It kicks off with Sonic X Shadow Generations already available. It’s an excellent platformer which sees the titular hedgehog take on Black Doom in a trip through his own past, which we found quite enjoyable. Final Fantasy 16 is next on the list, and we’ve made our thoughts on that one pretty clear when it first came out – decide for yourself when it drops on June 16th. We’re also getting Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Life is Strange: Double Exposure on June 23 for the UK, US, and Japan regions on June 23.

Finally, Black Desert, Blades of Fire, and Farming Simulator 25 are rounding out the rest of the category’s additions, and they’re dropping on June 30. If you’re a Premium subscriber, you’ve also got the cult classic PS2 rhythm title Gitaroo Man to look forward to on June 16 with a global release on the service.

Interestingly, Embracer Group also made note of the fact that the “new Kingdom Come adventure” doesn’t include the “Deliverance” part of the franchise’s name, which indicates that we might be getting an entirely new story in the same setting that focuses on a new cast of characters. Whether this means we will also see any changes made to the open-world RPG series’ gameplay also remains to be seen.

Considering the fact that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and all of its DLCs had been released over the course of 2025, the fact that a new Kingdom Come adventure is already in full development also indicates that it might be a smaller-scoped project than we’ve seen Warhorse Studios tackle in the past.

Warhorse Studios had confirmed that the project was in the works earlier this week, alongside announcing that it was also working on an open-world RPG that would be set in The Lord of the Rings‘ Middle-earth. However, no further details about this second project have been revealed either, and the fact that it was referred to as a Middle-earth RPG rather than a The Lord of the Rings RPG indicates that its storyline might not intersect with the adventure of Frodo Baggins much.

The studio’s community manager, Tom Grey, had previously addressed rumors about a game based on The Lord of the Rings being in the works by noting that he couldn’t comment on future projects at the time. However, content director Ondrej Bittner said that it was a “huge, immersive RPG.” The comment was likely referring to the Middle-earth RPG.

The Kingdom Come series has been quite successful for Warhorse Studios, with the company confirming back in February that the latest entry—Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2—had sold 5 million copies.

“Five million Henrys are now adventuring in Bohemia! Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has officially reached this massive milestone, and it is all thanks to you. Our community is growing every single day, and we couldn’t be more excited to have you with us. Thank you for making this journey unforgettable,” wrote the studio in its announcement.

The milestone was hit just a few months after the RPG had sold 4 million copies back in November, shortly after the release of the final planned DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2—Mysteria Ecclesiae.

For more details, check out our review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. And while you’re at it, also take a look at our thoughts on PS5 release of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which was released earlier this year and includes a host of enhancements over its PS4 and Xbox One versions.

Of course, further details will have to wait until the “time is right.” Rumors of Warhorse’s involvement began in March, seemingly referring to the same Lord of the Rings project reported back in September 2025. The latter has the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) allegedly providing a partial investment of about $100 million.

While little is known about it, the project will reportedly go toe-to-toe with WB Games’ Hogwarts Legacy. However, a new report from Insider Gaming later alleged that Crystal Dynamics was the developer (though it didn’t refute Warhorse making its own title in the same universe).

With the Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer referring to it as a “Middle-earth” RPG instead of an entry in The Lord of the Rings saga, it could very well be something completely different. How it will pan out remains to be seen, but given the acclaim that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 received – and promises that Warhorse’s next game would be a “huge, immersive RPG” – there are certainly high expectations.

Stay tuned for more updates as usual. As for the new Kingdom Come title, perhaps a spin-off with Sir Hans Capon as the leading man? We can only hope.

Celebrating the eighth anniversary of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the developer has finally released a current-gen upgrade for its console versions. This means that PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players can finally stop relying on backwards compatibility and can instead experience the grand adventure while still making use of their powerful consoles’ capabilities.

Now, let’s get this out of the way before we get into reexamining the medieval RPG in the modern context. This current-gen upgrade is largely oriented towards visual fidelity and performance improvements. In its own announcements, the developer says the upgrade uses PC Ultra Quality as the baseline, alongside added/improved features previously only available on PC. Even just starting up the game for the first time it’s immediately obvious this is a step up from the original console releases, helped by higher-resolution textures/models (toggleable in settings) and other PC-grade features making their way over. In fact, I’d go as far as to note that, while we don’t quite get massive leaps in visual fidelity in new console generations that we used to see in the 1990s and 2000s, Kingdom Come: Deliverance on PS5 shows that there is still plenty of difference.

"The best thing that I can say about these improvements is that they are almost entirely invisible."

This difference becomes even more evident when you actually play the game. When it first came out, it was quite clear that Kingdom Come: Deliverance is best experienced on a capable PC. The PS4 release of the title targeted a playable frame rate of 30 FPS, but unfortunately, the console would often chug along, with graphically intense moments often involving dips down to 20 FPS. Along with this, the base PS4 couldn’t even run the game at 1080p, being limited to 900p instead. The PS5 version, on the other hand, feels far superior. On PS5, the game targets up to 60 FPS while outputting a 4K image via FSR upscaling—with the internal render resolution boosted to 2560×1440 and supported by dynamic resolution in heavier scenes. Even intense moments couldn’t really do much to bring the frame rate down.

The developer had noted many improvements made to the game and the heavily modified version of CryEngine it runs on to achieve this, including dynamic resolution and optimized asset streaming. The best thing that I can say about these improvements is that they are almost entirely invisible. I never really felt like my resolution was being dropped to favor performance, and personally, as long as I’m getting smooth frame rates, I wouldn’t really have cared even if it was noticeable. When it comes to the visuals and performance, the PS5 release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance feels like a triumph, aside from one minor issue.

Despite all the optimization work, loading still feels more noticeable than you’d expect from many PS5-native games, even if it’s dramatically improved over last gen. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is far from the horrendous loading times we used to see on previous-gen HDD-based consoles, and the PS5’s SSD is still quite obviously speeding things up to a notable extent. However, when compared to other modern titles, like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for instance, the load times are definitely on the slightly longer side. This, however, is a nitpick at best, since it still loads up incredibly quickly compared to the PS4 release, and in my testing I was typically looking at single-digit seconds at the start of a session—fast, but not always ‘blink-and-you-miss-it’ fast.

"Kingdom Come: Deliverance basically leaves you to your own devices."

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a long and epic one. Protagonist Henry is a simple commoner. The son of a blacksmith in the Bohemian town of Skalitz, he lives out his life helping his parents with work. However, one day in the year 1403, life as he knows it is changed. An army raids Skalitz—a brutal invasion tied to the conflict consuming Bohemia, and Henry’s life is shattered overnight. Fueled by his desire for revenge, Henry joins Lord Radzig Kobyla and slowly starts unraveling the conspiracy behind this attack.

Generally speaking, the story is quite compelling. While it might be difficult to get your head around all of the characters that are introduced, especially since you can spend a long time between seeing them again, the narrative as a whole plays out in an interesting way that will keep you guessing throughout your run with the game.

After this initial setup, Kingdom Come: Deliverance basically leaves you to your own devices. It is entirely up to you whether or not you might want to take on the main story quests, take up any of the several side quests, or even just roam around and explore the world, making a living off hunting and foraging. The systems powering the open-world RPG are entirely classless, with progression revolving entirely around the things you might do in the world. Get into a lot of fights with a sword, and you’ll find your mastery with the weapon slowly rising. Even non-combat skills can be developed in similar ways, and in fact, Henry doesn’t even have the ability to read when you first start out. This character development system plays a major role in making Kingdom Come: Deliverance such a compelling game.

"[Combat] is a complex system that feels quite rewarding once you actually figure it out and start winning fights at a more common pace."

Another major aspect of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is its melee combat system. Rather than featuring simple hack-and-slash gameplay, getting into a fight here is a more deliberate affair. Various stats of your weapon, like the length of your blade and its weight, play a vital role in how much damage you can do. Along with this, you also have to pick which angles you want to attack from, and how you should block incoming attacks. It is a complex system that feels quite rewarding once you actually figure it out and start winning fights at a more common pace. Ranged combat is more straightforward… but bows and crossbows don’t always help much against armored enemies.

Let’s not forget that the PS5 release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance also features plenty of content beyond the base game thanks to the inclusion of seven post-launch expansions that were released between 2018 and 2019. These DLCs range from minor—like a Hardcore Mode difficulty—to middling—like a series of treasure hunts—to more interesting stories, like The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, or A Woman’s Lot.

Despite the generally-excellent quality of the game itself, the console versions of Kingdom Come: Deliverance have previously been difficult to recommend thanks to the severe performance issues. Thankfully, the current-gen upgrade has erased all these issues. It also helps that, eight years on, Kingdom Come: Deliverance remains a phenomenal open-world RPG that challenges players with its deep progression systems, non-linear questing, and simulationist approach to the world.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

“Dan has a new role. That’s the creation of the Kingdom Come movie,” said Frývaldský (via machine translation). “I’m sure people will wonder if this is some kind of breakup with Warhorse. No, on the contrary, Dan himself wanted to move on. He made three games that were a global success, and he has been wanting to try something different for a long time.”

Frývaldský went on to note that a film adaptation of Kingdom Come is a major milestone that Warhorse Studios as a whole wants to achieve. He also said that, while Vávra won’t be around in the offices much as part of his new role, he is still a member of the studio.

“Getting Kingdom Come to the screen or the screen in the next few years is another milestone that we want to achieve, and that is Dan’s new role,” he said. “You won’t see him in the office every day anymore, but in a broader sense, he is still part of Warhorse.”

As for progress on the movie’s production, Frývaldský has confirmed that a script has already been written, and Warhorse Studios is currently in talks with production companies.

“Anyone who has played Kingdom Come or even Mafia will know Dan’s handwriting and can expect a strong story again,” he said. “We would have to be blind if we didn’t realize how much our brand has grown. In fact, Dan Vávra’s new position could be called transmedia director. In any case, we see the film as a complement to our game creation, which can be extremely successful in its own right.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance was originally released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One back in 2018. The title was considered a cult classic at the time, with many appreciating its detailed approach to world building and in-depth gameplay mechanics. Over time, the title would go on to become quite successful, which in turn would lead to the development of its sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance revolves around a young man named Henry, living in the village of Skalitz. While he lives a simple life as the son of a blacksmith, things take a dark turn when a sudden invasion ends up with the death of everyone he knows and loves. This fateful event leads Henry down the path to uncovering various conspiracies, while he also works hard to try and achieve his late father’s final request—to deliver a sword to Radzig Kobyla.

More recently, Kingdom Come: Deliverance got a current-gen upgrade to bring its visuals up to par to the capabilities of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Among other things, it got upgraded visuals, smoother frame rates, and several performance enhancements. As for the sequel, it is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

If you’re keen on a physical edition, that launches on May 15th. As for improvements, the next-gen update offers 4K resolution support, high-resolution textures and an “improved frame rate” (as leaked last month). Based on the trailer provided, there appear to be lighting changes in some places, some looking more natural than others.

Of course, the developer specified other changes and improvements, so hardcore fans will likely learn more by going hands-on. For newcomers on consoles who only experienced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, this is now the perfect way to experience Henry’s origins.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance launched in 2018, and despite multiple issues, it became a commercial success, having sold over 10 million units to date. It’s also playable on PC and Nintendo Switch. As for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Warhorse Studios recently wrapped support on the title, which has sold five million units in its first year. Check out our review for the base game here.

No real details have been revealed about the core subject of the livestream, aside from it simply being a celebration of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. However, the announcement has led many to believe that Warhorse Studio might finally confirm that it is bringing the open-world RPG to modern consoles. A Reddit thread discussing this announcement has noted that the Xbox store listing for Kingdom Come: Deliverance already has the logo for the current-gen Xbox Series X/S. This, they believe, means that a shadow-drop of the original is happening soon.

Rumors about Kingdom Come: Deliverance coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have been going on for quite some time now, especially since Warhorse Studio has wrapped up all of the work on its post-launch expansions for the sequel.

Just last month, a PlayStation Store listing for the title was spotted indicating that it has been “Updated for PlayStation 5”. These updates seemingly include 4K support, high-resolution textures, and smoother frame rates. Unfortunately, the listing didn’t indicate whether it would be a free upgrade for those who already own the title, or if it would be a paid one.

For its part, Warhorse Studios has largely stayed quiet about its plans for the future. Following the release of the Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 back in November, however, Jirsa had said that the studio has been working on “something new on the horizon”. Unfortunately, however, he didn’t reveal any more details.

Jirsa had also previously spoken about the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and how the studio had to stand its ground against negative feedback from playtests. He noted that a major complaint was the feeling of weakness among the players, which was an intentional design decision.

“We had playtests where some players started a game, did something wrong, immediately got arrested, and gave negative feedback,” he said. “We had the strength to say, ‘Yes, that’s what we want.’” Jirsa went on to note that players feeling weak was an intentional design decision, since it would further improve the sense of accomplishments when they got stronger. “We want the player at the beginning to feel extremely weak,” he explained, “because then the validation of gaining strength feels earned.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The first game, on the other hand, is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Current-gen console players can check out the older open-world RPG thanks to backwards compatibility support. However, a port to modern consoles would likely help quite a bit with smoothing out performance issues faced by the older consoles.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

Next is Relooted on February 10th, followed by BlazBlue Entropy Effect X on February 12th, both for Ultimate and PC tiers. The latter marks the rogue-lite action side-scroller’s debut on consoles, bringing a new character, biome, and story mode.

But wait, there’s more. On the same day, both subscriber tiers can check out Roadside Research, where up to four players control aliens running a gas station, Starsand Island, an early access farming game with an anime aesthetic. February 13th sees Henry coming to visit, specifically Henry of Skalitz, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance becomes available for Ultimate, Premium and PC tiers.

If that’s not enough open-world goodness, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora also joins the service on February 17th. Obsidian’s action RPG Avowed will become available for Premium subscribers on the same day. Fortunately, there’s only one game leaving the service on February 15th – Madden NFL 24 – but considering Madden NFL 26’s arrival, it’s not the biggest loss.

It offers 4K support, high-resolution textures, and an improved frame rate. It’s currently unclear if those who own the PS4 version can access this update, but it lends further credence to rumors about an upcoming remaster. For its part, Warhorse Studios hasn’t really acknowledged the same, simply teasing “something new on the horizon” after the final DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Besides director Daniel Vávra rushing to the defense of Larian Studios in the wake of Divinity’s GenAI controversy, claiming it’s “here to stay,” the development hasn’t offered any further updates on its future. With State of Play rumored for February, perhaps this PS5 update will be a shadow drop alongside other versions then. It’s allegedly taking place in the week of February 12th, so stay tuned for more details.

As for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, it’s available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Since launching in February 2025, it’s received extensive critical acclaim (and more than a few Game of the Year nominations) while selling four million copies as of last November. You can check out our review here for more details.