Xbox has been "restructuring" over the past summer, which has seen thousands of job losses via cuts and divestitures, and has left Xbox fans wondering what the aftermath will ultimately look like.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has made no secret of her intent for content moving forward: Microsoft will double down on its biggest and most visible Xbox franchises, including the likes of Fallout, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, among others.

Some of Xbox's more eclectic studios, such as Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Compulsion have either been spun off as separate, or outright shut down. These studios were all working on new franchises generally speaking, and while they didn't become financial success stories, the creativity was often award-winning.

Sharma's comments about Xbox's biggest franchises have left many wondering if there'd still be space for creativity and newness at Xbox, and it seems the answer is "yes," complete with a warning on over-relying on existing franchises.

"On content, I think this is probably the thing that you are all seeing the most about as we're making a lot of changes," Sharma said at the Xbox Town Hall this past week, in wholly unauthorized transcripts shared to Windows Central via multiple trusted sources.

Sharma reiterated the plan to focus on the biggest Xbox franchises, but also noted that relying on past victories won't help Xbox win the future.

"We're backing our strongest franchises. I want our great games to become great global billion-dollar franchises. I would also like to see us continue to create enduring new IP. We will not survive if we only revive on the past. We have to find new ways, and courage, to have invention on new IP, that reaches new sets of audiences."

Sharma remarked upon opportunities to grow King and the casual gaming segment in general, where titles like Monopoly Go and Block Blast have eaten into Candy Crush's casual gaming market share in recent years. Asha Sharma also talked about simplifying their studios, reiterating decisions to move some IP, like Halo and Sea of Thieves under Activision, hinting that more "simplification" could be on the way ... what that "simplification" might look like remains to be seen.

"Everything big once started as something small."

Xbox has been aggressively exploring ways to drive down costs in general this year. The opportunity within Xbox's ecosystem has diminished as hardware stock levels collapse, owing to the RAMpocalypse. Xbox's disastrous multi-platform strategy of yesteryear saw the platform lose relevancy while boosting competitors, leading to declines for major third-party games like FIFA, Fortnite, and NBA 2K titles on Xbox Series X|S as well.

Moving back to exclusive games has given Xbox a boost, with users returning to the platform for titles like Gears of War: E-Day and Forza Horizon 6, but growing Xbox again will probably take a multi-year, multi-game, multi-franchise effort, coupled with some sort of miracle on the hardware side. Xbox Series X|S and console hardware in general has moved wholly to being a luxury purchase, putting pressure on Xbox's chances.

In an interview with Windows Central at the start of the year, Chief Content Officer Matt Booty remarked that "everything big once started as something small," in reference to investing in new IP, which has always resonated with me. Indeed, Microsoft has partnered up with Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame for PHYSINT, complete with movie and TV rights in development with Xbox's new XP entertainment licensing division.

It'll be interesting to see if Sharma's Xbox does more in this space ... even if Xbox has made stark, quite devastating cuts within its existing teams. AI is muddying the water and blowing up component costs. There are more games than ever, and for many, less free time and money than ever. Micro-spend in service games continue eating up all the spend and users, and finding new cohorts seems more difficult than ever ...

The challenges on Xbox's plate are numerous, but being able to land exclusivity over the next Fortnite, Roblox, or indeed, Minecraft, is doubtless the dream of every major entertainment company. Does Sharma's Xbox have it in them? As usual, only time will tell.

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For the second time today, I’m writing about PlayStation, and I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I discuss Sony’s console. The jailbreaking scene is offering a whole slew of reasons to revisit what I once considered Sony’s worst console to date. Thanks to community efforts, it’s quickly becoming a machine I might actually pick up secondhand.

If you’ve been out of the loop and aren’t sure what I’m talking about, the PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. This allows users to install custom software on the platform, ranging from Xbox Cloud Gaming, which lets you play the latest Xbox exclusive, Gears of War: E-Day, on a PS5, to Xbox 360 and Original Xbox emulation.

Honestly, I’ve started to not get shocked by what people are doing with their jailbroken PS5s. We’ve even got a mod that allows you to insert PS2 games into your PS5 and play them directly on the console, with work currently underway to get PS3 games working as well.

It feels like the Wild West out there for PlayStation right now, and Xbox emulation is just the tip of the iceberg. Currently, fans can play titles like Gears of War 2 and 3, with the list of compatible games expanding as more work is done. The software itself is actually just a port of the existing Xenia emulator for PC, which allows 360 games to run on Windows through emulation.

As for Original Xbox games, it’s a similar story. XPSEmu can let PlayStation fans experience Halo 2 and even Forza. It’s honestly extremely impressive what modders are doing here. Whether these mods are being rushed through thanks to recent advancements in AI, I really don’t know. We’re seeing some genuinely crazy stuff happen with games lately, from Minecraft in Elden Ring to all sorts of whacky mods.

I’ll be honest, I do have concerns over where all this eventually leads, especially with people reportedly making open-source versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe’s suite of apps, all made thanks to AI. But for now, seeing the PS5 do all these things is impressive at the very least.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Do you find this cool, or does it worry you? And don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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The PlayStation 5 is currently going through a bit of a nightmare, at least for Sony. For fans, however, they’re in for quite the treat.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t particularly like PlayStation. The PS5 is the first Sony console I’ve actively avoided. But there’s been a lot happening in the jailbreak scene that actually makes it seem like it could be the best console to buy, at least second-hand anyway.

For those unfamiliar with what I’m referring to, the PlayStation 5 has basically been cracked open. Users can now install custom software and do as they please, though that comes at the cost of accessing PlayStation’s servers for games on the console.

It’s not the only thing developing in the PlayStation scene, either. The console is also being emulated on PC lately, much to Sony’s dismay, I imagine. But let’s get back on topic. Users who jailbreak their PS5 can now play Xbox games with the console, thanks to a new app that’s appeared on GitHub: PSBox Cloud Gaming. It natively runs Xbox’s cloud gaming service on the PlayStation 5.

A year or so ago, this wouldn’t have really mattered much. Xbox was in full swing with its multiplatform strategy. But given recent changes, specifically with the return of Xbox exclusives like Gears of War: E-Day never releasing on PlayStation, fans of the franchise who are willing to jailbreak their console can experience what I’d personally describe as a fantastic game. I finished it myself on Insane difficulty last week with a friend, and enjoyed every second.

Of course, cloud gaming isn’t as good as actually playing the game on the console itself. But I’d say it’s a pretty good compromise, and something I’ve started to come around to lately. Granted, Xbox just threw a massive spanner in the works by egregiously limiting cloud gaming hours to pitiful numbers. But if you’re willing to put up with that, you can play through E-Day on Insane and get all the collectibles in about 20 hours or so. At least that’s what it took me.

Let me know your thoughts. Would you jailbreak a PS5, or do you think this is all far too silly? At the very least, it’s interesting to see. So do be sure to leave a comment and take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day is out, and I’m personally having a fun time with it. I’ve been running through the campaign on Insane with a friend, and while it hasn’t been a struggle, collecting everything has genuinely been fun.

So much fun, in fact, that I’d be disappointed if the next Gears of War was years away. Luckily, we might not have to wait that long. In a recent interview with the BBC, The Coalition studio head Mike Crump discussed what it means for the series to be exclusive to Xbox, whilst also hinting that the development timeline could be shorter going forward.

“The next game will not take nearly as long,” Crump said, noting that E-Day provides a “great foundation” for future entries.

There have, of course, been concerns floating around online about whether Gears will perform at the level it needs to, with some even speculating about potential layoffs at the studio.

Critics have questioned the exclusivity strategy given the game’s long development cycle and estimated budget, arguing that keeping it away from other platforms could make it harder to recoup those costs. However, contrary to that, I believe titles like this are essential in proving that Xbox deserves to stay around.

That said, current numbers seem to be good. According to Circana, E-Day is off to a strong start on console. That’s without even mentioning its solid performance on Steam, where it peaked at 30,000 concurrent players.

I’m currently enjoying the game through Game Pass on my PC, but it’s definitely a title worth purchasing. As I typically do when I enjoy a game on Game Pass, I’ll probably pick it up at some point. Who knows, I might even grab the physical version thanks to Xbox’s generous disc-to-digital program.

As for Crump’s remarks on exclusivity, he emphasized the franchise’s long history with the console. “Gears has been an exclusive franchise to Xbox for 20 years now. It's sort of entwined deeply with the brand... and we’re proud of that,” he said. He added that the series gives people a “reason to be in the Xbox ecosystem.”

It’s great to see one Xbox flagship franchise deliver this year. Yes, I am a longtime Halo fan, and I can’t resist taking a slight jab at a franchise I’ve seen butchered over the years, but at least Gears of War fans have been treated well, and I really do hope the next installment is no more than three years away at most.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Are you enjoying E-Day, or are you finding it a slog?

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Surprise! Here's a quick look at Xbox's new PC app, potentially set to go live to Xbox Insiders before the end of the year.

Over the summer, Microsoft began testing a new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface codenamed Bastion, which aimed to bring the user experience closer to the Xbox Series X|S console. The Xbox PC app looks a lot different from this general ident at present, and has a variety of performance concerns, particularly when loading into large libraries or the general Xbox PC game store.

This week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma noted her intention to elevate Microsoft's gaming offering on PC, and here's an early glimpse at at least part of what that looks like.

Microsoft is preparing to ship the below interface, codenamed Garrison, some time in the near future. I got access to an early version of the app this evening, and thought I'd give you a quick run through.

In the video above, I give you a quick tour guide of the new app's interfacing on PC, which includes designs for both mouse and keyboard and controller. You can set this app as your default home screen when loading into Windows 11's new "Game Mode" setting, and it will default to the controller scaling — ideal for devices like the Xbox Ally.

First impressions revolve around performance for me. This is a lot faster than the previous app, particularly when it comes to loading in my large 1400+ library of Xbox titles from across the years. It's a lot easier to see when something is actually installable now, or just stream-capable from Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The navigation between game listings is also a lot more streamlined. There's no longer two separate pages for games, and both the store listing and game listing now share a single interface.

For the most part, there isn't a ton of new functionality on offer just yet. This seems to be about boosting performance and usability first and foremost.

Xbox's PC offering has diverged immensely from Steam, as Steam offers a lot more community tooling, developer dialogue systems, and more visible reviews. Steam arguably has better curation too, and while the store pages on this version of the app aren't fully implemented yet, I'm eager to discover if Microsoft has improved visibility for developers through this app. It would be good if developers end up with more tools to communicate with their audiences on the Xbox PC app too, and Microsoft has an opportunity to integrate Minecraft and its other live service games more deeply to boost its community-building chops potentially.

I suspect this version of the app could go live to Xbox Insiders on PC in the coming weeks given that it's already getting bundled into Windows 11 builds now.

Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear over the summer, restructuring its business, divesting studios, and re-focusing its efforts on Xbox Series X|S consoles. It's encouraging to see Microsoft hasn't left its Xbox PC efforts fall by the wayside either. This week, it announced a huge partnership with NVIDIA for their new RTX Spark Arm laptop line, which includes the Surface Laptop Ultra — which is a gaming powerhouse in its own right. Microsoft also announced Xbox XP this week, focused on building player retention and community outside of its traditional console channels. I wonder if the Xbox PC app will play a role here too.

In any case, let me know what you think of the new Xbox PC app in the comments, and what you'd like to see added to Xbox PC in the future!

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One of my favorite Xbox games this year has been, without a doubt, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Reflection, the latest entry in Capcom's JRPG series that combines the monster-capture gameplay of Pokémon with the action-hunting thrills and awesome beasts of Monster Hunter.

However, when Monster Hunter Stories 3: Reflection launched earlier this year on Xbox Series X|S, many of my Xbox friends (including Jez Corden) were sad it didn't have Xbox Play Anywhere support, as this game was made for gaming on the go due to it being on Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam.

However, Microsoft has come forward to rectify that missed opportunity by announcing via Xbox Wire that Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will finally receive Xbox Play Anywhere support and also launch on 'Xbox on PC' on November 18, 2026.

With this, Xbox players will be able to play Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on Xbox consoles, Windows 11 PCs, and compatible gaming handhelds like the Xbox Ally with just one purchase on Xbox digital storefronts at no additional cost.

Plus, Xbox players can carry over their save data, achievements, and DLC content seamlessly across all the aforementioned platforms, so they won't have to worry about losing progress.

Here's hoping Monster Hunter Stories 3 gets a DLC expansion in the future

As a longtime fan of turn-based JRPGs, Pokémon-likes, and Monster Hunter, I loved Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection.

It has an intriguing plot with charming characters, beautiful anime-style graphics that performed amazingly at launch, a fun turn-based combat system that isn't afraid to put the player in danger early on, and an incredibly addictive Habitat Restoration system that puts a unique twist on the monster-taming genre.

However, I was extremely annoyed that this game didn't come with a proper High Rank post-game like previous titles, and its post-launch support has been middling at best, with just cosmetics, beefier versions of regular monsters called Royal Monsters, and a single DLC quest chain.

I'm hoping that this game gets a proper DLC expansion like the mainline Monster Hunter games because Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection's base game has an extremely solid foundation that deserves to be expanded upon with more areas, challenges, gear, and playable Monsties.

So, if you've been holding out on Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection's Xbox version because of a lack of Xbox Play Anywhere support, you'll have no more excuses to sleep on one of my personal Game of the Year contenders when it receives it on November 18, 2026.

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