AlexanderTheGreat

"We have always been passionate about the series".

We've got some fresh Gears of War: E-Day news to report! It's been announced today by development studio People Can Fly that the company is partnering with The Coalition on the upcoming prequel that's set to arrive in 2025 or 2026.

You may remember the name "People Can Fly" because of the 2022 Xbox Game Pass title Outriders, or perhaps 2011's Bulletstorm... but it's most likely because the studio developed Gears of War: Judgment back in the day.

Here's what the team had to say in a statement following today's announcement:

"We are honored to return to the world of Gears of War, a franchise deeply embedded in our studio’s history. As lead developer of the iconic Gears of War: Judgment and co-development partner on Gears of War 1-3, we have always been passionate about the series and its legacy."

This sounds like a very exciting prospect to us, and the only thing that would have made it better is a hint of when to expect more details on the game... but alas, that wasn't to be. We probably won't hear much until the summer.

In terms of a release date, we mentioned earlier how Gears of War: E-Day has been rumoured for a 2025 launch in the past, but it feels unlikely now considering how busy the Xbox first-party slate appears to be. You never know though!

Following a bit of a false start yesterday, Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 stress test is now officially underway on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, giving select participants the opportunity to explore a range of new features ahead of its full release - with split-screen co-op support for Xbox Series S being the surprise (and long-awaited) inclusion.

Ubisoft is set to close its UK studio based in Leamington, as it sheds 185 jobs across the business.

A small number of Leamington staff will be retained under remote contracts. Additionally, Ubisoft offices in Düsseldorf (formerly Blue Byte), Stockholm and the Newcastle-based Ubisoft Reflections will be downsized.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to prioritise projects and reduce costs that ensure long-term stability at Ubisoft, we have announced targeted restructurings at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Reflections and the permanent closure of Ubisoft Leamington site," a Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement to Eurogamer.

"Unfortunately, this should impact 185 employees overall. We are deeply grateful for their contributions and are committed to supporting them through this transition."

Founded in 2002 as FreeStyleGames by a group of former Rare and Codemasters veterans, Ubisoft Leamington had most recently worked as a support studio on the Tom Clancy's The Division series, and also assisted development on games such as Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones and Far Cry 5.

In its heyday, under its previous ownership by Activision, Leamington was best known for its DJ Hero games, before it was put to work on the publisher's Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises. Ubisoft then acquired the firm in 2017.

As for the teams that have been downsized, Ubisoft Düsseldorf is best known for developing Anno and The Settlers, while Ubisoft Stockholm most recently worked on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora with Massive Entertainment. Ubisoft Reflections, the veteran team originally founded in 1984 and acquired by Ubisoft in 2006, had been working closely with Leamington supporting AAA game development.

Ubisoft's latest layoffs come as the company continues to try and cut costs after a string of disappointing game launches including the failure of big budget bet Star Wars Outlaws, the shutdown of live-service shooter XDefiant, and repeated delays to Assassin's Creed Shadows amidst wider concern for the firm's future.

Ubisoft has repeatedly reduced its headcount since 2022, when it employed 20,279 people. By the end of September 2024, Ubisoft employed 18,666.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft said it was "taking decisive steps" to reshape the company, in order to "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders".

Reports previously suggested Ubisoft was keen to take the company private via investment from Chinese giant Tencent, although company boss Yves Guillemot wanting to retain overall control has allegedly proven a sticking point. All eyes now turn to the upcoming launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows on 20th March, whose success has never seemed more vital.

"We're just really happy with the decision".

Xbox and Bethesda developer id Software this week shared a proper reveal of DOOM: The Dark Ages and more details about it are beginning to emerge.

One thing, in particular, highlighted in the first round of previews - is the fact this game is a "strictly campaign" affair. In other words - don't expect multiplayer to feature. Here's exactly what Marty Stratton had to say about this (via Eurogamer):

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said its brand identity is "evolving" now keeping first-party games exclusive to its own platform is no longer "a path for [Xbox]".

When asked by independent games journalist Dustin Legarie if, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield would continue to have an "exclusivity window" on Xbox systems, Spencer replied with a strikingly simple: "No."

"There's no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say this game will not go to a place where it would find players, where it would have business success for us," Spencer explained.

"Our strategy is to allow our games to be available.

"Game Pass is an important component of playing the games on our platform, but to keep games off other platforms?" Spencer added."We don't think is the path… that's not a path for us. It doesn't work for us."

"What we're doing now we think really enables us to build the best platform for the world's best games. 'Cos the world's biggest games are available in multiple places, and more and more creators are asking us, how do we stay connected when our game might be playable in all these different places, and we want Xbox to be absolutely the platform that enables that.

"We think that makes us unique. Most of the other platforms out there are single platform on single device, whether that's PC, whether that's mobile, whether it's a console.

And we want Xbox to be a platform that enables creators across any screen that people want to play on."

When pressed on whether Xbox's change in strategy means it may lose its identity, Spencer was firm about that, too.

"I hear them. I'm pretty active in our playerbase, and I'm active in the community. I listen. I think our identity will continue to evolve, which, frankly, it always has. But when I hear concerns, I hear concerns about is: my library of games safe. Am I still going to be able to play the games. And I think over the years, I'm proud of the commitment we've shown to respecting purchases on our platform through back compat, through cross entitlement, Xbox Play Anywhere, through crossplay. Things that we've done to enable people to continue to play, so I hear that.

"I see the investments we're making in platform and how we want Xbox to show up in multiple places, and your library to be available there. When I think about buy-to-stream - so when if I buy a game, I'll be able to stream it to devices - this is all about making sure that your library of games that you own on Xbox are playable in multiple places, so I'd say it's in evolution of our identity. But I believe it's an identity that this industry needs.

"When you think about where this industry is now and you see the challenges, the business challenges that are out there for many companies, I think us making games more accessible to more people has just gotta be front and centre for us as an industry so we continue to see great games that we've seen over the years."

The comments echo Spencer's position at the end of last year, when he said there were "no red lines" over any Xbox game coming to Nintendo Switch or PS5.

Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 was an unexpected highlight at last year's Xbox Games Showcase. I was already intrigued, and the big info dump at today's Xbox Developer Director has me downright excited, especially since it looks like French developer Sandfall Interactive is about to deliver the turn-based AAA JRPG that Square Enix refuses to make with Final Fantasy.

You'll be able to pick up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on April 24, 2025 across PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X. As you might expect from a game so heavily marketed at Xbox events, it will be available day one with Game Pass, as well.

Expedition 33 takes direct inspiration from the JRPGs its developers played in their youths, and that inspiration is plain to see in everything from the turn-based combat system to its apocalyptic plot and varied cast of characters. Maybe the most telling part is that there's a full world map here, which you explore in miniaturized form, just like in the RPGs of yore.

"Since the day I started working on this project in Unreal engine, I wanted a world map," Guillaume Broche says on the Xbox Wire. “I feel like it’s such a cool thing that has almost completely disappeared from the face of the gaming industry. Like, nobody does that anymore, and for me it was such a crucial and important part of what made the old-school JRPGs unique. It’s this sense of travelling and [indicating that] we are an expedition… and we wanted the player to feel like they’re going on a grand journey."

I'm just glad a game that looks this good and plays this old-school is coming our way in 2025. I've enjoyed most of the modern Final Fantasy games to at least some degree, but you can count me among the many who are disappointed that the series has seemingly fully abandoned turn-based combat in favor of action-based or hybrid systems.

Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida said that turn-based combat can be a poor match for graphically detailed games, but I'd argue the success of Baldur's Gate 3 suggests that's not really the case. Regardless of the direction Square Enix goes from here on out, I'm beyond excited that a game that looks as good as Expedition 33 is willing to stick with such old-school game systems.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president David Haddad is stepping down after 12 years in the role, with his departure following a rocky period for Warner's game division that's been marked by a number of high-profile flops.

As reported by Variety, Haddad will stay on with the company for the next three months, while Warner seeks his replacement. "David has thoughtfully and purposefully chosen a time when our release schedule is lighter," Warner's global streaming and games president JB Perrette wrote, "which will help minimise disruption to our ongoing projects and strategic plans and allow this team to smoothly prepare for its next record-breaking title."

News of Haddad's departure comes almost exactly a year after the disastrous release of developer Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was enough of a flop that it resulted in a $200m loss for Warner Bros. Free-to-play platform fighter MultiVersus also failed to find an audience despite almost a year of downtime for extensive retooling, resulting in a further $100m hit for the publisher.

And while 2023's Hogwarts Legacy was a significant financial win for Warner Bros., last year's Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions failed to replicate that success, with the publisher later admitting the title had "underperformed".

As to what's next for Warner Bros. Games, the publisher has yet to share much in the way of its future plans. The only game currently left on its announced slate is Monolith Productions' open-world Wonder Woman title - which Warner Bros. has denied is a live service title, despite a job listing sighted in 2023, and despite company CEO David Zaslav's previous ambitions to transform its biggest gaming franchises from traditional console and PC releases into "always on" live service games.

See you in the bayou.

Compulsion Games has today announced the launch date for South of Midnight, its upcoming southern folklore inspired adventure for Xbox Series X|S. We're finally getting hands on with this one on April 8th, 2025, and we're glad - because it looks bloody beautiful!

As part of the team's extended deep dive at Dev Direct, we've got another good look at the team's gorgeous stop-motion world here. This one looks like a rather unique action-adventure title for Xbox, and one we can all jump into day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

An interesting Xbox job post has been spotted online today, leading to questions about whether this role is for an unannounced team or project over at Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft is looking for "an experienced Executive Producer" to "lead a game team" - but what that team is within Xbox remains a mystery at this time.

Furthermore, Microsoft isn't accepting applications for this role until late February, which hints that this is a project being spun up and prepared for an Executive Producer to come aboard and lead. The post also mentions "the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area" as potential work areas for this role.

Read the full article on purexbox.com

As promised, Microsoft unveiled a new, unannounced game during its Xbox Developer Direct on Thursday: Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden is back with a new mainline entry, a revival of a franchise that’s been dormant since 2012’s Ninja Gaiden 3. In a surprise reveal, Ninja Gaiden 4 is being co-developed by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames, developer of the Bayonetta franchise and Nier: Automata.

Ninja Gaiden 4 will be released in fall 2025 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and it’ll be available through Game Pass.

The game will be set after the events of Ninja Gaiden 3 in a largely abandoned Tokyo that has been overwhelmed by demons and other servants of the Dark Dragon. Players will once again assume the role of master ninja Ryu Hayabusa, in addition to a second, new protagonist: Yakumo, a new master ninja and a member of the rival Raven clan.

Yakumo will employ two play styles: the Raven style and the Nué style, the latter of which will let the ninja take on multiple enemies at once using far-reaching attacks. Developers from Team Ninja and PlatinumGames say that classic Ninja Gaiden moves and combat will be part of the game as well, so get ready to Inazuma Drop fools over and over again.

Despite the new protagonist and speedy new play style, developers said that Ninja Gaiden 4 will preserve the dark, hardcore atmosphere of the series.

That’s not the only Ninja Gaiden-related announcement Team Ninja had to share during Thursday’s Xbox Developer Direct, however. The studio also stealth-dropped Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a new version of Ninja Gaiden 2 that offers a massive visual upgrade of the original 2008 Xbox 360 game, rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. In addition to protagonist Ryu Hayabusa, the Black re-release lets players battle as Ayane, Momiji, and Rachel.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is available now on PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

As announced during Xbox’s latest Developer Direct, Doom: The Dark Ages, the next main installment in the demon killin’ franchise, is launching on May 15 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

During today’s Xbox event, Microsoft showed off four upcoming games coming to Xbox and Game Pass, including the surprise reveal of a new Ninja Gaiden remake and a long-awaited sequel. And as part of the Developer Direct, Id Software and Xbox showed off more gameplay and shared more details about the upcoming medieval-themed, Hell-based prequel, Doom: The Dark Ages.

The newest Doom, announced last year, is a prequel to all the other games in the franchise, including 2016's Doom semi-reboot and 2020's Doom Eternal (and its DLC). Now, we get to see the Doom Slayer during the wars in Hell that happened eons ago in the franchise’s timeline. (Yes, the series has lore, its not all super shotguns and demons.)

In Dark Ages, the iconic Doom Slayer will face more enemies than ever before in Serious Sam-like battles in large battlefields. Thankfully, he has a dragon mount and shield saw to help even the odds. And this time around, Id Software wants you to feel like a big, heavy tank instead of a high-flying jet fighter. The studio really wants players to “stand and fight” in this entry. To help really sell the fantasy of being an unstoppable warrior, Dark Ages features three melee weapons with upgrades and finishers. Oh but don’t worry, there are plenty of wild medieval-themed firearms, too. And yes, you get a fully drivable mech, something teased in past games.

It ain’t all killing and blasting, though, as Id Software promises a lot of exploration and secrets to find. Large open levels, described by Id as “Doom sandboxes,” will include platforms and puzzles, and if you complete these challenges you’ll unlock upgrades to make the Doom Slayer a stronger murder machine. (Okay, I guess it does all come back to killing.)

Dark Ages also features a bunch of difficulty sliders that will let you change how fast and hard the game is, making it easy for everyone to hop in and kill demons.

What if the next Witcher game starred a vampire instead of Geralt? That’s one of the selling points behind The Blood of Dawnwalker, a new RPG from some of the masterminds behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Rebel Wolves, formed in 2022 by a bunch of ex-CD Projekt Red developers, revealed the game this week in a new teasertrailer. It looks pretty legit.

The first game in what the studio hopes will be an entire new RPG saga, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a narrative-driven, single-player, open-world, dark fantasy action-RPG. It’s being made in Unreal Engine 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, and PC. The game is currently in alpha with more updates promised later in the year. That’s another way of saying it probably won’t be out for a while.

Players will step into the shoes of a young warrior-turned-vampire named Coen who uses otherworldly powers, including teleporting around like Nightcrawler, to fight off enemies and navigate a world where monsters come in all different forms. Like I said, The Witcher with vampire powers. Here’s the cinematic trailer with a quick look at gameplay near the end:

Rebel Wolves was originally formed by Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz after he left CDPR following an investigation into workplace bullying, which he told Bloomberg ultimately found him not guilty of the charges. Speaking to the same outlet last year, he said he started the new studio out of a desire to go back to working in smaller teams where developers aren’t as pigeonholed into specific roles. He also said he’d be working on his empathy and prioritizing the well-being of the team.

Alongside its game announcement, Rebel Wolves also announced the hire of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s creative director: Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz. The CDPR veteran was a quest designer on multiple Witcher games, including the card-based spinoffs Gwent and Thronebreaker. He was also in charge of Cyberpunk 2077's quests before later departing after the game released to do narrative consulting for other companies.

“Throughout all my years in game development, story-driven role-playing adventures have always been something I was most passionate about,” Tomaszkiewicz said in a press release. “For me, nothing beats being able to fully immerse myself and discover handcrafted stories and worlds. There are so many fantastic RPGs out there today, however, I feel that there’s not only enough space but also a hunger among players for more captivating stories.”