The excitement for Gears of War: E-Day continues to build as Xbox announces brand-new, limited-edition Gears of War: E-Day-style Xbox controllers, now available for pre-ordering on the Xbox website.

One controller is pre-made with a design to resemble the Gears of War logo, while the other controller features a custom-made Xbox Design Lab faceplate along with several buttons, triggers, and joysticks that the player can customize the look of to fit their fashion sense.

Here's everything you need to know about these awesome-looking controllers.

For starters, these accessories are regular Xbox Series X|S controllers with modified cosmetic looks inspired by Gears of War: E-Day, meaning they'll feature all the high-quality ergonomics, responsive controls, and satisfying feedback that earned them a spot among our favorite Xbox controllers.

The pre-made Gears of War: E-Day controller features 3D-molded, laser-etched details meant to resemble the cracked asphalt of a road giving way to a Locust Emergence hole, with the Gears of War logo shining brightly in the middle.

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Additionally, the pre-made controller has a mix of sharp black and red buttons and joysticks to help it stand out more, firm textured grips to make it more comfortable, and a painting of a COG tag on the battery door as a fan-servicey reference to all the dog-tag-style COG tags players collect throughout the Gears of War series.

The limited-edition Gears of War: E-Day Xbox controller will cost you $89.99 and is available for pre-ordering on the Xbox Store or at your local retailer.

The custom Xbox Design Labs Gears of War: E-Day Xbox Controller features a custom faceplate with bloody, heavy-metal-style artwork by Luke Preece, who created official artwork for heavy metal bands like System of a Down, Metallica, Black Sabbath, and more.

As with any Xbox Design Labs controllers, players will be able to augment the controller with cosmetic upgrades like metallic triggers and D-Pads, rubberized side and back grips, and a personalized engraving to make it their own.

If you're going to Gamescom this year, you will be able to see them firsthand, as they'll be on public display at the Xbox Booth, where players will get their first playable taste of Gears of War: E-Day's story campaign mode.

The Xbox Design Labs Gears of War: E-Day Xbox Controller will be available for purchase and customization on September 30, 2026, on the Xbox Store.

But wait, there's more. 8BitDo is collaborating with Xbox to create a special charging dock designed to be paired up with the pre-made Gears of War: E-Day Xbox controller, and it is called the '8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock for XBOX Controllers – Gears of War: E-Day'.

This charging dock is also compatible with regular Xbox Series X|S controllers and Xbox One controllers, and it includes an 8BitDo rechargeable battery pack to save you the trouble of buying one separately for your controller to work with this dock.

The '8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock for XBOX Controllers – Gears of War: E-Day' will cost you $39.99 and is available for pre-ordering on Amazon and 8BitDo's eShop.

Windows Central's take

Xbox has had some wild tie-in controllers over the years, but these Gears of War: E-Day controllers are possibly the coolest ones I've seen in a long time.

The pre-made is definitely my favorite, as its well-done design gives off the cool effect of the Gears of War logo erupting from the ground, and the overall black and red color scheme looks so sick.

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these controllers and play Gears of War: E-Day with it when the game comes out on October 30, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, and PC.

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Yesterday, on August 11, 2026, a post in the r/Controller subreddit shared images of what appears to be the long-awaited Xbox Elite Series 3 controller, a successor to one of the best Xbox controllers, which we gave a near-perfect score to back in 2021.

The original poster deleted their "leaked" gallery of the implied prototype (potentially in response to an unconfirmed cease-and-desist order from Microsoft). Still, the images were nonetheless preserved and shared again by The Verge's Tom Warren, who clarifies how the original post claimed the poster purchased it from "OfferUp", an online reseller marketplace.

As with any rumor —or supposed leak — it's always best to take them with a pinch of salt, as any could turn out to be fake, and these images of the Xbox Elite Series 3 controller are no exception. Then again, there are plenty of hints in its design that this is indeed a prototype that was never intended to be seen publicly. The Verge's report even confirms that the battery pack says "Prototype, not for sale".

Still, these could be knockoffs of the official Xbox Elite Series controller or an early, unfinished model that looks nothing like the final product. However, the fact that these images were quickly removed implies they may be real.

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If it is genuine, it at least doesn't appear at a glance that the Elite Series 3 has changed much from its predecessor, other than a slightly different rubberized grip design and different-looking trigger locks.

However, The Verge's analysis shows some new features. These include two new scroll wheels along the bottom edge, a wireless mode that would connect directly to Xbox Cloud Gaming servers, and a 'Pair' button that switches the controller's connection between Cloud Gaming servers and an Xbox console.

Either way, we will have to wait for Microsoft's official announcement of the Xbox Elite Series 3 controller to see whether this design becomes the final product or an outdated prototype/knock-off. Gamescom is coming up, so we'll see.

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I've long been a fan of XCOM, which is why when I heard two of my favorite franchises were about to collide on Xbox and PC, my interest was immediately piqued.

This is Star Wars: Zero Company, an upcoming turn-based tactics game set in the legendary sci-fi universe that needs little introduction.

Developed by Bit Reactor, who themselves are comprised heavily of XCOM and Firaxis vets, I recently was lucky enough to talk to the team behind the game, as well as go hands-on for the first time.

Bit Reactor's Greg Foertsch, art director of XCOM fame, was candid on the game's origin story. It was actually the late great Vince Zampella of Titanfall and Call of Duty fame who offered it up first, and the rest is history: "Star Wars was not on my bingo card, to be quite honest, till Vince brought it up, and frankly, I was a little terrified at first, but I had to say yes."

Terrified they might've been. But from what I've seen, I think they've absolutely nailed it and have nothing to fear whatsoever. Star Wars Zero Company is now a personal game-of-the-year contender, if indeed the full game continues to be as infectious and intriguing as the demo slice I played.

Bit Reactor noted that they felt the turn-based tactics genre still had a big story to tell, even as Take Two essentially wound down the XCOM franchise in favor of focusing on Civilization. What better way to introduce the genre to a new audience than via one of the biggest franchises in the world?

But Bit Reactor has also been keen to modernize every aspect of it for modern sensibilities: photorealistic art, a third-person camera, high-quality story writing and cinematic treatment, and a Mass Effect-like character bonding system that has enormous potential.

Star Wars: Zero Company launches on Xbox and PC on August 27, 2026.

A heaping of XCOM, a dash of Mass Effect?

In Star Wars Zero Company, you take command of a "dirty dozen" style mercenary outfit, which immediately gave me Mass Effect 2 vibes.

This ragtag group of rejects, bounty hunters, and warriors of fortune come together under a variety of difficult circumstances. The Clone Wars are in full swing, and the Republic needs mercs willing to undertake missions that are perhaps beyond their remit (and missions that skirt the law ... and perhaps even basic morality.)

As such, you play as Captain Hawks, a fully customizable humanoid and former Republic officer who has gone into business for himself. You can fully tailor Hawks' identity and pick from a variety of iconic Star Wars species to lead your crew.

As you get further in, you'll meet other heroes who join your squad for a variety of their own reasons. There's Tel-Rea, who is a former Jedi Padawan, Trick, a "forcibly retired" clone trooper, and Cly, a Mandalorian driven by vengeance.

The eclectic cast led Bit Reactor to create its "Bond system," which gave me a ton of Mass Effect 2 vibes. As your crew collaborates both in missions and during trips to The Den (your base of operations), they build relationships and synergies that benefit your tactical options and also develop their characters.

"I wanted that to have a long arc of play over the course of the whole campaign… you’re not just learning to power your characters up, but you’re also having them develop relationships that’s evolving in your head," game director James Brawley explained to us. "Characters grow stronger as a result… that’s why they’re able to beat these overwhelming threats, because they know how to work together."

"This is your Star Wars game… how you get there, what you experience, the characters you build, the relationships and bonds you make — they’re all unique to your playthrough."

The team explained that the events of Zero Company take place adjacent to The Clone Wars, in the shadows, using an entire cast of new characters. And indeed, like any good XCOM-like, permadeath is a feature here. If you have two characters that synergize well and unlock powerful abilities as a result, having one of them die not only severs that bond but also deprives you of access to those powerful abilities. The stakes remain incredibly high as a result, in true XCOM-fashion. You'll also lose the resolution of their stories and experiences too, making every playthrough potentially unique (unless you save scum, that is ... but there are auto-saves-only Ironman modes for those who don't want to be enticed into such heretical gameplay styles.)

I didn't get to experience too much of the combat gameplay, but from what I played, it felt every bit as satisfying and fun as previous official XCOM-style games I've played from the team here. Bit Reactor is comprised of XCOM and Firaxis vets, as noted, and you can feel that pedigree in every aspect of play. The team said Disney was on hand too to verify the Star Wars authenticity but was also incredibly open to Bit Reactor's own agency therein. The team said they "couldn't praise Disney enough," in what sounds like a very productive working relationship.

Disney hasn't always handled the Star Wars IP as well as I would've liked ... but it's hard to deny that they've had some absolute bangers on their hands. Rogue One has been a particular highlight for me, but also the games. Cinematic delivery I'd argue is more important in a Star Wars-adjacent title, which obviously comes with certain expectations. You can expect great characters, a grand adventure across the galaxy, and big cinematic moments sprinkled throughout Zero Company, the developers tell me. But crucially, also dark villains.

The Clone Wars are in full swing in corners of the galaxy, but while bounty hunting, Hawks and his crew get caught up in a uniquely dangerous situation. The separatist-aligned cult known as the Infinite Coil rears its head early on. Its members seem infected with a mysterious space plague that, if I were a betting man, potentially has dark side origins.

The Jedi Fallen Order franchise has been well-received, and before Vince Zampella's passing, it seemed like EA was on an upward swing with its Star Wars license stewardship. Zero Company looks set to continue that legacy and also maintain the quality bar Jedi Fallen Order established.

Indeed, I was surprised to discover how far Zero Company diverges from the typical XCOM formula from a story perspective, where most of the characters are throwaway soldiers designed to ultimately be expendable. The detailed characterization of the heroes in Zero Company are every bit as cinematic and interesting as any story-heavy action game or big-screen Star Wars experience you might expect.

Zero Company makes heavy use of a traditional third-person over-the-shoulder camera for some of these sequences too, making the game feel almost more like a CRPG in the vein of Baldur's Gate 3 or Wasteland 3, as opposed to a pure tactics game. Tactics games with fixed isometric cameras often come with stylized art given that the camera is zoomed out a lot of the time. Zero Company went deeper on visuals to accommodate its more cinematic delivery, and the results speak for themselves. Zero Company feels painstakingly authentic.

"We should be better looking, not worse. We should be better frame rates, not worse. We should have more stories, more immersion," Bit Reactor explained. "We’re just making a great game — it just happens to be turn‑based.”

If you've never played an XCOM-like before, its RPG systems might be what entices you most

I was incredibly encouraged by Star Wars: Zero Company's preview cycle. I was immediately drawn to the characters and intrigued by the potential of the game's Bond system. What events and storytelling opportunities would I be able to unlock? What consequences would befall me for mismanaging those bonds and potentially getting some of my heroes killed? What exactly is the Infinite Coil, and what do they want?

Star Wars: Zero Company is a bit of a rarity in 2026, as big publishers chase service games, infinite experience, and microtransaction hellscapes. Take Two itself no longer seems to want to service the XCOM franchise sadly, and other companies that have attempted it have often struggled to broaden their appeal. Truly "AAA"-grade tactics games have become vanishingly rare.

Star Wars is the perfect universe to offer a take on this genre in my view, particularly in the Clone Wars era. But Bit Reactor's clear efforts on the cinematic and story-delivery side give Zero Company broad potential that similar attempts at the turn-based tactics genre have missed in recent years. Baldur's Gate 3-style cinematics and character delivery, atop modern high-quality visuals and focused XCOM-style tactical play? Zero Company has everything I didn't know I needed from this quarter's very busy slate of games.

Star Wars: Zero Company is something every Star Wars and turn-based afficionado should put on their wishlist.

If you have any questions about the game, drop them in the comments and I'll get them answered!

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Xbox is legally required in some territories, such as the UK and, more recently, Australia, to verify the age of its users in order to access certain features.

Whether we like it or not, there's no way around it. Governments will always government. But what most of us objected to more was the use of faceless third-parties that were being used to verify some of our most personal information. In Xbox's case, it was Yoti, a company that's found itself in hot water before over its handling of data.

Fortunately, at long, long last, if you've held out on completing Xbox age verification, it looks like you won't have to. A message is hitting the inboxes of those accounts that haven't yet verified their age through other means but have been determined as having an "adult account" through their activity.

Our own Ben Wilson was one such holdout and got the message himself last night. Here's what it says in full:

Due to longstanding account activity, we've estimated your Xbox profile to be an adult account and updated its age verification status to "Verified." You are no longer required to complete full age verification for uninterrupted access to social features on Xbox. While no further action is required, you can update your privacy and safety settings on Xbox at any time. For more information, click "Learn more" below.

Reddit is likewise lighting up with folks who've had the same message and have been released from the requirements to verify their age for full access.

This seems to be taking place predominantly in the UK, with Australian age verification recently hitting the news as frustrated users see what us Brits were faced with at first.

But since Xbox can clearly identify your age effectively using your account data, why isn't it applied automatically to everyone immediately?

I don't personally care whether I have to be verified as an adult or not, but I do care about being asked to hand over biometric data to companies I have no usual business with. I remember many years ago, being told by a local shop they wouldn't photocopy my passport for me because they wouldn't handle personal information such as this.

Now we're being asked to funnel all that into a computer somewhere, trusting that they're going to behave responsibly with it.

But a win's a win. Even if it's a win that took a little long to get here. Hopefully it can roll out quickly in any subsequent markets that require age verification.

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A couple of weeks ago, Xbox's live services suffered the biggest outage in the brand's recent history. For over a day, Xbox players couldn't access online services, their game library both online and offline, their apps, and more.

The outage was so bad it even prevented physical Xbox game discs from working, as it stopped their entitlement checks from functioning.

Fast forward to today, and the CTO of Xbox, Scott Van Vliet, took to social media to provide Xbox fans with a detailed explanation of how this disaster occurred, what Xbox's engineers did to fix it, and what their plans are to ensure this never happens again.

Scott reiterates from his interview with The Verge that this outage was caused by an update made to an underlying service within the Xbox's digital ecosystem that was required for Xbox Home Console sharing, Xbox Game Pass purchased content, and PC scenarios to function, putting them in an unresponsive state.

While this update was happening and causing these systems to shut down, a bug within the Xbox client software stack caused other digital game licence checks to fail. These multiple issues combined created a domino effect where the accumulating failure scenarios blocked some players from launching games while causing issues with library enumeration.

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To combat this, Scott says Microsoft is transferring ownership of the underlying licensing service to the Xbox team while Microsoft's engineers work on improving the stability of Xbox Live's services and infrastructure for future updates.

As for the client bug, it will be fixed in an update to the Xbox that rolls out today and will become mandatory to download on August 17, 2026.

In addition, Scott says Microsoft has plans to roll out new features for players along with quality-of-life improvements for system updates as it looks for more ways to improve the stability of its products and services.

Windows Central's take

On the one hand, it's nice to see Xbox be a little transparent for once regarding its mistakes and its attempts to fix them, as it shows there are people higher in the company who do care about the quality of their product.

But on the other hand, it's going to take a miracle for Xbox or anyone else to convince me to trust digital games ever again, especially when companies like Sony are so keen on killing physical media and the risk of Microsoft blocking people's entire accounts for no fault of their own if they get hacked.

To me, getting DRM-free games (like the ones you see at GOG for example) with their own dedicated launchers and storing them in external SSDs is currently the best way to preserve your modern games library and play them without being shackled to licence entitlements or online services (unless you're playing multiplayer-only games like Overwatch or World of Warcraft, in which case, you're out of luck).

Either way, time will tell if this new update to the Xbox client will prevent any future fiascos for Xbox Live's services.

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Recently, the Australian gaming journalist website Press Start has confirmed that Xbox players in Australia are now forced to verify their age to play games rated for people aged 18+ and over on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

This was done because, according to Microsoft's email notice sent to Australian players, and I quote, "As part of our compliance program in Australia, beginning late August 2026, adult XBOX accounts must verify their age to be able to access apps and games rated 18+ on the Microsoft and XBOX Store. Access to such content may be restricted unless you verify your age. Apps and games you already own won’t be affected. Select below to verify now. Please ignore if you’ve already verified.”

Players consigned to this must verify their age either through Email-based age verification, facial age estimation by taking a self-portrait using their camera, providing credit card details, or providing government-issued ID like a driver's license, passport, national ID, or residence permit.

Around the same time this happened, Australia had banned "The Halloween: The Game", an upcoming Xbox horror game based on the iconic Halloween movie franchise because of the presence of a controlled substance, rather than the violent murders that occur in the game.

A bleak glimpse at the digital future?

Now, Australia banning a horror game is nothing new, as the country has a long history of censoring games or outright banning them in the past, such as the Grand Theft Auto series and South Park: Stick of Truth.

Although some games do manage to get released under the "Adults Only" rating, such as Hotline Miami, Outlast 2, and We Happy Few, to name a few.

However, what is concerning is the age verification enforcement, as we're seeing more Western countries like Australia, the UK, and several states in the US implementing it across many websites, online services, and video games, bottlenecking what we can or cannot access.

As physical discs come under attack and governments act as a morality police over the types of content adults are allowed to consume, gamers and game developers like Hideo Kojima are increasingly concerned that we're on a slippery slope where eventually we'll own nothing digitally and what we do own will be so censored that it's not even worth owning.

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Not to mention there's the big risk to our private freedom, with gaming activists like Stop Killing Games proclaiming these age verification systems are just another means for corporations and governments to gatekeep content, collect sensitive data (which is at risk of being stolen or leaked by hackers), and make the open web harder for everyone to use.

Either way, between this and the ongoing memory crisis hiking the price of Xbox Series X|S and other related tech, the gaming industry is in a volatile and chaotic state right now that I pray we recover from soon somehow because, if things keep going the way they are...I think it may be time to invest in a new hobby we actually have ownership and freedom over.

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Sony's decision to kill physical games from 2028 is the discussion that won't go away, and we're still waiting to see what the Xbox stance will be.

But wading in today is Strauss Zenick, CEO of Take Two (via IGN), otherwise known as the company that counts Rockstar Games among its portfolio. The same Rockstar Games that recently printed a ridiculous sum of money when GTA 6 pre-orders went live.

Only this time, and for the first time in the franchise, there will be no physical version at all. If you buy it from a retailer, all you get is a download code. Naturally, Zelnick is all for this.

“Our business is well over 90% digitally distributed,” Zelnick said. “It's already a digital business. So in certain instances, especially if it's a big game, discs just — and note I said discs — don't really make sense for the consumer.

Also, most instances you have to register online to play anyhow. So if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally? It's all the same and it's much more convenient."

Granted, I'll give Rockstar Games specifically a little more slack here. GTA V came on two discs on the Xbox 360 originally because the game was too big for one (PS3 used Blu-Ray and was a single disc). Likewise, even on the larger capacity discs for Xbox One, Red Dead Redemption 2 suffered the same fate.

Nobody wants to get up and have to change discs. Not to mention more raw materials, manufacturing costs, etc. But I take particular exception to the second part of the quote above.

It's not our fault we have to register online to play a game. It's not our fault we need to have a Microsoft or Sony account, probably also a Rockstar Games account created alongside either of those. A subscription to play online. Alongside an account for every other different publisher who says we need to have an account.

Are digital games more convenient? Of course they are. But let's not pretend that this has anything to do with making our lives easier. Without a physical copy of something in our hands, we know that at any point it could just vanish without a trace.

It's not remotely surprising GTA 6 is digital-only. Even ignoring the likely technical issues fitting much of it onto a disc, it kills the resale market stone dead. Used game stores won't have copies of GTA 6 on the shelves after players are done with it. GTA Online is the cash cow, but there are still plenty of us who will play the campaign and call it a day. Those players can't sell on or trade in their copy anymore.

Curiously, Zelnick also said that "It doesn't mean that we won't have physical additions now and then, I'm sure we will in the same way that there’s still vinyl in the recorded music business." I don't even know where he's going with that one.

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Everyone knows Xbox isn't doing so hot these days, but new research from Statista Consumer Insights has put that common belief to the test.

Xbox is "unhealthy" according to new CEO Asha Sharma, which has led to thousands of layoffs this summer and many more throughout the next fiscal year. Gaming as a whole is struggling from a variety of headwinds, including the memory crisis, dilution of attention, competition from non-gaming hobbies, and potentially an unhealthy dependence on free-to-play forever games like Fortnite.

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Indeed, Microsoft's gaming division saw a decline to the tune of 11% last fiscal year, which sources tell me almost entirely revolves around Call of Duty having an off year. I suspect diversifying the Xbox business would probably be a good idea to reduce dependence on the firm's handful of mega-games, but that's a discussion for another time.

It's no secret that Xbox One was ill-received by the core gaming community, and Microsoft is still paying for those mistakes over a decade later. New data from Statista Consumer Insights put common beliefs about Xbox's performance to the test, surveying over 3,200 gamers in the United States.

Users were asked which console platforms they frequently play on specifically, with PC and mobile excluded from the picture. Of console players in the United States, some 85% frequently play on PlayStation platforms, 76% play on Nintendo platforms, with Xbox coming in last at 58%. The figures suggest that most people own multiple consoles and frequently play across different platforms. What is perhaps most striking is how popular the Xbox 360 still is, which is even giving the Nintendo Switch 2 a run for its money. It aligns with what I've previously heard about Xbox 360 engagement, which is uniquely sticky for Microsoft.

In a universe where some service games last "forever," there are arguably few reasons to upgrade from a PS4 or an Xbox One if all you enjoy playing is Fortnite or Minecraft and the like, which are still updated and fully functional on older platforms. At least it shows that users remain engaged, even if they are playing on older platforms. The challenge is figuring out how to convince them the upgrade is worth it.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is exclusive to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, which in a usual console cycle would likely have a dramatic upward impact on the current-gen systems. That uptake is likely going to be a tad muted for Xbox, which is struggling to source memory at reasonable prices for its Xbox Series X|S range. The box is already more expensive than ever, and has firmly slipped beyond your average luxury purchase.

It'll be interesting to see how Xbox CEO Asha Sharma addresses the delta here. Xbox PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming are obviously excluded from the results here, and both of these platforms represent a huge growth area for Microsoft. Microsoft has barely marketed Xbox Cloud Gaming arguably, and Xbox Game Pass on PC remains a fantastic deal too. Putting more investment into these products (and maybe I dunno, marketing them?) could make for an easy win.

Sharma said that there are "200 million" Xbox players last month, but it's unclear exactly how Microsoft arrives at this figure. Does that include Minecraft players on PS5 or Nintendo Switch for example? It's hard to parse. What isn't hard to parse is the scale of the challenge facing Xbox, whose identity has been rocked by a variety of experiments that landed with mixed results.

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Xbox has a new console on the horizon, in the form of Project Helix, but so too will PlayStation. The competition for the future will remain fierce, but it's unclear if Microsoft still has the stamina to keep investing in gaming as shareholders heap demands for more AI.

It'll be interesting to see how Xbox weathers the next few years, with no end in sight for memory shortages, demographic shifts to PC, and the rise of free-to-play perpetuating something of a race to the bottom.

We've seen where the United States prefers to play, but where do YOU prefer to play, Windows Central reader? Vote in our poll below!

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Five years ago back in 2021, a game was released with a famous franchise attached that initially slipped me by. I'm talking about Aliens: Fireteam Elite.

I don't really have any affinity for the movie franchise, so that's likely why I didn't even give it a look. But after catching a couple of streamers playing it, I took a punt, and boy was I in for a surprise.

To this day I think Aliens: Fireteam Elite is woefully underrated. I can't speak to whether it's a truly authentic Aliens experience, but it's a fun game with plenty of replayability, without being too serious or requiring all your time. And it's about to leave Xbox Game Pass in 9 days as I write this, so consider this your notice to check it out while you still can.

You've got various classes and loadouts to build out, perks, different weapons, and hidden caches to find to get yourself some of the better loot. It has mild elements of a looter shooter in its mechanics, but it really isn't one.

It's a run-and-gun action game where your objective primarily is slaying alien creatures. Lots and lots of alien creatures. My former colleague, Miles Dompier, summed it up perfectly in our original 2021 review.

"Aliens: Fireteam Elite genuinely caught me off guard. I was excited about the idea of playing another co-op shooter in the Aliens universe, but I wasn't confident it would be a quality title worth spending a great deal of time with. However, my squad and I are already strategizing our loadouts for the more extreme difficulties. Despite my initial reservations, I'm fully expecting to spend the next several weeks playing Aliens: Fireteam Elite with friends."

This is exactly what happened to me, though I played more solo than with others. While it's more fun with friends, it's perfectly playable solo from beginning to end.

Better still, the Pathogen expansion is currently heavily discounted, too, and I'll be honest, that passed me by. I own the game (and it has Xbox Play Anywhere, too), but with Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 coming really soon, it's as good a time as any to revisit this gem.

But seriously, if you're stuck for something to play right now and you have Xbox Game Pass Premium, Ultimate, or PC Game Pass, take it for a spin. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Xbox has been on a bit of a tear when it comes to new platform features lately.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the latest build for the Xbox Insider Program, with a variety of new features big and small. The features included better management for Xbox cloud saves, better sorting of your games library, and other bits and pieces. The headline act, however, is voice clip recording on the Xbox Game DVR. This is a feature people have been asking Microsoft to add for over a decade, all the way back to the Xbox One era.

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When you have an epic gameplay moment with friends, it would be awesome if you could also capture their reactions without having to use a complex capture rig. You'd need to use a streaming PC with StreamLabs OBS or a capture card like the Elgato 4K S to extract the audio alongside your Xbox gameplay. But yesterday's update has made it a million times easier.

Here's a clip from a quick gameplay session on Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 I had this morning, showing how the first iteration works.

As you can see (or ... well, hear) the audio levels aren't ideal out of the box. You can barely hear me in this capture over the audio of the game. You would have to lower the gameplay sound a fair bit in order to be able to hear me, but it would be ideal if Microsoft would add settings for this.

In order for this feature to work, users have to enable it in the settings. Only users who have enabled game or party chat audio capture will appear in the sound mix, giving you total control over whether or not your reactions are captured (potentially saving your more embarrassing gameplay moments from going viral.)

You can also set whether your voice is clippable in public audio settings too, such as lobby chat on Call of Duty (oh boy) or in proximity chat games like Arc Raiders and the like.

Hopefully, Microsoft will add audio mix granularity sliders in the future, as it's far too quiet in my opinion as of writing. Additionally, capturing a clip seems to temporarily freeze a game for 0.2 seconds when you have voice capture turned on. I'm not sure if that's a consequence of the feature or an instability in the latest Alpha build, but I'm sure the experience will be improved before hitting general availability.

It's potentially exciting how this feature could evolve in the future. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is a former Meta executive, and likely has thoughts on how to leverage social media virality as a vector for growing Xbox's footprint. Perhaps there's a future where Xbox supports webcam picture-in-picture clipping too, and maybe we'll even get direct sharing to social networks back again some day on top. Perhaps even native Xbox Series X|S video editing tools will return as well, who knows?!

Microsoft has been listening to user feature ideas more aggressively lately via the Xbox Player Voice portal over here. The top most requested feedback is still "Xbox exclusive games," which Xbox has delivered in the form of Clockwork Revolution and Gears of War: E-Day. Xbox also confirmed it will deliver "Platinum" completion achievements later in 2026.

What features would YOU like to see Xbox deliver? Let us know in the comments.

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Xbox has just announced on its website that it is rolling out new Xbox Series X|S console features for Xbox Insiders before sending them out to the general public, one of which has been requested by many Xbox players since the days of the Xbox One.

These new features include being able to have voice chat included in game captures, more options for viewing achievements, more control over Cloud save data, and improvements to Xbox wishlists.

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Voice Chat in Game Captures

The first and possibly biggest new feature of this bunch is allowing gameplay captures to include your voice and those of your chat party instead of just the gameplay audio alone.

Each player can choose if they want to have their voice included in the clip, and you can also choose to include in-game chat audio in your captures if you're not using the Xbox app's voice chat party feature.

This feature is now available for Xbox Insider users in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring.

New methods of viewing your Xbox Achievements

Keeping track of your Xbox Achievements has now been made less of a hassle for Xbox Insider users in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring.

In addition to the 'last played' view option, players can now sort games by title, completion percentage, Gamerscore earned, and the number of Achievements unlocked.

These options can also be sorted in ascending or descending order, whichever a user prefers.

This feature will no doubt be super useful for those hunting for the newly announced Xbox Platinum Achievements coming soon.

More Control Over Your Cloud Saves

This feature is already available for Xbox Insiders, but starting next week, more Xbox players will have the option to restore previously synced cloud save data directly from their Xbox console with games that support it, starting with Forza Horizon 6.

This means that if you need to recover a precious version of your save, you can browse cloud save versions and restore it to an easier save file directly from your console instead of just the Cloud.

You can access this feature for Forza Horizon 6 by going into the Xbox console's 'Manage game & add-ons' options menu, going to 'Saved data', and then clicking 'Restore saved data'.

More Xbox games will support this feature in future updates.

Add More Games To Your Wishlist

The final new feature announced is available for all Xbox users and it's a simple one.

Starting today, you can now add up to 1,000 Xbox games to your wishlist, instead of only 301, allowing you to keep track of more upcoming Xbox you're interested in playing and when they'll go on sale.

Windows Central's take

All these features are all fine and dandy, but the one me and my friends are hyped about mostly is the voice chat becoming available to be included in game captures.

Some of my favorite gaming moments have been listening to my friends freaking out being mauled by monsters in Monster Hunter, or screaming triumphantly after killing a boss I've been stuck on for hours in Elden Ring.

Yes, you can do this already if you're a livestreamer, but that usually requires going out of your way to purchase recording capture cards and learning how to stream, which can be expensive and time-consuming.

With this new feature, you can have your voice in gameplay clips with just your Xbox console alone; no capture gear or streaming knowledge needed, which is good for me, as I never want to become a streamer anytime soon due to stage fright.

But what about you? Are you happy that voice chat in recorded game clips is now possible? Are there any other features you want Xbox consoles to include?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know through the poll, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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Xbox is back with a flurry of updates for the Xbox Series X|S, including one headline act that I think will make many people very happy.

Today, Xbox revealed that it has acted on some of the top feedback requests from the Xbox Feedback site, including voice clip and party chat recording inside the Xbox game DVR. Recordings will now also capture your team mates' cries of valor or wails of defeat (if you enable it, that is), alongside other various Xbox system improvements.

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Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear with regards to fan feedback through 2026. It started delivering Xbox exclusives again, added the Xbox backward compatibility emulator to PC, and also reverted the much-hated Xbox Game Pass price hike from last year. And now, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma just confirmed one of the most-requested features for "later this year."

Speaking on X (Twitter), Xbox CEO Asha Sharma replied to a fan "team is working on something for later this year," when asked if Microsoft would implement "Platinum"-styled completion achievements.

Players have been pining for an answer to PlayStation's platinum trophy system, which rewards players with a trophy for achieving 100% completion rates in games. Xbox games typically come with 1000 gamer score to earn per title, but there's no reward for acquiring all of the achievements.

I suspect Xbox was probably working out some of the finer details about how it would work in continuity with gamer score. Many games receive extra achievements post-launch, which would obviously remove your "100%" completion status. Perhaps you get the platinum achievement simply for hitting the base 1000 gamer score in the title? Who knows. Either way, it seems that Xbox will have an answer for it later this year!

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One thing we haven't had so much of with the Xbox Series X|S compared to previous generations is limited edition consoles. There have been some, like the Halo Xbox Series X and some competition specials, but compared to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One especially, it's been a pretty dry time.

Some of the older limited editions command a pretty penny on the used market these days, and obviously there's a finite supply of them. But there are some real gems, like the Gears 5 Xbox One X (pictured above) or even the blood red Gears of War 4 Xbox One S. Later this year we'll also see the Xbox Series X25, with its classic translucent green shell. Though unfortunately, a vastly increased price, now.

But over on the Xbox subreddit there's a thread rolling right now where folks are talking about these consoles, so I thought I'd bring it on over here, too. So what's your favorite limited edition Xbox console of all time?

There are some incredible choices on the Reddit thread, from the classic Crystal Green OG Xbox through the Halo 4 Xbox 360, the Titanfall Xbox One, and some others that folks like myself based in the UK might not even have known existed.

I didn't know there was a Taco Bell Xbox One X, for example, nor a green Mountain Dew OG Xbox. Granted, neither of these were actually sold, but they still exist, and I'd definitely go for a Mountain Dew Xbox if I could get my hands on one without selling a kidney.

I've never actually owned a limited edition console myself. The closest I've come so far is the Project Scorpio launch edition Xbox One X, which I still have in my office looking pretty.

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If I had to pick, it'd be between two. The Xbox console I always coveted the most was the Crystal Green first-generation. I wish I'd chopped in my standard black console to get one, but given I'd already spent a whole paycheck from a part-time job on one at the age of 17, I decided against it lest I risk the wrath of the parents.

The other might be one most wouldn't pick given some of the wild designs, but as a massive fan of the franchise, I always wanted the blue Forza Edition Xbox One. It didn't help that a friend of mine actually had one, taunting me every time I went over.

So, those are my picks, but I'm more interested in yours. There's no shortage to choose from, so hit the comments below and share your own favorite limited edition Xbox console design from the last 25 years!

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My favorite Xbox feature is having a bit of a moment in the sun.

The Xbox ecosystem is a lot better than people give it credit for in my view. Xbox Game Pass is still a fantastic deal for those who want to graze a large library of content. Xbox Cloud Gaming is more viable than ever for single-player games, and things like cloud saves remain free, while paid on other platforms.

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My favorite feature however is Xbox Play Anywhere. The ability to buy once, and take my games across Windows PCs, cloud, my laptop, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Ally X handheld is a cornerstone of how I want to access games now. It's a vastly underrated feature, and something I think Microsoft could do a lot more to promote.

I was over the moon when I saw Larian announce Baldur's Gate 3 for Xbox Play Anywhere this week, in what has been a pretty great sprint for the service.

I sent Larian publishing lead Michael Douse a message and asked for comment on why Baldur's Gate 3 ended up hitting Xbox Play Anywhere, almost three years after its initial launch.

"We just did it because it's a pretty cool part of the Xbox ecosystem and it would mean a lot to the players who enjoy that ecosystem," Douse explained. "We had the resources & time and figured it would make a few folks happy."

Indeed, there's been a huge sprint of fantastic AAA games hitting Xbox Play Anywhere recently, including 007: First Light, Beast of Reincarnation, Hell is Us, Palworld 1.0, Dispatch, Subnautica 2, and many more. Upcoming we also have things like Blood of the Dawnwalker and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Historically, games only hit Xbox Play Anywhere via Xbox Game Pass, but increasingly, developers are dropping Xbox Play Anywhere on a discretionary basis.

I also asked Sascha Reuter from Fullset about Project Neon, a classic SHMUP that originally launched on the Neo Geo. Project Neon has now been ported to Xbox Series X|S and other platforms, and is launching straight into Xbox Play Anywhere.

"We always love to give players as much bang for for their buck as we can," Reuter explained. "So adding all the versions was pretty much a no-brainer, so was to allow players to switch between their systems however they like."

Reuter told me that developing for Xbox Play Anywhere is as simple as "using a Dropbox folder," as developers can deliver app packages that target multiple platforms via Microsoft's developer back end. Reuter said that Xbox's API for designating a save folder is simple to set up for cross-platform saves, and prevents overwriting and handles syncing via Azure.

Microsoft last year revealed new APIs for cross-platform save syncing for developers who want to take their games even further afield beyond the Xbox ecosystem, as more and more of us go cross-platform.

Increasingly, it feels like developers are actively opting into Xbox Play Anywhere by default, but challenges remain.

The future of Xbox is PC

Microsoft is doing a lot of work to bridge the gap between its Xbox and Windows ecosystems. Xbox Play Anywhere helps developers target Xbox customers regardless of platform, and Microsoft has long suggested games with Xbox Play Anywhere see higher sales and boosted retention.

Still, it's difficult to retroactively set up Xbox Play Anywhere. If codebases diverge too much across separate versions, applying Xbox Play Anywhere can create errors when synchronizing progress. Games like Fallout 76 have never received Xbox Play Anywhere support for that reason — although it's not unheard of. Resident Evil 8 gained Xbox Play Anywhere support several years after launch too, just like Baldur's Gate 3.

Some publishers perhaps simply don't seem to see the value in it. Ubisoft has begun offering free versions of some of its PC games to owners who already own the Xbox version, but Xbox achievements aren't supported on PC. EA doesn't offer any form of synchronicity at all between its Xbox and PC versions either.

Recent data suggests that Xbox Play Anywhere is seeing more organic adoption than ever, consistently hitting a 50% compatibility rate for newly released games. Microsoft's impending Xbox backward compatibility emulator on PC could see even more Xbox games hit PC via Play Anywhere by default, by virtue of the fact they're already Xbox games regardless.

I love this feature, so it's great to see more developers opt-in. Hopefully, we're starting to see

Baldur's Gate 3 and Project Neon are available to buy now on Xbox Play Anywhere, across Xbox PC and Xbox Series X|S.

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Players of Dovetail Games' popular train simulator, Train Sim World 6, on Xbox One and PS4 have unfortunate bad news to endure.

Currently the game and all DLC content have been made available on last-gen hardware, but that is now coming to an end.

The announcement was made on the developer's blog, alongside information on exactly what it means for players on Xbox One and PS4.

"Train Sim World titles and new TSW Add-on releases developed from this date onwards will only be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms (Steam, Xbox for PC and Epic Games).

This change is essential for allowing the teams that create TSW content freedom to take advantage of current-gen hardware, prioritising the best performance possible, and improving the visual quality as much as they can."

The good news is that this change doesn't affect content you've already bought up to now. It's still there, it's still playable, and it's still supported. The cancellation only applies to any further DLC content for Train Sim World 6 and for future games in the franchise. To play any of that, you'll need to be on PC, Xbox Series X|S, or PS5.

It's sad news for players still on the last-gen consoles, for sure, but credit to Dovetail Games for holding out as long as it has.

Even Xbox has finally had to take the plunge with Call of Duty, with Modern Warfare 4 not releasing on Xbox One or PS4, either. It's particularly bad timing for those still holding onto their older consoles given that both Xbox and Sony have recently increased prices on the new consoles, too.

If you are on Xbox One with Train Sim World 6, you do at least have options. It supports Xbox Play Anywhere, for one, so if you can move to PC, you can take all of your existing content with you so long as you use the Xbox App. You can't transfer your content to Steam or Epic Games. Content does transfer between Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S as you would expect, and PS4 players can also carry over to PS5.

Train Sim World 6 is also supported by Xbox Cloud Gaming, so even though your console may not be up to scratch going forward, you can still keep playing through the cloud if you're unable to move natively to supported hardware. PS4 owners don't have that luxury, as cloud streaming on PlayStation is limited to owners of the PS5 version.

While the timing might not be great, it's understandable. Games are more demanding than ever, and ultimately no experience at all is better than paying for something and having a bad experience.

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Another month into the scorching summer season, and things have just heated up for Xbox Game Pass as we have a couple of major highlights coming in its latest batch of new games dropping in the first half of August 2026.

Some standout highlights include the cozy Power Wash Simulator 2, the hit open-world survival game Grounded 2, and the chaotic roguelike action game Ball x Pit.

However, the star of the show is the first Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer beta test, which is scheduled to run from August 6, 2026, at 12:00 pm PT to August 10, 2026, at 10:00 am PT for people who pre-ordered the game on Xbox Series X|S or Steam or people who are subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Here's August's first wave of Xbox games coming to and leaving Xbox Game Pass.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (August 15)

• Menace (Game Preview) (PC)
• Atlas Fallen (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Aliens: Firesteam Elite (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Firewatch (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Windows Central's take

To be frank, this isn't the greatest batch of new Xbox Game Pass titles in the world (unless you're really into Grounded 2 or PowerWash Simulator). It's quite clear that, right now, Xbox is dedicating all its marketing power to hyping Gears of War: E-Day by including its upcoming early-access multiplayer beta test in this line-up.

Which, to be fair, is totally fine with me because Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer looks insane. It features an epic 12-player PvE mode called "Siege Horde" where you must fight off never-ending waves of Locust grunts while completing objectives, and occasionally content MMORPG-style raid bosses that require every player to take down.

The classic PvP 4v4 Versus mode also makes a comeback, but with new match types, maps, and new weapons to help you rip and tear your enemies apart.

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So, if you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, you're in for one heck of a weekend this week. If you want to find out more about how to enter the Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer beta tests, you can check out our FAQ on the subject.

Additionally, you can also check out my colleague, Jez Corden's preview of Gears of War: E-Day's Siege Horde mode to see if its large-scale carnage and 12-player co-op insanity is up your alley and enticing enough to make you pick up the full game when it launches on October 6, 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass (Day One), and PC via Windows and Steam.

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If you use a Steam Deck, then the first thing I would always recommend is to install Decky Loader. From there, one of the first plugins I'd recommend is SteamGridDB, because let's face it, the box art isn't always the best artwork you can have in your games library.

Now, though, SteamGridDB is also on Windows 11. We first covered SteamGridDB for Windows 11 a while ago, but until recently I hadn't really given it much notice.

I've started using the Xbox App on Windows 11 as my go-to launcher since I'm in there a lot for Game Pass games, anyway.

But while it's convenient having the Xbox App launch games also from Steam, Epic Games, Ubisoft, etc., one thing made me twitch; the artwork pulled in was awful. Low-res icons mostly rather than full artwork.

This is where SteamGridDB comes in. Just as on the Steam Deck, you can use it to select custom art for your games, and in this case, bring your non-Xbox titles up to the standard of those you're getting directly through the app.

SteamGridDB is not an app, as such, but instead a Game Bar widget. So to make your changes you have to go through Game Bar, but I actually think I prefer it this way. It can't hook into the Xbox App like it can hook into SteamOS, so it's probably the next best thing this way.

These days you can get it directly from the Microsoft Store, and once it's installed, you may just need to launch it from the Widgets Menu on the Game Bar.

But it's as simple as selecting a game, hitting the search icon, and compatible artwork will show up. The selections in my experience aren't quite as plentiful as they are on SteamOS, but there's not been a game I've come across where there isn't something that's a whole heck of a lot better than a crummy low-res icon.

Once you choose your artwork, the next time you go to your library in the Xbox App, it'll have been applied, and it won't make your eyes bleed any longer.

I'm using it on my desktop PC, but it's particularly useful if you're on a handheld gaming PC such as the Xbox Ally or Lenovo Legion Go series. Clean library, clean mind!

Game Bar is one of those features I use a lot without really exploring what it can do, and SteamGridDB is now a permanently pinned widget. It only takes seconds to make a change, and it's so worth it.

It's a must-have if, like me, you're using the Xbox App to launch games from elsewhere.

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