PlayStation 5 exclusive Astro Bot saw its supposedly final drop of downloadable content released today in the last announced weekly speedrunning level, but fans are scratching their heads over a number of unreleased bots present in the credits.
Reddit user pkowswald noted that, even with the additional two bots released in today’s DLC, there are still several game franchises such as Assassin’s Creed and Rayman credited in Astro Bot despite not having individual bots of their own.
While it’s entirely possible this is from deals fallen through or content cut, what makes the prospect of more DLC down the line more believable is that the credits were actually updated to include an extra character upon the final speedrunning level’s release. None of the unused franchises were cut either.
Astro Bot still includes licensing credits for Rayman, Worms, Assassin’s Creed, Beyond Good & Evil, Croc, and Tomba, the last of which was added today. Nothing official has been said about if these games will be featured eventually, or if more DLC is planned. The PS5 exclusive seems to have performed well both commercially and critically though, so Sony may want to push more DLC down the line.
One of our favorite Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deals has returned at Woot, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. You can get three months of the service for just $29.19, today only with code TWENTY.
The promotion includes significant savings, such as $10 off a $100 Xbox gift card. These discounts are particularly valuable for those planning to purchase digital games, downloadable content, or subscriptions during the holiday sales period.
Early Black Friday Deal: Save on an Xbox Series X Console
Black Friday may not be until November 29, but some retailers have been dropping some excellent deals ahead of time. Walmart has kicked off its first wave of Black Friday sales and there are plenty of offers on games to explore. If you’ve had your eye on picking up an Xbox console, the 1TB Carbon Black Series X is currently on sale at the retailer for $50 off, dropping its price to $448.
Best Xbox Game Deals
This time of year is great for finding games on sale. At the moment, you can score some incredible deals on a wide variety of physical games. This includes Space Marine 2 for Xbox Series X, which has dropped to its lowest price yet at Amazon according to price tracker camelcamelcamel. You can also score some great deals on Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which is down to $24.99, and Madden NFL 25, which has dropped to $34.97.
More Xbox Video Game Deals:
Best Xbox Accessory Deals
Does your family complain when you stay up playing loud shooters late into the night? They’ll stop complaining if you pick up anXbox headset that lets no one but you hear the delightful explosions you cause on the screen.
Right now, you can get 17% off the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX wireless headset and 37% off the Razer Kaira Pro wireless headset at Amazon. To see even more gaming headsets on sale, visit our roundup of the best gaming headset deals.
What is Xbox’s Recent Controversy?
The recent discomfored surrounding Xbox can be isolated to a recent round of brutal layoffs. Microsoft is closing a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda. Alpha Dog Games, maker of mobile game Mighty Doom, will also close. Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed by The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios. Microsoft, currently valued at over $3 trillion, did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable.
Is Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Microsoft has confirmed the arrival of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 day-one on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft made the announcement alongside the release of a live-action reveal trailer called ‘The Truth Lies’. In it we see world leaders including Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell, and Saddam Hussein, delivering cryptic speeches. Black Ops 6 will be set during the events of the Gulf War during the early ’90s.
When Should I Buy an Xbox?
In general, it is advisable to keep an eye out for sales and restocks throughout the year, as availability has improved since the initial launch of the console. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, there is no specific recommendation to wait for a sale regardless of the time of year. Instead, it’s a good idea to monitor various retailers and online platforms for restock announcements and promotional offers.
However, certain events like Black Friday or other holiday seasons may bring about unique bundles, discounts, or promotional deals specifically for the Xbox Series X. These bundles may include additional games, accessories, or exclusive limited editions. While quantities for such promotions might be limited, they can provide an opportunity to get more value for your purchase. See our guide to Xbox Series X prices for more info.
Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S?
Choosing between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S ultimately depends on your gaming preferences, budget, and specific requirements. Let’s compare the two consoles to help you make an informed decision:
1. Performance: The Xbox Series X is the more powerful option, offering native 4K gaming, higher graphical fidelity, and faster loading times. It has more advanced hardware, including a larger storage capacity. On the other hand, the Xbox Series S targets a lower price point and offers a less powerful performance, targeting 1440p resolution gaming and upscaling to 4K.
2. Price: The Xbox Series S is more affordable compared to the Xbox Series X. If budget is a significant factor for you, the Xbox Series S provides a cost-effective option while still delivering a next-generation gaming experience. For example, the Series S can play Starfield at 1440p 30fps (vs 4K 30fps on Series X).
3. Storage: The Xbox Series X comes with a larger internal storage capacity, allowing you to store more games directly on the console. The Xbox Series S, however, has a smaller storage capacity, which means you may need to manage your game library more actively or rely on external storage solutions.
4. Disc Drive: The Xbox Series X includes a disc drive, enabling you to play physical game discs and enjoy a wider range of media options, including Blu-ray and DVD playback. The Xbox Series S, in contrast, is a digital-only console, meaning you can only play games downloaded from the digital store.
5. Graphics and Performance: While both consoles support ray tracing, the Xbox Series X provides a more immersive and visually impressive experience due to its superior hardware capabilities. If you prioritize cutting-edge graphics and want the best performance available, the Xbox Series X is the preferable choice.
Consider your gaming preferences, budget, and whether you prioritize top-of-the-line performance or cost-effectiveness. If you have a 4K TV, want the most powerful console, and are willing to invest more, the Xbox Series X is the recommended option. If you have a lower budget, a 1080p or 1440p TV, and don’t mind sacrificing some performance, the Xbox Series S offers excellent value for money.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Famitsu has shared the latest look at the Japanese charts and Super Mario Party Jamboree has finally been kicked off the top spot by… more Mario.
Yes, Nintendo’s latest, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, hasn’t been troubled by its somewhat mixed reception as the new RPG sold a sweet 63,441 copies and sailed to pole position in its debut week. Jamboree is still on the podium, naturally, this time taking the silver while Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven continues to sell well and claims third place.
At Xbox, we’re building a future defined by player choice—where people can play their favorite games, discover new adventures, and connect with friends, wherever and however they love to play.
We also believe that gaming should be easy to access and available for everyone, so whether you have an Xbox console, play on PC, with Samsung Smart TVs, handhelds, mobile phones, Amazon Fire TV, or a Meta Quest headset with Game Pass Ultimate, you can play with Xbox.
In fact, you’re probably reading this on an Xbox-enabled device, that can be powered on with the help of Cloud Gaming or the Xbox App for PC.
And that’s the inspiration for our new ‘This is an Xbox’ campaign.
This Is an Xbox invites people to play with Xbox across multiple devices and screens. It showcases the evolution of Xbox as a platform that extends across devices, with bold, iconic, fun visuals and a light-hearted tone. Launching today, the campaign will come to life in a variety of ways.
This Is an Immersive Takeover
To truly understand what an Xbox is, it’s equally important to understand what is not an Xbox. To bring this to life, we’ve had some fun and labeled “This is Not an Xbox” on non-Xboxes in unexpected places, while also featuring our “This is an Xbox” campaign visuals across San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, London, New York, and Berlin to highlight all the devices that are part of Xbox.
This Is a Video About This Is an Xbox
Our live action trailer takes you through a player’s journey of experiencing their favorite games across different devices and locations, whether it’s at home or on-the-go. Set to the beat of Black Sheep’s classic, ‘The Choice Is Yours’, it reinforces the idea that whatever device you choose, you’re likely able to play with an Xbox.
This Is a Partnership
To further extend This Is an Xbox, we’ve partnered with several brands including Samsung, Crocs, Porsche, and The Happy Egg Co. (UK) to help bring the campaign to life in unexpected and entertaining ways.
The Samsung Smart TV experience continues to be an exciting way to play with Xbox, giving Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members easy and instant access to hundreds of high-quality games through the Xbox app from the Samsung Gaming Hub. Through this campaign, players can not only immerse themselves in their favorite games on Samsung’s platform but also see ‘This is an Xbox’ creative directly on their home screens – and on an even grander scale, coming soon to Times Square.
This Is an Xbox Gear Shop Collection
In celebration of this campaign launch, we have a collection of This Is an Xbox merchandise now available in the Xbox Gear Shop – from T-shirts and hoodies to iPhone and Samsung phone cases, and even a sticker sheet so you can proudly label your Xbox(es).
Take our officialThis Is an Xbox quizto find out more about what is (and is not) an Xbox, and how you can boot up your gaming experience from the device of your choice this holiday.
A studio only gets to launch its very first game once! Everyone here at Dreamlit Games is incredibly excited to debut our upcoming open-world fantasy builder, Towers of Aghasba, which launches into Early Access on November 19. We can’t wait for you to experience this fantastical world as you design your island with bustling settlements and nurture thriving ecosystems while fighting off the withered invasion.
Why early access?
This project is an ambitious open-world sandbox developed by a small team, with core mechanics intended to let players shape their island however they like. It’s also one of the first in-development early access titles coming to PS5. By launching into early access, we can involve our community in the development process, allowing us to better balance, polish, and iterate on these core components. This allows us to introduce new content and features based directly on your feedback.
You can still count on a fun, fantastical experience, with lots of content to explore right from the start of our Early Acess journey— but we’ll be adding additional polish and updates in the weeks ahead. Here’s a roadmap of what to expect fromTowers of Aghasba at launch— and throughout early access:
Launch content
The initial launch of Towers of Aghasba is already brimming with content, deep gameplay systems, a compelling narrative, and a vast world to explore. We release with:
Six regions to explore
Exploration across vast open-world lands—climbing, gliding, and riding mounts
Ruins and relics to discover, unlocking ancient knowledge
Leisure activities (eg. fishing!)
Three types of settlements to build, design, and decorate
Three types of ecosystems to grow
50+ unique creatures
150+ decorations to craft
Single-player and co-op gameplay
Invite up to three friends to your island to build up your settlements, tend to your ecosystems, take on challenging withered foes, and discover secrets across the world
Post-launch roadmap
As with any early access title, the launch is just the beginning. We have plenty in store for the weeks and months following the release, from introducing new systems while expanding existing ones, new quests and narratives, new regions to explore, and more.
Q4 2024
Post-launch support
Quality of life updates
Polish and fixes
Q1 2025
New regions to unlock and explore
New quest lines
A fresh cast of characters
Time of day-related gameplay
Offline play mode
Expanded glider traversal mechanics
Photo Mode
Player Emotes
Q2 2025
New mounts and mount management system
Expanding multiplayer activities and experiences
Crossplay
Player character customization
Improved Townfolk AI
Improved Shimudex functionality
Q3 2025
New regions unlocked
New withered quest lines and characters
Giant withered demon combat
Cold environmental effects
New creatures
Creature relationship systems
Q4 2025
New biome type–shallow water
New ecosystem type–water ecosystem
New village type–fishing village
New creatures
New foliages
New quest lines and characters
Q1 2026
New regions unlocked
Hot environmental effects
New creatures
Town happiness system
Building customization
Q2 2026
Increased Tower levels
New major questlines
Apart from all these exciting and ambitious plans for the road ahead, an important aspect in guiding the development of Towers of Aghasba through early access is you.
We feel it’s important to have the community involved in the development of our game to provide the best experience possible. Your feedback and suggestions are integral in the decisions we make and we hope to expand our roadmap to accommodate our player community’s requests.
Let’s build an incredible, unique, ambitious, and special game together. You can pre-order the game now, and dive into the adventure with us next week when Towers of Aghasba launches into Early Access on November 19 on PS5.
Star Wars is forever bringing back elements of the prior Extended Universe and Andor Season 2 is doing its bit by featuring a ship from a 1994 video game.
IGN’s Andor: Season 1 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Andor is one of the very best TV shows of the year and as good as Star Wars has been in a long, long time.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
In Rue Valley you role play a guy with poor mental health. He wanders around a crappy motel, stuck in the same old patterns of life, seemingly unable to escape his inner demons. When confronted with the premise for this upcoming RPG you may have one of two reactions. The first: you will say “lol, it me” with enough humour to wishlist it on Steam and earmark it for the future. The second: you will mutter “ugh, it me” and be immediately put off by the idea of having to tolerate an entire second layer of psychological hangups.
There is a third secret reaction though… you might think: oh, this looks a lot like Disco Elysium, but in the real world.
Despite being the face of a Hollywood film franchise and the star of a three decade old video game franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog is still homeless.
As reported by Automaton, fans grew concerned recently after discovering what appeared to be a major change to an incredibly random piece of Sonic the Hedgehog lore. A comic featured in the 2025 Sonic the Hedgehog Annual claimed the blue blur lived in Green Hill Zone, the iconic opening level to the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
But Sonic lore has otherwise stated he’s a drifter, roaming from place to place and never settling down, with even official channels like the TailsTube web series pointing to this fact.
Some fans were therefore relieved to hear Sonic had settled down, while others were in an uproar, forcing the hand of Chris Hernandez, Sega’s associate manager of Sonic the Hedgehog lore, who clarified the annual’s claim was just a misprint.
“Sorry to burst the bubble so late here,” Hernandez said on X/Twitter. “This was something we caught early on but it looks like an older draft got through on accident. Sonic doesn’t have a home; he’s still a drifter. Will work on making sure this doesn’t happen again. Thanks for catching this.”
Sonic appears too busy to sit down and apply for a mortgage, with his third film debuting on December 20 and bringing Shadow the Hedgehog to the cinematic universe. An enhanced remake of Sonic Generations folded in the edgier hedgehog in the aptly titled Sonic x Shadow Generations.
In our 9/10 Sonic x Shadow Generations review, IGN said: “Sonic x Shadow Generations takes an already excellent game and spring jumps it to new heights with a creative Shadow campaign and an appreciable graphical upgrade.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Infinity Nikki, the open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga, launches on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile on December 5.
Developer Infold Games revealed the date alongside a new trailer, below, which showed off a ton of the world alongside its characters, their companions, side activities, and clothes players can dress up in.
“Infinity Nikki breathes new life into the Nikki series by delivering an open world experience unlike any other,” the synopsis reads.
Infinity Nikki Official Release Date Set for December 5!💫
Check out the Official Release Date Announcement Trailer for Infinity Nikki! Stylists, are you ready to set foot in the enchanting Miraland? Soar through the sky, relish each thrilling step, and capture all these… pic.twitter.com/05CMzti0in
“Players will discover and explore a charming, vibrant world through activities such as fishing, pet grooming, and fashion contests. Additionally, a diverse cast of characters will brighten the world through evocative and engaging story quests, while locations will challenge Nikki with platforming challenges to take advantage of her movement and exploration toolsets.”
The game also has a staggering 30 million pre-registrations, meaning its launch next month could set some records of its own.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: running away is the best feeling in videogames. More specifically, being chased is the best feeling in videogames, a sentiment I’d happen to share with my golden retriever if you replaced the word “videogames” with “the universe”. He is a purer being, but he’ll also never know the joy of executing a rail-dismount into a dashing corner-jump escape in Deadlock, and for this he deserves our pity.
It’s easy to miss if you haven’t played for at least a few hours, but Deadlock packs one of the most engaging movement systems this side of Tribes Ascend.
, Porsche, and The Happy Egg Co. (UK) to help bring the campaign to life in unexpected and entertaining ways. 
