Gaming - Page 35

Assassin's Creed Hexe has been in the works since late 2022 as part of the Assassin's Creed Infinity project. Ubisoft announced the game as the next mainline installment in the series after Assassin's Creed Shadows, but very little information has been coming out about the game since its announcement. However, we have a new development that might explain the apparent lack of information about the title.

According to a LinkedIn post, the game director for Assassin's Creed Hexe, Benoit Richer, is leaving the project. He is departing to cofound an indie studio of "industry veterans" and is seemingly no longer attached to Hexe or Ubisoft in any way moving forward. What's interesting is that this is the second high-profile departure from the Assassin's Creed Hexe team within two months.

Clint Hocking, the creative director for Hexe, left the development team during a tumultuous time at Ubisoft. He was replaced by Jean Guesdon, who is known for his work directing both Assassin's Creed Black Flag and Origins. Benoit Richer was previously the director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and also directed Batman: Arkham Origins before joining Ubisoft in 2017.

Microsoft's next-generation console, codenamed Project Helix, may be facing turbulence before it even reaches store shelves. The console was first teased by Asha Sharma, Xbox Gaming's newly appointed CEO, who took over from longtime boss Phil Spencer earlier this year. In an interview with The Game Files, Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty discussed the broader state of Xbox, touching on hardware ambitions and the company's plans for Project Helix.

The pair were notably cautious about committing to specific timelines or price points for upcoming hardware, citing the unpredictable nature of the current market, and for good reason. The global memory market is experiencing what analysts are calling a structural crisis, driven by a permanent reallocation of silicon wafer capacity toward high-margin AI infrastructure.

In Q1 2026 alone, consumer RAM prices inflated by as much as 110%, with SSDs surging even further, triggering a widespread scramble among PC manufacturers to secure supply. CPU chips are also beginning to face shortages, as fabrication capacity is increasingly prioritized for server-grade components. The combined pressure from skyrocketing component costs and limited availability is creating a perfect storm for console makers, who rely on a stable and predictable bill of materials to lock in specifications and production schedules.

Xbox's CEO says the games division is not growing as fast as Microsoft hoped, which is supported by recent financial performance. It's possible that Xbox has hit a slow point following its $70 billion Activision buyout.

Microsoft has big plans for Xbox: A new console PC hybrid is on the way, Game Pass is getting adjusted, there's a ton of games in development, and the new CEO is promising affordable games, hardware, and services. But there's just one glaring issue; Xbox still isn't growing. What we're seeing now is Microsoft planting the seeds for change, and those are already materializing in the form of new games, surprise Xbox console updates, and even a major Game Pass shakeup.

This revitalization comes at a time when change is sorely needed at Xbox. Microsoft's holiday console revenues just hit a 12-year low through 2025, and the last two quarters delivered the lowest revenues since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King.

The team at Xbox has been hard at work recently trying to revive the brand and clean up its image. Ever since the new boss, Asha Sharma, took over from Phil Spencer in February, there has been a wave of changes at Xbox. Part of it may be the hiring of a new reputation manager, but the new branding and logo have quickly become a fan favorite. Sharma has also changed the "Microsoft Gaming" branding back to Xbox.

Perhaps the most interesting change in Sharma's short tenure as CEO has been to Game Pass, with the Ultimate edition receiving a price cut to $22.99 a month. Moreover, a Discord partnership has been leaked with a cross-subscription model between Discord Nitro and Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition.

To expand on the future of Game Pass, Xbox Executives Asha Sharma and Matt Booty gave an interview to The Game File on the 23rd of April. Sharma said that the recent price drop of Game Pass Ultimate was the first step towards attracting a long-term player base. The team at Xbox is apparently considering making Game Pass more affordable and evaluating how value looks in today's gaming scene.

Original Bungie dev shares quick details about a behind-the-scenes Halo Reach prototype that never made it into the final game.

Like any game, Halo is full of cut content and went through many changes throughout development. Some of this is documented in Bungie's excellent Vidocs, but other info kind of gets lost to time. Unless, of course, the people who made these classics continue to openly talk about them.

In a recent Twitter thread, OG Bungie dev Niles Sankey talks about an interesting battle sequence prototype for Halo Reach. The game's so-called global battles (seen here at the 1:32 mark) show a more widespread and open theater of war, with banshees soaring the skies and scarabs stomping the ground.

Sony's live service plans haven't worked out according to plan, and former exec Shuhei Yoshida shares his thoughts about the company's current position.

It's 2026, and Sony originally wanted to have 10 live games out by this time. So far, Sony has only released a handful of games, one of which is now synonymous with total failure (Concord). Others, like MLB The Show 26, become #1 best-sellers by revenue in the US at launch. Marathon, the latest extraction shooter from Bungie, seems to be doing okay too, at least sales-wise; it was #4 in the US and estimates put it at 1.2 million copies sold. Helldivers 2 has also become one of the most popular and fastest-selling PlayStation games of all time, leading the live service charge with single-title sales exceeding 12 million copies on PS5 and PC in just 3 months.

Concord's crash and burn was very costly for Sony, however, and the company has since cancelled multiple live service games, including The Last of Us Online, which was said to be mostly complete before it was scrapped by management. Sony has also shut down some teams, including Concord developer Firewalk, and more recently, Dark Outlaw Games. Other groups like Bluepoint, who made the highly-regarded Demon's Souls remake, were also shuttered.

South Korea's prime minister has acknowledged Crimson Desert's success, saying the game is having a profound effect on the country's cultural representation in the interactive entertainment space.

Crimson Desert's wild success has reached the highest point of South Korea's government, prompting Prime Minister Kim Min-seok to make public comments praising the best-selling console game.

"I sincerely congratulate the success of 'Crimson Desert,' which has elevated the status of the South Korean gaming industry on the global stage," the South Korean prime minister said at a recent press event, as per Inven Global.

The price of Valve's new Steam Controller may have been accidentally leaked, with the device believed to cost $25 more than a PS5 controller at launch.

The Steam Controller may cost $99.99 at launch, making it a more expensive peripheral and double that of Valve's original Steam Controller ($49.99) that was released over a decade ago.

The pricing was outed via a recent review from a tech YouTuber that accidentally broke Valve's embargo date, and while the review was ultimately taken down, users grabbed screenshots and recordings of the info before the review went offline.

After winning tons of awards and selling millions of copies, Clair Obscur is one of the most successful games in recent memory and proves the AA market is prime for expansion.

Following the humdrum and predictable cycles of AAA games and live service titles, Indies are finding a new foothold. AA games are attracting new users in droves, and some of the most popular best-sellers of the last two years have been independent titles. Clair Obscur was a leader in the space when it broke the mold, amassing 1 million copies in just 3 days thanks to powerful online buzz and word of mouth. Now it's been revealed the game has crossed the 8 million sales milestone, fortifying Clair Obscur as a bonafide franchise for developer Sandfall Interactive.

"We're so thrilled, and honestly still quite overwhelmed, to announce that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has officially reached 8 MILLION copies sold," the developer wrote on Twitter. "Thank you so so much to every single person who has played, created art, shared, streamed, discussed, and supported this game!!"

Developer Virtuos inadvertently highlights why Forza Horizon probably won't ever return to Xbox as an exclusive series.

In 2024, Microsoft broke exclusivity, and a year later the company saw its biggest cross-platform success with Forza Horizon 5. While official numbers are light, analyst firm Alinea Analytics estimated that FH5 had sold 5 million copies on PS5 in a triple-five news headline. Now it looks like these numbers could be legit, or at the very least Virtuos, the game developer who helped with the PS5 port, is using Alinea's figures to highlight the game's cross-platform success.

"Forza Horizon 5 was one of the best-selling titles on PlayStation 5 in 2025, surpassing 5 million copies sold on the platform and earning widespread acclaim with a 92 Metacritic score. Praised for its stunning visuals, immersive open-world environments, and finely tuned gameplay mechanics, the game set a new benchmark in the racing genre," the developer writes on its website.

Arrowhead keeps the 1990s macho chaos evolving with Helldivers 2's new warbond, adding in two new mechs into the digital pass for the first time ever.

Helldivers 2's latest warbond continues the franchise's penchant for overpowered satirical military warfare by adding in two new playable exo mechs that are capable of unleashing unique havoc.

The Exo Experts warbond includes the EXO-55 Breakthrough, a shield-toting sci-fi phalanx shieldbearer made specifically for defensive measures, and the EXO-51 Lumberer with its anti-tank cannon and explosive flamethrower. Arrowhead was obviously a fan of the old Mech Warrior games and the classic Exosquad cartoon from decades ago.

Capcom's development team inadvertently reveals another big sales figure for the latest Resident Evil game.

Available since the early days of modern 3D consoles, Resident Evil is Capcom's best-selling franchise of all time. The latest game continues this sales spree, pushing total series sales to 180 million+. It's now been revealed that Resident Evil 9 Requiem has sold over 7 million copies worldwide on all platforms, a feat that was achieved in 56 days since the game's original launch.

The update was spotted by Resident Evil expert Aliex Aniel, with Aniel noting that Requiem game director Koshi Nakanishi had shared a celebratory post on Instagram that highlighted the sales figure. Capcom has yet to formally announce the sales figure, and that might happen in the coming days. We've updated our Resident Evil 9 Requiem sales trends chart to give an idea of how well the game has performed since launch--spoilers, things are going very well for the game.

Assassin's Creed Resynced looks to be gaming's next major AAA hit as the game is currently the #1 top pre-ordered game on multiple global PlayStation Stores.

Following the success of Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft could have another best-seller on its hands with the upcoming Black Flag remake. The game might be a seasonal success, at least on PlayStation, as Black Flag Resynced has become the #1 top pre-ordered game on eight of nine tracked PlayStation Store geographies.

At the time of writing, the game is the #1 pre-ordered game in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and even Hong Kong. The only region in our pool of tracked countries where Black Flag Resynced wasn't #1 was in Japan, a somewhat fickle market with wide degrees of varying tastes.

Square Enix has announced plans to bring its long-running MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to Nintendo Switch 2 this August. CEO Takashi Kiryu made the announcement during the April 2026 FFXIV Fan Fest keynote, alongside a costly catch that will have players on the hybrid platform rethinking their subscription plans.

Normally, if you own FFXIV on multiple platforms, you can play on any of them under a single subscription. But Square Enix will change that for the Switch 2 version, requiring players to get a separate subscription in addition to buying the base game.

"After discussions with Nintendo, it was decided that the Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV would require a separate subscription," FFXIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida said via translator. "Again, this was decided after many months of discussions with Nintendo, and I understand that this is different to how we've done things before."

It was recently leaked via an Indonesian Ratings database that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will feature "new characters and stories". While it had been rumored for months now, nobody really knew what the new Black Flag project was going to be. There was speculation among gamers about whether the new "Resynced" would be a remaster like Assassin's Creed 3 or a remake with brand-new content.

It seems like we have got the answer now, with Ubisoft's official worldwide reveal showcase of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. As speculated before, the new Resynced project is indeed a remake with brand-new characters, story arcs, gameplay mechanics, and much more. Ubisoft lifted the curtain on the inner workings of Black Flag Resynced in a 28-minute showcase on 23rd April.

In Resynced, we will meet three new characters who will take the role of officers for our crew. Ubisoft introduced them as Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Deadman Smith. These are not faceless NPCs either, as we can see fully detailed, unique models for the characters in the reveal trailer. Furthermore, Ubisoft says each character will have a unique narrative questline that reveals their backstory.

Discord Nitro will soon come with a lighter version of Xbox Game Pass, offering access to 50 games.

Xbox is teaming up with Discord to bundle services together in a cooperative partnership. New leaks say that Discord Nitro subscribers will gain access to a new special Game Pass tier called the Starter Edition. If you've been closely following the Game Pass stories, then the Starter Edition is the official name for the tier codenamed Triton, which was believed to be a first-party only offering at the time.

This so-called Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition offers 50 games from the all-you-can-play subscription service, including a smattering of catalog first-party games like Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Gears of War, Doom Eternal, and Dishonored, as well as hit indies like Hades and Stardew Valley.

Ubisoft has cleared the air on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, confirming the remake will not follow the RPG path many expected.

During the Black Flag Resynced Showcase, Ubisoft directly addressed speculation by stating that the game remains a solo, character-driven adventure and went further, describing Resynced as "not an RPG". In a response that shuts down months of rumors, the team confirmed during the showcase that it is not an RPG, signaling a return to the more focused design of the original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

That does not mean this is a simple remaster. Ubisoft is packing in a wide range of upgrades, including enhanced underwater exploration, a new dynamic weather system that impacts naval gameplay, and updated combat mechanics.

Microsoft is laying out a bold future for Xbox, and Project Helix sits right at the center of it all, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, outlining the brand's future in a new mission statement.

Following a major leadership shift that brought Asha Sharma and Matt Booty to the forefront, Xbox has detailed a sweeping strategy to redefine its platform. The company is dropping the Microsoft Gaming identity and returning fully to Xbox branding, while outlining a vision that spans console, PC, cloud, and mobile as a single connected ecosystem.

Project Helix is described as the next step in hardware, designed to lead in performance while allowing players to access both console and PC experiences in one place. But the bigger shift is philosophical. Xbox says it will focus on affordability, personalization, and openness, with flexible pricing models and experiences that adapt to individual players. This comes as rising development costs and changing player habits continue to reshape the industry.

Escape From Tarkov developer and creator Nikita Buyanov has been working on a new sci-fi shooter called Fragmentary Order for a few years now at the new Rant Gaming Studios. It's described as a "combat simulator" with vehicles, extraction mechanics, and all the action taking place on maps that are four or five times the size of those in Tarkov.

The game is currently in full production and will feature more realistic, advanced visuals thanks to being built on the latest version of Unreal Engine. In a new interview with GamesBeat, Nikita Buyanov opened up about the development process and confirmed that he and the team have received support from NVIDIA in implementing technologies like DLSS 4.5.

And with that, the interviewer asked Nikita whether the game would consider adding support for DLSS 5, and the answer might surprise you. Well, that is if you didn't bother to read the headline.

Xbox is promising a reset for the brand, and it all starts with making gaming cheaper and more personal than ever before. In a new mission statement, Xbox has said, "Xbox will be where the world plays".

Following a major shake-up in February that saw Phil Spencer retire and Sarah Bond step down, Asha Sharma has taken the reins and is already steering the company in a new direction. Alongside Matt Booty, Sharma confirmed that Microsoft Gaming branding is being dropped in favor of a renewed focus on Xbox, signaling a shift back to identity and clarity.

At the core of this new strategy is affordability, a word that continues to dominate conversations across the industry. Xbox says its future, including the upcoming Project Helix console, will focus on flexible pricing, accessibility, and personalization.