The annual Game Developers Conference is coming up next month in San Francisco, and Microsoft has now announced it will be at the event with a variety of panels. One of them will feature next-generation Xbox leader Jason Ronald discussing the "vision shaping the future of Xbox."

A panel called "Building for the Future with Xbox" will take place on Wednesday, March 11, featuring Ronald sharing insight into Microsoft's vision for the platform today and into the future.

A description of the panel states that Xbox has a "legacy of innovation," singling out things like the Xbox console platform itself, Xbox Live, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and the Rog Xbox Ally most recently. Whatever Microsoft has cooking for its next Xbox will be just the latest evolution.

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In the wake of Highguard developer laying off staff and announcing that only a "core" group of developers will continue work on the game, one former developer has reflected on the entire situation surrounding the game, from its much-discussed reveal at The Game Awards to where it stands today.

Josh Sobel was a lead tech artist at Wildlight until he was laid off on February 11, and the developer began their message by discussing the time right before Highguard was revealed to the world at The Game Awards on December 11. This was an exciting time in Sobel's life. They were amped for the world to see what Wildlight had been working on in secret for the previous 2.5 years.

"The future seemed bright. Everyone I knew who had any connection to the team or project had the same sentiments: 'This is lightning in a bottle.' 'I trust this team wholeheartedly.' 'If there's one project nobody in the industry is worried will fail, it's yours.' 'This has mainstream hit written all over it.' 'There's no way this will flop.' 'I could play this game all day,'" Sobel said.

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Fresh from kicking off Season 28 of Apex Legends, developer Respawn Entertainment outlined the next year of new content and changes for the battle royale. The studio's roadmap includes two new playable characters and a major map update, though specifics were rather sparse.

A video update from the team at Respawn shared that the next Legend, a Skirmisher character, is arriving in Season 29 this May, with another due to be added in Season 32, scheduled for February 2027. Respawn said that both characters are designed to "shake up how you build your squad and find new ways to take on fights together." The last new Legend, Sparrow, was added to the game last May.

Promises for the coming year also included additional reworks for existing characters, an overhaul to looting, and "game reliability efforts." But the promises come as players raise issues with the game's latest seasonal update, particularly the controversial changes to Ranked Mode.

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Grand Theft Auto Online is celebrating Valentine's Day in its own way this week, as complimentary champagne is going to be available at all bars in Los Santos' bars and nightclubs. However, Rockstar Games isn't stopping there. To mark the occasion, GTA Online is giving away Valentine's Day-themed onesies to any player who logs in from now through February 18.

Crime gets comfortable in GTA Online's Valentine's Day onesies.

As you can see from the picture above, it's not exactly an intimidating look for GTA Online's antiheroes. The perfect touch would have been if NPC characters could laugh at any players who walk around in these outfits.

These aren't the only outfits themed for the holiday, and GTA Online's lineup of Valentine's Day clothing is going on sale for 50% off the standard price through February 18.

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Carlito's Way Steelbook Edition (4K Blu-ray)

$53 | Releases April 7

Preorder at Amazon

When you put famed filmmaker Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, and a gangland story together, then you're looking at a recipe for success. That cinematic main course was served up in the 1993 crime drama Carlito's Way, and if you haven't seen it yet, you can pick up a new 4K Blu-ray on April 7. Priced at $53, the limited-edition steelbook includes the film on a standard Blu-ray disc and a digital streaming code.

Carlito's Way Steelbook Edition (4K Blu-ray) $53 | Releases April 7

The steelbook cover for Carlito's Way features Al Pacino on the cover--and in character as the former drug kingpin Carlito Brigante--and on the rear, you'll find a memorable quote from the film. Inside, the cover features an image of Carlito enjoying a night out on the town in '70s New York City. This version of Carlito's Way is a full 4K restoration with HDR10 support and includes several special features. These are primarily archival special features pulled from older Blu-ray and DVD releases, including deleted scenes, featurettes, and interviews.

Carlito's Way special features

• Deleted scenes
• The Making of Carlito's Way
• Brian De Palma interview on Carlito's Way
• Original promotional featurette
• Theatrical trailer

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It's worth noting that Arrow Video's 4K Blu-ray release includes a few extra bonus materials not found in the steelbook version above, as well as a standard Blu-ray copy of Carlito's Way. It's also cheaper at $25 (was $50) and comes with a sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork, exclusive interviews, several audio commentary tracks with film critics and experts, and all the aforementioned archival materials. Standard Blu-ray and DVD versions are also available at a low price.

• 4K (2025 steelbook edition) -- $53 | April 7
• 4K (2023 Arrow Video release) -- $25 ($50)
• Blu-ray -- $8.66
• DVD -- $8.53

Based on the novels Carlito's Way (1975) and After Hours (1979) by Judge Edwin Torres, Carlito's Way tells the story of Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) and his efforts to escape his criminal past after spending five years in prison. The movie featured an ensemble cast alongside Pacino, including Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzmán, John Leguizamo, Jorge Porcel, Joseph Siravo, and Viggo Mortensen.

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Business at Ubisoft continues to grow in some areas, as employees protest layoffs and game cancellations. A newly released Ubisoft earning report states that Q3's "overperformance versus expectations was primarily driven by partnerships and the Assassin’s Creed franchise." Net bookings for Q3 stood at €338 million (approximately $401 million), which is 12% higher than the same quarter in last fiscal year.

Most of the quarter's income (€297m) came from Ubisoft's back catalog. In particular, Assassin's Creed as a franchise had 28% more total players than the same time last year, thanks in part to free DLC for Assassin's Creed: Mirage and the Switch 2 release of Assassin's Creed: Shadows. The report also names The Division 2 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora as games that saw significant growth in Q3--in the case of Avatar, it likely saw an influx of players as hype picked up for the latest Avatar film. Overall, 130 million unique players booted up Ubisoft games during the quarter, which the report claims is evidence of "the appeal and strength of the Group’s portfolio of franchises."

In January, the publisher closed Ubisoft Halifax, fired 70 employees, and canceled multiple in-development projects. Ubisoft also fired a 12-year veteran without stated cause, though the termination was shortly after he criticized the company's "return-to-work" mandate. The earnings report outlined further plans to "reshape [Ubisoft's] HQ into a leaner and focused organization" via "a voluntary departure plan." In response to the layoffs, 1,200 Ubisoft employees, primarily in France, have gone on a three-day strike.

Embracer Group teased that it'll be releasing a mysterious, "long-awaited" game sometime during the next fiscal year.

This (via Shinobi602 on X) came as part of the company's Q3 2025 interim report, which informs investors on how the company at large is doing. While providing an outlook of the upcoming fiscal year, the report states, "we look forward to one long-awaited, major, in-house developed and in-house published title together with a range of important mid-sized titles."

For Embracer Group, the next fiscal year will take place between April 2026 and March 2027. That means we should expect a high-profile game from one of the studios and from one of the publishers the troubled gaming conglomerate owns. The fact that the report won't directly name the game makes it even more mysterious.

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Polish developer CD Projekt Red, which is celebrating Polish donuts today, is also increasing its profit goals for the near future. The game company said today that it plans to increase is profit projections for the financial years 2026-2029 to 5 billion złoty, which is about $1.4 billion USD.

CD Projekt said this proposed "earnings condition" is an "ambitious" target but also one that aligns with the company's belief that it has good games coming up that will return money to investors.

"Achieving PLN 5 billion in cumulative net profit in the financial years 2026–2029 assumes further dynamic business growth through consistent implementation of CD Projekt's development strategy," the company said.

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