Ultimate Chicken Horse follows on July 3rd, while Neon Giant’s The Ascent returns to the service on July 8th for all three tiers and Minami Lane debuts on July 9th. On July 11th, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will be available for cloud, console and PC on PC Game Pass/Ultimate. It will also be available for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for $49.99 (with its Switch 2 price yet to be confirmed).

High on Life rounds out the first wave, also making its return for all three tiers and platforms on July 15th. Several titles will be leaving the service on the same day, but subscribers can purchase them for 20 percent off.

• Flock (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mafia Definitive Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Magical Delicacy (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Tchia (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Callisto Protocol (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Star Trucker and Wildfrost are next on June 18th for Standard subscribers, followed by Sloclap’s Rematch on June 19th for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. June 24th sees the launch of Volcano Princess, while June 26th marks the arrival of Against the Storm, the acclaimed rogue-lite city builder.

On the same day, Blizzard fans (or at least those left) can expect Warcraft 1: Remastered and Warcraft 2: Remastered on PC. There’s also Warcraft 3: Reforged, which has seen some improvements since its disastrous launch. On June 30th, Call of Duty: WW2 joins the ever-expanding list of Call of Duty titles on the service, playable for all three tiers of subscribers.

As an early sneak peek for next month, Little Nightmares 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider will become available on July 1st. Check out all the games leaving on June 30th below:

• Arcade Paradise (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Journey to the Savage Planet (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• My Friend Peppa Pig (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Robin Hood: Sherwood Builders (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• SteamWorld Dig (Cloud and Console)
• SteamWorld Dig 2 (Console and PC)

December 5th sees the arrival of the multiplayer voxel title Clone Drone in the Danger Zone and blacksmithing adventure While the Iron’s Hot for Xbox Series X/S, PC and cloud. Rise of the Tomb Raider returns on the same day. On December 7th, Goat Simulator 3 arrives for cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S, followed by Against the Storm on December 8th for PC.

Lemmings-like puzzle title Tin Hearts debuts on December 12th for the service, while Far Cry 6 is available on December 14th. As for Game Pass Core (the replacement for Xbox Live Gold), it will offer Chivalry 2 and Totally Reliable Delivery Service on December 6th. Check out the titles leaving Game Pass on December 15th:

• Chained Echoes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Opus Magnum (PC)
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Rubber Bandits (Cloud, Console, and PC)

In a report published on Dealabs, the leaker has claimed that the first half of December will see nine games being added to Game Pass, including the aforementioned Remnant titles, and on December 1, SteamWorld Build, which is confirmed to be a day and date release for the service. On December 8, as previously confirmed, Against the Storm will release day and date for Game Pass as well.

Among the rest, the two most prominent titles are Far Cry 6 and Rise of the Tomb Raider. They will allegedly be accompanied by World War Z: Aftermath, Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition, Goat Simulator 3, Tin Hearts, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, and While the Iron’s Hot.

Microsoft will likely be officially announcing its wave 1 lineup for Game Pass’ December additions soon, so stay tuned for that.

This means that Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider contributed to 43.18 percent of total franchise sales. Other noteworthy figures include the mobile titles Lara Croft: Relic Run and Lara Croft: Go collectively hitting 53 million paid downloads. The developer is currently working on a new Tomb Raider title developed on Unreal Engine 5.

It’s also working with The Initiative on Perfect Dark (with the latter confirming that the partnership remains unchanged). Other interesting tidbits from the presentation include Eidos Montreal studio head David Anfossi confirming that it had “several” projects in development on Unreal Engine 5.

For starters, there’s Back 4 Blood, which is out now and boasting up to a 46% performance boost with DLSS on. Baldur’s Gate 3 is also receiving a new update this week, and with DLSS on, it will see up to a whopping 88% performance boost at 4K resolution. Crysis Remastered Trilogy, out later this week, will also support DLSS across all three games.

Meanwhile, October 18 will also see DLSS support added to Rise of the Tomb Raider (with up to a 75% performance boost), while Shadow of the Tomb Raider – which currently supports DLSS 1.0 – will be upgraded to the current version as well. Chivalry 2 will receive support on October 26 and see up to 45% performance boosts, while Sword and Fairy 7, which is out on October 21, will also have full ray-tracing and DLSS support.

Swords of Legend Online will see up to 60% performance boosts starting October 14. Meanwhile, both F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch and Alan Wake Remastered are also new additions to the DLSS list in October.

According to a resume posted on LinkedIn, former Director of Live Product Management at Eidos-Montréal and Business Development Director at Square Enix Fabien Rossini, posted that they had helped negotiate the deal that was worth $100 million. As you can see here, that text has since been edited out of their profile, but thanks to Twitter user Timur222, we can see where it was said below.

This isn’t an official statement, obviously, and most likely there will never be one since terms of these types of deals are generally kept secret in the industry unless there is a lawsuit involved, and Rossini editing out the line could be an indication that maybe what was said was an embellishment. However, if the deal in question included things like marketing and any development costs, it probably isn’t unbelievable.

Rise of the Tomb Raider launched originally in 2015 for Xbox One and Xbox 360, then PC a few months later, and the PS4 almost a year later. It is also available as part of the Definitive Survivor Collection that collects all three reboot titles.

Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity deal with Microsoft was worth $100 million.
Other stuff. pic.twitter.com/BH6TkhI9eL

— Timur222 (@bogorad222) August 30, 2021

Next month is special for Sony’s PlayStation Plus. It will be celebrating its tenth anniversary of service and for this occasion, three PS4 titles will be free in July for subscribers. Visual Concepts’ NBA 2K20, Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration and Flavourworks’ Erica will all be free.

In terms of quality, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is arguably near the top. Despite its age, the action adventure title provides a great mix of third person shooting, platforming and puzzle solving. This edition also includes all of the DLC and bonus content for even more fun.

NBA 2K20 gained some notoriety last year for its extensive microtransactions but the story mode seems decent enough. You can check out our review of the game here. As for Erica, it’s a cinematic live-action adventure that sees the titular protagonist trying to uncover the truth behind her father’s murder. The game offers multiple endings and a branching narrative based on choices.

These titles will be free from July 7th to August 3rd. There will also be a free online multiplayer weekend from July 4th to July 5th at one’s local time for all players so stay tuned.

The launch of Stadia has been…something. It doesn’t seem to have gone particularly great (though that’s hard to say without knowing exactly what Google’s goals were, of course), and it showed the many challenges a streaming based service still has to overcome. Regardless, it is also yet another avenue for free games, so there’s that.

For January, those who are subscribed to Stadia Pro will get two new free titles in their rotation. First up is Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration. The game is the second in the rebooted Tomb Raider series, and this edition includes all the post-launch content. The second title is the wild and dynamic rhythm-based Thumper. The game sees you controlling a beetle-like creature as you speed through horrifying worlds of light and sound as you must bump to the music.

Both games will be available to all Stadia Pro users starting on January 1st. If you’re a Founder, don’t forget you’ll get an extra buddy pass to give away for the holidays.

Google has announced all of the titles that Stadia, its game streaming platform, will launch with. A total of 12 games will be available with 14 more titles coming by 2019 end. The list includes big names like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Destiny 2: Collection, Mortal Kombat 11 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Check out the full launch line-up below:

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft)
• Destiny 2: The Collection (Bungie)
• GYLT (TequilaWorks)
• Just Dance 2020 (Ubisoft)
• Kine (Gwen Frey)
• Mortal Kombat 11 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (Square Enix)
• Samurai Shodown (SNK)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Square Enix)
• Thumper (Drool)
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Square Enix)

Titles that are slated to arrive for the service before the year is out include:

• Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle (Koei Tecmo)
• Borderlands 3 (2K Games)
• Darksiders Genesis (THQ Nordic)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Bandai Namco)
• Farming Simulator 19 (Focus Home Interactive)
• Final Fantasy 15 (Square Enix)
• Football Manager 2020 (Sega)
• Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Ubisoft)
• GRID (Codemasters)
• Metro Exodus (Deep Silver)
• NBA 2K20 (2K Games)
• RAGE 2 (Bethesda Softworks)
• Trials Rising (Ubisoft)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Bethesda Softworks)

It’s worth noting that those who purchased the Founder’s Edition of Google Stadia will receive a three month subscription to Stadia Pro. This enables playing Destiny 2: Collection, which includes the latest expansion Shadowkeep, at no additional cost. Though free games will be added to the service overtime, customers will still need to buy games to play them.

Releasing on November 19th, Stadia’s main selling point is the lack of any dedicated hardware and the ability to play games anywhere. Google also promises that games on Stadia will feel faster and more responsive than they would on local hardware in the coming years. Head here for 12 things you need to know about the service before picking it up at launch.