Don't Nod announced its next game, Aphelion, at the Xbox Games Showcase.

As seen in the announcement trailer, Aphelion sees you play as Ariane, an astronaut lost on the newly discovered ninth planet in our solar system (sorry Pluto) named Persephone. She's searching for Thomas, a fellow astronaut who got separated from her at the start of the game. The duo are surveying the plant to see whether it's habitable after humans mucked up Earth.

In terms of gameplay, not much is shown in the trailer. Presumably, the game will have a focus on story and choices like past Don't Nod titles, but the trailer suggests platforming (and falling) will be a regular part of the experience as well. The ending of the trailer teases some sort of alien or otherworldly element, likely one that's dangerous to both Ariane and Thomas--the description beneath the trailer describes "shifting realities."

As part of the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft and Activision announced that a demo for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 is launching today, June 8. The Foundry Demo, as it's called, is launching today for people who have preordered the game or do so now.

The demo is launching today on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, but the fine print did not mention Switch or Switch 2. In addition to announcing the demo, Activision released a new trailer for Pro Skater 3 + 4, which shows new gameplay footage--check it out below.

The Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake releases on July 11 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. It's coming to Game Pass on day one, and will feature a mix of old and new skaters. The remake will totally rework the gameplay of the fourth entry to correspond to its classic two-minute-objective format rather than the open exploration that it pioneered for the series.

Mudang: Two Hearts, developed and published by EVR Studio, is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2026, as announced at the Xbox Games Showcase. Based on a webtoon titled Moodang, Mudang is set in a unified Korea sometime in the near future.

EVR Studio refers to Mudang: Two Hearts as "an immersive blend of tactical stealth, visceral combat, and cinematic storytelling set on a politically volatile Korean peninsula," on its official website.

The narrative follows the unification of North and South Korea as a treaty promises to end decades of division. Things aren't as they seem, though. A terrorist organization attacks the South Korean National Assembly on the day the bill was meant to pass, setting off a series of chaotic events across the peninsula.

InXile dropped a new Clockwork Revolution trailer during the Summer 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, and while it's mostly about the detailed weapon crafting, revolution against a crushing totalitarian regime, and strategic time manipulation, it's also got a doll named Duke Pophrey who swears a lot. He's got a reputation for generally being a rancid little guy, so much so that InXile introduces him as "the pissed-off doll," but you can periodically wind him up, so to speak, to get the benefit of his vast array of crude insults as well, because why not.

Clockwork Revolution still has no release date. InXile says it's coming "in due time," and the doll followed that up by telling everyone who had questions to "piss off."

Clockwork Revolution takes place in a steampunk, Victorian-ish city ruled by an elite whose fashion sense still calls the 18th century home, and they keep the masses in check by controlling time. Uprisings, even those with high-tech weapons modified by belligerent robots, are quickly quelled by the elite's ability to turn back time. Then, a rebel--you--gets hold of a device that can also change time, and a new war begins. You can change time during battles to reload your weapon, alter a bullet's trajectory, or erase a mistake entirely. That's in addition to a diverse set of gadgets you can use in combat and personal skills that augment your character's development.

Today, during the Xbox Showcase, Friday Sundae and indie publisher Null Games announced There Are No Ghosts In The Grand, a first-person cozy hotel fixer-upper game with twists both musical and malevolent--as well as a cute little kitty named Mr. Bones The Bastard. No, we do not know how he earned that name at the moment.

There Are No Ghosts In The Grand sends players to The Grand, a rundown hotel in an eastern English village which has also seen better days. The hero is Chris David, an American who has inherited the hotel as part of his father's will, and he must restore it back to its original grandeur within 30 days and 30 nights.

However, Chris is also there for another reason--he's a paranormal investigator, and hidden within the hotel is some sort of evil presence, one that might hold answers to what happens to his father. During the day, he must restore the hotel, but at night, he will find clues, solve environmental puzzles, and piece the mystery together.

A sequel to Obsidian's Grounded is coming this July. During the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian announced Grounded 2, and it's launching on July 29 in Game Preview for Xbox and PC.

The original Grounded came out in 2022. Developed by a small team, the game proved to be a big hit--mashing together elements of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Rust, as players control tiny humans in a world with big bugs as they try to survive.

The game was a big success, reaching more than 10 million players and attracting the attention of Hollywood. After its debut on PC and Xbox, Grounded came to Switch and PS5 in 2024. For now, though, Grounded 2 is only confirmed for Xbox and PC. It'll come to Game Pass at launch.

During the Xbox Games Showcase, we got another look at Ninja Gaiden 4. Most importantly, it received an October 21 release date.

The trailer gave us another look at its brutal action, which looks on par with what Platinum Games usually delivers, as well as some of the fantastical enemies and bosses that players will be going up against throughout the game. An Xbox Wire preview post provided even more details on the game.

It revealed that mechanical Dark Nest Terminals will be scattered throughout the levels, and players can restock items and take on optional missions to earn Ninja Coins. Players can use those Ninja Coins when they meet a character named Tyran throughout each level, who will teach them new and returning action skills.

Xbox is partnering with Asus on a Windows-based handheld with support for your Game Pass library, Steam, GOG, and other PC gaming clients. The long-rumored handheld was officially revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase. The ROG Xbox Ally is slated to launch Holiday 2025. No pricing details were provided, but two configurations were revealed.

Like the regular Asus ROG Ally handhelds, the "X" version is the premium model. The ROG Xbox Ally X has a black color scheme and is fitted with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chipset, 24GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

The base model ROG Xbox Ally is white like the Xbox Series S and has an AMD Ryzen Z2A chipset, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Earlier this year, Rebel Wolves--the developer co-founded by The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz--unveiled its inaugural game, The Blood of Dawnwalker. This title casts players into a medieval world ruled by vampires. But as the title character, Coen, players can fight back with vampire powers of their own as demonstrated in the newly released Xbox Games Showcase trailer.

This action-RPG is set during the 14th century in a kingdom called Vale Sangora, two years after the vampires seized control. The arrival of Brencis and his vampire followers saved Coen and his plague-infected sister, Lunka, from execution. But their salvation has come at a high cost. The vampires now rule the kingdom with an iron fist, and Coen has been partially turned into a vampire himself.

Coen's transformation is incomplete because of his silver poisoning. As a dawnwalker, he becomes human during the day and regains his vampire abilities at night. The trailer demonstrates some of the powers that come with Coen's vampire side, including the ability to walk up the side of a building and his enhanced strength. However, it doesn't seem like he retains the same powers during the day.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle took the famed archaeologist around the world to locales like Italy and Egypt. The previously announced downloadable content, The Order of Giants, is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC on September 4, 2025, as announced at the Xbox Games Showcase.

This piece of DLC will take Doctor Jones on a new adventure through Rome as he discovers more about the Nephilim Order, a secret order of giants, and encounters "new locations, intricate puzzles, terrifying new foes, and more." Some of the new locations include the streets of Rome, River Tiber, and Rome's ancient sewer system.

“One of the most satisfying parts of developing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the opportunity to create the Nephilim Order, the secret society of giants formed by descendants of fallen angels working to atone for their ancestral sins,” says Production Director John Jennings in an interview. “That story spans thousands of years and this DLC has given us the opportunity to develop further upon their lore and look at other aspects not covered in the initial story campaign. There’s something new and unexpected to tell here for fans of the game, and we can’t wait for people to be able to play it for themselves.”

The next game in the Plague Tale series was unveiled during the Xbox Games Showcase, with the cinematic reveal trailer showing off a new direction for the series. Developed by Asobo Studio, Resonance: A Plague Tale Story is set 15 years before the events of the previous game, Requiem, and it stars a new protagonist named Sophia.

Described as a plunderer who is on the run and determined to uncover the secrets of her past, Sophia's journey takes her to Minotaur's Island, where she has to face deadly trials and solve puzzles if she wants to stay one step ahead of the army chasing her. Asobo Studios says that it aimed to blend "combat, myth, and fate" together to create a new take on the universe of A Plague Tale, resulting in a heavier emphasis on action.

"We wanted to expand and explore the world of A Plague Tale with a character--Sophia--that is very close to our heart, but within a much more action-oriented experience," Asobo Studios chief creative officer David Dedeine said in a press release. "This fresh approach comes with intuitive and rewarding combats, as well as a brand-new manifestation of the Macula, the ancient evil. Resonance embraces themes, places and eras that we had never explored before."

The summer Xbox Gaming Showcase started with a look at The Outer Worlds 2, and in the process, dropped a release date. The spacefaring RPG sequel will release on October 29, 2025.

The Outer Worlds was a satirical look at corporate culture through the lens of futuristic outer space corporations, and it looks like The Outer Worlds 2 will be no different. We knew from the start it would be getting a big debut at this year's presentation, as Microsoft has already announced a The Outer Worlds 2 Direct presentation following the broader games showcase.

The second one looks to be bigger in scope than the first. You play as an Earth Directorate agent, trying to uncover the source of rifts across Arcadia, while also running into a burgeoning rebellion against the Protectorate. This will be the second RPG from Obsidian just this year, after having released Avowed in February. Alongside Xbox Series X|S, it's also coming to PS5 and PC.

A new title from Pokemon studio Game Freak was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase--titled Beast of Reincarnation, the upcoming game is a new action-RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Japan. The game, originally announced as "Project Bloom," is set for a 2026 release on Xbox Series X|S and PC as a day-one Game Pass title.

The brief announcement trailer shows a version of Japan, in the year 4026, corrupted by blight, which was brought on by a giant monstrous creature. Beast of Reincarnation's protagonist is named Emma, an outcast marked as a "Blighted One. Gameplay footage showcases parts of her journey, punctuated with shots of samurai action, vine-swinging, and epic boss battles.

In the trailer, Emma fights a variety of enemies, from massive tree-like behemoths to what appear to be robots. She is accompanied by her dog Koo, who will presumably be part of the action. Despite her outcast status, a character in the trailer states that Emma is the "blade" that will destroy the eponymous Beast of Reincarnation.

Goofy sci-fi first-person shooter High on Life is getting a sequel, and it looks like it'll include even more talking-alien weapons and more ridiculously bad outcomes for humanity. Indie developer Squanch Games announced High on Life 2 with a new trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase during Summer Game Fest 2025.

Check out the trailer below.

According to the trailer, High on Life 2 is due for release in Winter 2025. It'll be available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass at release.

During the Xbox Summer Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025, Team Meat announced the return of Super Meat Boy, but this time the hardcore indie platformer is making the leap to 3D with Super Meat Boy 3D.

The announcement trailer begins with a CG sequence featuring a green pipe that feels like a cheeky nod to Super Mario before our fleshy hero appears. But the gameplay footage shown also seems reminiscent of the vibrant color palette and isometric 3D perspective from Super Mario 3D World, albeit with much more hardcore platforming and deadly environments, including thorns and circular saws. It also seems Meat Boy will be able to make clones of himself, much like the cherry item seen in Super Mario 3D World.

This marks the return of the series following 2020's Super Meat Boy Forever, which received a mixed reception compared to its debut. It also did not see the return of co-creator Edmund McMillen. Super Meat Boy 3D is listed as being developed by Team Meat as well as Sluggerfly and Head Up.

In 2014, a hacking group known as Lizard Squad claimed credit for bringing down PlayStation Network and Xbox Live on Christmas. Over a decade later, one of Lizard Squad's hackers, Julius Kivimaki, is the subject of Max's upcoming four-part documentary series, Most Wanted: Teen Hacker. Kivimaki himself is one of the interview subjects in the first trailer below, although he seems less than remorseful about the crimes for which he is accused.

Lizard Squad was a black hat hacking group who were hacked themselves when they sold a hacking tool to other users. Two of the collective's members were arrested in 2016 for the Christmas XBL and PSN attacks. However, the focus on this series is largely on Kivimaki--who has renamed himself Aleksanteri Kivimaki--for his alleged cyber criminal activities since he was 15 years old and living in Finland.

The trailer touches upon some of the crimes that Kivimaki is said to have committed, including hacking Elon Musk, SWAT-ing the home of an FBI agent's family, and making a bomb threat to a plane that had Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley as a passenger. The Air Force forced that flight to make an emergency landing because of the threat.

Hollow Knight: Silksong has finally made a reappearance, featuring during the announcement of the ROG Xbox Ally handheld. Speaking after the reveal, Xbox's Sarah Bond confirmed that Silksong will be out soon, stating that it will be "available at launch and in Game Pass" when the handheld launches later this year.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has confirmed Silksong's release window. Back in 2022, Silksong featured during the Xbox Games Showcase then, with each game at the show supposedly releasing within 12 months. It was later indefinitely delayed, only surfacing again during the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal earlier this year.

First revealed more than five years ago, details on Silksong have been very hard to come by since 2019. While Team Cherry has teased enemy designs and gameplay updates over the years, everything else has remained a mystery.

Ahead of the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025, a range of Xbox games have begun appearing in Microsoft's Xbox app on PC. While not currently playable, this could be the first look at Microsoft's attempt to unify its PC and Xbox platforms by providing a single library for all of your purchases.

This approach would align with some peculiar marketing that started appearing when Microsoft announced Gears of War: Reloaded earlier this year. The Xbox Wire announcement noted that the game was due to release on Xbox PC, the first time Microsoft has referred to the PC platform with the Xbox moniker in the name. This followed as a logo in the trailer for MIO: Memories in Orbit, as noted by The Verge, which listed "Xbox PC" as a release platform.

Right now, a random assortment of Xbox games has started appearing on the Xbox app on PC, from current Xbox Series X|S releases and down to Xbox 360 games. None of them are playable, however, outside of existing games that have released across both platforms already. It's unclear right now if Microsoft is simply trying to centralize your Xbox library across all platforms, or whether some unannounced plans for streaming or emulation of these titles is imminent.

When the Silent Hill 2 remake proved to be so good, some were slow to give Bloober Team much credit, citing how it had a strong blueprint to build from. It's true that Konami's landmark original is as good a starting point as any, and Bloober Team's earlier works were often met with mixed reviews at best--the team hasn't shied away from its history. To me, it was nonetheless a tall task to live up to a game that so many hold so dear. But if you count yourself among those who are waiting to see if the Polish team can do it again, and with something entirely of its own creation, Cronos: The New Dawn is starting to look like that game.

Back in October of last year, Bloober Team told me that it's probably always going to be a studio that makes horror games, and at Summer Game Fest Play Days 2025, the team made it clear that it wanted to find its own gameplay hook with its next project. It looked at Dead Space's combat that drove players to cut off limbs and Alan Wake's way of stripping enemies of their "shields" using light sources, and it knew it didn't want its next game to be a simple point-and-shoot horror game. From that guidance, the "merge system" was born.

Because the time-traveling horror story is set both before and after an epidemic wipes out much of humanity, the places you explore are often home to a great number of dead bodies. Things fell apart fast, and what's left of people have often been morphed into "orphans," the game's name for its enemy monsters. These grotesque brutes come in different shapes and sizes. Some are armored, others shoot acidic puke at you. Some fling slimy, crimson tentacles toward your face.

Creature-collecting ARPG Aniimo has been unveiled at the Xbox Games Showcase, and the game is currently in development at Pawprint Studio. Similar to Pokemon on Nintendo systems, Aniimo is set in a world where players collect magical creatures and it'll be a free-to-play game when it launches for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and mobile devices in 2026.

The big gameplay hook in Aniimo is the "Twining" gameplay mechanic, which allows players to unlock more abilities for their Aniimo. Pawprint Studio says that the game takes place in an open-world of Idyll, a land full of uncharted landscapes and ancient mysteries.

"Like every other player, the Aniimo team has always believed that one day, there will be a game that exists that makes all our dreams come true. Instead of waiting any longer, we created it ourselves" executive producer Jovi Zhang said in a press release. "Every day we are discovering more about the Aniimo's personalities, their interactions, their stories, and their environment. The world of Aniimo is now ready for you to explore with us, and we can't wait to see you there."