the sequel to the original city-building survival game is set 30 years after the apocalyptic blizzard devastated Earth.In Frostpunk 2, players will take on the role of leader in a resource-hungry metropolis, where the expansion and search for new sources of power is an unavoidable reality. A gameplay trailer was shared earlier this year.Now though, it’s been announced Frostpunk 2 will launch Day One on Xbox Game Pass and will be available on PC from July 25.

Microsoft has confirmed that Diablo 4 will be the first Activision Blizzard title to come to Xbox Game Pass.Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finally approved in October 2023 after being announced in January 2022 via a deal thought to be worth £50billion.Now the first of Microsoft’s new franchises is coming to its subscription-based Game Pass service. Head of Xbox Sarah Bond confirmed the news during an official Xbox podcast last night (February 15).Diablo 4 will be available to play via Game Pass from March 28 and is said to be the first of multiple Activision and Blizzard-developed titles coming to the service.Elsewhere in the podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer announced that Game Pass now had 34million “fully paid” subscribers compared to 25million in 2022.

Atlus has announced that Persona 3 Reload is the fastest-selling game in the history of the company.Atlus West posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Persona 3 Reload has sold over a million copies in the first week of release, making it the fastest-selling game that the company has ever published.The game was launched on February 2 across all platforms. The game was originally revealed by Xbox in June of last year, along with the reveal that the game would be launching on Xbox Game Pass at no additional price to existing subscribers.As reported by Persona Central back in 2021, the Persona series had hit fifteen million sales by the end of Fiscal Year 2021, meaning that Persona 3 Reload has already sold roughly a fifteenth of what the entire series had sold in by the end of its 25th anniversary year.NME reviewed Persona 3 Reload, with our reviewer calling the game a “must-play marvel”.“As the sums of its parts, Reload is phenomenal as both a remake and a standalone game.

Palworld has sold five million copies in three days, despite increasing concern over potential AI use in the game.The title launched in early access on January 19, and since then, it has shot up in Steam charts to the point it had more concurrent players than games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Call Of Duty.Those users don’t include the number of players who are playing the game through the Xbox Game Pass release, and neither do the five million copies sold, meaning that the actual total number of people who have downloaded the game and played it could be much higher.The conversation around Palworld, however, isn’t focused on sales. It’s instead focused on similarities that beasts in the game have to popular Pokemon characters, and the fact that the company openly released a title in early access last year named AI: Art Imposter which uses artificial intelligence in gameplay to generate images.Several posts have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) showing similarities between Pokemon creatures and Palworld creatures, with previous comments from the CEO of Pocketpair discussing AI art, and specifically how to use AI art in order to create new Pokemon, leading people to wonder if the game used the technique at all.There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not there’s any credibility behind these claims, however.

Microsoft has officially announced the games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass in December.Twelve new games will be joining the popular subscription service, with many of the titles available across consoles, PCs, and the cloud.sneak peek at your holiday gifts this december

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3 are on their way to Xbox Game Pass this year, Microsoft has confirmed, as there wasn’t enough time to sort out a “secret celebration drop”.Activision Blizzard stated that there were no intentions for its “upcoming and recently launched games” like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 to be playable through Xbox Game Pass this year.Yet, rumours swirled that there was something in store. In the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast, Microsoft CEO of gaming Phil Spencer explained that there simply wasn’t enough time to arrange the games’ arrival on Game Pass.The acquisition of Activision Blizzard was only finalised last week following repeated revisions to the terms of the agreement.

Microsoft has nixed the Xbox Game Pass offer that introduced new customers to the subscription service for £1, one week before Starfield‘s launch.According to Games Radar, players realised that the offer disappeared over the weekend (August 26) and that the timing appears to be related to the upcoming launch of Starfield.Originally, players were able to get their first month of Xbox Game Pass for £1 in order to see the benefits of the service, such as playable first-party launches on day one, discounts and backwards compatible classics from the Xbox 360 era.In March, Xbox’s head of global communications Kari Perez said that the offer had been killed off as it “[evaluates] different marketing promotions for new members in the future”. The company then rolled out a system where current users could invite five of their friends to free two-week trials of Xbox Game Pass.Following that, the offer was resurrected in July, but it was shortened to 14 days of Xbox Game Pass for £1 for new customers just a month later.Xbox Game Pass is available in three different versions – console, PC and Ultimate.

Xbox leadership wanted Microsoft to make an acquisition bid for Sega, while a “watchlist” also marked the likes of Bungie, IO Interactive, and Niantic as studios to consider buying.Currently, Microsoft is in court to defend its proposed £50billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is fighting to block.As part of the case, a number of internal emails from Microsoft have been unearthed.

Planet Of Lana, developer Wishfully and publisher Thunderful have told NME that it was the right call to make the platformer a day-one Xbox Game Pass title.Planet Of Lana launched for Xbox and PC on May 23, and was available from day one on Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service — joining the likes of Redfall, High On Life, and Hi-Fi Rush in doing so.While there have been questions on whether Game Pass cannibalises the sales of games on its catalogue, Adam Stjärnljus — Planet Of Lana’s creative director and Wishfully’s co-founder — says it was the right choice for his team.“For us at Wishfully, being an indie studio releasing our first game, it has been invaluable,” Stjärnljus tells NME. “It lowers the entry bar for players to discover and try our game with a huge potential to bring over players that normally might not gravitate towards the puzzle platformer genre as well.

Microsoft’s Game Pass service has been somewhat shrouded in secrecy regarding its financials – until now, anyway, as a document has revealed just how much money it generates a year.Game Pass’ revenue has been revealed as part of Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), who has approved the deal, has released a document outlining its rationale – which also includes a lot of data on gaming companies.According to the document (spotted by Tweaktown), Xbox Game Pass generated £2.6bn ($2.9bn) in the fiscal period ending January 2021 – though even this doesn’t offer the complete picture, as it only covers console revenue and PC Game Pass is not included.Still, that revenue makes up around 18 per cent of Microsoft’s total yearly Xbox revenue at £14.7bn ($16.28bn), or almost 30 per cent of its games and service revenue £11.3bn ($12.581).Microsoft has been inconsistent about revealing just how many subscribers Game Pass has – but went from 15 million to 18 million subscribers between August 2021 and March 2022.Though as Eurogamer notes, it’s not exactly clear how they’ve arrived at this figure, as it could include discounted game sales through Game Pass and DLC sales from games on the service, or indeed it might not.For context, it is revealed elsewhere in the document that Nintendo Switch Online generated £843million ($932million), and EA Play brought in £322million ($356million).The document has been released following substantial scrutiny of the proposed Activision Blizzard merger.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard’s rivals with regards to their proposed £50billion merger.That’s according to a leaked document seen by Reuters, in which the EU is asking developers if Microsoft would be incentivised to block rivals’ access to Activision Blizzard’s biggest titles – most notably Call of Duty, as well as the recently-released Overwatch 2.The questionnaire, which features around 100 questions, also asks developers, publishers and and distributors if the deal would impact their bargaining power with regards to selling console and PC games on the Xbox platform, or via Game Pass.Additionally, the leaked document also asks if, given the enormous popularity of their games, Activision Blizzard’s user data would give Microsoft a competitive advantage in the industry.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th anniversary update is adding a number of vehicles and enhancements later this year.Announced yesterday (August 25), the anniversary update is set to drop on November 11. It will add helicopters and gliders, the “most requested enhancements” from the game’s community, new airplanes and six historically significant aircraft.The six historical aircraft include the “903 Wright Flyer, the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny from 1915, the beautiful Grumman G-21 A Goose, and the famous Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as the Spruce Goose,” there will also be true-to-life airliner the Airbus A-310.That means the Wright Brothers plane, which had the first sustained flight from a manned heavier-than-air powered aircraft, will be in Microsoft Flight Simulator.Check out the trailer for the update below.When the anniversary update takes flight on November 11, the game will have 12 new aircraft, 12 heliports, 12 glider airports, six classic commercial airports and 20 historic franchise missions.The Microsoft Flight Simulator update will also be free, and included with Xbox Game Pass at launch. This update will thus be joining the Top Gun: Maverick expansion, which adds a number of jet planes from this year’s Tom Cruise film.Elsewhere, Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be raising the price of the Xbox Series X|S at this time, after Sony abruptly did so for the PS5 this week. “We are constantly evaluating our business to offer our fans great gaming options.

Sony has stated that it had no involvement in getting Death Strandingon PC Game Pass.Despite Sony owning the intellectual property of Death Stranding, the company was not involved in the licensing deal with Microsoft for its PC Game Pass service.In Sony’s statement, a spokesperson outlined the company’s relationship with the deal, stating that “matters relating to the PC release of Death Stranding are managed by Kojima Productions and 505 Games. [Sony] has no involvement in this promotion” (via Push Square).The version of Death Stranding coming to PC Game Pass is not the Director’s Cut which released on PC in March of this year, with the service only receiving the base gamewhich was first released on PC in 2020.As Sony owns the intellectual property for the game, it is currently a console-exclusive for the PlayStation group of platforms.Death Stranding coming to PC Game Pass was teased via some cryptic tweets from the official Game Pass Twitter account before being confirmed by the same account earlier in the week.

Bethesda games have been added to PC Game Pass, including older titles from the studio’s Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein and Quake franchises.As of yesterday (August 18), the following six games are available to PC Game Pass subscribers:Additionally, anyone who pays for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier will have every champion unlocked in Quake Champions.Back in April, Redguard and Battlespire arrived on Steam for the first time, along with several other older titles.Six legendary Bethesda games are available today on @XboxGamePassPC:

Microsoft has alleged that Sony has a practice of paying developers “blocking rights” to stop games from being launched on Xbox Game Pass.The statement has been filed in response to Sony’s recent comments on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Speaking to a Brazilian regulatory body, Sony claimed  Microsoft acquiring Call Of Duty would make it challenging to rival; which would in turn have an effect on what console gamers chose to play their titles on.Now (via The Verge), Microsoft has argued that Sony is still large enough to rival the company, and claims ongoing business practices show Sony is actively doing so.“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” claimed the company, explaining that “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.”Microsoft went on to say that Sony’s concerns over the acquisition are “incoherent,” and says it reveals “a fear about an innovative business model that offers high-quality content at low costs to gamers.”How Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard will affect the games industry has been under scrutiny since it was announced.

Yakuza franchise is currently on Xbox Game Pass as three titles have made a return to the service.All of the games from the main series – not including spin-offs like Judgment – are currently on Game Pass, from the remake of the original Yakuza in 2005 to 2019’s Like A Dragon.The three titles that have been reintroduced to Game Pass are 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 (via Wario64).All of the franchisetitles on Game Pass are listed below:Whilst some of these are technically prequels or remakes of classictitles, it now means that as of publication every entry in the main franchise is on Game Pass, and this goes for all versions including PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.Back in Februaryfranchise creator Toshihiro Nagoshi explained how his new team at Nagoshi Studio wants to approach making video games.“Well, when the team and I decided to start a new studio, we knew we’d be leaving the content we had previously been working on behind,” Nagoshi said.“But I also have a strong mental attitude and a lot of ideas I would like to try, which could even surpass my previous work, so I was confident that leaving the old series behind will afford the chance to try new things.”There’s still no confirmation as to what Nagoshi Studio’s first game will be, but Nagoshi himself said it will include “a high level of human drama.”In other news, it’s been confirmed that a remake of 2012 cult-classic Lollipop Chainsaw is on the way next year.

Microsoft has announced a new program designed to bring demos to Xbox Game Pass, and it’s called Project Moorcroft.The early game demos intended for the Project Moorcroft initiative are meant to replicate the demos played during gaming conferences such as E3 or PAX.“We were sitting around as a team thinking, you remember it used to be you go to E3, you go to PAX, and you would go visit some of your favourite creators and they would have a piece or a level of a game that you could sit there and play, and there would be someone from the studio like right next to you in your ear being like: ‘press that button, go under there, do that stuff,'” said Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of game creator experience and ecosystem at Microsoft Gaming, speaking to press.“And you would get to experience the game, and they would get to generate excitement about what they’re building and what’s coming next.“So we said you know what?” Bond explained, “Why don’t we take Game Pass and make it like the show floor? Why don’t we make it possible for a developer to take a piece, a level of their game, release it into Game Pass, generate excitement for what’s coming, and also get that really valuable feedback as they are tuning and preparing their game for launch?”Bond also added that Microsoft set up the program to not just benefit the player, but it benefits the developers as well by giving them financial compensation for the game. It will also allow developers to receive feedback as well.Project Moorcroft is set to release within the next year and will begin by focusing on indie games.

Microsoft is apparently working on a group family pass for Xbox Game Pass, as the subscription service currently only offers individual memberships.As outlined in a Windows Central article from yesterday (March 31), trusted sources have said that a family plan – where one account can pay more to share Xbox Game Pass across a household’s accounts – is in the works and set to release sometime this year.The higher payment tier will apparently grant access to Xbox Game Pass for five different players, and be “far cheaper” than paying for each Xbox Game Pass account separately. Currently, Xbox Game Pass retails at £7.99 a month for console and PC, or £10.99 for Game Pass Ultimate, which includes game streaming and extra perks.This means that at present a regular subscription would cost five players £39.95, or Ultimate subscribers £54.95 a month.

Xbox Game Pass additions have been confirmed, with titles such as Crusader Kings 3, Shredders, and Weird West all making their way to the service this month.As detailed in a blog shared by Xbox today (March 15), Xbox Game Pass users will be able to play an additional eight games via the subscription-based service in March.On March 17, snowboarding game Shredders will be added to Xbox Game Pass along with The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, which is a “story-driven hybrid between a deck-building roguelike and an RPG”. Both games will be available on PC, Cloud and Console.The next two games to join the service – Tainted Grail: Conquest and Zero Escape: The Nonary Games – will be added on March 22.

Shredders, the snowboarding game from studios I-Illusions and Let It Roll, is launching on PC and Xbox Series X|S on March 17.Yesterday (March 2), publisher FoamPunch announced the release date with a brand new Shredders trailer while reaffirming that it will also be releasing day one on Xbox Game Pass.The trailer shows off newly captured gameplay of snowboarders in action, riding snow trails and pulling off unique tricks – similar to that of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. You can check out the short trailer below:Shredders was announced back in June 2021 as “a love letter to snowboarding” and takes inspiration from snowboarding films, as well as the Amped games that were released on Xbox and Xbox 360.As the game synopsis reads, “You and your pal are making goofball snowboarding videos at the Frozen Wood resort when brand ambassador Lisa makes an offer for a couple of sponsored videos.

game page for Shredders claims a March release.An update to snowboarding game “by boarders, for boarders” Shredders‘ Xbox game page has put the official release date as March 17, 2022. This is in direct conflict with their official Twitter page which claims it will be released in February.As it is only a small discrepancy in dates, some have suspected that the Xbox page has just been updated sooner than the Twitter page.

Xbox news website has seemingly revealed what’s “coming soon” to Xbox Game Pass, with no official announcement made as of yet.Usually, Xbox Game Pass announcements are made via Twitter and on Xbox Wire, but an image on Xbox’s website, which can be found here (as of publication), reveals what’s coming to the service. Some of these games have already been announced, but there’s no mention of release dates in the image. Unless specified otherwise, all of the games are coming to the cloud, console and PC.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition is now available on Xbox Game Pass.In a new tweet shared on Tuesday (January 18), the developer shared the news that players can now download the Anniversary Edition on both Xbox consoles and PC via Game Pass.Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition launched on iOS and Android devices back in 2020 to celebrate the game’s 10th anniversary. It was then released on Nintendo Switch the following year, in December.The original game was released on the PSP in 2010 and follows a group of high school students who are imprisoned in the school and cut off from the outside world.

Xbox Games with Gold have been revealed, with a couple of indie titles and some older titles through backwards compatibility.Starting January 1, 2022, you will be able to pick up the twin-stick shooter RPG NeuroVoider, and the classic vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up Radiant Silvergun.

Xbox Game Pass in the middle of December, with titles for all ages being thrown onto the service. The announcement comes from a video on the official Xbox On YouTube channel, where each game was shown off and given a brief description. You can find the list of this week’s day one and other releases below:It looks as though a PlayStation rival to Xbox Game Pass might also be in the works at Sony, if recent reports are to be believed.

Xbox has teased, in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, that four Xbox Game Pass game announcements will be coming to The Game Awards.Airing on December 9 8PM ET (December 10 1AM in the UK), The Game Awards will feature plenty of awards, trailers, and announcements.

Sony is reportedly planning to consolidate its existing PlayStation subscription services into one package, potentially to take on Microsoft’s all-encompassing Xbox Game Pass.The move comes from a Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with Sony’s plans” and claims the project is currently codenamed “Spartacus”.At present, Sony has two subscription packages.

Playground Games has revealed that Forza Horizon 5 has achieved the biggest launch week in Xbox history, with over 10million players flocking to the racing game.Today (November 19) the Twitter account for Forza Horizon 5 has shared that over 10million players have already played the game since it launched on November 9.The post also shares that Forza Horizon 5 has achieved the “biggest launch in Xbox history”, with the game’s first week of play resulting in the biggest first week ever for both

Microsoft has revealed the new games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass throughout November.Joining the service on Wednesday November 18 is sci-fi game Exo One. It describes itself as “an interplanetary journey through space and time.

Total War: Warhammer 3 has solidified a February release date, revealed the Ogre Kingdoms as an ‘early adopter’ faction, and announced that the title will be available on Xbox Game Pass for PC.Today (November 4) Creative Assembly has confirmed that Total War: Warhammer 3 will launch on February 17, 2022.The game will also be available from day one on the Xbox Game Pass for PC, which chief product officer Rob Bartholomew says will allow the team “to bring the ruinous powers of Chaos to as many

Xbox Game Pass, and racing game Forza Horizon 5 is racing ahead to the front of the pack.As outlined in a blog post, the upcoming open-world racer from Playground Games is the major release for the month, launching into Game Pass on November 9, the same day it goes on sale.

Halo Infinite is continuing to let players swap weapons with allied non-playable characters, and 343 Industries is even advocating players do so. The confirmation that weapon swapping is coming back, and that it could lead to some interesting sandbox opportunities, was mentioned in an official Halo Waypoint blog post from October 26 (thanks, GamesRadar).“For now,” reads the post, “keep replaying the new reveal video and sleep with dreams of careening headlong into a Banished outpost with a

343 Industries has given fans a proper look at the open-world campaign for Halo Infinite, which looks set to take the series in a new direction.The latest trailer for Halo Infinite contains a complete overview of the game’s campaign mode. While a lot has been shown of the multiplayer, including several playable test sessions, the single-player campaign has been mostly unrevealed.

Xbox is apparently working with Finnish developer Mainframe on its cloud-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) title codenamed Pax Dei.This was first mentioned by Windows Central reporter Jez Cordon on The Xbox Two Podcast, when he said “Microsoft is working with a studio in Finland, or at least I’ve heard, called Mainframe on making a cloud native game.”“I have no details about that,” he added, “it could be tied up to one of the codenames that I do know about the project info for, but that

Mojang has announced that Minecraft will be joining the PC library of Xbox Game Pass, with both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition available on the service from November.During Minecraft Live, Mojang revealed that Xbox Game Pass for PC will include Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition from November 2.Java edition is the PC-exclusive version of Minecraft that the title was originally launched as, while Bedrock Edition is available for a much wider range of platforms.In a blog posted yesterday