One of my favorite things about the Xbox ecosystem has historically also been one of its most frustrating. Why? Primarily due to a "lack" of adoption.

Xbox Play Anywhere is by far and away my favorite thing about being an Xbox owner. As a heavy (figuratively and literally) Xbox gamer with hundreds upon hundreds of owned games, I'm always excited to see when one of my games supports Xbox Play Anywhere — a feature that allows me to take my game to Xbox Cloud Gaming or Windows PCs or gaming handhelds on the same license, with the same save file.

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However, in years past, adoption was pretty anemic. Xbox's first-party titles (mostly) came to the service, but third-party games generally turned their nose up at it. What's worse, the idea of older games getting support was almost unheard of. That changed in a big way in 2026.

Games both old and new are getting Xbox Play Anywhere support out of the blue

I will remember 2026 as the year Xbox Play Anywhere really saw a watershed moment.

Previously, it felt like AAA developers simply didn't care or want to work with Xbox Play Anywhere. I wrote an opinion piece complaining about Xbox Play Anywhere adoption back in January, but almost a year later, things have done an almost total 180.

Before, it felt like to expect Xbox Play Anywhere, Microsoft had to drop an Xbox Game Pass deal on the game in order to acquire the rights and convince the developers to play nice. But this year, we've seen a steady cadence of games both large and small hitting Xbox Play Anywhere without any form of Game Pass integration.

Yes, many AAA games still aren't arriving as part of Xbox Play Anywhere (notably ones from the "bigger" publishers like EA and Ubisoft), but it seems even they are coming around to the idea. A few weeks ago, Ubisoft began offering some of its games on Xbox PC "for free" if you own the Xbox console version, making them Xbox Play Anywhere in all but name. Now if we could just get Star Wars Zero Company too ... if you're listening, EA.

Other publishers have been sporadic. Capcom brought Onimusha: Way of the Sword to Xbox Play Anywhere, but not Resident Evil 9 or Pragmata, for example. Others have been fully on board, with Square-Enix pledging virtually every new release, including re-releases like the upcoming Kingdom Hearts remasters and Final Fantasy Resonance.

Indeed, one of the bigger issues with Xbox Play Anywhere revolves around gaps in the overall content line-up. It reminded me a bit of the Windows Phone app gap ... wherein developers didn't see enough users to justify the port, and users didn't see enough content to justify using the store. But somehow, Xbox seems to have overcome this issue with Xbox Play Anywhere.

Witcher 3 recently got retroactively updated with Xbox Play Anywhere support, for example. Today, Metro 2033 and Last Light were announced with HD refreshes, complete with Xbox Play Anywhere support. Baldur's Gate 3 too, also grabbed Xbox Play Anywhere support, with Larian remarking that it's just "a cool part of the ecosystem." Even some of the more obscure games like Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon, a game I was secretly hoping would grab Xbox Play Anywhere, just randomly got certified today. I also had no idea other viral indie hits like TCG Card Shop Simulator were Xbox Play Anywhere until I checked what was available today.

What's going on here?!

There's been a huge, generalized sprint of solid Xbox Play Anywhere support recently. Blood of Dawnwalker, Control Resonant, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Aliens Fireteam Elite 2, Beast of Reincarnation, Dispatch, 007: First Light, Subnautica 2, Vampire Crawlers, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, Replaced, Monster Hunter Stories 3, Deep Dish Dungeon, Clive Barker's Hellraiser Revival, Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons, and many more — have all hit the service in recent months, or will in the near future.

There are tons more as well, on top of first-party titles which are all but guaranteed to hit Xbox Play Anywhere by default. Crucially, all of the games play incredibly well natively on Xbox Ally X, optimized for handhelds out of the box in most cases.

Microsoft hasn't been shy about its intentions to improve the Xbox back-end systems to facilitate these kinds of features. But I'm curious what is driving this increased adoption of late ... could it be the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X effect? Is it simply a no-brainer if you're also moving copies via Xbox Cloud Gaming? Is the Xbox PC store seeing more rapid adoption than people think?

Whatever the cause is, as an Xbox Ally X gamer, I'm loving it.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to rock up with some more Deep Dish Dungeon for a bit while the WoW: Forever servers are in maintenance ...

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As I write this, I just wrapped up my run-through of Gears of War: E-Day, start to finish. Although, I have yet to experience the full actual game.

For the review build, Gears of War: E-Day's new siege mode is disabled, as is versus multiplayer. It felt odd to me to score a game I haven't fully played yet; as such, this will be a review-in-progress pending the launch state of versus and siege mode, which I presume goes live with the game itself on October 6, 2026.

Gears of War: E-Day is something of an important game for Xbox. It carries the flag for Microsoft's return to exclusive Xbox Series X|S games, and likely has some oversized pressure upon it to deliver. We're not here to review that aspect of the product, though — only what is here sitting in front of me.

And my feelings are a bit mixed.

Gears of War: E-Day has some of the most stunning visuals I've ever seen committed to the medium, with absolutely immaculate lighting treatment, immense and meticulous city detailing, and gorgeous character work. The gunplay is also fantastic, smoothing off some of the series' rough edges with boosted mobility, without sacrificing the Gears feel.

But the overall gameplay structure does the overall game a pretty sizeable disservice in my view, preventing it from reaching its full potential.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Story, Art, and Tech

Gears of War: E-Day takes place over a decade before Gears of War 1, offering us a front-row seat to the brutal and genocidal opening to the Locust's attack on humanity.

The city of Kalona serves as ground zero for that invasion. Kalona is known as a city of science and technological progress, and was instrumental in developing the COG's weapons tech and industrial war economy during the civil war against the UIR. E-Day takes place six weeks after the UIR surrenders, and Dominic Santiago and Marcus Fenix are picking up the pieces and mourning lost friends and family.

The character work on offer in E-Day is absolutely top-shelf. The trauma of loss and the shock of the Locust invasion comes through incredibly well in every single aspect of the game's delivery. The cityscape is immaculately detailed, with interiors fully rendered with a lived-in feel, complemented by some of the best lighting I've ever seen in a video game. Well and truly, Gears of War: E-Day is at the absolute apex of Unreal Engine technological prowess, and the game deserves awards on that basis alone, most likely.

Rendering the city in so much detail really helps serve the story. Gears of War's more recent games take place in a ruined world, where the Locust have effectively already won and decimated humanity and most of its cities. For E-Day, The Coalition had to show a city that was still thriving and populated, and the horrors therein.

From the very first cutscene, The Coalition pulls no punches: this is a horror story, a war story, and a tale of survival and desperation. The COG army is decimated and blindsided, besieged by an unknown threat that they immediately underestimate as monsters without a plan, only to discover later just how smart and organized the Locust actually are.

Civilian NPCs litter the city, sometimes fleeing, sometimes in dismembered puddles on the ground. The reactions from the characters and their development throughout the game really help to elevate that sense of loss and fear — they're not the battle-hardened survivors of the original Gears trilogy. They're young, war-weary from fighting the UIR, and in some cases wholly traumatized already.

I don't want to give too much away about the story, but this very much felt like the first game in a new planned trilogy ... there were aspects of the delivery that suffered as a result. Some plot threads felt designed to be resolved in future games (or DLC?), leaving me wanting somewhat. But the fact that I am eager to learn more about this Emergence Day story arc is probably a plus. It would be far worse if I didn't care, and I find myself caring a lot about the new characters, their struggles, their past lives, and what will ultimately end up happening to them ... given that some clearly aren't present in future installments.

Gears of War: E-Day's setting, visuals, and story delivery represent its best aspects. The game's performance on Xbox Series X is top-tier, with slowdown only occurring during some particularly heavy sequences towards the end. I didn't experience a single crash, and it's great to see a modern game offer split-screen co-op in the modern age as an option.

The new characters are interesting and engaging, and finding out new layers of existing characters is also rewarding as a long-time fan. I think Gears of War: E-Day could've benefitted from leaning more into civilian-oriented side stories potentially ... but as I'm going to explain in the gameplay section, Gears of War: E-Day is let down a fair bit by its gameplay structure all up.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Campaign Gameplay

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first: this is still very much Gears of War. Everything you've loved previously about Gears is still here, and in most cases, elevated to the 11th degree.

E-Day boosts the player character's mobility by a huge amount. Sprint is now more instantaneous and on the left stick like a standard modern shooter. Cover is far more dynamic than it was previously, with the ability to take cover in lower spaces than before, making environments feel more varied and natural. You can now also climb and vault, allowing The Coalition to build on the game's verticality. Given that Kalona is a city-state with large buildings and urban environments, having these features serves the game incredibly well.

The gunplay is also very polished. Chainsaw-ing dudes in half is more rewarding than ever, with almost embarrassingly satisfying sound treatment and chunky gore physics. Watching a severed torso flip onto the floor never gets old.

There's a variety of new weapons which are also instant classics. The Locust have been scavenging the battlefields of the Pendulum wars, adapting old UIR guns with horrifyingly inhumane enhancements. As such, that satisfying M1 Garand "ping" returns from the UIR Markza, repurposed into the axe-hilted Locust Breechshot rifle, for example.

The gunplay lets itself down a bit when it comes to fighting some of the game's bigger enemies, though. Drones, wretches, and some of the earlier enemies are by far the most satisfying to fight, reacting to your bullets and even having destructible armor that makes combat feel more dynamic and modern. I'm not sure why The Coalition didn't extend this gameplay style to some of its bigger enemies, which is where I would argue it'd be far more crucial.

Indeed, in Act 1, Gears of War: E-Day starts so strongly, and I was sitting there wondering if this was going to end up being the best game Xbox ever shipped, but over time, that feeling began to unravel.

Reavers, Brumaks, and other larger enemies barely react at all to gunfire, making them feel like robots or bullet sponges — something Gears 4 was heavily criticized for. You end up just watching the enemy's health bar in some cases for at least some semblance of reactivity, instead of the visuals The Coalition's art team painstakingly worked towards. Towards the end of the game, these types of enemies become more common too, robbing the game of some of its dynamism.

Another irritating aspect of Gears of War: E-Day pertains to its open-but-not-actually-open world design, which to me smacks of rushed or changing game design priorities throughout development.

Kalona is a fully realized 3D city, with a huge variety of urban exterior and interior locations. It's a great canvas that The Coalition can build upon when designing future content, potentially both for Siege and Versus mode. The problem is, it doesn't lend itself particularly well to the campaign mode.

Gears of War: E-Day starts incredibly strongly, with a linear cinematic segment that really sets the tone for the game. Then, it opens up into this odd semi-open world structure that seemed interesting in previews, but in practice, it doesn't really reach further than the glimpses we got over the summer.

There's a map that offers the illusion of large explorable spaces, but in practice, all the segments are very linear. Even the side objectives take place in a structured way, undermining the need or desire to really explore. It felt like The Coalition tried to shoehorn in more reasons to explore by spreading weapon mods and collectibles around, but I just found this aspect of the game to be irritating and pace-breaking.

There's dozens upon dozens of weapon mods to find in the field, but half the time it'll be for weapons you don't really want to use. The game pings you with an annoying pop-up every few seconds saying "hardcase nearby," which just served as a distraction given that the reward was mostly just junk items. Even the collectibles were annoying to find, given that you had to jump through several menus then go manually searching for the item you just found from a huge list. There were more mods to find than there was gameplay canvas upon which to place them ... E-Day really would've benefitted from some kind of vendor system instead here, allowing you to buy mods at your leisure, rather than feeling forced into boring hide-and-seek gameplay every 3 minutes.

These might seem like minor gripes, but given that there's not much else "new" here on offer across the general Gears formula, they stand out a bit like a sore thumb.

It doesn't help that, as a result of the game's structure, you end up revisiting the same locations multiple times as part of the story, which felt anticlimactic and choring, particularly towards the end of the game.

The campaign does have some incredibly epic, cinematic, and deeply emotional moments — don't get me wrong. There are some fantastic sequences spread throughout the game, showcasing Emergence in all of its reptilian, subterranean horror. I just wish they'd doubled up on these moments instead of trying this odd "open" world experiment, which seems ill-conceived and poorly executed, with features that detract rather than elevate the overall experience.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Conclusion (so far)

I thoroughly enjoyed Gears of War: E-Day overall, and am already enjoying my second playthrough on a higher difficulty, but I would be lying if I said the game didn't have large issues — particularly given how easily avoided many of them could've been.

Kalona is an immaculate canvas ripe for telling epic stories. The new, horror-laden tone is absolutely the right direction for Gears of War: E-Day. The existential dread oozes throughout every character delivery, and the city design is among the best the medium has ever seen.

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The gameplay structure placed on top of it becomes the problem, that could've used a lot more iteration and forethought. It felt a bit like E-Day was originally intended to be some form of open-world, but at some point, they retreated, leaving it feeling disjointed. The "open world" exploration aspects are unrewarding and more often than not simply frustrating, and a lot more work could've gone into making boss-level enemies more dynamic and interesting to fight.

If I were to score the game based on the campaign alone, I'd probably give it an 8/10 overall — it's still incredibly fun, and the downsides are frustrating but not game-breaking. In any case, we haven't experienced the full package Gears of War: E-Day represents. We still have Siege and Versus to talk about, and it remains to be seen how fun or even functional those will be at launch. Stay tuned.

Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6, 2026, exclusively on Xbox Series X|S on console with Xbox Play Anywhere for PC, it's also coming to Steam and Xbox Game Pass.

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The last couple of Xbox events I've attended, including BlizzCon, I noticed I was getting the same question from industry figures and fans alike: is Microsoft gearing up to sell Xbox?

Microsoft's vast layoffs across the summer have hit Xbox in their thousands, with studios like Ninja Theory on the path to being closed, and others like Double Fine being divested completely. Microsoft has effectively shut down Halo Studios itself and handed off the franchise to Call of Duty showrunners instead, as Xbox aggressively seeks to restructure for its next decade.

A decade that might not arrive, that is, if these "sell off" rumors turned out to be true. Many analysts and industry figures have opined that the cuts are designed to make Xbox "leaner" and more attractive to a potential buyer. When you dig down into it, these commentaries don't make a lot of sense; why would Xbox keep smaller franchises like Age of Empires even at a reduced clip, or try to rebuild Halo at all if it was indeed looking to sell?

Regardless, even senior industry figures like Shawn Layden of PlayStation fame described Xbox as being in its "Dreamcast phase" recently, referring to the time Sega exited the hardware business. A lot of these comments tend to emerge from industry figures who seem particularly aggrieved by Xbox, though, regardless of actually being a customer or not.

Indeed, actual Xbox customers have been generally optimistic about the way Xbox has been heading. Nobody (sane) revels in layoffs, but purely mathematically speaking, it was unclear how some of Xbox's 'niche' kind of games like Keeper, Kiln, or Hellblade 2 were going to be self-sustainable for the studios that produced them. There's a lot of valid criticism to be levied at the leadership figures that allowed for projects that were quite obviously going to be unsustainable.

Sharma has promised deeper investment in the very-long-dormant Fallout franchise, promised to restructure and rebuild Halo, and continues to promise Xbox Helix, the long-awaited next-gen console. Sharma has declared intent to invest in Xbox's biggest brands, leveraging TV shows, movies, and other transmedia opportunities to find new users. Despite this, there still runs the idea that Xbox could end up being divested from Microsoft itself, owing to a report from The Information earlier in the summer that Microsoft was exploring the idea.

The NYT interviewed (paywall) Sharma recently covering the Xbox layoffs generally. The outlet said that Asha "did not stall" in declaring Xbox not-for-sale.

"Xbox is not for sale. [...] We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that. [...] We’ve got a long way to go with Microsoft and we’re going to take the long-term view."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is to blame for the lack of faith in the Xbox business from mainstream figures

The NYT quite patronizingly called the comment a "bob and weave" seemingly unwilling to let go of the idea of divestiture. It's great shareholder bait; Xbox has long been an aspirational type of product, and it has been a loss leader in some regards. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has remarked in the past about how, despite the fact Xbox isn't a huge profit generator, fandom of the brand has led to lucrative deals for Azure on the business side of things. Yet, shareholders would love nothing more than for Microsoft to quit the difficult and risky game industry to dive all-in on AI psychosis products instead.

Indeed, under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company has seen a near total retreat from consumers in general. Surface is on its death bed, Windows Phone was killed off, all consumer hardware products were effectively shelved. Microsoft's retail stores were closed, customer support is anaemic to non-existent, and Windows itself has seen huge declines in popularity and trust. Even Microsoft Copilot has undergone a work-focused update, ditching their (admittedly terrible) consumer-oriented features.

Nadella is absolutely not consumer-savvy in general. Nadella's Microsoft strategy paints the Xbox business as a sore thumb on a very boring, cold, sad, and business-oriented IBM-style Microsoft — a Microsoft chasing cultural irrelevancy.

RELATED: To save Xbox, Asha Sharma needs to defeat Microsoft itself

It's no wonder that mainstream media can't understand why Xbox could exist in this current incarnation of Microsoft, and it's through no fault of previous Xbox leaders, Asha Sharma or Xbox in general.

The one saving grace here is that Nadella has, for some reason, continued to allow Xbox to exist — likely against the wishes of shareholders and his generalized anti-consumer and anti-customer instincts. Nadella claimed in an internal meeting that Microsoft will "always" be in gaming, and will take a "long view" on its future. But it's really, really easy to understand why the trust isn't there. We wouldn't even have this commentary from Nadella if I hadn't literally leaked the meeting's audio myself.

The NYT noted that Nadella declined to participate in the interview. He really should have participated in my opinion, because this generalized lack of faith comes from his strategies and public-facing comments.

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I've reviewed a lot of chairs in my day, but as I've gotten older and more decrepit, demands on my fragile bones have only grown.

There was a time I could rock a gaming chair and gun for maximum style and recline, but as I spend more and more time at my desk hunched over and typing rather than reclined back and gaming, my needs have evolved.

Recently, a friend with similar back issues to me recommended this chair from FlexiSpot, dubbed the Heavy Duty C3 Ergonomic Chair to be precise. It's currently on sale for £199, down £50 from the typical asking price. I've reviewed chairs running all the way up to $700, so my expectations for this "cheaper" chair were pretty low.

How wrong I was. Well and truly, this is by far the best chair I've ever used at home, and a chair so nice I'm going to buy it twice for when I'm visiting family out of the country. It's that good.

Sometimes, basic is better

Forgive my photographs, it's hard to get a good angle in my tiny office/bedroom, but as you can see it's a pretty simple and unassuming set up here.

This is a seat designed for heavy and tall individuals but also just generally heavy use. It has an incredibly thick cushioned seat with an ergonomic W shape, which has become a popular seating configuration in recent years. I've often seen ads for seat cushions with this shape, the C3 built it right into the product.

It has a mesh back rest which offers maximum breathability for those heatwave months we had this year, and a wide base with very tall arm rests to align your elbows against your desk. The seat tilt also aligns with the back rest, which FlexiSpot research says promotes better posture health than separate tilt mechanisms.

Despite being on the "cheaper" side, every aspect of this seat feels premium to me. The materials and metals are incredibly thick with high quality welding. The whole frame is made from iron and certified for 227kg, meaning that the vast majority of users won't even come close to delivering wear and tear here.

The arm rests have 4D movement and positioning, and have a smooth-feel leatherette finish, complete with buttons and levers where you'd expect to find them for locking in your adjustments, both on the seat tilt and the gas-powered lift itself. There's also a lumbar rest at the base of the backrest, adjustable for different heights.

If you were looking for a chair with a headrest and upper back rest for maximum coziness and rest, this chair might not be for you. But, if you are like me who spends a lot of time at a desk, I would argue that ditching the upper back rest promotes better posture. It forces you to position your head and neck more naturally, which I will attest has directly alleviated a long run of general lower back pain.

I ditched a gaming chair for a similar mesh office chair at my partner's place for when I'm staying there recently, and found it to be a huge improvement on my general back health. This FlexiSpot chair is cheaper and better than the other one I purchased by a mile, and I think it's really the seat cushion that is the x-factor. This is just a fantastic, pleasant product.

Should you buy it?

You should definitely consider buying this chair if you have a gaming chair presently and find yourself in or approaching middle age-adjacent back problems. I spend more time at my PC than most, so having a high quality and ergonomic seating arrangement is absolutely crucial.

I long thought that it was just general bad health and lifestyle giving me back pain (and that is no doubt a factor here), but having a good chair that matches the height of my desk and eyeline of my monitor has given me a huge boost. Having reduced back issues has made me more active in general too, and it's hard to put a price on that.

Unless you want something with headrest and recline features you can get truly cozy in, the FlexiSpot C3 is by a mile the best chair I've ever used for desk-based work and play.

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Microsoft's moves over Xbox Cloud Gaming in recent months have painted a picture of a company that isn't entirely sure of its long-term viability.

At one point, it seemed like Microsoft was all-in with Xbox Cloud Gaming, building up marketing campaigns like "This is an Xbox" that actively told consumers that Xbox consoles were stupid, and that in fact, devices like the Samsung Smart Fridge was a far better option for gaming instead. The landscape looks very different in 2026.

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Thanks to the RAMpocalypse and the apparent "demand" for data center space for AI tokens, it seems Microsoft has soured on cloud gaming in general as a viable option.

Microsoft has an Xbox Cloud Gaming controller in production according to leaks, and the next-gen Xbox controllers were also supposed to have direct-to-WiFi support to reduce latency. Microsoft has also put thousands upon thousands of games onto Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing you to stream them to a variety of devices like phones, tablets, low-power PCs, and even smart TVs.

At the same time, Microsoft has also opted to limit Xbox Cloud Gaming to 15-hours a month at the highest tier, down from unlimited, with piecemeal hourly passes to be sold separately. And today, Microsoft announced quietly to some users that Xbox Cloud Gaming will vanish entirely from some devices.

In an email sent to myself earlier today, Microsoft says its first batch of third-party supported devices, 2020 Samsung Smart TVs, will lose access to Xbox Cloud Gaming from November 3rd.

Microsoft claims that its due to a compatibility issue, but I don't see how that's really possible given that it's literally a web app and a video feed. It would be like Netflix or Prime TV retiring on those Samsung smart televisions, which is obviously not going to happen any time soon.

Color me cynical as a 2020 Samsung TV owner, but it's hard not to wonder if it is in fact these devices that see the highest use out of all the third-party screens attaching to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Perhaps Microsoft has discovered a way to quickly and easily save bandwidth by screwing over thousands of existing users in the name of "compatibility," given that Xbox Cloud Gaming is reportedly simply unable to make money in the current business model.

RELATED: Xbox Cloud Gaming grabs hourly limits from November 3

For a while, the conspiracy theory was that Microsoft and other companies wanted to shift us all over to cloud gaming services to deprive us of any form of ownership. But ironically, it seems that providing these services in the RAMpocalypse era is too for Microsoft and NVIDIA to even run. Both Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now have pretty stringent restrictions upon them, and both platforms are exploring ads as a way to try and boost revenue.

First it was upgrade your console, now it's upgrade your TV? Maybe it's just going to end up being smarter to unsubscribe to Xbox Game Pass instead ...

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Given the absolutely astronomical hype of GTA 6, the headline here might read as crazy. Madness, INSANITY! ... But it's only crazy if you're living within a particularly specific social media bubble, in my humble opinion.

Last week, buddy o' mine Tom Warren made waves by mentioning nerves at Xbox HQ over the potential sales viability of Grand Theft Auto 6 on Xbox Series X|S. It led to Xbox CSO Matthew Ball coming in to deny the rumors, stating that GTA 6 is "creating records" for Xbox preorders.

Even if that's true, GTA 6 presents something of a headache for Xbox. Thanks to an astronomical marketing deal with PlayStation, Xbox isn't even allowed to formally mention the existence of GTA 6 on its Xbox Series X|S consoles. All of the GTA 6 marketing is flowing directly towards PlayStation 5, and there's no guarantee GTA 6 Online will feature cross-play either, much like its predecessor.

Whether it's the PlayStation's marketing deal or the simple lack of available Xbox Series X|S stock to sell through (due to the RAMpocalypse), GTA 6 is shaping up to be something of a missed opportunity for Xbox this autumn.

... But does it even matter?

Perhaps out of nowhere, an unexpected savior has emerged. A savior from our past ... a video game that may well and truly last forever.

World of Warcraft: Forever can beat GTA 6

The hype around GTA 6 has seen publishers desperately swerve to avoid the Vice City-shaped train about to plow through the games industry. I've been inundated with games to review between September and October, and there's simply no time at all to realistically play through all of them. Blood of Dawnwalker, Control Resonant, Gears: E-Day, Star Wars: Zero Company, Valor Mortis, Sinking City 2, Onimusha, Minecraft Dungeons 2 ... dozens of great indie games, and even more AA and AAA titles ... all swerving to avoid GTA 6.

Yet, there are two games from Xbox that are launching close to or even on top of GTA 6, in the form of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and perhaps more importantly, World of Warcraft: Forever.

MW4 hype does seem muted this year, likely in part because of GTA 6 and maybe generalized franchise fatigue, but the same absolutely cannot be said for WoW: Forever. Even as an unashamed WoW fanboy, I've been utterly stunned by the popularity of the beta, which generally requires a purchase to even access. It doesn't come out until November, yet it seems to be breaking franchise records already for Blizzard, and by extension, Xbox.

Blizzard devs have said they haven't seen the game this busy in 17 years, and my own sources within Blizzard have echoed similar. Perhaps crucially, I've been told that WoW: Forever is not cannibalizing WoW: Retail either. These are all new or long-dormant returning players, buoyed by hype from massively influential streamers like Asmongold. The servers are struggling under the load, as players new and long-dormant return in their hundreds of thousands to march upon Azeroth once again.

WoW: Forever is basically a remaster/remix of the OG WoW from 23 years ago ... and it's going to take on GTA 6 in the same launch window, which isn't yet on PC. WoW: Forever will have a near-blank runway on PC as a result of multi-platform games swerving to avoid Grand Theft Auto 6.

For Xbox's quarterly projections, it couldn't have come at a better time from a corporate perspective. Asha Sharma has promised shareholders that Xbox will return to growth this year, and that was without factoring in their thoroughly unexpected projections for WoW: Forever.

Xbox is far, far bigger now than people seem to realize

Indeed, if you're in the Xbox discourse bubble, it's potentially easy to forget that World of Warcraft: Forever will feed that bottom line. Minecraft also announced a new dimension in "The Sift," coming to the game in 2027. I can see from Windows Central's traffic that this is also going to be a huge deal for the game, but also Xbox as a business unit.

So, even if GTA 6 was a flop on Xbox (and there's no evidence to suggest it would be, really), Xbox has a variety of backup plans on the docket. Some intentional, some not-so-intentional.

This is the thing about modern Xbox. A lot of the commentary tends to focus on console — it ignores mobile, it ignores PC service games like WoWF, and other revenue streams Xbox is setting up with TV and movie licensing. There's even the Minecraft theme park coming to the UK, which will be a test bed for broader expansion across the world in the coming years. Could we eventually see "Blizzard World" set up shop next door to Minecraft World? I mean, it's not entirely outside of the realm of possibility. There's even been internal chatter about an "XboxCon" in a similar vein to BlizzCon in the future ...

Yes, GTA 6 is important for Xbox ... but there's also a component crisis. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are not overstocked. They're selling every box they can muster even without GTA 6. Perhaps if the RAMpocalypse wasn't ongoing, GTA 6 would be more crucial than it otherwise is. But Xbox is stronger than ever off Xbox Series X|S hardware right now.

Xbox CSO Matthew Ball said GTA 6 is breaking records for Xbox regardless, but even if that wasn't true ... the Xbox operation is so, so much bigger, and has so, so much more potential beyond the traditional box these days. This is before Xbox has even announced the console versions of World of Warcraft: Forever, which you just know are undoubtedly on the way. World of Warcraft has never been on console. WoW:F as a timed console exclusive would drive more sales to Xbox Series X|S than GTA 6 with PlayStation marketing ever could, in my humble opinion.

But I digress. The point is simple. GTA 6 is only the cherry on top for the modern Xbox business; it's not the entire cake.

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