The storm of highly rated, first party games at the start of 2025 is beginning to subside, but May 2025 still has all the hallmarks of a good month for Game Pass, and it has delivered once again.

It feels like we've been waiting for this moment for quite some time, with a few barren months of late, yet we can safely say that April 2025 was a stellar one for Game Pass - one of the best to date.

Earlier this week we were treated to confirmation of the time and date for this year’s Xbox Showcase (June 8th, 6pm BST). Included in that article is a note that states: “This year, the show will be digital-only – our livestream will bring you everything you’ll need to know about what’s next for Xbox, no ... Read more

We may not have an Avowed or South of Midnight in March, but Atomfall landed on day one to decent reviews - certainly not to be sniffed at. We take a look at how the rest of the games this month fared.

While Avowed was the headline this February on Game Pass, we take a look at what else joined the service in our regular monthly feature.

It feels like Xbox's strategy of buying up studios to fill its Game Pass pipeline has finally come to fruition as we enter 2025. January is a statement of intent for the future of the subscription.

Who’d have thought our Xbox DEFCON ratings would be getting updated so soon after their inception? Well, most people, which is why we decided to get them out there at the start of this year instead of waiting longer. Anyway, the thing happened and Forza Horizon 5 has been officially announced for PlayStation 5. Originally, ... Read more

Wrapping up the year in style with the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, we take a look at how December 2024 stacks up overall.

Was 2024 the year Microsoft got their release line-up in a good place? Sadly, it wasn't quite that simple.

Welcome to our (late) Game of the Year feature. For those of you who listen in or watch our System Link podcast with Burly Bird Media, this won’t come as a surprise, but for everyone else it’s probably a bit of a left-field choice. Still Wakes The Deep The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes The Deep ... Read more

With the sad delisting of Forza Horizon 4 yesterday (December 15th 2024), INSIDE has moved up to position 1 in the top Xbox Game Pass games based on Metacritic reviews and Xbox user reviews. With a Metacritic score of 93 and a Xbox user score of 4.7, it’s a well deserved accolade, but as mentioned ... Read more

With two big hitting console/PC exclusives, November on Game Pass was, on paper, one of the strongest in ages. The reality, however, didn't quite match the hype.

In June we learnt that Forza Horizon 4 was the latest game to suffer from delisting due to licenses expiring (happening December 15th 2024). This is nothing new for racing games, with Forza Horizon 3 delisted in 2020, and The Crew suffering the same fate earlier this year. However, Microsoft have the opportunity to get ... Read more

UPDATE 13/11/2024: Today Dragon Age: Veilguard has appeared at number 15 in the UK Most Played chart on Xbox, and number 16 in the US, which isn’t a bad position if it can hold onto it for a few weeks. It is curious that in the first week it was apparently not one of the ... Read more

October 2024 was the biggest month in the history of Game Pass - in importance, if not in numbers. In this feature we look at the month as a whole and see how it stacks up both to September 2024 and October 2023 to see how the service is evolving.

Many people rightly questioned the impact Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming to Game Pass would have on sales of the game on Xbox, and some have been quick to highlight shortfalls compared to previous games from the launch week. GamesIndustry.biz recently reported that sales of the game in the UK were down 15% ... Read more

A game that had been thought cancelled or at the very least in development hell, Rare’s Everwild has resurfaced of late – first through comments last week on Jez Corden & Rand Al Thor’s Xbox Two podcast that it was finally “progressing well”. We’ve now had confirmation from Phil Spencer himself that Everwild is indeed ... Read more

If you want to get the most from your Xbox Game Pass subscription, we list the top 10 games in the service as rated by Metacritic and Xbox players.

Metaphor: ReFantazio set the internet ablaze with its trademark Atlus execution and the generous provision of an extensive free demo ahead of launch. Early indications, however, are that it has failed to make a big impression on consoles.

This evening Microsoft hosted their latest “Partner Preview” event – basically a chance outside the hustle and bustle of gamescom, TGS or one of the “Geoff events” (as we are now calling them) for third parties to show some of their games or make announcements. Usually we get relatively low level news from these events, ... Read more

Having released last week, it's not taken long for Phil Spencer to dive into the full version of Metaphor ReFantazio, a game Xbox had exclusive marketing rights for.

You may have seen the discourse online since the changes to the Xbox Game Pass tiers were announced earlier this year. The main theme was Microsoft attempting to ‘nickel-and-dime’ gamers by forcing people into Game Pass Ultimate with the removal of day one games from the next tier down (formerly Console Game Pass, now Game ... Read more

The tier structure of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass membership has never been more complex or convoluted. We take a look at some popular misconceptions about the service and calculate which tier does in fact offer the best value for money.

Following a lacklustre State of Play for PlayStation earlier this month (saved only by the excellent-looking Ghost of Yotei), all eyes were on Microsoft to see what they could deliver with a somewhat-unexpected Tokyo Gameshow broadcast.

If you’re a Game Pass fan, September 2024 hasn’t been the best. We’ve seen the introduction of the new “Standard” tier, effectively raising the price of Day One games for new subscribers significantly, and for everyone else to a lesser extent (though still a bitter pill to swallow coming hot on the heels of prior ... Read more

Yesterday we were treated to the latest in a line of Mark Cerny presentations about a new piece of PlayStation hardware. It's safe to say it went down badly, with most polls showing 80-90% of people were dissatisfied with the showing.

So the fallout of Xbox’s gamescom bombshell is continuing to reverberate around the internet today. If you missed it, Xbox execs opted to have the indefatigable Geoff Keighley drop the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will indeed be coming to PlayStation 5, and in the next 1-2 quarters following the Xbox and ... Read more

If you're a fan of hidden gem indie games, you're in for a treat this week, especially if you're a Xbox Game Pass subscriber.