No, I’m not busy. Ignore the very famous actor acting moody in the corner, he’ll be quiet if you pay him no mind. Also, do like I am and just pretend my holo-phone doesn’t have a million urgent messages about some relic sitting in its inbox. Just sit here on the sofa, in this Cyberpunk 2077 flat, and watch as the big flying thing with Dogtown’s military dictator’s face on it floats between my futuristic kitchen and lounge, thanks to a new mod.
Crank up the AC.
The new year is finally upon us, and with that comes a whole horde of new games to think about — yipee!
2026 is already looking pretty stacked, and while January is usually one of the quieter months in the release calendar, there are still a handful of big hitters coming our way over the next few weeks.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Welcome to the new year, friends! Happy to be back with more games and more fun. Let’s get to it!
Brews & Bastards (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Brews & Bastards is an intoxicating, twin-stick shooter, overflowing with action-packed combat, potent brews and outlandish bosses. Select from a group of inebriated heroes and descend, drink, and destroy your way through hordes of drunken demons in search of the stolen Brew Stone.
Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Rediscover the dark whimsical tale of Little Nightmares, now enhanced in stunning 4K and 60 FPS. Play as Six, a lone child trapped in The Maw, a massive vessel inhabited by monstrous, distorted versions of adults. Sneak, hide, and survive in a world where your childhood fears come to life.
Atomfall (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) – January 7
Now with Game Pass Premium
A survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England. Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.
Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – January 7
Now with Game Pass Premium
Lost in Random: The Eternal Die blends dynamic real-time action, tactical combat, and risk-reward dice mechanics for thrilling second-to-second battles. Unravel an original stand-alone story as Queen Aleksandra, the once great ruler of Random on a mission for vengeance and redemption.
Rematch (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 7
Now with Game Pass Premium
Step onto the pitch in Rematch, a third-person, team-based football game where every pass, volley, and tackle matters. Designed for 5v5 online play, Rematch puts you in full control of one athlete, with no offsides, no fouls, and no downtime. Pass smart, play with purpose, and win together.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 7
Now with Game Pass Premium
Step into the armor of a relentless Space Marine and use a combination of lethal weaponry to crush overwhelming Ork forces. Immerse yourself in an intense and brutally violent world based on the richest science fantasy ever created. Enhanced for a new generation, this edition brings quality of life and graphical improvements.
Final Fantasy – (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – January 8
Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
“Earth, fire, water, wind… The light that once shone within the four Crystals was lost. Become the Warriors of Light, restore power to the Crystals and save the world.” A remodeled 2D take on the first game in the world-renowned Final Fantasy series! Enjoy the timeless story told through charming retro graphics. All the magic of the original, with improved ease of play.
Star Wars Outlaws (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 13
Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Experience the first-ever open world Star Wars game, set between the events of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” Explore distinct locations across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as scoundrel Kay Vess, seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted. If you’re willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity.
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) – January 15
Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Take the magic of friendship to new heights in a mystery adventure for one or two ponies. Playing as Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, Pipp, Zipp, or Misty, use your special abilities to stop the unstable magic that’s sending Zephyr Heights out of control! And have tons of fun with hilarious minigames and countless pony customizations.
Resident Evil Village (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 20
Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Resident Evil Village is the eighth main entry in the Resident Evil series. Set years after Resident Evil 7 biohazard, players follow Ethan Winters into a haunting European village, fighting for survival against brutal enemies as danger and mystery lurk around every corner.
MIO: Memories in Orbit (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 20
Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! A hand-crafted metroidvania set within a vast, decaying world reclaimed by nature and robots. Play as Mio, a nimble android exploring labyrinthine environments, battling rogue machines, and uncovering lost memories in a richly atmospheric adventure filled with secrets and danger.
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. Jump back in to tie up any loose ends, or save up to 20% off your purchase to keep the fun going!
I hope your last year treated you well with lots of high scores, achievements unlocked, and GGs. We’ll be back soon with even more games so keep it tuned here, or with us on social for Xbox and Xbox Game Pass. Talk soon!
Note: Games with a ‘Handheld’ designation represent those that are optimized for handheld play.
The post Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Star Wars Outlaws, Resident Evil Village, and More appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Microsoft has made its first Xbox Game Pass announcement of 2026, confirming a number of big hitters for January.
The headline additions are Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws and Capcom’s Resident Evil Village, but there’s plenty more coming to subscribers this month, as confirmed on Xbox Wire. 11 titles in total were announced for this month, taking fans through to January 20.
Available today, January 6, is twin-stick shooter Brews & Bastards (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) and Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), both available across Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Tomorrow, January 7, Rebellion’s Atomfall (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Premium, as does Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC), Rematch (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S).
Moving on to January 8. Final Fantasy (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), a remodeled 2D take on the first game in the series, launches on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Then, on January 13, we have Star Wars Outlaws (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Two days later, on January 15, My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
January 20 sees Resident Evil Village (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass, and the only day-one launch of the month: MIO: Memories in Orbit (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
As always, a number of games leave Game Pass. You can save up to 20% if you buy them.
Microsoft described today’s lineup as Wave 1 of January 2026, so expect more games to hit Game Pass later in January.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Warning: Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 lie ahead.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s narrative really kicks into gear when, after a job gone wrong, metal-infused merc protagonist V realises they’re now living in the shadow of a Keanu Reeves-shaped clock. Despite this, you’re free to while away hours doing a million things other than confronting your urgent mortality problem. It’s something even CD Projekt themselves have joked about.
If you’ve been wondering if TV executives have spotted Arc Raiders‘ rip-roaring success, wonder no more — “many” have already reached out to the development team to discuss making a TV series or movie.
While Embark boss Patrick Söderlund was coy about the details, he did admit that numerous companies had been in touch in hopes of making a movie or show about “this IP,” adding that Arc Raiders “fits quite well” for a game-to-TV adaptation.
“I can’t tell you how many companies have reached out to us wanting to make a TV series [and] movie out of this IP,” Söderlund told GamesBeat.
Asked if he’d been “tempted” to take up any of the offers, Söderlund admitted he had, but did stress: “We [wouldn’t] mind doing that. It would be fun, but it needs to be done in the right way. I hope that we will do that. I think the IP fits quite well with something like that.” As yet, though, while there is a team of writers working at Embark, the studio doesn’t “have anyone working on a TV or film adaptation yet.” And he did stress that “yet.”
It would, of course, be just one of scores of game IPs that have made the jump to TV or film. Juggernaut adaptations like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Minecraft, and Sonic the Hedgehog — along with critically-acclaimed TV adaptations like The Last of Us and Fallout — have seen plenty of filmmakers scour video game libraries for ideas. This year alone, we’ll see Return to Silent Hill, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Mortal Kombat 2, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter all return to the big screen as big-budget movie adaptations, with TV shows based on Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, God of War, and more also in the works.
IGN’s Arc Raiders review returned a 9/10. We said: “With polished gunplay and an irresistible grind, Arc Raiders sets a new standard for extraction shooters,” and we’re not the only ones having a good time — it’s sold over 4 million copies worldwide within two weeks of launch, cementing its commercial success. Nexon also revealed that the extraction shooter had reached a huge concurrent count of 700,000 players across all platforms. It’s done so well it’s crossed over into the world of South Park with a surprise appearance that was put together in just a few days.
If you’ve been finding it a little trickier just lately, that may be because you play a lot of PvP — Embark Studios recently confirmed one of the community’s biggest questions since the game came out: it does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’
If this has tempted you into jumping into Arc Raiders, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
In what has become CPU tradition, AMD have announced a new fastest-ever gaming processor to replace their last fastest-ever gaming processor. The newcomer, detailed at CES 2026, is the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which actually shares the same architecture, socket, core and thread counts, and power usage rating as the erstwhile big dog, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. It’s mainly a quicker maximum boost clock, up from 5.2GHz to 5.6GHz, that grants it a performance edge.
Plushies for all.
If you’re keen to bag a physical copy of Pokémon Pokopia (despite its Game-Key Card status), then you might want to head to the official Pokémon Center site.
All pre-orders via Pokémon Center will come with a Ditto Sitting Cuties Plush which, as indicated on a separate store page, is worth $9.99 and comes in at 4¾ In. The game itself is priced at $69.99 via the US site and £58.99 for those in the UK.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
NetEase and developer Everstone Studio have outlined its January roadmap for the open-world action-RPG, Where Winds Meet, which includes new modes, campaign missions, quests, puzzles, and bosses.
The developer is set to push out the newly-announced Version 1.2 update on January 9. We can expect updates every week of the month, including the final chapter in the Kaifeng campaign — described as “the most formidable challenge yet” — and a competitive Guild Battle Pre-Season (more on that below).
You can also partake in limited-time festivities via the Jianghu Martial Games, and visit the Nine Mortal Ways Camp and mysterious puzzle cave, Mistveil Prison. “Hidden in the Ghost Market beneath Kaifeng, the Nine Mortal Ways Camp Serves as a gathering place for sect members with diverse personalities, full of intrigging encounters, secret treasures, and bustling fun — but beware of the scams!” the team teases.
Version 1.2 also ushers in “large-scale, coordinated multiplayer combat” with the arrival of the Guild Battle Pre-Season. You’ll be able to test guild strategies across six “intense” matches, which will be allocated to distinct Guild Regions based on country/region to “ensure broader accessibility for guild members worldwide.” Crucially, this means each Guild Region will launch matches “simultaneously according to its local time.”
“This pre-season is crucial for us to gather player feedback and refine the core Guild Battle mechanics,” the development team explained. “We encourage all guilds to rally their members, hone their tactics, and prepare for the even more expansive guild content planned in upcoming updates.”
Here’s the full roadmap of what else to expect:
IGN’s Where Winds Meet review returned a 6/10. We said: “Where Winds Meet has a great understanding of what makes wuxia such a compelling genre, but its attempt to shove so many different things into one game only ensures that none of those elements reach their full potential.”
The Wuxia open-world action-adventure RPG set in ancient China only debuted on PC and PlayStation 5 on November 14, yet it had topped 9 million players in just two weeks. The mobile version released on December 12.
It didn’t take long for players to find creative — and highly amusing — ways to make use of the game’s chatbot NPCs, including taking a novel approach to solving riddles by… simply telling the game’s AI-powered chatbot NPCs that they have solved the game’s riddles.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Grab your dragons and don’t forget those quests, as a Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo is set to pop up on Steam this week. It’ll offer a taster of the revamped RPG ahead of full release next month, and any progress you make in the demo’ll transfer right over, so you don’t have to worry about sprinting through early game sections again.
