Xbox

While Undead Labs is avoiding closing as Xbox’s assortment of developers continues to shrink, the studio announced on LinkedIn that “Unfortunately, today we are also saying goodbye to a significant number of our colleagues. It’s difficult to reach this moment knowing that not everyone who helped get us here gets to make the rest of the journey with us.”

State of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs is now an independent employee-owned studio. It’s the third studio to successfully separate from Xbox, after Double Fine and Compulsion Games did the same recently. “Development of State of Decay 3 remains actively underway at Undead Labs,” says the team. The game is still planned to release in 2027 on Xbox (and Game Pass), PC, and PlayStation.

Microsoft is due to announce another round of Xbox layoffs today, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The cuts will reportedly be part of a larger restructuring, with The Information reporting that Microsoft plans to “consolidate several of its game studios.” Today’s layoffs will reportedly affect hundreds of employees, and are part of the 3,200 Xbox layoffs that Microsoft is planning by the end of June 2027.

Sure, the Xbox One’s disc strategy blew up in the company’s face, giving Sony the perfect ammo. But as Tom reveals, Microsoft decided to secretly start printing unique serial numbers on its discs way back then — a decision that’s paying off now!

Physint just switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox, and Hideo Kojima appeared at Xbox’s Tokyo game show stream today to reveal the lead role for the game. Swedish actor and producer Bill Skarsgård, best known for playing Pennywise the Clown in the It horror films, will portray the lead role alongside Charlee Fraser in Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game. Kojima says Physint “continues to make steady progress,” months after Sony gave the studio an unexpected cancellation notice in June.

There will be a panel at 4:45 PM ET (1:45 PT) today at BlizzCon where more info will be revealed, but for now you’ll have to satisfy your thirst for fire, brimstone, and Sanctuary with this short teaser.

The terms of the contract apply to nearly 1,900 workers across Blizzard, including teams that work on World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, quality assurance, and more. The contract comes after two years of bargaining and includes new protections that give workers the opportunity to be “recalled” into open positions within 14 months after a layoff.

And it’s not because of post-work cocktails. The Trump administration decided to mark 25 years of Xbox with a flagrant disregard for copyright. It would be funny, if not for the fact it’s all a promotion for a website full of mini games for deporting people.

How can Xbox possibly get to a billion users per day while cutting studios? Oh, just by obtaining three more hits as big as Minecraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush. “We’ve got three billion-dollar annual franchises every year. I think we should have six to eight in the coming years,” she tells BBC News.

The $899.99 console went on sale at 10AM ET and was out of stock right after, and eBay’s sold listings show that people are paying more than $2,000 to buy confirmed preorders, Polygon reports. The console looks cool, but I wouldn’t say it’s $2,000 cool.

I dig just about everything in the new 18-minute video demo that you can watch on YouTube. (I can’t embed it because it’s age-gated.) The whole vibe is way more interesting to me than yet another grimdark fantasy.

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to preorder the $899.99 translucent green Xbox Series X (unless you received an early invitation from Microsoft), but you can preorder the matching controller now for $79.99. The device will begin shipping on October 20th.

Gamescom 2026 is about to kick off in Cologne, Germany, and Microsoft is setting the scene with a local billboard teasing its upcoming 25th anniversary Xbox Series X console. Xbox still hasn’t confirmed a specific release date or price, but a recent leak suggests it may cost $900.

HyperX is announcing a slew of new gaming accessories for its Level Awakening livestream event — most notable is the $149.99 Cloud Alpha Air, due out in September.

Microsoft and Ikea started teasing a collaboration earlier this month. The pair are teaming up for a co-designed collection of items, including cushions and stools that could pair well with an Xbox fridge. The items will be shown first at Microsoft’s Xbox booth at gamescom next week.

Beginning today, Xbox Insiders will be able to “view, sort, and delete local game saves that aren’t currently in use,” according to a blog post about a few new features in testing. Your saves will remain backed up in the cloud.

After releasing a buildable Xbox 360 in 2023, Mattel is back with a DIY recreation of Microsoft’s original console complete with a chonky replica of the Duke controller. The $324, 3,509-piece set is part of Mattel’s Lego-like Brick Shop line and includes gaming dioramas hidden inside plus interactive lighting and console sounds.

Ahead of Gears of War: E-Day releasing in October, Microsoft opened preorders for a new $89.99 Xbox controller featuring “3D molded, laser-etched details of cracked asphalt with red, glowing cracks.” On September 30th the Xbox Design Lab will also introduce a new E-Day design with a top case featuring artwork by illustrator Luke Preece.

Xbox and PC gamers in Australia are reportedly being notified that they’ll soon need to verify their age before purchasing 18+ rated apps and games on both the Xbox Store and Microsoft Store. Existing purchases and downloads won’t be affected. Microsoft has a September 9th deadline to comply with Australian online safety rules, or risk facing an almost AUS$50 million fine (about $34.9 million in US monies).

Xbox Insiders will be able to choose if they want game chat and party chat audio in their captures, according to a blog post. Players can individually control if their voice is included in a capture.