Xbox's September update is here, and it brought a bunch of changes to streamline the experience on console and PC, so you can enjoy more games with little hassle.

In a lengthy Xbox Wire post, Microsoft revealed all the new features--one of which has been in beta--available now on consoles and PC. There's a ton of stuff here.

There's the beta of the n-game AI-powered assistant, Gaming Copilot, expanding to Game Bar on Windows PC and hitting the Xbox mobile app next month. You've got a revamped Xbox PC app, which simplifies finding your apps, games, and history into a couple of easier-to-navigate menus. And then PC gamers get three specific updates: a visually cleaner Social widgets experience, a Network Quality Indicator tool designed to help you understand and troubleshoot your connection, and a feature to make game saves sync easier across devices.

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A new Lord of the Rings game is in development and is a third-person action game designed to "compete with Hogwarts Legacy," according to a new report.

Insider Gaming said it heard from sources close to the project that the unannounced and untitled game is funded, in part, by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), to the tune of around $100 million USD. A deal could be made public as soon as next week, the report said.

In addition to ADIO, the rumored new Lord of the Rings game is said to involve Embracer, which is the company that owns the rights to Lord of the Rings games (and other extensions of the fantasy series). The developer Revenge is said to be involved as well.

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A new horror-game announcement pretty much always intrigues me, but when a studio reveals a game that's said to kick off a whole new connected horror universe, that's the type of ambitious first step that really grabs me. Such is the case with ProbablyMonsters' upcoming first-person horror game, Ire: A Prologue.

As the name suggests, Ire: A Prologue is the very beginning of the Ire universe--a brand-new series led in part by CJ Cowan, who previously worked as story lead at Bungie and helped bring to life the years-long sagas of both Halo and Destiny. Cowan's expertise is in expanding worlds such as the one Ire is set to unveil, but it all starts with this first game, which, based on my hands-off demo, will intrigue fans of games like Alien: Isolation and Amnesia.

In Ire: A Prologue, players take on the role of a young girl named Emily who, in 1986, finds herself trapped in a timeloop on a boat while a monster roams the halls. Like in Alien: Isolation or the most recent Amnesia sequel, The Bunker, the monster is an AI enemy and not adherent to a script. This means every interaction can go any number of ways, and since you'll be looping through its world over and over, there's every reason to believe you'll repeatedly need to outwit the creature by hiding in lockers and vents or staying in the shadows as it lingers nearby.

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Epic Games has announced that a Fortnite emote associated with retiring WWE superstar and current movie mega-star John Cena has been disabled, maybe indefinitely, because of its possible Nazi connection.

Peaceful Hips, an emote in the popular battle royale shooter, was created in collaboration between James Gunn's DC show Peacemaker and Epic Games. The emote sees your character goofily rotate their hips before making alternating "L" shapes with their arms. If you've watched Peacemaker, then you're familiar with the dance; it's what Cena performs in the second season's opening montage. It's awkward and stiff, which is what's supposed to make it a lighthearted gaff, particularly given the character's often violent personality. However, with the show's latest episode, the quirky dance--and Fortnite emote--have taken on a whole new meaning.

Light Spoilers for Peacemaker S2, E6

Titled "Ignorance Is Chris," the September 25 episode sees Peacemaker discover that the alternate dimension he's so fond of is actually Nazi America. This version of the US shows a true Anglo state, where there are only white people, and the stars of the American flag have been replaced with swastikas. It's this fact that unlocks the new meaning behind Peacemaker's dance in the opening of Season 2; those alternating "L" shapes he's making with his arms are stand-ins for the swastika.

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The full release for Hades 2 has led to a new all-time high of concurrent players on Steam for the sequel. The roguelite game topped out at 112,947 people over the weekend, according to SteamDB. That breaks the sequel's record from its Steam Early Access debut in May 2024 with just over 103,000 players. In addition, Hades 2 has already doubled the peak of Hades, which hit 54,240 concurrent players in May 2024, too, per SteamDB.

Developer Supergiant delivered Hades 2 version 1.0 a few days ago on September 25. The full launch also included the true ending for the game, along with 50 different achievements and new artwork. So far, Hades 2 is only available on PC, Switch, and Switch 2.

Hades 2 is the first sequel that Supergiant has ever created. The studio formed in 2009 and previously made Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and the original Hades. GameSpot's Hades 2 review rewarded the follow-up with a prestigious 10/10--the second title to earn that score this year (Split Fiction being the other).

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Battlefield 6's launch on October 10 is coming up very soon. If you're wondering precisely when you can start playing, the release times for the military shooter have now been posted online.

As confirmed previously, there is no early access for Battlefield 6, so the game will launch at the same time for everyone on October 10. The global rollout begins at 8 AM PT on October 10, which works out to 11 AM ET and 4 PM BST. You can see more global launch times below, as posted by Battlefield Bulletin. GameSpot has contacted EA in an attempt to confirm these times and get more information.

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Konami's Silent Hill series returned with Silent Hill f this month, and the game is off to a hot start. Konami reported today that the horror game exceeded 1 million sales after its first 24 hours.

This figure includes physical and digital sales across all platforms, including PC and console. By comparison, 2024's Silent Hill 2 remake sold 1 million copies after three days. Silent Hill f was available a couple days early for people who paid extra.

Silent Hill f was developed by NeoBards Entertainment, while Bloober Team made the Silent Hill 2 remake. The new game is set in 1960s Japan and follows the character Hinako Shimizu as she solves puzzles and fights horrible monsters.

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The rumors were true: Electronic Arts has announced that it's sold itself in a $55 billion deal. EA sold itself to an "investor consortium" made up of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, and the private equity firm Silver Lake.

EA said the all-cash deal "positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment." EA CEO Andrew Wilson is still on board as CEO.

The investor consortium will take over 100% of EA. The PIF already had a 9.9% stake in EA prior to this deal.

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American Caper #1 (Kindle edition)

$5.74

Preorder at Amazon

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser isn't just preparing to launch a new book--titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath--but also a new comic book series called American Caper. The first issue launches on November 12, and it follows a Mormon hitman, a gambling lawyer, and a Mexican beauty queen as their fates become tangled together after a real estate deal goes wrong. If you're interested in reading the first issue, Amazon is offering the Kindle version of it for $5.74.

American Caper #1 (Kindle edition) $5.74

Joined by Grand Theft Auto veteran Lazlow--who will also write additional material for American Caper--the first storyline of this series will run for 12 issues. Bringing it to life will be a veteran team of illustrators, including Eisner Award-winning artist David Lapham (Stray Bullets), colorist Chris Anderson (Lost Angels), Lee Loughridge (GI Joe), and letterer Nate Piekos (The Umbrella Academy). Houser describes the series as a tale of corrupt business, inept politics, bungling crime, leisure wear, and self-righteous justice, and he has teased a cast of colorful characters for American Caper, ranging from a Wall Street billionaire who has become a cowboy to a "maniac" seeking revenge.

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"I love doing crime comedy and having done lots of stories about carjackers, or people that have to be tough, living in this moment right now. I wanted to tell a story about some degenerate criminals from a completely different perspective, in a completely different part of the world, that you could never make a GTA game in," Houser said to IGN during a panel at LA Comic-Con this month. "Men getting confused between reality and the fantasy in their heads is something a lot of stories are about, and is something I find very interesting. America, particularly the rural west, in this moment right now is something I found interesting, and thought was an interesting place to set a dark comedy."

Houser's other project, A Better Paradise, will be released on October 14, and the novel will also be available in ebook and audiobook formats. This book is adapted from an audio fiction series that aired in 2024, and it's set in the near future at a video game company. The story takes place at Daisy's Ark, an advanced video game world developed by tech startup Tyburn Industria that was eventually shut down following a pattern of "unexpected and disturbing results" that had an impact on everyone involved. A decade later, development on the project resumes.

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Artificial intelligence technologies are being adopted faster than ever before by developers in Japan, according to a newly released survey conducted by the organization behind the Tokyo Game Show. The results indicated that over 50% of Japanese video game developers are integrating AI into their production.

Automaton shared the results of the findings from the 2025 CESA Video Game Industry Report, which found that 51% of Japanese developers use AI in some capacity while creating games. The survey was conducted between June and July of this year, with 54 companies responding, including Sega, Capcom, and Level-5. Most of the companies indicated that they are using AI for visual assets, story and text creation, and programing support. There are even some developers who are using AI to help them create in-house game engines.

This matches up with global trends. A majority of game developers worldwide are known to use AI systems for game development, despite ongoing worker concerns.

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Battlefield 6 players have made it pretty clear that they don't want the game to follow in the footsteps of Call of Duty with its celebrity operators and cartoon-like skins featuring Beavis and Butt-head. Now, EA and Battlefield Studios appear to be poking fun at Call of Duty with a live-action Battlefield 6 trailer that introduces some celebrities soldiers before ruthlessly dispatching them.

Zac Efron, Jimmy Butler, Morgan Wallen, and Paddy Pimblett play themselves as the warriors who prove to be expendable in more ways than one. This video appears to be a callback to Call of Duty's "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" series of trailers that featured all manner of celebrities, including Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill, and Dwight Howard. The celebrities operators had a much easier time in that video than they did with Battlefield 6's urban chaos and destructible locations.

Battlefield 6 has already had a launch trailer for its campaign, which highlighted the extent that bringing down buildings can reshape the game. Another trailer put the spotlight on Battlefield 6's Portal mode. That's the part of the game that puts tools in the hands of players and lets them create customized maps that inject more chaos into the battles.

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You are a lost soul wandering through the ruins of a long forgotten society. You and up to seven other friends are tasked with protecting Jane, a young woman trapped in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth. Use powerful spells and weapons to fight your way through the stronghold to uncover ancient knowledge and meet a powerful deity held deep within its chambers. Coordination and cooperation is important for success, maybe you have a party member that specializes entirely on damage, maybe they could use a little bit of healing every now and then! You may even a whole team of casters that needs a quick boost to their spells, or you could all focus on making one party member a powerhouse capable of annihilating anything in their path!