A rumor says Gears of War: E-Day has sold 230K copies since its October 1 advance-access launch and October 6 full release, with Steam accounting for 168K and Xbox console and PC 62K. The post also claims the game has made $37M so far, largely through the Premium upgrade, with Xbox providing most of the revenue. The poster calls the result soft and attributes it to the business model.
Xbox Wire outlined five core features of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ mode, set on the new Hajin map after the events of the MW4 campaign. Players craft gear with a 3D Printer at the Forward Operating Base, deploy through Story Missions, Dynamic Operations or Free Roam, and develop up to three persistent Operators. Digital pre-orders grant Campaign Early Access from October 16 and all of DMZ from October 20.
Bulkhead co-founder Howard Philpott said bringing Wardogs to PS6 and Xbox Project Helix would be "a straight port," with senior producer Kane Allard adding the studio is already in talks with the platform holders. Wardogs is currently slated for a 2028 console release, while the PC version is in early access and Season 2 launches next week with features such as rain.
Bulkhead, developer of Wardogs, has admitted that the Xbox Series S's limitations have kept certain features out of the game, with CEO Joe Brammer citing it as one reason the game lacks dynamic weather. The rain feature coming this month will persist throughout a match rather than rolling in and clearing mid-game. Co-founder Howard Philpott said Series S also gives the team a baseline that helps optimize performance for lower-spec PCs, and Wardogs Season 2 launches October 15.
Newegg is offering limited-time discounts today on PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch gift cards, each requiring a specific promo code at checkout. A $100 PlayStation Store card drops to $89, a $50 Xbox card to $45, and a $70 Nintendo eShop card to $63. The offers are limited and may sell out.
Data firm Alinea Analytics estimates Gears of War: E-Day has sold about 230,000 copies, with 168,000 on Steam and 62,000 across Xbox console and PC, while 1.7 million players accessed it through Game Pass. Alinea's Rhys Elliott argues Game Pass is cannibalizing premium revenue, noting 722,000 players paid $30 for the Premium Edition upgrade to play five days early and estimating roughly $37 million in revenue, $26 million of it from Xbox. The estimates have not been corroborated by Microsoft, and Elliott concludes Microsoft may have to pull day-one first-party releases from the service, as it announced for Call of Duty earlier this year.
Circana data shows Xbox hardware sales at an all-time low in the US for the year to date, while PlayStation is at its lowest point since 2013. For 2026 year to date ending August, Xbox hardware unit sales fell 33% year over year in the US, while PlayStation hardware units were 25% lower.
Xbox is offering seven games free to play this weekend, including a major new update for one of this year's biggest multiplayer releases and trials for several other notable titles. Players can try extraction shooters, sci-fi adventures, and radioactive wasteland settings before the weekend ends.
Xbox announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is now available for pre-order. Players who pre-order get DMZ early access starting October 20, and the post includes a pre-order link.
The Xbox console experience has received a wave of updates in 2026, including Disc to Digital, which lets physical-disc owners claim digital licenses and access games on console and the Xbox PC app via Xbox Play Anywhere. Mythic Achievements, still in testing with Insiders, track progress toward 100% completion, alongside additions like a play history log, Quick Resume toggles and custom startup animations. The author calls Xbox Play Anywhere the standout feature, with over 1000 new supported titles added this year.
A Kotaku report says the union petition filed by Double Fine Productions employees in May 2026 was ultimately withdrawn, after the studio's loose organizational culture clashed with US federal union eligibility rules. Some employees reportedly cut off communication with coworkers, and tensions grew between union supporters and those who felt the studio did not need a union. Studio founder and CEO Tim Schafer told Kotaku he chose not to intervene in the discussions because of his role as CEO, and denied any link between the failed union drive and the 23 employees laid off in July 2026, eight of whom were union organizers.
Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball debunked a report that GTA 6 streaming rights would be Xbox-exclusive, saying the game will not be streamed exclusively or to PC. With PS5 and Xbox Series X prices hiked and console shortages and scalper markups already reported more than a month before launch, GTA 6 should be a breakthrough moment for game streaming, but there is little interest. Microsoft recently placed strict caps on streaming usage for Game Pass subscribers, and the muted response showed how few consumers cared.
Playground announced on the Forza website that the PS5 version of Forza Horizon 6 has been delayed to 26th January 2027, after the PC and Xbox versions launched in May. A £110 Premium Edition offers early access from 21st January, the same day the game's first paid expansion arrives and is included in that edition, while everyone else gets a free update that day. The PS5 version runs at 4K 30FPS in Quality mode and 60FPS in Performance mode, with cross-platform play, cross-saves and cross-platform user content such as liveries and tuning setups.
Eurogamer reports that Forza Horizon 6 has been officially delayed to 2027 on PS5. The game's first expansion has also been announced.
European consumer protection authorities announced a series of coordinated actions against 10 video game companies, accusing them of dark patterns that put minors and players at risk of gaming addiction. The action, coordinated by the European Commission, focuses on practices such as premium in-game currencies that obscure real-world spending, selling virtual currency in set quantities that force overspending, and insufficient parental controls. The article cites Destiny 2's Silver bundles of 500, 1,000 and 1,500 units against item prices of 600 to 1,500 Silver, and notes Fortnite will let players buy the exact amount of V-Bucks they need starting October 14, a change also coming to Rocket League and Fall Guys but not PlayStation for now.
Evercade's Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack for the Nexus console has earned praise for its native Evercade versions of the two N64 games, featuring higher resolution, improved performance, adapted controls and extra features. GameXplain noted the Evercade release adds 60FPS gameplay while Xbox remains locked to 30FPS, calling it "kind of a game changer," though it lacks the Xbox versions' note and Jinjo saving features. The cartridge retails for £24.99 and works on any Evercade or Super Pocket device, with 60FPS only on the Evercade Nexus, Evercade Alpha or Super Pockets.
The head of Undead Labs said he is reluctant to share how many people were affected by layoffs, saying he would hate to reduce their impact to a number or statistic. The State of Decay developer became an employee-owned studio following ongoing restructuring at Xbox.
Undead Labs studio boss Philip Holt said he is reluctant to share how many employees the studio lost as it became independent of Xbox, saying he would hate to reduce the impact on those individuals to a number or statistic. To gain independence, Holt set up a corporate entity called Full Measure that makes all employees shareholders, and said he submitted a management-led buyout offer that Microsoft thought was a good idea. Undead Labs was one of five studios divested in the initial round of Xbox layoffs, which affected 3,200 employees.
Eurogamer's review calls Gears of War: E-Day a conservative but technically solid prequel whose campaign, Horde Siege, and Versus each have strengths and problems. Horde Siege splits 12 players into four-person squads that pick their own difficulty and complete objectives across the map, and the reviewer says 15 hours in it still produces emergent moments. The review also notes balance and mechanical issues in Versus and baffling checkpoints plus some repetitive beats in the campaign.
Kotaku interviewed Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer about the union petition filed at the Psychonauts studio this past May and withdrawn two weeks later. Schafer said he had only heard rumors until a letter with roughly 30 signatures appeared in Slack, after which management stayed hands-off per Microsoft's labor policy. Xbox declined to comment, while the Communications Workers of America provided a statement.
Kotaku spoke with 15 current and former Double Fine employees to reconstruct this year's failed union drive, in which 32 workers filed a petition with the NLRB on May 7 and withdrew it two weeks later. A month after the withdrawal, Microsoft spun Double Fine out as an independent studio and 23 people were laid off, including all eight organizing committee members who signed the withdrawal letter. Organizers say eligibility rules left out much of the studio, while Tim Schafer denied the layoffs were retaliation and said the studio's runway after the Xbox split is a matter of months.
Xbox has outlined the games arriving October 12 to 16, including Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Planet Zoo 2, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 pre-orders grant Campaign Early Access on October 16 ahead of its global launch on October 23. Deep Dish Dungeon, Valor Mortis, Bluey's Happy Snaps, and Chained Beasts are among the titles coming to Game Pass.
Eurogamer published its review of Gears of War E-Day under the headline a hole new world that grubs me up in all the right ways. The full review is available at eurogamer.net.
Playground Games announced that Forza Horizon 6's first Premium Expansion will launch on all platforms on January 21, 2027, the same day the PS5 version arrives, with the full PS5 release following on January 26 and early access five days sooner. The PS5, Xbox, and Steam versions support cross-platform play and cross-save, and PS5 pre-orders are live now with an in-game Ferrari J50 as a reward. Details of the first Premium Expansion have yet to be revealed, and a free content update will also arrive for all players at the same time.
A free upgrade for Mafia 3: Definitive Edition is out now on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S for digital owners of the Xbox One version, listed as a separate game on the Microsoft Store and discounted to £4.99 / $5.99. Visuals show no major improvements over the old Xbox One release, but the frame rate now targets 60FPS and appears mostly locked at 60FPS on both consoles, with Series S running at a slightly lower resolution.
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Xbox is working on a brand-new Xbox PC app that should start rolling out before the end of 2026, and Windows Central has already tried an early version. The redesign is said to bring a big performance boost, faster navigation through a 1400+ game library, and a single shared interface for store and game listings. It hasn't been officially released yet, and Windows Central suggests it may become available for Xbox Insiders within the next few weeks.
Playground Games has revealed that Forza Horizon 6's first major expansion will launch on January 21st, 2027. It will be granted automatically to players who bought the premium edition, premium upgrade or expansions bundle, while others must buy it separately. The studio has said only that more details will come closer to availability, and that a second expansion is also planned.
Seven new games arrive on Xbox on October 9, headlined by Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, the first major expansion to Capcom's 2024 RPG, on Series X|S and Cloud. Also out today is PAPERHEAD, a mix of fast-paced movement boomer shooter and adventure horror, on Series X|S, PC and Cloud, alongside Cozy Meowmory, HORSE CLUB Ride West, Sesame Street: Friends & Fun, Tiny Techie in Puzzle Land and Whisker Mess. No new titles were added to Xbox Game Pass today.
Microsoft announced a new branch of its Xbox business named XP. A blog on Xbox Wire details that it consists of four divisions: Xbox Places, Xbox Pictures, Xbox Partnerships, and Xbox Products.
The Coalition, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Gears of War: E-Day, Gears 4 and Gears 5, has largely survived the wide-ranging cuts and layoffs at Xbox. The layoffs were initiated by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma in an attempt to bring the gaming division back to profitability.
Guilty Gear -Strive- is $19.99 on Xbox https://buff.ly/BirPsmd
The Talos Principle: Reawakened is $9.99 on Steam https://buff.ly/HJtaPih
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is $9.99 on Xbox https://buff.ly/oaZb92v
Rockstar Games Spotlight
A new GTA 6 screenshot released alongside Rockstar's radio station news has players questioning whether it's actual in-game footage. Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie suggested it may have been captured on a PS5 Pro devkit using a debug menu, noting visual flaws like dithered reflections and missing pedestrian shadows. Rockstar has historically used real in-engine footage for its marketing.
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Forza Horizon 6 launches on PS5 on January 26, with Premium Edition owners getting in early on January 21 and the first expansion arriving at the same time. Wario64 notes that the PS5 retail copy requires a content download.
Sea of Stars is $17.49 on US eShop https://buff.ly/cZXvPfh
The Locust aren't going to chainsaw themselves, are they?