Xbox: Last News

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Although playing video games with an Xbox Series X/S console is one of the best experiences in gaming, it may not be the best experience for those who lack the space in a home entertainment center. However, there’s a simple solution to start playing Xbox games — like Hi-Fi Rush, “Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II,” “Diablo IV,” “Starfield,” “Forza Horizon 5” and others — without actually owning an Xbox.

Xbox will be changing the pricing on its Game Pass subscription service for new players, as well as introducing a tier that doesn’t come with two of the best benefits, and players aren’t happy.Game Pass Ultimate is going up from £12.99 per month to £14.99 per month in the UK, or £49.99 to £54.99 per year. The PC Game Pass is also rising from £7.99 per month to £9.99 per month.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “NBA 2K25” is set for a Sept. 6 launch with a special edition cover that will feature athletes from both the NBA and WNBA for the first time in the 2K franchise’s history.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft Gaming is increasing the price of its subscription service Xbox Game Pass across multiple tiers worldwide, and simultaneously limiting its day-one releases to only the most expensive version of the offering. As of Wednesday, Xbox’s Game Pass “Ultimate” level will raise its price by $3 per month in the U.S., going from $16.99 to $19.99 for new customers. The “Core” tier will rise from $59.99 for the 12-month pass up to $69.99 for the annual fee.

Final Fantasy series of RPGs, has said in a recent interview he has no interest in returning to the games.In an interview with Bloomberg, Sakaguchi said, “I felt if I kept too close of a relationship, then it might actually affect how Square Enix treats Final Fantasy.” He left the company in 2003 and formed his own studio, Mistwalker, in 2004. He’s now become obsessed with Final Fantasy 14, the live-service game.“On a rare occasion — I want to stress ‘rare occasion’ — sometimes one of the Mistwalker team members will hop on Final Fantasy XIV, and I’ll see a message saying, ‘Hey, the meeting’s started,’” he said.This is, in part, why he says he’ll remain away from development at Square Enix, although the company is publishing his new studio’s game, Fantasian Neo Dimension.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Xbox app is coming to two Amazon Fire TV devices beginning in July. Microsoft Gaming revealed on Thursday that Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) will go live on Fire TV 4K Max (a device priced at $59.99) and Fire TV Stick 4K ($49.99) through the Xbox app, giving access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (priced at $16.99 per month) games for currently subscribed and new customers.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Perhaps no one knows the importance of portable gaming as much as a world-touring artist whose choice of relaxation is delving into the world of gameplay. That’s why Post Malone, currently on the tail end of his “If Ya’ll Weren’t Here, I’d Be Crying” tour, teamed up with Backbone to create a limited-edition version of their popular smartphone gaming controllers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft Gaming is taking a victory lap after an impressive Xbox Games Showcase presentation at the David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles on June 9, which was anchored by the reveal of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” followed by major announcements across all of Xbox’s studios, including Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard, as well as collaborations with third-party developers. Xbox president of gaming content and studios Matt Booty sat down with Jennifer Maas, Variety senior business writer of TV and video games, to discuss highlights from this year’s presentation, the inner workings of Xbox post-Activision Blizzard, and more for Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has just been announced, and fans are already wondering how the game will incorporate real-world sound into its gameplay.Since the inclusion of built-in microphones and speakers on controllers back in the PS4 and Xbox One console generation, games have been able to take advantage of the natural sounds around a player. In Alien Isolation if you’re too noisy whilst playing, the Xenomorph can be alerted to your presence.Until Dawn had a similar feature where you had to hold your controller as still as possible while hiding from Wendigos.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Xbox will release all-digital versions of its Series X and S consoles this holiday season, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced during the Xbox Games Showcase Sunday. Additionally, Bond teased that Microsoft is developing the “next generation” of its console offering.

Doom game is in our hands.During the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 (June 9), id Software unveiled a brand new Doom title in the form of Doom: The Dark Ages.As revealed via the game’s trailer, and the official Doom website, Doom: The Dark Ages will serve as a prequel to Doom‘s 2016 reboot and Doom Eternal. It will follow Doom Slayer’s origins in the Dark Ages as he becomes the demon-slaying hero we’ve all come to know and love.In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood…Announcing DOOM: The Dark AgesLaunching 2025.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Xbox Games Showcase kicked offSunday with the reveal “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6″ will launch Oct. 25, and be available Day 1 via the service’s paid Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Games has dropped the first trailer for its next video game in the Wizarding World universe: “Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.” The studio released the footage out of Summer Game Fest on Friday, where it also revealed the launch date for the followup to the massively successful “Hogwarts Legacy” will release on Sept. 3.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Insecure” and “The First Purge” star Y’lan Noel will be the voice star of Xbox‘s eagerly anticipated “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.” Details about Noel’s unnamed character and the storyline of the game are being kept under wraps until formally unveiled by Activision at the Xbox Games Showcase event in Los Angeles Sunday, but Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl teased to Variety Noel is playing “a new character” that is featured in the key art above. “He’s never worked in gaming before, but we really were impressed by his voice tapes.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Fallout 76″ has found a whole new world of players thanks to the popularity of Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series. The Bethesda Game Studios title, which first launched in October 2018, crossed 20 million downloads and plays as of Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The “Call of Duty” franchise is expanding. Microsoft’s Activision revealed new title “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” Thursday, along with a teaser for the previously unannounced first-person-shooter game. Though no other details were revealed, the game developer promises more info to come out of Xbox Games Showcase in June, which will be followed by a “Black Ops 6 Direct” presentation.

The Call of Duty universe is growing!

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Muppets Take “Disney Speedstorm”: Kermit the Frog is joining the free-to-play kart racing game as a mid-season racer for Season 7. The game features a “hero-based racing system where Disney and Pixar heroes and villains are reimagined as high speed road warriors with race tracks inspired by their unique worlds.” “Disney Speedstorm” initially launched with characters including Captain Jack Sparrow, Mickey Mouse, Sulley, and the Beast among its racers, and has continued to grow its lineup with new racers and tracks added to the game on a regular basis.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Activision has launched a new internal, standalone studio with one mission: creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise. Titled Elsewhere Entertainment, the studio will be headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, with additional staff in the United States.

Xbox president Sarah Bond has confirmed that new Call Of Duty games will launch on Xbox Game Pass after a number of studios were closed down by Microsoft.Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed a number of Bethesda studios would be closing down, including Tango Gameworks, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, and Redfall’s Arkane Austin.The sudden announcement led to a lot of speculation about Xbox’s plans going forward, with many fans suggesting that their Game Pass service had stagnated and wasn’t as profitable as the company was hoping. Because of this, rumours began to spread that new Call Of Duty games would be kept off the service despite promises that they’d be available day one.Microsoft is considering increasing the price of Game Pass Ultimate again.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Xbox will shut down four studios run by its Bethesda Softworks publisher, including Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, Tango Gameworks and Roundhouse Games. Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty announced the restructuring in a memo to staff Tuesday, writing that the closures were “grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.” “We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games,” Booty wrote.