logo
Whoa, A Ton Of Cool New Games Just Got Announced For Xbox Game Pass

Whoa, A Ton Of Cool New Games Just Got Announced For Xbox Game Pass

Yahoo24-02-2025

It's looking like a good Game Pass harvest this year, especially because Microsoft's backlog of big first-party Xbox games like Doom: The Dark Ages and Fable are coming in 2025. But tons of other cool stuff is headed to the subscription service as well, and a bunch of them were announced during the company's ID@Xbox showcase on Monday.
The event was an indie cornucopia of new game, trailer, and release date announcements, including a bunch of cool-looking stuff that will be included day-and-date in Game Pass Ultimate and PC in the weeks and months ahead. Here's everything new announced for the Netflix-like library of games today:
33 Immortals - March 18
Descenders Next - April 9
Blue Prince - April 10
Tempopo - April 17
Revenge of the Savage Planet - May 8
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault - TBD 2025
Tanuki: Pon's Summer - TBD 2025
Ultimate Sheep Racoon - TBD
Echo Weaver - TBD
New Game Pass additions weren't the only interesting news out of the event. Other noteworthy announcements included 2024 hit poker roguelike Balatro joining Game Pass today, as well as the top-rated multiplayer gambling horror game Buckshot Roulette joining the service when it gets ported to Xbox in the near future.
We also got new release windows. Hotel Barcelona, the 2.5D action-platformer collaboration between legendary designers Suda51 and Swery, got a release window of 2025 while Ratatan, the spiritual successor to Patapon, is coming this year too. In the near-term, Tron: Catalyst, the upcoming isometric action game from Bithell Games, announced a release date of June 17, with Herding, the atmospheric puzzle game from the FAR: Lone Sails team following soon after.
Meanwhile, the beautiful solarpunk road trip van sim Outbound will launch in 2026, which is also when slice-of-life record store sim Wax Heads is scheduled to arrive. Oh, and the ever beautiful-looking Woodo, a cozy game about diorama puzzles, will hit Xbox alongside its PC release.
Finally, the latest ID@Xbox event also had two new premieres. The first was for Rockbeasts, a narrative-driven music RPG about managing a band of '90s up-and-coming rock stars who are also animals. The second was for The Lonesome Guild, a party-based action-RPG in which you play a ghost guiding a group of whimsical adventurers through a crumbling world.
But the game that most caught my eye during today's showcase was Echo Weaver. The 2D 'Metroidbrainia' was first revealed back in 2024 and it continues to look very neat. You have to uncover secrets and manage the clock to liberate yourself from a glitched time loop. It's the next game from the creators of the beautiful puzzle adventure The Wild at Heart and it looks like it could be something special.
.
For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Meta's Xbox-Branded Quest 3S Just Sold Out for All the Wrong Reasons
Meta's Xbox-Branded Quest 3S Just Sold Out for All the Wrong Reasons

Gizmodo

time5 hours ago

  • Gizmodo

Meta's Xbox-Branded Quest 3S Just Sold Out for All the Wrong Reasons

Everyone loves limited-edition stuff. There's Sony's 30th anniversary PS5, or Analogue's many limited edition Pocket handhelds, or— I don't know—the Shamrock f***ing Shake. But there's one type of person who loves limited-edition stuff more than your average consumer, and it's a scalper. For proof of that, see Meta's recently released Xbox-branded Quest 3S. See Meta Quest Xbox Edition at Best Buy In case you missed it, Meta's new limited-edition Quest 3S bundle just recently sold out, which on the surface sounds like a great thing for VR and XR. You may be tempted to say, 'Oh, wow! People really like XR headsets, huh?' But before you do that, it may also be worth taking a short gander at eBay, because the resale market over there paints a slightly more cynical picture. It's full of Xbox-branded Quest 3S bundles, folks—and they ain't just giving them away. This bundle, for reference, retails at $399, and the average price I'm seeing on eBay is about $600, though sometimes a little more or a little less. Here is the sad state of affairs on eBay as of the time of typing these words: The list goes on and on, unfortunately, which tells me one thing: the scalpers had a field day with this thing. And that's just kind of sad. It's not sad that someone would want to make money from reselling a limited-edition gadget—as annoying as scalpers are, I can't blame anyone for having a side hustle in this economy. But it is sad that Meta seemingly didn't do much to preserve its limited-edition Quest 3S for XR nerds who unequivocally deserve first dibs. It's also maybe a little sad—as someone who borders on said XR nerd identity—that the race to being out of stock may not actually be driven by real demand. XR headsets, while not the most crucial gadget in the world, are pretty cool and deserve more shine than they get, in my humble opinion. It would have been nice to see them really break through with a little help from an Xbox marketing gimmick. But as always, the almighty aftermarket prevails. To be fair, I'm sure not all of the sales were scalpers trying to make a buck off the XR headset's rarity. Some people, I presume, bought it because it's a pretty good deal for getting into XR—you get a sleek black headset with Xbox green details, Meta's Elite Strap for your head, and a limited-edition Xbox controller to top it off. Based on the retail price of all of that, this bundle saves you somewhere in the ballpark of $95. Some people bought this bundle because of Xbox, too. Here's one instance in which someone seems to have pulled the trigger on this bundle just for the controller. Honestly… respect. That's much more pure than trying to spin the whole thing around for $200. The idea that someone buys the new Quest colorway just to nab the limited edition Xbox Controller and sell the rest is really comical.. — SadlyItsDadley (@SadlyItsBradley) June 27, 2025Listen, scalpers are an inevitable fact of life nowadays when you're buying any gadget that's even slightly in demand. Like it or not, that's just the world we live in—one colored by bots and dropshipping. But I'd be lying if I said that it wouldn't have been nice to see a little effort on Meta's part to prevent that. It can be done! Just look at the Switch 2 launch. People have been resorting to cartoonish levels of robbery to get their hands on it—that's how in-demand this thing is—but Nintendo, with a little bit of forethought, has kept the scourge of scalpers to a dull roar. I guess Meta probably doesn't care that much either way, though. A sale is a sale, whether it ends up on eBay or on your dorky XR- and Xbox-loving head. Sadly, if you're in the latter camp, it looks like the aftermarket is your only option right now. Thanks, Zuckerberg. Just because you look like a dropshipper doesn't mean you have to act like one. See Meta Quest Xbox Edition at Best Buy

Puzzle platformers, desktop aquariums and other new indie games worth checking out
Puzzle platformers, desktop aquariums and other new indie games worth checking out

Engadget

time7 hours ago

  • Engadget

Puzzle platformers, desktop aquariums and other new indie games worth checking out

Welcome to the latest edition of our indie game roundup. We've got quite a bit on deck this week, starting with a few nuggets of news. In case you missed it, the Steam Summer Sale is upon us, which means there are bargains galore on the storefront (we've rounded up some of the tastier deals). If you're anything like me, you'll end up buying a bunch of games that you'll never end up playing but hope to get to some day. In any case, good luck with your deal hunting! I read an interesting story on Game Developer this week about Peak , a co-op climbing game from Aggro Crab ( Another Crab's Treasure , which I absolutely loved) and Landfall ( Content Warning ). A team of seven developers made the bulk of the game during a month-long retreat earlier this year. The two studios relied largely on their community managers — who'd done a fantastic job drumming up interest for their previous games — to hype up Peak . To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. A combination of factors such as smart marketing (that title is peak), the game's ability to deliver funny moments that could go viral and a low price helped Peak to sell more than 2 million copies in 9 days. This is a cool success story for a game that cost about $200,000 to make. Here's hoping more small studios find ways to collaborate like this. As a comparison, Remedy says FBC: Firebreak hit 1 million players after eight days, and that game is on PlayStation and Xbox subscription services. Meanwhile, Microsoft has rubber-stamped a free, fan-made Halo-themed game in the vein of Vampire Survivors . Spartan Survivors, from JuanGGZ, is out on and it's coming to Steam and Xbox later this year. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. After debuting on PC last year and making its way to iOS in February, I Am Your Beast landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S this week. From the remarkably prolific Strange Scaffold ( Clickolding , TMNT: Tactical Takedown and El Paso, Elsewhere ), this stylish, stealthy first-person shooter has been widely acclaimed and now console players can check out what the fuss is all about. In addition, the studio this week updated the iOS version of I Am Your Beast with all of the game's DLC. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D puzzle platformer with charming, hand-drawn art from Zockrates Laboratories and publisher Phiphen Games. The perspective switches to 2D in some sections, in a similar fashion to Super Mario Odyssey . What might help this game stand out is that it has a feature called SWAP, which enables you to copy the texture from one item and paste it onto another. So you might turn a waterfall into foliage so you can climb it or convert ice into lava. Ruffy and the Riverside is out now on Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Quantum Witch is an adventure platformer in which the plot is shaped by your decisions. Even the side quests have multiple endings, so it seems like there's a lot going on here. Solo developer NikkiJay has described this as a "queer emancipation story" in which main character Ren takes back agency over her life. I'm interested in checking this one out, not least because the pretty pixel art and droll humor remind me of the Monkey Island games I loved so much as a kid. Quantum Witch is out now on Steam . To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Antro looks like it's cut from a similar cloth as Playdead's Limbo and Inside . However, this rhythm-based puzzle platformer (from Gatera Studio and publishers Selecta Play and Astrolabe Games) is set to the beats of hip-hop, drill, R&B and electronic music. Here, you play as a courier in a city that emerges below the ruins of Barcelona following a global catastrophe. Music and freedom (among other things) are banned here, but a rebellion is rising against the tech-dominated dictatorship that's in charge. Antro is out now on Steam , Xbox Series X/S and PS5. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Idle games that sit on your screen all day long are having a real moment. For instance, Bongo Cat is near the top of the Steam most-played charts with concurrent player numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping , from Lunheim Studios and publisher Future Friends Games, is one of the newest games in the genre. This is billed as a cozy game in which you can hatch and sell fish, decorate your aquarium and (of course) go fishing. You can visit your friends' aquariums (and those of other players) too. It all seems cute and charming enough, and I don't think having it in the corner of my screen would distract me too much while I'm crafting the hottest of takes . To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. There are a lot of things I love about Flock Off! already. The name, the fact it's set in my homeland of Scotland and that it's an alternate history take on the story of Dolly the Sheep — the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. In this first-person action title from Bunkhouse Games, you and up to three allies will have to use whatever's at your disposal to fend off zombie sheep. Just about anything can be used as a weapon, including a baguette, leek, traffic cone, your friends and a lawnmower that you wield in the fashion of Dead Alive . Flock Off! is coming to Steam later this year, but it's already alive in my heart. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Several years ago, we interviewed musician Sam Battle (aka Look Mum No Computer) about his wild DIY synth projects. Battle has since teamed up with developer The Bitfather and publisher Headup to make a twin-stick shooter in which you can make your own music. In this game, also called Look Mum No Computer , you'll craft and upgrade synth modules. These also function as your weapons that you'll use to battle rogue components to fix electronics. It's such a cool concept and it now has a release date. Look Mum No Computer is bound for Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG on July 24. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. I have to admit, though I've been aware of Firefighting Simulator: Ignite for a while, it wasn't really grabbing my attention. But the release date trailer included a very important piece of information. Those who pre-order this game — from Construction Simulator studio weltenbauer. Software Entwicklung GmbH and publisher astragon Entertainment GmbH — will get a pack that includes a cool vintage helmet and an absolutely adorable Dalmatian called Simi for their firehouse. Firefighting Simulator: Ignite is a co-op firefighting game with more than 35 missions. It's coming to PC , PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 9.

These Two Cool Mass Effect Mods Look Like The Perfect Way To Revisit A Classic Trilogy
These Two Cool Mass Effect Mods Look Like The Perfect Way To Revisit A Classic Trilogy

Yahoo

time21 hours ago

  • Yahoo

These Two Cool Mass Effect Mods Look Like The Perfect Way To Revisit A Classic Trilogy

If you're like me and haven't played the original Mass Effect trilogy in some time, then boy do I have some good news for you if you have the game on PC or are thinking of grabbing a copy on Steam. A pair of wildly impressive mods for the Legendary Edition remaster of everyone's favorite Xbox 360-era space opera trilogy contains so many exciting tweaks and so much new material that even I, someone who thought I was probably never gonna play those games again, is now thinking about how I'm gonna clear hard-drive space to hit the stars once more. The LE3 Diversification Project (the White House is already upset about it) and Spectre Expansion Mod from virtuoso modder Tydeous and a team of talented editors sound too good to be true. Check out the trailer and deep dive here: For those who don't have 17 minutes to check out the video, let me break down the highlights of what's on offer in these super neat mods: 4 new combat missions 1 new hub map 12 new cutscenes 8 altered cutscenes 3 new apartment decorations 6 updated character appearances And there's more than just what's in that list. From making subtle changes like replacing the textures on dead bodies to be more accurate to the lore of the world, to performing incredible feats of digital archaeology in restoring cutscenes that were only referred to in snippets of code in the original game's beta, the mods are packed with tons of new things to see and explore. The mods also expand how you can take in the world. For example, at the Purgatory night club from Mass Effect 2, you can now order drinks that were featured in Mass Effect: The Official Cocktail Book. Unfortunately, though it's well-deserved after such hard work, modder Tydeos is going on a hiatus now that his work on these mods is complete. However, according to the deep dive video, should he return in the future, he hopes to expand the four brand new missions the mod adds to the game to match the scale found in official, BioWare-brewed quests. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store