XBOX has been on an update roll, at least since Asha Sharma took over as CEO and decided to deliver long-awaited features. And, looking at XBOX Wire, it isn’t stopping. Rolling out to XBOX Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, fans can expect a nice and welcome update from today.

First up, fans who are big into game ownership are getting more control over how disc-to-digital licensed games appear in their library. Perhaps more exciting, however, is the ability to now switch which side of the screen the XBOX guide appears on. Yes, it’s a small but welcome change, and I’m sure many will appreciate it.

Last but not least, fans who make use of dynamic backgrounds can now dynamically rotate between them. We don't yet know how many dynamic backgrounds you can rotate between (or if there is any limit at all), but this is probably what I’m most excited to try as someone who likes to change things up from time to time.

These Insider changes are expected to roll out gradually, but they’re all welcome, and I’m surprised they weren’t already available. Still, it's great to see them added here nonetheless. Honestly, the pace and speed at which these changes are happening for XBOX is great to see. We are on the cusp of XBOX’s 25th anniversary on November 15, 2026, for those who didn't know, and fans have been eagerly waiting for what XBOX will reveal ahead of that date.

With all that said, I’m impressed. I know it’s going to take a while for XBOX to get back on its feet and appeal again to the masses, but over the past few months, steady progress has been made; not long ago, it was even reported that the online perception of XBOX had improved. Most of us are stuck looking at our gaming history via the new XBOX Playback feature.. that's a lot of hours.

Let me know your thoughts on this latest update to XBOX in the comments, and do be sure to take part in our poll!

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We don't normally cover mobile games over here, but when Master Chief and Cacodemon are showing up in Candy Crush Saga, I guess I'm willing to make an exception. Yep, as Xbox goes all out with the announcements for its 25th Anniversary, this latest crossover is bringing eight of our favourite console and PC franchises to the hands of millions of mobile players for a festive "Game On Season."

Starting today and running through to till December 6, Candy Crush Saga is getting totally hijacked by Xbox. The four-week event weaves in characters and worlds from Halo, Fallout, Sea of Thieves, Forza, DOOM, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro in the game.

Unlock cool virtual pins and experience a new soundtrack

Central to the event is a massive in-game pin collection. As you crush (get it) your way through the arcade-themed Leagues event, you can unlock virtual pins of Master Chief's helmet and Dr Neo Cortex, to name a few.

If you're really lucky, you can get your hands on physical versions, as King has turned some of the digital pins into real-life limited-edition collectables. You do need to be a resident of the US to enter, but the sweepstake over at CandyCrush.com is giving out a 1000 physical sets of these pins.

Something else really neat about this crossover is the music designed to "candify" six classic Xbox themes, enlisting the German Film Orchestra Babelsburg, a Bulgarian Choir, and, I kid you not, an accordion player.

To celebrate the announcement, King has released a behind-the-scenes video of the recording process. The music of Halo, Fallout, Sea of Thieves, Forza, DOOM and Banjo-Kazooie has been integrated into Candy Crush Saga in such an unusual way that it's worth a listen alone, even if you don't pick up the game. Luckily, you can check out the tracks in full over on Spotify. The DOOM track in particular, as expected, absolutely slaps.

For Halo, they kept the instantly recognizable choir but wove it into the Candy Crush universe as a "polar rhythmic element." Paula Ingvar, General Manager of Candy Crush, summed it up perfectly: “Hearing the Halo theme played by an orchestra, a choir and an accordion in Candy Crush still makes our team smile."

More announcements from the Xbox 25th Anniversary

It's been a steady stream of announcements all day as Xbox celebrate turning 25. We've had Xbox Playback to check out your own journey with Xbox over the years, a new Firefight mode update coming to Halo: Campaign Evolved, and a bunch more OG console games added to PC. And I'm sure there's more to come from Xbox!

The Game On Season crossover is live right now across iOS, Android, Amazon, and the Windows App store, and runs until December 6.

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People were hoping for a new batch of Xbox backward-compatible games after months of teasing.. and here's what Microsoft has to offer.

Xbox's backward compatibility program is one of the top innovations Microsoft has put out for its ecosystem. Hundreds of OG and Xbox 360 games were brought forward natively to modern consoles, helping game preservation and making Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S the only place you can play many classics. Microsoft has been expanding that program even further.

Last summer, Microsoft unveiled a handful of OG Xbox games ported and emulated to Windows 11 via the Xbox PC app, leading to hopes Microsoft was about to reinvigorate the program in general. Today, we're getting a few more, as well as full Xbox achievement support for select classic titles.

"XBOX is expanding its backward compatibility offering on PC with 21 additional original XBOX games, bringing the total to 25," Microsoft wrote on Xbox Wire. "The expanded lineup includes classics such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. XBOX is also adding achievements to more original XBOX titles, including Knights of the Old Republic, giving players new ways to revisit and celebrate classic games."

Xbox makes the exact game listing crystal clear, saying, "The 21 additional games available to players in supported countries starting today are:"

• Armed and Dangerous
• Disney's Chicken Little
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (also available with XBOX Game Pass)
• Grabbed by the Ghoulies (also available with XBOX Game Pass)
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
• Red Faction II
• Secret Weapons Over Normandy
• Star Wars Battlefront
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Star Wars: Starfighter – Special Edition
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Thrillville
• TimeSplitters 2
• TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

It continues, "These join the four games already available on PC: "

• BLiNX: The Time Sweeper (also available with XBOX Game Pass)
• Conker: Live and Reloaded (also available with XBOX Game Pass)
• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (also available with XBOX Game Pass)
• Fuzion Frenzy (also available with XBOX Game Pass)

Many have been hoping games like Singularity and Skylanders would hit full back-compat, given that Microsoft now owns these properties via Activision. The Xbox Game Preservation website has tens of thousands of votes for games; alas, that's sadly not what we're getting this week. Still, being able to access some OG games and land their Xbox Mythic achievements is something I personally never saw happening, given that these games are no longer anywhere near in active development.

It's a little bittersweet given that EA just killed BioWare. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the best RPGs ever made, with twists that few games have managed to top to this day. I'm hopeful that Microsoft will address some outstanding Xbox 360 games for backward compatibility too, particularly Skylanders, which, given the Spyro remake, has an opportunity to find a new audience in 2026, in my view.

Xbox's 25th anniversary will continue through the week, with a variety of small announcements, including the nostalgia-driven Playback feature. I'm not expecting anything huge like an Xbox Helix reveal, but could we finally see the Xbox Elite Controller Series 3? Time will tell.

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It's Xbox's 25th anniversary this month, and Microsoft is announcing a variety of new "stuff" over the course of the week.

First up, we have a shiny new feature I know some of you have been passionate about, dubbed Xbox Playback.

Last year, it felt like almost every brand on Earth did some form of "Spotify Wrapped," which showcased what music and podcasting habits you had throughout the year. Even my banking app had a "Wrapped" last year, but Xbox was conspicuously absent from the festivities. I wrote back then that it was because they were working on something bigger, something that would be future-proofed, and it seems we now know what it is.

Announced today on Xbox Wire, Xbox Playback is a "personalized experience" that mimics previous anniversary data collections Xbox has done, although, from what I've heard, it will be available annually too moving forward.

To see your Xbox Playback, head over here and sign in with your account, or head to your Playback Archive to explore more of your history.

"XBOX is introducing XBOX Playback, a new personalized experience that lets players revisit their gaming history across 25 years of XBOX," Microsoft said. "Players can discover their first XBOX game, most-played titles, total playtime, achievements, longest gaming streaks and other milestones. Playback will be accessible on console and the web, with personalized videos and shareable cards, rolling out gradually throughout the day in 15 countries." (..)

"Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Spain, UK and US. Requires at least 1 XBOX Gamerscore, 1 achievement, and 1 minute of qualifying gameplay linked to your Xbox profile; access on console requires at least 1 minute of qualifying gameplay on console. Based on available data; some data may be incomplete or delayed."

It's a bit of a shame it's only available in 15 countries and not the total scope of Xbox's user base.. I'm pretty sure things like Spotify Wrapped are available to all customers. To speculate, Microsoft is pretty meticulous when it comes to regional data laws owing to its enterprise cloud division, and national rules it has to observe therein. I'll try and find out exactly why it's so limited in scope.

In any case, you can expect more Xbox 25th anniversary celebratory announcements throughout the day. I'm not expecting anything on the scale of an Xbox Helix reveal or Elder Scrolls 6 gameplay trailer, but could we finally see the Xbox Elite Controller Series 3? Here's hoping.

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The Xbox Series S has found itself in the crosshairs once again this week after former Tekken director told a panel at the Console Game Developers Conference in South Korea, that he wished hardware like the Series S had never been released. Going as far as to call it "extra work for a slightly weaker child."

Reported and translated by Inven Global, apparently Katsuhiro Harada complained about the console's lower memory, and joked that he hoped Microsoft isn't planning a "Helix S" for next gen. The comments have now fired up the Xbox Series S's most passionate detractors, who are using these quotes as definitive proof that the Series S is holding the entire industry back and, frankly, I'm tired, boss.

The argument is inherently anti-consumer, elitist and completely ignores the benefits of game optimization for everyone and every console, not just Xbox Series S. More importantly, it ignores the current state of the market and what consumers can actually afford right now and for the foreseeable future.

Optimization is a feature, not a bug

On the same panel, CD Projekt Red associate game director Paweł Sasko had a counterpoint to Harada's comments. Laughing them off and said that the Series S is valuable precisely because developing within its constraints makes studios optimise their code more cleanly, work that ends up making the game significantly better on all platforms.

It's not the first time we've heard this sentiment. Of course, Larian wrestled with the Xbox Series S over Baldur's Gate 3 so much it ultimately delayed the launch of the game on the Xbox ecosystem, but the memory optimizations they engineered to make split-screen work on the S directly resulted in massive RAM and VRAM improvements across the PS5 and PC versions of the game.

Meanwhile, I can't help but notice the glaring double standard again here when lower-spec hardware comes up in industry discourse. Hardware like the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch 2 don't receive the same vitriol. Nobody claims Valve's hardware is "ruining PC gaming" when developers have to tweak settings to get a Verified badge. As Harada himself admitted on the panel, developers gladly shift their mindset for the Nintendo Switch 2 because it's viewed as its own distinct platform. Yet Xbox offering an entry-level piece of hardware for current gen, using similar architecture is treated as some kind of unforgivable burden on the industry.

It's important to note though that Harada has since clarified that his comments were simply made to "liven up the room." That hasn't stopped the onslaught of told-you-so-themed posts around the Series S, however.

Consumers are going to be priced out of the next-gen arms race

The loudest critics of the Xbox Series S, demanding developers should abandon lower-spec hardware, are frankly out of touch with the economic reality facing the gaming industry right now and the near future.

We are right now witnessing a brutal hardware price crisis, driven by bloated compontent and RAM costs. God only knows what eye watering prices we can expect for early adopters of the Xbox Helix and PlayStation 6, but all signs right now point to price tags that will keep early adoption out of reach for the average consumer, normal families. Us peasants aren't going to be in a position to drop $1000 on brand new hardware. I want what I already have to work for me for as long as possible before I have to choose financial ruin or giving up gaming all together.

A dramatic and hyperbolic statement perhaps, but this is close to the reality for many gamers my age with a family, the days of me buying a new console day one are long gone. My Xbox Series S is going to be a family heirloom.

In this environment, we should be pushing studios and developers harder than ever to optimize games for the systems we actually own right now. Even Harada had to acknowledge this on stage. There are more Series S users than Series X in the United States currently, developers can't simply ignore this player base because optimizing memory budgets is an inconvenience.

FSR 4.1 is also changing the narrative

Thankfully, newer industry advancements are making the whole "Xbox Series S is holding gaming back" argument feel more lame as the years go by.

Earlier this month, Microsoft and AMD officially rolled out FSR 4.1 to Xbox Series X|S developers. I won't pretend to understand the intricacies, so if you want the full breakdown of how it works, our team has covered the technical side in detail, but the short version is that it uses clever AI upscaling to make games look sharper and run smoother without needing beefier hardware. We've already seen it work wonders on handhelds like the Xbox Ally X, effectively acting like a free mid-gen upgrade.

For something lower powered like the trusty Series S this is a lifeline. Instead of expecting normal people to shell out hundreds of pounds or dollars for a brand-new box every few years, tools like FSR 4.1 let developers get far better results out of the hardware sitting under our TVs right now.

Xbox Series S is our cheapest ticket to Grand Theft Auto 6

While I've touched on the current economic mess of modern-day hardware, the Xbox Series S isn't immune to this. It originally launched at an incredibly accessible price of $299, but Microsoft's 'budget" console has been hit with it's own steep price hikes, placing a 512GB model at $499 nowadays.

It's no longer as accessible, but the reality is that even at $499 the Xbox Series S is the cheapest possible way to play GTA 6 at launch. GTA 6 is the biggest entertainment release of the decade, hands down, and having a lower barrier to entry for such a release isn't a flaw in Xbox's strategy. Though I will say, I am praying for some kind of discounts on the console heading in to Black Friday to bring it back down closer to those golden day prices.

Even better, dataminers snooping through the Xbox GTA 6 preload files have spotted libraries matching Microsoft's FSR 4.1 GDK sample. While Rockstar hasn't confirmed whether FSR 4.1 will be active at launch or patched in post-release, the groundwork is clearly there, and any rendering boost will go an especially long way on the Series S.

Hardware prices continue to spiral and move next-gen upgrades further from reach for the average consumer, and as this continues, the narrative around the Series S is going to age terribly (and in my opinion, it already has.)

Sooner or later, the industry will give this consumer-friendly little white box its flowers for forcing developers to optimize better, and I will be first in line.

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Xbox's 25th anniversary is nearly here, and the famed gaming peripheral manufacturer Hyperkin is celebrating the occasion by revealing a new "Blue Rock" variant of its Xbox DuchesS Controller.

It's currently available for pre-order at Hyperkinstore.com and Amazon for $49.99 and is expected to release on December 2, 2026.

What's different about this variant of the Xbox DuchesS controller?

This "Blue Rock" variant, spec-wise, is the same as the regular Xbox DuchesS controller. It modernizes the original Xbox Controller S design for current consoles, with Hall Effect sticks and triggers for improved control responsiveness and Dynamic Impulse Triggers for enhanced tactile feedback while shooting in FPS games.

The only difference it has over its traditional Black shell or translucent green shell counterparts is its deep blue translucent design, and I personally adore it as someone whose favorite color happens to be blue (which I know is heretical to say as an Xbox player since blue is more associated with PlayStation).

So I can't wait to buy this bad boy for Christmas when the "Blue Rock" variant of the Xbox DuchesS Controller launches on December 2, 2026.

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