Shawn Layden may not be at Sony anymore, but the former PlayStation boss has a lot of thoughts about the company, its games, and the industry as a whole. Specifically, he'd love to see a return to the PS1- and PS2-era of games, and he has a (somewhat vague) plan to achieve it.

In a July 23 interview with Eurogamer, Layden spoke at length about how unsustainable the current model of game development is. He discussed the untenable ballooning budgets of recent years, how niche gaming is compared to the universality of movies and music, and how the current structures just don't hold up.

Tucked into the interview was a mention of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games.

"The problem we see there is the current model incentivises or almost dictates that to get funding--certainly in the triple-digit million era--you better be a sequel or you better be based on something like Lord of the Rings, or you had better be 'it's just like Grand Theft Auto but…,' he said, "So we make all those kinds of games, we fund those kinds of games. But the quirky kind of stuff you saw on PS1 and PS2, we don't see so much."

Layden admitted that the PS1 and PS2 had such "wacky" games because the incentives were different at the time and players weren't so siloed in their communities (re: more willing to try new experiences because gaming was still so new). Someone so steeped in Call of Duty may not play a Skate, or someone wrapped up in Halo may not give a Lies of P a try. But for Layden, that's the exact problem he hopes to solve with his plan.

"We keep making more of the same thing; bad habits are hard to stop," he said. "That's why I'm trying to put together a publishing concern that will address that underserved AA market, not only from the consumers I believe it can appeal to, but the developers who want to go back there."

A "publishing concern" certainly sounds like vague corporate gobbledygook. Maybe it is! Layden didn't expand any further on it with Eurogamer, but the theory is that he could be hinting at some sort of investment strategy to give AA studios--think of a developer like Asobo Studio (A Plague Tale: Requiem) or Questline (Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon)--a chance at survival in what's becoming a succeed-or-die industry.

He also touched on how much shorter games of that era used to be. Friends of his, according to Eurogamer, told him that they "miss the days" of finishing a game. That's something he'd love to bring back: the ease with which it is to beat a game (because now, games these days feel like 1000-hour affairs or even second jobs).

"Let's go back to understanding not only 'What did you want to build?' but 'Who are we building it for?'" he continued. "When the average gamer was between 16 and 24, you are time-rich and money-poor; but if you're between 28 and 32, you may not be money-rich, but you're definitely time-poor. So let's keep that in mind, folks."

Hours before launching, the official Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game account on X announced that the Xbox edition of the title isn't coming out today, July 23, as planned. Instead, it's now releasing on Xbox Series X|S sometime before September 3 because of "unforeseen circumstances on a backend feature." It's quite the last-moment delay, especially considering not even 24 hours ago the same account was promoting the game's launch. That's rough, buddy. 

The bad news doesn't stop with Xbox players, either. Cross-play isn't available on Switch yet, and the only localization option on the hybrid system is English currently. Meanwhile, the Deluxe Edition is also missing in action on Switch. All of these issues will be addressed at some point, though there isn't any sort of timeline officially revealed yet. 

https://twitter.com/avatar_fighters/status/2080094735314677888

It's odd that these speedbumps weren't addressed earlier from Paramount Games for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, especially considering it's a real treat for fans. The title seems to really nail the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. 

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is out on PC and PS5, alongside just the Standard Edition on Switch. The regular version of the title costs $30, while the Deluxe Edition retails for $50 and includes the Year 1 pass plus a digital art book. The DLC will introduce Iroh, Ty Lee, Lin Beifong, Bolin, and a voted-in fifth character. A Switch 2 version of the title is also in the works.

The Best Fighting Games To Throw Down With In 2026 View Images

Halo fans on Xbox excited to dive into Halo: Campaign Evolved today as part of its early access period are currently severely disappointed, as an issue is preventing them from accessing the game despite paying extra money for the privilege. 

As pointed out by players on social media (and independently verified by GameSpot), many (or possibly everyone) who purchased the Halo: Campaign Evolved premium edition or premium edition upgrade on Xbox or the Xbox PC app can't at time of writing access the game. Oops.

The premium edition, which cost $70 as opposed to the normal edition's $50, is supposed to come with five days of early access. Campaign Evolved is also available on Game Pass, and users have the option to pay an extra $20 to "upgrade" to the premium edition and play early.  Instead, players in both camps are being greeted with a message that states "You're too early."

Halo Studios is aware of the issue, and in a post on social media from the official Halo Support account, stated it was "investigating reports that "some players on Xbox consoles and the Xbox app for PC who purchased the HaloCE Premium Edition or Premium Edition Upgrade are unable to access the game.

"We will share updates as soon as more information is available. Thank you for your patience."

https://twitter.com/HaloSupport/status/2080325392036970797?s=20

A glance at various Halo-focused social media accounts, or in the replies to official Halo posts, shows more than a few players are frustrated by the situation. Many point out that while Halo Support's message states that only "some" players are experiencing the issue, it appears to be everyone on the Xbox platform who purchased the Premium version.

It's not a great start for Halo Studios' remake, especially since the game that is synonymous with the Xbox brand appears to be working great on PlayStation 5. Halo: Campaign Evolved's Xbox early access blunder isn't the only pothole the remake has fallen into, with the game having previously caught flak for some of its gameplay changes (like the addition of sprint) and requiring players on PS5 to have both a PlayStation and Microsoft account to play local co-op.

That hasn't stopped Halo: Campaign Evolved from being generally well-received. In GameSpot's 8/10 Halo: Campaign Evolved review, editor Jordan Ramée said the remake is "the best way to play through Master Chief's first game" and praised how its new prequel missions lead into Combat Evolved's original story. Halo: Campaign Evolved currently sports an 81 on review aggregate site Metacritic.

If you're planning on playing the latest Halo adventure with friends across different platforms, read up on how Halo: Campaign Evolved's cross-play works, as well as how long the game's campaign, including its three new prequel missions, lasts. Halo: Campaign Evolved launches for non-premium edition owners on July 28.

Amazon Games' boss Jeff Gattis has a solution for the rising cost of console gaming, but it's certainly one that nobody wants and hasn't been successful thus far: cloud gaming. Let's hear him out real quick.

In a July 23 interview with the BBC, Gattis talked about what the future of gaming could look like as consoles soar past $1,000. Although he acknowledged how important systems are to the industry as a whole, he also noticed an untapped market beyond traditional consoles that Amazon Games has been trying to reach.

"There are somewhere between 2.5 and 3 billion people who play games around the world, but only a fraction of those own dedicated gaming hardware," Gattis said. "As hardware becomes more expensive, and as streaming technology continues to improve, I think you'll naturally see more people asking whether they actually need that dedicated device."

He reiterated this point to The Game Business on July 23. In a lengthy interview, Gattis said that Amazon isn't attempting to supplant consoles or PCs, but rather, to give players yet another option to play their games that doesn't make them decide between this month's rent and the next PlayStation or Xbox system.

"Our business isn’t predicated on replacing consoles," Gattis said. "Historically, cloud gaming has been a little bit of a solution in search of a problem. Consoles, for the most part, have been relatively inexpensive until now. So, our business is more about reaching more players and expanding the market, not trying to get people to give up their consoles or gaming PCs."

For Gattis, cloud gaming is that option. He believes that, as the technology around cloud gaming continues to advance, Amazon can capitalize on the market of underserved players who want to game but don't want to spend a fortune on it.

"Having said all that, we saw the Steam Machine opening at $1,000. We hear rumors about consoles, because of the RAM crisis, pushing up over $1,000 in Gen 10. So, I do think you get to a point at which more people will be in the consideration set for a cloud gaming solution, just because of the sheer cost of buying dedicated hardware."

He then spoke about developers and publishers, adding that if Amazon can target the "two and a half billion audience that I think is a little underserved," maybe developers and publishers would see Luna as a viable platform to release games on.

"The [skepticism] you'll hear is, 'Well, if I put my games on Luna, particularly if we push it into Prime, I'm going to cannibalize all my sales on these other platforms,'" Gattis said. "And the reality is, at least the pitch that we keep making--and it is the truth--is that this is about reaching players that a lot of those games are never going to be able to reach. Particularly in a world of $1,000 consoles."

This is all very interesting in the context of cloud gaming. Sure, PlayStation and Xbox have their own offerings that appear to be successful for their business, but Google Stadia shut down in 2023 and Amazon Luna was folded into the larger Amazon Prime subscription service in 2025. Console gaming is getting more expensive, with price increases coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S this year. The Steam Deck is also getting a price hike, and Valve's $1,000 Steam Machine has certainly turned some heads. But cloud gaming isn't as reliable as a console, primarily due to the internet's potential instability.

If, for whatever reason, your internet goes down or access to the cloud gaming servers becomes unavailable, then you won't be able to game. Speaking from personal experience, even when my Spectrum internet service is interrupted--because of some regularly occurring outage--I'm still able to play single-player games I've downloaded on my console like AI Limit and Lords of the Fallen. The same can't be said of cloud gaming.

That's not to say that cloud gaming can't or won't ever be viable. There just likely needs to be more work done on reliability and stability to ensure that there's no latency and continued accessibility.

Microsoft has rolled out a test for its free, ad-supported version of cloud gaming. Select members of the Xbox Insider program can start testing this out today.

As announced by Microsoft, ads play before people get into a session. The ads do not interrupt the gameplay experience like they might for ads on a TV or movie streaming platform. Sessions are limited to one hour per session, at least for now, as part of this early test version that supports games people already own.

The test allows people to play games for free, in exchange for watching ads.

This is a limited-time test version of free gaming with ads, Microsoft clarified. The program was available internally to Microsoft employees last year, and now it's rolling out to the public for another round of tests.

Microsoft said in its announcement that playing games like this, over the cloud, can help with the affordability crisis going on now in games. A new Xbox, after all, is more expensive than ever due to the memory and component issues.

With cloud streaming, people who might still be playing on an Xbox One can play the newest games without having to buy any new hardware. They will, however, need to have a strong and reliable internet connection.

"Advertising has existed in gaming for decades, from in-game placements to free-to-play models. But it hasn’t always been built with the player in mind. When done well, advertising can help lower the cost of access. It creates another way for players to get into games without an upfront streaming purchase and expands audiences through new ways to play," Microsoft said.

Microsoft also outlined how it plans to handle advertising going forward with the following pillars:

1. We start with the player. Ads should create value. 
2. We do not interrupt the flow of gameplay. 
3. We hold ads to the same quality bar as our content. 
4. We’re clear about what’s advertising. 
5. We make sure ads fit what players expect on each platform. 

Microsoft also stressed that this is all entirely optional. People can bypass ads by subscribing to a paid tier of Xbox Game Pass. They can also buy games outright.

"We’ll learn from this test and continue to improve it based on how players use it and what they tell us. Our goal is simple. Give more people more affordable ways to play," Microsoft said.

There are hundreds of games playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming currently. However, people currently need to subscribe to Game Pass to stream them. The new ad tier will allow anyone, even if they don’t have a Game Pass membership, to stream select games in exchange for watching ads.

An ad-based tier is no surprise, as Xbox’s Tim Stuart first hinted at it some time ago. In August 2025, Xbox boss Jason Ronald teased an evolution of Xbox Cloud Gaming, saying on a podcast that Microsoft was looking for a way to make the service “more affordable” and “accessible,” and adding an ad-based tier could be part of this.

Microsoft is not alone in its pursuit of bringing more ads to gaming. Electronic Arts recently announced a program called EA Advertising that seeks to bring more ads to EA games in ways that the company claims should feel natural.

In other Xbox news, the company is going through a "reset" of the business currently, and this has included 1,600 layoffs so far and 1,600 more to come. Additionally, Microsoft divested of five studios and canceled some games.

In the US, Xbox sales "more than doubled" in June 2026 compared to June 2025.