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Today marks 2026's first new batch of Game Pass games, and while there have certainly been more exciting lineups, there's still a few games here worth looking forward to. Today, you can play the enhanced edition of Little Nightmares, which gives a graphical boost to the 2017 puzzle platformer as well as Brews & Bastards, a twin-stick dungeon crawler starring a cast of drunken heroes. Tomorrow, Game Pass Premium subscribers will also gain access to a handful of titles that were previously locked to the Ultimate tier, including Atomfall, Lost in Random, Rematch, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Master Crafted Edition. The following week introduces some more heavy hitters: Star Wars Outlaws makes its debut exclusively for Ultimate subscribers, while Resident Evil Village becomes available to Premium members a few weeks before its sequel drops. You can see the full list, as well as a lineup of the games leaving this month, below. What’s Coming to Xbox Game PassBrews & Bastards (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – Today Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – Today Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass Atomfall (Console, PC, and Cloud) – January 7 | Our Review Game Pass Premium Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 7 Game Pass Premium Rematch (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 7 Game Pass Premium Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 7 Game Pass Premium Final Fantasy – (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 8 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass Star Wars Outlaws (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 13 | Our Review Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Console, PC, and Cloud) – January 15 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass Resident Evil Village (Console, PC, and Cloud) – January 20 | Our Review Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass MIO: Memories in Orbit (Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud) – January 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass What’s Leaving Xbox Game Pass on April 15Flintlock: The Siege of DawnNeon WhiteRoad 96The AscentThe Grinch Christmas Adventures View the full article

Square Enix has released the opening cinematic for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, the remake of the 2000 RPG set to launch next month. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, a demo for the game is also launching on Wednesday, January 7. This free demo will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, and Steam. Progress from the demo can be transferred to the full game when it arrives on February 5, and that data will also unlock an exclusive outfit for Maribel called the “Day Off Dress." The game’s opening cinematic shows off the beautiful visuals and soundtrack. You’ll even spot a familiar scene that served as the cover image for our Dragon Quest VII Reimagined magazine issue. In fact, with the game so close to launch, you can catch up on all of our deep-dive features for the game, such as this video breaking down the game’s doll aesthetic. You can also read our interview with producer Takeshi Ichikawa and director Masato Yagi about how they approached creating the remake. Subscribers (sign up here to become one!) can read our full Dragon Quest VII Reimagined cover story and our complete retrospective on the entire Dragon Quest series, featuring creator Yuji Horii. View the full article

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles surpasses 1m units in three months | News-in-briefView the full article

Canada-based VR studio Cloudhead Games has laid off 70% of its employees. Read more View the full article

The games arm of Streamland Media, Formosa Interactive, has rebranded as Arrival. Read more View the full article

Platform holder Nintendo has admitted that consumer opinion on open-world games changed during the long development of Metroid Prime 4. Read more View the full article

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups. Read more View the full article

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups. Read more View the full article

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups. Read more View the full article

ZeniMax Online founder Matt Firor has confirmed he chose to walk away from the studio after parent company Microsoft canceled Project Blackbird, "the game [he] had waited [his] entire career to create." Read more View the full article

Arc Raiders hits 12 million copies sold as it tops 3.2 million DAUs | News-in-BriefView the full article

Ubisoft's tentpole shooter, Rainbow Six Siege, is still struggling after a hacker group forced the publisher to take it offline over the holidays. Read more View the full article

Reviewed on: PC Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC Publisher: 11 Bit Studios Developer: The Outer Zone Release: December 9, 2025 (PC), February 19, 2026 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch) Rating: Teen Death Howl is a turn-based, grid-based Soulslike deckbuilder, but despite this dizzyingly long chain of subgenres, the game comes together well, with a tight, satisfying gameplay loop. Its themes of grief are well-handled, its sidequests are unique and challenging, and it continued to introduce fun new mechanics even dozens of hours into my 45-hour playthrough. Ro, Death Howl's protagonist, journeys into the spirit world after a tragic accident separates her from her son. In her quest to get him back, she seeks help from the land's four great spirits to reach the summit of the howling mountain. Along the way, she encounters a variety of quirky, surreal spirits, most of which she has to defeat in combat. The story of journeying into the land of the dead has been told many times throughout human history, and while Death Howl's structure isn't particularly novel, its execution is. Its muted color palette; dark, brooding soundtrack; and distinct monster designs establish a singular aesthetic identity I couldn't get enough of. The vast majority of Death Howl is its brutal combat. While invoking From Software's Dark Souls as an inspiration has been commonplace for nearly a decade, Death Howl more than earns the comparison. Defeating enemies earns titular death howls, which are used to unlock new cards or abilities. Every combat encounter has the potential to be deadly, and with limited checkpoints, it takes skill to conserve your health across several battles. Equally challenging are the massive, grotesque bosses, each with irregular body shapes and environments that make each face-off memorable. Across four realms, you'll assemble an arsenal of cards that do damage, inflict status conditions, or even summon allies. Perhaps Death Howl's cleverest trick is nerfing cards by increasing their costs outside their home realms, making your favorite deck in one area completely unviable in the next. Each realm is built around a different mechanic, like discarding or taking damage, with isolated skill trees as well. There's also the overwhelm feature, which differs by realm and can provide vital boosts by repeating a realm's favored action over time. A realm built around movement, for instance, rewards you for playing as many cards as possible by giving Ro the ability to charge up a massive blast of damage. I like that the realm system encourages the player to experiment, while also keeping their relative power low enough that the world always feels dangerous. Death Howl's sidequests are also stellar. Each occurs when Ro encounters a spirit in need of something, and the quest begins when she's granted a specific quest card. These disable fast travel and can't be removed from your deck unless you want to abandon the quest. Each has a quest-specific mechanic that can either help or hinder you; my favorite quest granted me a card that heals me – something you can usually only do situationally – and had me clear out a whole area without resting to heal at a checkpoint. I loved tackling these bespoke situations, and the rewards are always worth it. In the opening hours, I didn't love Death Howl. I found combat frustrating until I took a step back and focused on grinding death howls on the skill tree, which gives the player a substantial power boost and helps to focus their decisions during battle. Not only did my experience vastly improve, but I was amazed to find that I fell in love with the gameplay again and again with each realm's new mechanics. Even the final area is uniquely rewarding, not only because it brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, but because it allows me to feel that sense of discovery one last time. Death Howl is cohesive and well-crafted. The game's dour tone complements its surreal art style and soundtrack. Its myriad genres coalesce into consistently engaging combat and tactics. But most of all, across story and gameplay, Ro's journey taught me to embrace obstacles to overcome them. Having reached its end, it's a journey I'm glad to have taken. Score: 8.75 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Final Fantasy designer Toshiyuki Itahana is leaving Square Enix after over 25 years at the company. Read more View the full article

Score your free Neverwinter: Red Harvest Part 2 Gift Pack Key and unlock in-game items including a Legendary mount and more! View the full article

The CEO and founder of Swedish developer Embark Studios, Patrick Söderlund, has said that the company is not using AI as a means of reducing its investment in people. Read more View the full article

It's officially 2026, and as we all shift our brain's gears toward the games to come, I had the opportunity to speak with Neowiz, the publisher behind Lies of P, to discuss the past year. In the email Q&A below, Neowiz co-CEO Sean Kim (pictured above) and I discuss the publisher's 2025, last year's Overture expansion for Lies of P, how the publisher charts its release course, generative AI, and more. And don't worry: I asked about the in-development Lies of P sequel. Below, you can find the full email Q&A between Kim and I: An Interview With Neowiz Co-CEO Sean Kim Game Informer's Wesley LeBlanc: How would you describe Neowiz’s 2025? Were there any particular standout moments or surprises for Neowiz, or did it feel like a year of consistency? Neowiz co-CEO Sean Kim: Late last year, we did have some concerns; however, the year ultimately delivered results that exceeded our expectations. As a co-CEO of a public company, there is a clear responsibility to achieve a certain level of financial performance each year. We knew that we had developed something new and extraordinary with Lies of P, but forecasting its financial performance was something of a challenge. We bet heavily on the remarkable skill and passion of our development and publishing teams, and it paid off. Lies of P sales and sentiment numbers were very strong. Overture also had a material impact on the base game numbers, bringing in a wave of new players and expanding the community in untold ways. In that sense, the release was particularly significant, as it solidified the foundation of an emerging pillar franchise for us moving forward. Winning the Golden Joystick and the Lenovo 3D Juego awards in a stacked field of competitors this year was an added bonus. Having the game acclaimed by players and critics alike made the experience as personally gratifying as it was financially fruitful. I think, because of the success of Lies of P, Neowiz is most closely associated with that series now. But what else is Neowiz up to beyond Lies of P? Our goal is to consistently introduce successful IP that fans will continue to support and look forward to over the long haul, even five or ten years down the line. Currently, we are internally developing more than five new PC and console titles, while also focusing on discovering global IP through collaborations with Western studios such as Zakazane and Wolfeye. We plan to continue investing in strong partners worldwide as we move forward. Our lineup of third-party indie titles, many of them developed by talented local Korean teams, is also worth highlighting. In particular, Shape of Dreams and SANABI recently achieved both critical and commercial success. Neowiz recently shared word of five unannounced games in development, ranging from Lies of P’s sequel to a narrative-based RPG to life simulation and more – how does Neowiz chart its path forward, and does genre play a role? Our core strategy is to expand the size of our fanbase and deepen engagement among players who enjoy our games. We like to define IP as "content + fans." No matter how much effort goes into making great content, we believe it is difficult to call a game “great” if it fails to satisfy its fans. We don’t set out to pursue a wide range of genres as a matter of strategic direction; rather, we’re circumspect about what we currently have and opportunistic about what we could execute well. Of course, the Lies of P franchise will need to be continued. That’s a given. But in general, our development cycle does not begin with a particular genre. Instead, it starts with the creative vision of our directors. We tend not to begin development by fixating on a play style or game concept first. Instead, we evaluate proposals from our directors based on a few key criteria. First, is the genre attractive, considering the current market size and competitive landscape? Next, are we able to assemble a solid team that can deliver the project at a high level of quality? Finally, is there a long-term strategy for growing the game's fanbase and engagement? We regularly revisit our ongoing projects using these same criteria to make sure that they stay aligned with our strategy, which is centered on both content and fans. Can you tell me anything about the Lies of P sequel? At this point, there is nothing specific we can share in detail. I can tell you that the team at Round8 Studio is excited about their work and fully focused on development. With the Lies of P DLC receiving further recognition through its various award wins and director Choi Ji-Won expressing strong confidence in the studio’s next project, we hope fans will continue to look forward to what’s ahead as much as we are. How do Neowiz and Round8 feel about Overture’s release earlier this year? We are grateful to see that players around the world have responded so positively to our vision and work product. It was a watershed moment, adding clear insight into the importance and potential of Neowiz’s franchise-driven IP strategy, while also practicing what it takes operationally to deliver solid results in the global market. For Round8 Studio, the success of Overture was especially validating, as it clearly demonstrated the competitiveness of the Lies of P IP on the worldwide stage, while recognizing the creativity, dedication, and ambition shown by the entire development team. Neowiz is publishing two third-party games – one for Wolfeye and one for Zakazane. What does Neowiz look for in third-party partners, and what stood out about these studios and what they’re working on? We first look at a game’s vision and potential, as well as the team’s experience and capabilities. It’s about making sure we’re the publisher that can truly elevate them. For us, partnering isn’t solely about discovering strong projects. At the same time, we try to understand whether a prospective team has a long-term plan to grow their game’s fanbase and build an IP at scale. If a game shows promise but falls outside of areas where we can add value, we’d rather guide the developers toward someone who can do the best job with them. Ultimately, our priority is seeing creators succeed, because the games themselves are what matter most. In the case of Wolfeye, we saw the potential for the rich and compelling worlds they are building to grow into a franchise IP with us. Similarly, our publishing partnership with Zakazane was driven by our confidence that their strong narrative foundation would allow them to expand the current project into sequels with our support. When you, as a publishing lead, look at 2025, what do you think defines gaming this year? Any surprises? Any disappointments? For 2025, our focus was to continue to create high-quality projects and solidify Neowiz’s position in the global PC and console market. As we’ve reached the end of the year, it’s felt like the start of a new era of gaming. Smaller teams are achieving strong results, including our publishing relationship with Lizard Smoothie. The release of their debut title, Shape of Dreams, sold 500,000 copies in its first month, and the team is still dedicated to delivering the best experience for their community. We look to take these successes and expand our publishing efforts in narrative-driven game development with developers from around the world. Generative AI is a hot topic this year, with some studios/publishers getting behind it and others staying away from it. Does generative AI have a place within Neowiz’s publishing house, and how does it work with developers? Korea is reportedly one of the countries where ChatGPT is used most actively. It’s hard to find a game company here today that isn’t using AI in some way. At the very least, companies are using either ChatGPT or Gemini. For us, like any forward-thinking technology company, we are actively exploring how advanced learning tools can enhance our internal publishing productivity. Our primary focus is on research and development to automate routine operational tasks, such as test case processing and analyzing large volumes of operational data. AI utilization can also enable our expert teams to work faster and focus their energy on refining core strategies with our partners to maximize player engagement. By processing data faster, our teams will arrive at better, more informed strategic decisions on how best to support our developers and engage with our community. South Korea, in particular, is becoming more and more of a major player in game development/publishing. Mobile is a big part of the market there, but I’ve spoken to enough devs there to learn that there seems to be a push to consoles/PCs and triple-A projects – do you agree, and if so, why do you think this is? That does seem to be the case. Given the current landscape, it’s understandable that leadership teams would see PC and console as important areas for future growth. Competition in the mobile market has become increasingly intense, and a number of traditionally mobile-focused companies are clearly looking to pivot toward PC and console development. We’re already seeing studios in that space begin to show results. How are Neowiz’s mobile offerings doing in relation to its console/PC releases? We are actively operating live-service mobile games that are well-received by players worldwide. We still view our mobile business as an important pillar of our company. We found that our cozy games resonate with Western consumers, with titles like Cats & Soup. In particular, Cats & Soup celebrated its fourth anniversary in August and recorded over 60 million downloads of the game last year. We also expanded the IP with the launch of Cats & Soup: Magic Recipe this April, which was developed by the original team. Anything else I missed or didn’t ask about you’d like to discuss? Not only does Neowiz have a Korean team with direct experience in the global success of Lies of P, but it also has a strong global publishing team across North America and Europe. With this foundation, we look forward to meeting great teams around the world and building long-term partnerships. This email Q&A took place in December of 2025. View the full article

Higher review scores on Steam can lead to stronger ad performance, particularly when developers listen to community feedback on premium titles. Read more View the full article

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: Bandai Namco Release: January 30, 2026 Rating: Mature Of all of the games that launched in 2019, Code Vein was certainly one of them. It received a mostly tepid reaction (including a 6.5/10 review score from us), so I don’t think many will mind that Code Vein II offers a clean slate. It features a standalone story largely disconnected from the events of the original while introducing new gameplay mechanics designed to soften the Soulslike genre’s inherent difficulty. After playing a few hours of the game during a recent event, I’m still not sure if Code Vein II will catapult the series into the highest echelon of Soulslikes. But as a standalone action game, it seems perfectly cromulent, and as a time travel story, it has intriguing ideas. Like the first game, Code Vein II centers on Revenants, undead humans with vampire-esque abilities, though it takes place in a brand-new world. One hundred years ago, Revenants gathered to try to seal away a phenomenon known as The Resurgence, which transforms the living into mindless monsters called Horrors. They failed, which led to the birth of a threat called Luna Rapacis, and some Revenants became Horrors themselves. Fast forward to the present day, and it’s up to a Revenant Hunter, the game’s customizable protagonist, to rescue the world from the brink of collapse. This hero partners with a mysterious girl named Lou MagMell, who can travel through time, and must visit both the past and the present to locate and defeat the fallen heroes of the Resurgence. This time travel premise is the most intriguing element of Code Vein II, as players visit the past to influence events. Speaking to the development team at Bandai Namco, the time travel premise was chosen because the team believes it allows players to have greater agency over their story, as they can choose how to manipulate past events to shape the present and future. Additionally, this is why Code Vein II is not a direct continuation of the first game, as messing with time would mean altering the events of the first game. With a clean narrative slate, the studio can tinker with timelines as they please. As someone who played only a limited amount of the original, I’m happy not to worry about any potential plot baggage. After creating my character in the robust customization menu, I endure a lengthy and, frankly, confusing exposition-heavy preamble. I meet Lou, watch a world get obliterated off the map, and chat with an absurdly proportioned Lady Dimetrescu-esque woman named Lavinia before I’m transported to the past. My goal is to meet a legendary warrior named Josée Anjou, who is one of the many heroes sealed away in the present day. I must team up with her 100 years in the past to find a way to free her in the future. I spent most of my play session exploring a dungeon called the Sunken Pylon, an uninteresting and tricky-to-navigate multi-story industrial facility. Josée Anjou rules this area, and to gain her trust, I must help her locate and eradicate whatever is polluting the area’s water. You can hit a button to display a golden path towards the objective, but it also shows the route already traveled in blue. This can result in a scribbled mess of glowing pathlines that I sometimes find difficult to parse. In traditional Soulslike fashion, special checkpoints replenish health while resurrecting slain enemies. You can also warp to a special realm called the Confluence to chat with Lou, who may share insights on the situation at hand. The melee combat on its own is passable but unremarkable despite having access to a bevy of different weapons, from dual swords to hammers to even a bayonet. Additional features help spice up the action. For example, you have your Jail, wearable equipment Bandai describes as this game’s equivalent of Code Vein’s Blood Veil. Jails enable hunters to use Formae, supernatural weapon abilities, and allow players to execute Drain Attacks, turning their arm into a beast-like claw to siphon a resource from enemies called Ichor. Ichor fuels Formae, and these attacks vary based on the equipped weapon. Formae can be a powerful and flashy weapon attack, creating defensive shields and other stat buffs, or unleashing projectile attacks, among many others. Thus, you’ll want to drain Ichor from enemies regularly to continue unleashing Formae during battle. Though I’m unfamiliar with how, Bandai flaunts that the Blood Code system has also been reworked. Like in the last game, Blood Codes offer multiple combat styles and sport six attributes that impact the player’s stats, such as your base defense and your max Ichor. My favorite aspect of Code Vein II’s combat is the Partner system, which lets you summon a second character to aid in battle. Think of Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring, but if they were always available and lived inside your Jail. Partners offer an extra hand in battle and, sometimes more importantly, can draw the attention of deadlier foes while you deal damage uninterrupted. I spent most of my session taking down foes with Josée, who proved invaluable not only in battle, but also because she revived me whenever I took a killing blow, though this ability has limited uses. You can recall partners at any time, called Assimilation. While you’re likely wondering why you would ever willingly fight alone, going solo has its benefits. Partners bestow stat upgrades thanks to a system called Link Traits, and each companion brings unique traits to the table. Partners also grant another meter called Link Points (LP), which is reduced when you take damage before your HP does. Neat, but I rarely took advantage of Assimilation as double-teaming threats was simply too valuable to give up, at least against the enemies I faced. Cutting down all manner of monstrosities en route to my goal offers decent fun, but things picked up during the two boss encounters in the demo. In the first, I took on a deformed titanic beast called the Metagen Remnant – the source of the Sunken Pylon’s pollution. Resembling a woman grafted to a pair of grimy, giant arms and a long, toxin-spewing tail, this battle was a trial. If I kept my distance, the Remnant would unleash beams of fire from its mouth or rain a volley of fireballs from above. Try to get behind it, and the tail would spray poison, inflicting the Acid status effect if you linger too long. It takes me several attempts and provides an excuse to cycle through each Formae I have equipped. Staggering the creature lets me perform execution-style attacks to deal significant damage. It takes a few tries, but I eventually topple this gross creature thanks to some finesse and no shortage of help from Josée. Later in my demo, time-traveling shenanigans return me to the present, leaving a grateful Josée behind to rebuild her domain. I go to unseal her in the present; unfortunately, several years and a series of unfortunate events befell Josée after I returned to my time. Thus, when she emerges from her cocoon in the present, her sadness has transformed into a giant, blind, masked sword-wielding demon. Begging for her death, she unwillingly comes at me with ruthless assaults from her oversized sword. I rely on Lou as my partner in this bout, and the two of us do our best to put Josée out of her misery. This battle became my favorite combat encounter of the demo, and though it’s challenging, the action combined with the story implications makes it an exciting bout. Toppling her feels like a real triumph and a big relief to Josée, who thanks me as she withers into nothingness. According to Bandai, battling fallen heroes in this manner will be a recurring theme of Code Vein II. While they’re keeping the story details secret, they tease that the manner in which players alter time will determine how and when these confrontations play out, assuming they occur at all. Bandai wants Code Vein II to be a tragic story filled with heavy moments, such as witnessing a heroic ally succumb to darkness. According to Bandai, it's this focus on character drama that defines and separates Code Vein II from the litany of Soulslikes. I conclude my Code Vein II demo not bowled over by what I experienced, but still intrigued by its time-bending premise. The idea of tackling heroes-turned-monsters who may only become such because of how I choose to fiddle with time is fascinating. However, I am worried about the plot falling into the trap many time-travel stories have of becoming too complex and up its own butt for its own good. We’ll see if Code Vein II has what it takes to make a greater impression than its predecessor, but I respect how hard it’s swinging for the fences. View the full article

Staff at Ubisoft's Halifax studio have officially formed a union. Read more View the full article

Games industry veteran Michael French has been awarded an MBE as part of the New Year Honours List 2026. Read more View the full article

Xbox veteran Albert Penello has passed away at the age of 53. Read more View the full article

The winners of 2025’s Steam Awards have been announced, with Hollow Knight: Silksong winning Game of the Year. Read more View the full article

Download RoboBall for free via IndieGala! RoboBall is a indie 3d puzzle game based on physics and logical thinking. View the full article

Grab Billie's Wheelie for free via Steam and keep it forever in your Steam library! View the full article