Life is Strange Collection includes Life is Strange Remastered, Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered, Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: True Colors Deluxe Edition, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure Ultimate Edition. Along with the games themselves, Life is Strange Collection will also include all of the DLC and pre-order bonuses that were released for each game.

All of the Life is Strange games included in the collection tell their own stories with unique protagonists, from Max Caulfield in the first game, to Chloe Price in Before the Storm.

Life is Strange Collection will feature True Colors and Double Exposure in the form of physical discs, while the other three games, along with all DLC and pre-order bonuses, will be available in the form of a code that has to be redeemed online.

The latest game in the series, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, was released back in October 2024. The game features the protagonist of the original Life is Strange–Max Caulfield–and takes place a decade after the events of the first game. Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes place in Caledon University in Vermont.

Max works as a photographer, and ends up awakening to new time-based powers after discovering her best friend Safi dead in the snow. The core gameplay mechanics in Life is Strange: Double Exposure revolves around Max being able to swap between two different timelines. Using this power, Max must figure out how Safi died, and maybe even try and prevent her death to begin with.

In our review, we gave Life is Strange: Double Exposure a score of 9 out of 10. We praised its premise, characters, and the kinds of choices that players are forced to make, while criticising technical rough edges and the rare bout of sloppy writing.

The studio announced the same in an update on Twitter, saying, “Like many others in the games industry right now, Deck Nine has been affected by the game industry’s worsening market conditions. Today we made the difficult decision to lay off 20% of our staff. These people are amazing, talented, and awesome developers. They have made a huge impact during their time at Deck Nine Games and we did not take this decision lightly.”

Interestingly, Stephan Frost, game director at Deck Nine Games, revealed on Twitter that the studio’s leadership also took pay cuts to minimize layoffs as much as possible. “Leadership took pay cuts to keep the number down as much as possible,” he wrote. “This is the strongest team Deck Nine has ever been and it absolutely sucks that the industry is in the state that it is presently.”

Deck Nine is best known for its 2021 title Life is Strange: True Colors, prior to which it also developed 2017’s Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Last year, the studio released The Expanse: A Telltale Series, which it co-developed with Telltale Games (which also suffered layoffs last year).

This is the second time Deck Nine has been hit with layoffs in less than a year, with an undisclosed number of employees also having been laid off in May of last year.

Two months in, 2024 has already been a brutal year for the games industry, with widespread layoffs having resulted in thousands of job cuts, already eclipsing 2023’s already-devastating numbers.

Most recently, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it was laying off about 900 people, with studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, Guerrilla, and Firesprite set to be impacted. Meanwhile, SIE London Studio is being closed down entirely, while a number of first-party PlayStation titles have also been cancelled, including (according to reports) the rumoured Twisted Metal reboot. Guerrilla’s multiplayer Horizon game seems to have survived the culling though.

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— Deck Nine Games (@DeckNineGames) February 27, 2024

Deck Nine had a layoff today. Leadership took paycuts to keep the number down as much as possible. This is the strongest team D9 has ever been and it absolutely sucks that the industry is in the state that it is presently.

— Frost (@StephanFrost) February 27, 2024

She also asked recruiting studios to “please keep an eye out for D9 folks; you won’t regret it.” Interestingly, Ballou later elaborated that those laid off were team leads. “The leads on my team were given swords and chose to fall on them, laying themselves off instead of choosing among the rest of us. I’ve never seen anyone in games do something that metal, and I hope I never have to again.”

Following speculation, Ballou further stated that she only spoke about the leads from her team (which handles narrative) and not “about any other teams or leads.”

So while games on the cusp of release should be fine, it remains to be seen how future projects (like any potential new Life is Strange titles) will fare. Stay tuned in the meantime for updates.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series – Episode 1 is available on July 27th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store. Four more episodes will then launch every two weeks afterwards. DLC is also confirmed for release later, though no further details have been provided.

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Other titles include Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Haven, Life is Strange: True Colors, Rainbow Six Extraction and Tchia on PS4 and PS5. PS4 players also get Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Life is Strange 2, NEO: The World Ends with You, RAGE 2, Street Fighter 5 Champion Edition, and Untitled Goose Game. Of course, these are all playable on PS5, thanks to backward compatibility.

For Premium subscribers, Ape Escape 2 and Ridge Racer Type 4 for PlayStation One are coming along with Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror from the PlayStation Portable era. The latter benefits from up-rendering, quick saving, video filters and a rewind function. Stay tuned for more details when the above titles go live next week.

Life is Strange: True Colors stars a new lead character Alex Chen. Alex has a “curse,” which allows her to see the auras of different emotions. She can know how people are feeling and gain insight into someone’s thoughts based on the strength of those emotions. Things seem to be looking up when she ventures to Haven Springs, Colorado, to live with her brother Gabe.

Unfortunately, when Gabe dies in an accident, Alex must use her power to discover the truth and what lies beneath the surface of the seemingly quaint town. Life is Strange: True Colors is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia. Check out our review here for more details.

For the sports enthusiasts out there, MLB The Show 22 and Cricket 22 are both available on Game Pass for console and cloud starting today. Starting April 7, cloud users will be able to play Dragon Age 2, Star Wars Squadrons, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare via EA Play. The same day will also see the launch of Chinatown Detective Agency, a cybernoir point and click adventure, for Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud.

April 12 is also going to see some activity, with the addition of Life is Strange: True Colors (console, cloud, and PC), strategy title Panzer Corps 2 (PC only), and tactical RPG The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (already available on console and cloud, coming to PC).

Finally, on April 14, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get access to Lost in Random on PC, cloud, and console via EA Play.

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Microsoft has yet to announce the latest titles coming to Xbox Game Pass this month. However, noted Game Pass and PlayStation Plus leaker BillBill-Kun has revealed the first wave of titles on Dealabs (translation via DeepL) and they’re fairly impressive. Deck Nine’s Life is Strange: True Colors is reportedly coming and will be available for cloud, consoles and PC.

Zoink’s Lost in Random is also apparently coming to the service via cloud and console along with releasing on PC via EA Play. Previously confirmed Game Pass titles for the month include MLB The Show 22, which is out today for consoles and cloud, and Chinatown Detective Agency, which releases on April 7th for cloud, consoles and PC. Cricket 22 will reportedly join PC Game Pass starting today while Panzer Corps 2 is seemingly coming at a later date.

Existing titles on the service are also apparently coming to other platforms like The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos being available on PC Game Pass. Star Wars Squadrons, Dragon Age 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare will also be available to play via the cloud. Take things with a grain of salt as usual but an official announcement should be coming soon.

Little Nightmares 2

Despite the numbering, it eventually becomes clear that Little Nightmares 2 is not a sequel. Rather, it’s a prequel with the ending revealing that Mono, the boy with the bag on his head, is actually the Thin Man…or rather will become him, following the Signal Tower’s corruption. Furthermore, it seems that Six became aware of this and chose to have him fall into the abyss. It gives a whole new meaning to the entire game with the Thin Man chasing Mono seemingly trying to prevent him from a similar fate.

If you’ve been waiting for the game to arrive on Nintendo’s hybrid platform, that wait is now over. Life is Strange: True Colors is available now for Nintendo Switch, and publisher Square Enix has released a launch trailer to commemorate the release. Check it out below.

In our review of the game, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Life is Strange: True Color’s well written cast and rich Americana setting help make it easily one of the strongest outings this franchise has had.” You can read our full review through here.

Life is Strange: True Colors is also available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. Life is Strange: Remastered Collection – which will compile remastered versions of the original game in the series and the Deck Nine-developed Life is Strange: Before the Storm – will launch for all platforms in February 2022.

Life is Strange: True Colors will launch for the Nintendo Switch on December 7, less than two weeks from now. Initially, it will be a digital-only launch available via the Switch eShop, but a physical version of the game will also be launching for Nintendo’s hybrid platform a little over a couple of months later, on February 25, 2022.

In our review of Life is Strange: True Colors, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Life is Strange: True Color’s well written cast and rich Americana setting help make it easily one of the strongest outings this franchise has had.” You can read our full review through here.

Life is Strange: True Colors is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. Life is Strange: Remastered Collection – which will include remastered versions of the first game and the Deck Nine-developed Before the Storm – will be launching for all platforms (including the Switch) on February 1.

We are pleased to announce that #LifeIsStrange #TrueColors will be available on the #NintendoSwitch eShop on December 7 2021 and for physical purchase on February 25 2022.

Available to pre-order now: https://t.co/ieuQ0ZUoKA pic.twitter.com/tRqi8PDl6d

— Life is Strange (@LifeIsStrange) November 24, 2021