Timeline
Wednesday3rd Dec 2025
News High On Life 2 Debuts 10 Minutes Of New Gameplay Footage As Xbox Pre-Orders Go Live
"Enjoy ten minutes of exclusive new gameplay from High on Life 2"
Looking through our big Xbox Game Pass in 2026 guide, basically everything has a "TBD" release date as things stand apart from two games - the PC-only MENACE and the highly-anticipated sequel High on Life 2. In fact, High on Life 2 is going to be with us in just over two months' time...
News Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About December Xbox Release Octopath Traveler 0
It's sounding pretty darn good!
The release schedule often dies down when it comes to big launches in the month of December, but 2025 has a few tricks still up its sleeve, including Square Enix's Octopath Traveler 0 - and the early reviews are starting to trickle in for this new JRPG. So, we're going to round some of them up below to give you a...
News Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass Premium (December 3)
Two more titles for Premium subscribers!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! Today's update focuses on Xbox Game Pass Premium, with two titles moving over to Microsoft's mid-tier service today (December 3). Here's a summary of your two new additions to Xbox Game Pass Premium: Monster Train 2 (Series X|S, PC, Cloud): "Monster Train...
Talking Point Have You Received The Free Upgrade For Red Dead Redemption On Xbox?
How's it all shaking out for you right now?
It's no secret that today's Red Dead Redemption rollout hasn't exactly gone to plan, at least on Xbox. The game went live at midnight local time as was somewhat expected, but Rockstar's free upgrade path isn't working in the way folks expected right now - and we haven't had any official updates from th
Tuesday2nd Dec 2025
News Red Dead Redemption's Free Upgrade Is Finally Rolling Out For Xbox Series X|S
Better late than never
The new upgrade for Red Dead Redemption is out today on all platforms, and while the game is now live and playable on Xbox Series X|S, the upgrade path from the old Xbox 360 version isn't working for lots of players - and there's some confusion as to why at the moment. When the team at Rockstar announced this ne
Feature 12 Exciting Xbox Indie Games To Look Out For In December 2025
12 games to celebrate the 12th month!
Welcome to the final month of the year! With that in mind, we thought we'd put together one final list of exciting indie games to look out for - 12 games to celebrate the 12th month. And to be honest, it's still hard to nail the list down! There's so much good stuff to look forward to here, including the...
News Routine Is Getting All Kinds Of Review Scores Ahead Of Its Xbox Game Pass Launch
Some people are REALLY loving it though
There's been a ton of interest in the long-awaited first-person horror shooter Routine ahead of its launch on Xbox Game Pass this Thursday (December 4th), and the first reviews have just started going live across the web this afternoon. And at first glance, these reviews are a little bit all over the place!...
News 1997 PC Game 'Blood' Has Been Remastered By Nightdive Studios, And It Hits Xbox This Week
"Soak up 42 pulse-pounding levels dripping with Lovecraftian atmosphere"
We've got an Xbox debut 28 years in the making this week! The 1997 first-person shooter Blood, that only released on PC back in the '90s, has been remastered by Nightdive Studios and is heading to Xbox on December 4th, 2025. If you haven't come across it before, Blood:...
News Xbox Teases 2026 Game Pass Lineup As It Delivers The Service's Final Update Of 2025
Game Pass is done with updates this year
Earlier today, Microsoft dropped its December Xbox Game Pass roundup - with 14 games coming to multiple tiers of the service in the next few weeks. The update stops at December 11th with the addition of Bratz: Rhythm & Style, and that's seemingly going to be our final XGP update for 2025 as the team begins to...
PSA Red Dead Redemption For Xbox Series X|S Is Part Of The $7.99 GTA+ Subscription
You can complete it in a month, right?
The rollout of Red Dead Redemption's new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S version has unfortunately got off to a bad start, with the free upgrade having yet to activate - and there's ultimately a lot of confusion surrounding it. Update: This has now been fixed, as discussed elsewhere on Pure Xbox:
News These 14 Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (December 2-11)
Your latest roundup of new titles
Microsoft has today revealed the next roundup of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, with a batch of new additions arriving here in the first half of December 2025. We've got the day one launch of Routine to look forward to later this week, alongside Mortal Kombat 1 and more arriving later on in December. And don't...
News Five Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass In December 2025
Update: The full month has been revealed!
Microsoft has revealed the next batch of six games set to leave Xbox Game Pass in early December, with these titles appearing in the "Leaving Soon" section of the Game Pass tab on the official Xbox mobile app. While all of these are disappointing to lose, we've got three big fan favourites leaving the...
Guide Xbox Game Pass Essential: Full List Of Games (December 2025 Update)
Here's everything you can play on Game Pass Essential
Back in 2023, Microsoft finally phased out Xbox Live Gold, replacing it with Xbox Game Pass Core as a new entry-level tier to its subscription service. Since then, it's been renamed to Xbox Game Pass Essential as of October 2025. Unlike Games with Gold, which
News Black Ops 7 Season 01 Maps Detailed, Free On Xbox Game Pass Ultimate This Week
Four maps arrive on day one
Ahead of launch later this week, Xbox and Activision have given us a closer look at the multiplayer maps coming to Black Ops 7 Season 01 - with four new levels coming to the Game Pass FPS later this week. The maps in question are Fate, Odysseus, Utopia and Standoff; the latter being a returning classic from 2012's Black...
News New Microsoft Survey Suggests Five AI Features That Could Be Added To Xbox Game Pass
"Which of these would you be most likely to use?"
Whether it's a popular move or not, Microsoft is putting a big focus on the power of AI these days, and we've already seen Microsoft Copilot getting significantly integrated into the Xbox space over the past few months. It's very unlikely they're going to stop there, as suggested in a new Microsoft...
Monday1st Dec 2025
News Spec Ops: The Line Director Returns With Horror Game 'Sleep Awake' On Xbox This Week
"SLEEP AWAKE blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination."
One of the games you probably glossed over in our "games coming to Xbox next week" roundup over the weekend was Sleep Awake, which is a psychedelic horror game that's being developed by a brand-new studio. That studio is called "Eyes Out", and it's led by Spec Ops: The Line...
Hands On Red Dead Redemption For Xbox Series X Makes A Great First Impression
The version I've always wanted
For whatever reason, I didn't play much Red Dead Redemption for the first decade of its life. It was only really when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018 that I felt like it was time to go back, and by that point it was playable with backwards compatibility on Xbox One, Series X and Series S - albeit with the...
News Marvel Cosmic Invasion Impresses Critics As Arcade Beat-'Em-Up Lands On Xbox Game Pass
Out now on the service!
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is kicking off December on Xbox Game Pass in a big way - and the new Marvel brawler is out now, which means early reviews are starting to trickle in for the newly-released Xbox title. So, we're going to gather up some of those early reviews down below for you take a look at. Spoiler alert; Marvel...
News Here's What The Red Dead Redemption Upgrade Looks Like On Xbox Series X|S
How the new Xbox versions stack up
The new version of Red Dead Redemption for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will be with us on Tuesday, December 2nd, and it's already Tuesday in some countries right now, hence why we've got some early footage! It always seems to be Fuzion Xbox Testing on YouTube that gets to this kind of stuff earlier than anyone...
Guide Xbox Game Pass In 2026: The Full List Of Everything Announced So Far
The complete list of all games
Xbox Game Pass is already starting to fill up for 2026, and if you're looking for a list of everything coming to Game Pass in 2026, you've come to the right place! Below, we've picked out the complete list of games announced for Xbox Game Pass in 2026 so far, and we'll keep updating this as more are announced...
News Red Dead Redemption For Xbox Series X|S Has A 50% Launch Discount
For a limited-time only!
Rockstar's new current-gen upgrade for Red Dead Redemption is starting to roll out in certain regions, and with the game now live in some parts of the world, we're seeing that this new version has a 50% launch discount on Xbox Series X|S. Available for seemingly the first two weeks after release, Red Dead Redemption has a...
Feature All New Games Coming To Xbox In December 2025
Release dates for every December Xbox launch
Welcome to our roundup of all new Xbox games coming out in December 2025! Below, we've listed every Xbox game with a December 2025 release date, including all confirmed Xbox Game Pass titles for December 2025 so far. Without further ado, here are all the new games coming to Xbox in December 2025: The...
News Halo: MCC Hit Its Highest Steam Player Count Since 2021 Over The Weekend
Masterworks
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been a pretty steady Steam performer since it was introduced to the platform back in 2019; especially over the last three or four years where it regularly hits about 10k concurrent players at peak times. Over this past weekend though, the collection peaked a little higher than usual; hitting a Steam...
News MindsEye Gets 'Enhanced Gameplay' Plus A Free Trial On Xbox, And Here's How It Looks
They're still working on this one!
At the end of last week, the developers beyond the critically panned MindsEye released Update 6 for the game, adding "enhanced gameplay" alongside a Free Starter Pack that means anyone can now try it for free on multiple platforms. Specifically, the MindsEye Free Starter Pack features the Robin Hood campaign...
News Xbox Owners Show Off Their Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025 Purchases
"Today I kept a promise my younger self never forgot."
It's been quite an underwhelming Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 from a console perspective for Xbox fans, with just a few small discounts scattered around for the two systems, but that's still managed to make some people happy! Over on the Xbox subreddit, there are a few people showing off...
News Three Games Are Available This Week With Xbox Game Pass (December 1-4)
Starting today!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! So far, we've got three games coming to the library this week, including the recent surprise addition to the lineup in Marvel Cosmic Invasion - which arrives today! Here's a look at this week's Xbox Game Pass titles, all of which are new additions to the main Game Pass Ultimate library...
Saturday29th Nov 2025
Poll What Do You Think Of Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden On Xbox Game Pass?
Have you been playing it this week?
We've had a few games arrive on Xbox Game Pass this week, and arguably none bigger than Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - an action-RPG from 2024 that's proved very popular over the past couple of years. Here at Pure Xbox, we played this one all the way back at launch in February '24, gi
Guide Xbox Game Pass: All Games Coming Soon In December 2025
All the confirmed reveals so far
Looking for a complete list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2025? It can be pretty difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings in the world of Xbox Game Pass every month, so we've put together this handy guide to provide an overview of what's coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2025. Here's...
Feature These 30+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (December 1-5)
Including a massive free upgrade for RDR!
Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for December 1-5! We've got some big games on the way over the next few days, including the current-gen upgrade for Red Dead Redemption, Octopath Traveler 0 and DLC for Elden Ring Nightreign, while all three
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 29-30)
How about a track weekend?
Welcome to your final weekend in November! If you're not stuck doing all of your Christmas shopping this weekend, maybe you're passing the time with some Xbox over the next few days? Here's what we're playing this weekend: Ben Kerry, Staff Writer: Fellow colleague Fraser has mentioned this new A.I.L.A horror game to me...
Friday28th Nov 2025
News Black Ops 7 Gets Its First Xbox Discount Two Weeks After Launch, But You'll Have To Be Quick
A Black Friday weekend offer from Microsoft
Xbox's big Black Friday sale has been live for more than a week now, featuring some massive AAA titles from a broad range of publishers and developers. One game that seemingly missed the Black Friday boat — mostly due to its very recent release date — was Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, but Microsoft has...
News Call Of Duty May Be Heading To Nintendo As Xbox Dev Seeks Talent With 'Switch Experience'
Maybe not until 2027, though
Remember when Microsoft committed to putting Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms amidst all of the ActiBlizz drama a few years back? Well, we've not really seen much activity in this space since, but after confirming that this move was still in the works back in the summer, one of the COD dev teams is now seemingly hiring...
Rumour Two Xbox First-Party Titles Get Leaked 2026 Release Windows
Big pinch of salt with these, folks
With next year (and beyond) on Xbox looking pretty darn stacked, Microsoft could be having some trouble knowing where exactly to place its first-party games in its 2026 release calendar. We know of four big titles landing next year at the moment - and some fresh rumours today are giving us a narrower window for...
News Control 2 Could Show Up At The Game Awards Following New Remedy Trademark
Or possibly a TV show?
The Game Awards is coming up in just a few weeks here on December 11th, which means we're probably going to start seeing hints at what might crop up at the show in the near future. Earlier this week, we had our first confirmed reveal in the form of
News Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition On Switch 2 Is 'Cut Back' Even From The Xbox 360 Version
Digital Foundry takes a look
Last week, Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics rather randomly released the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2, and the results of this port are pretty interesting compared to the existing Xbox and PlayStation versions. One area that the new version excels in, at least on Switch 2, is frame rate. The game is...
Talking Point Are You Looking Forward To Any December Xbox Releases As 2025 Wraps Up?
Any planned pickups for next month?
November 2025 is now coming to a close, and we've seen pretty much all of the month's big releases at this stage - from Football Manager 26 to Black Ops 7 and more. We've still got one month of the year left though, and we want to know if any December releases are sticking out to you right now on Xbox. After...
News Xbox Game Studios Has Loads Of Titles Heavily Discounted In Its Steam Black Friday Sale
Lots of XGS, Bethesda & Activision offers!
Here at Pure Xbox we've done plenty of coverage on Microsoft's Black Friday offers already - from a general roundup of the big Xbox digital sale to discounts on Game Pass and so on. If you're playing over on PC a lot more these days though — especially in the wake of
Thursday27th Nov 2025
Talking Point Will You Be Revisiting Red Dead Redemption On Xbox Next Week?
It's almost free upgrade time!
In just a few days' time, one of the best games of the Xbox 360 generation will be making a comeback on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in the form of a free upgrade that's dropping on December 2nd, 2025. That game is of course Red Dead Redemption, which has been playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S...
News Xbox Exec Talks Game Pass And Suggests Developer Enthusiasm Hasn't Wavered For It
In fact, the service is more ambitious than ever now
It's been an ambitious year for Xbox Game Pass in 2025, with so many incredible games joining the service over the past 11 months, and it's about to deliver another amazing slate of titles in 2026 as well. In fact, Microsoft is promising 75+ "day one" games on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate per-year...
News Three More Games Have Been 'Hard Delisted' And Removed Off The Xbox Store Entirely
Microsoft takes action
There's been a lot of talk about curation and how Microsoft seems to allow anything on the Xbox Store these days, but apparently there's a lot going on in the background that we're never privy to, as evidenced by a few games that have quietly been hard delisted on the Xbox Store. The term "hard delisted" refers to games that...
News Dying Light: The Beast Gets Its Biggest Update Yet, And It's In The Xbox Black Friday Sale
"The largest and most significant update to date"
It's been a few months now since Dying Light: The Beast launched on Xbox and other platforms, and the game has just received its biggest update since release today - perfect timing considering it's part of the Xbox Black Friday Sale 2025! This update adds a New Game+ mode, ray tracing on PC, three...
Review JSAUX Slim Carrying Case For ROG Xbox Ally - A Great Fit And Perfect For Backpacks
A neat design that gets the job done
I've been in the possession of a ROG Xbox Ally X for over a month now, but I've been too fearful to take it on the road with me. I actually went on holiday to multiple countries, sitting on a plane for tens of hours in which I could have been playing all these great Xbox titles, but the fear of scratching or...
News Xbox Says Cloud Gaming Is Up 45% With Game Pass & Console Users In 2025
"Players are streaming their games more than ever"
On the back of Xbox's November 2025 Update, Microsoft has given us some fresh figures on Xbox Cloud Gaming usage these days - with the service up across a bunch of different metrics year-on-year. First off, the team says that Cloud Gaming usage in general from
"We focus on the player; we don’t focus on the device."
All the way back in 2019, before the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were even fully revealed, there was skepticism that Xbox would be ditching consoles and/or turning into a third-party publisher. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked about...
News Forza Horizon 2 Super Early Xbox Development Build Leaks Online
Horizon 2 demake when?!
At this point, we feel like we've seen pretty much everything there is to see about the Forza Horizon series, going back all the way to the first game on Xbox 360. This morning, however, we've come across a very cool leak that shows a super-early development build of Forza Horizon 2 - one from before its eventual release back...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 27-30)
Including The First Berserker: Khazan!
Xbox Free Play Days has returned again for another week! There are some awesome titles in the mix over the next few days, including the hardcore action game The First Berserker: Khazan and the week-long free trial of Battlefield 6's multiplayer, and more might be revealed later today as well (we'll update this...
News Xbox Players Are Seeing A Strange Game-Breaking Bug In Gears Of War: Reloaded
The anti-cheat is having a bit of a wobble
Gears of War: Reloaded has some of its code rooted in the 2006 original, so at times, certain quirks are bound to crop up that cause issues for players - especially given that the first Gears of War was always a little buggy. However, one that's seemingly become more widespread recently is related to an...
Wednesday26th Nov 2025
Talking Point Did You Expect More From Xbox 360's 20th Anniversary?
Red ring of meh
Well, that's it, Xbox 360's 20th birthday has come and gone. As you probably saw, over here at Pure Xbox we didn't forget about the anniversary - with multiple features and
News Xbox's Latest Free Game Has 3 Separate Versions And 3000G Worth Of Achievements
"Dive into a thrilling incremental experience"
It's been a while since we last saw a new free-to-play (or just entirely "free") game release on the Xbox Store, but that's all changed today with the arrival of Card Storm Idle - a game that actually has three separate versions to try. That makes it extremely lucrative for achievement hunters, as...
News The Game Awards 2025 First Reveal Confirmed Ahead Of Next Month's Showcase
"This is your call to rise"
At this point, we know about the awards that will be present at The Game Awards 2025, but the new game reveals are what most folks tune in for, and our first inclusion has now been locked in ahead of the event next month. Action-adventure RPG Exodus will feature during The Game Awards showcase, as confirmed by Archetype...
