Neither of the companies has made any statement regarding their participation in the disc-to-digital program on Xbox. However, since the program is still in its testing phase, it is also possible that both companies might join in once it is fully released to the general public, and have simply opted out during the testing phase to see how it plays out.

Microsoft had kicked off Insider testing for the disc-to-digital program for Alpha Skip, Alpha, and Beta channels earlier this month, and noted in its FAQs that users might be required to keep access to the physical copies of their games to provide evidence that they still qualify for the digital license.

“A disc-to-digital license is associated with the qualifying game disc. To maintain access to certain disc-to-digital licensing benefits, you may be required to demonstrate continued possession of the qualifying disc. For example, if you lose, sell, give away, or otherwise no longer possess a qualifying disc, access to associated disc-to-digital licenses may be limited or revoked.”

To help players keep track of which games are available through the disc-to-digital program, community-based efforts have been kicked off, with the stat-tracking website Xbox Collection Tracker having an entire page dedicated to keeping track of which games are supported.

Microsoft has also noted that discs will continue to work just fine even after they are used to get a digital license through the program. This means that players can potentially share physical copies of their Xbox One and Xbox Series X games with their friends and continue playing through their own digital license.

It is also worth noting that, at least for now, the disc-to-digital program doesn’t support Xbox and Xbox 360 games. However, considering the company’s emphasis on backwards compatibility over the last few years, support for older console games is likely just a matter of time.

There have been quite a few conversations happening in recent times on the subject of physical versus digital, especially thanks to Sony’s announcement that it would be ending production of new PlayStation discs in 2028. While Microsoft hasn’t made any such announcement itself, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had spoken about wanting to offer a choice to its users.

“I know players love physical media, and I know there are a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice. There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves. We’re announcing the ability for players for 1,000 titles with physical discs to be able to have a digital entitlement. We’ve long pioneered backwards compatibility, and so you’ll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations.”

To celebrate, Iron Gate has put out a video reflecting on the long road it has taken to get there. It’s filled with nostalgia, gratitude, and even a few touching accounts of the experience helping players navigate challenging situations in their personal lives. It’s a record of a journey, and all of the highs and lows that come with it, that’s uncannily similar to your trajectory in-game, where its co-op survival gameplay loop always comes with the potential for epic wins or hilarious fails.

It’s a great way to celebrate the game’s impending release, although you might not be happy about the new price tag that the full build comes with. Nevertheless, you can’t really put a price on memories with your loved ones, and Valheim facilitates that easily. The video’s below and is definitely worth a watch if this one’s been something you keep going back to when you game.

The new missions are definitely a highlight of the announcement, and “Beyond Dimensions” and “Far Side of the Moon” sound like interesting additions, especially to the storyline involving the World Tree from the game’s 1.0 release.

Otherwise, notable improvements include adjustments to the behavior of Pals and Base Pals, battles, and fishing difficulty, along with changes to both inventory management and base building that should make life easier as you continue to leave your mark on the world. One of the most welcome changes is that cancelling construction projects now refunds the materials you spent, which should help those who can’t decide on the optimal layout of your base or want to try different things at once.

The update should keep players coming back for more in a title that’s already proven to be quite addictive. We dove into why in our review, and we hope this one continues entertaining us for a good long while.

As for the future, Pocketpair is working on Update 1.1, and while it’s looking to address player feedback, you probably shouldn’t expect any massive overhauls. On the flipside, it won’t take long to release either.

https://x.com/Palworld_EN/status/2096797724054311073

“Following the launch of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Complete Edition on Nintendo Switch 2, our worldwide player count has surpassed eight million! Thank you for your continued support of the Wo Long series, and we hope you look forward to Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember in early 2027.”

The last major milestone hit by Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was back in March 2024, when the company announced that it had been played by more than 5 million players worldwide across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It is worth noting that the title is also available through a Game Pass subscription, which likely played a major role in growing its audience.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was released back in March 2023 and served as an evolution of many of the gameplay systems and mechanics that developer Team Ninja had worked on with games like Nioh. It also featured entirely new mechanics as well, like Morale, which determines how challenging combat encounters can be. It set itself apart from the studio’s other games by focusing more heavily on parrying mechanics.

In our review from back when the game first came out, we gave Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its flashy deflection system, Morale mechanic, and excellent enemy design. However, we criticized the game’s overreliance on parrying and deflecting attacks, and its poor companion AI.

In the meantime, Team Ninja has already begun working on the next game in the franchise. Dubbed Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, the title is slated for release in early 2027 and will come to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The sequel was unveiled back in June with a trailer that gave us our first look at its visual style.

While not too many details about Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember have been revealed yet, the trailer has indicated that it will revolve around a protagonist who is trying to end a vicious cycle of conflict where everyone is vying for an elixir that can grant immortality.

More recently, the studio has confirmed that the Morale system will be getting revamped, and that Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember will also focus more on exploration thanks to its “open field” world design, which contrasts quite sharply with the more linear structure of its predecessor. Producer Masakazu Hirayama had spoken about how the studio wants to avoid the monotony that can often set in when playing games with gigantic open worlds.

“Regarding the monotony of open-world exploration, this time it basically depicts an entire battlefield. Changes on the battlefield will affect the outcome of the battle, causing changes in other parts of the scene as well. I think this will alleviate the monotony to some extent.”

The studio has also spoken about new additions to the combat system.

What happens if you run out of hours? Xbox, in all its generosity, will let you purchase more from the store. It hasn’t provided details on the exact pricing, though this (and other factors, like purchasing options) will vary. Those who aren’t subscribed to Game Pass but want to access cloud gaming can also purchase these hours.

Xbox One players can play Xbox Series X/S titles through this method, which somewhat addresses the shortage of current-gen hardware and rising prices. Only select titles are supported, but Xbox will expand this functionality “throughout the year.”

As for why it’s making this change (which it notes will impact four percent of subscribers), the company says, “The cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer. Moving to monthly limits allows us to keep offering the service while continuing to invest in its reliability and performance. We understand that for some players the practical result is a higher cost.”

More details will be provided in November before the limits go live, though Xbox is looking “closely to player feedback before and after the change takes effect.” While it’s seemingly open to making adjustments, you have to wonder how quickly those will happen if there’s significant backlash.

You have to wonder how common cloud gaming usage really is to warrant that. Then again, if it wasn’t, would Xbox really bother introducing monthly caps? There are a lot of questions to answer and hopefully more clarity down the line, so stay tuned.

There are improvements to defending and playstyles, for starters, while the game’s different modes are also slated to receive new additions to an addictive, rewarding loop. Well, a new addition to that list comes via the game’s PC version, an area EA has paid special attention to this year, per its announcement.

Various resets should make it easy to take advantage of your hardware. There’s also an Ultra Enhanced graphical mode for those of you with truly high-end PCs that are already pushing the limits of visual fidelity. Improved keyboard and mouse support is also crucial, and should make things much easier to control this time around. Meanwhile, improvements to responsiveness, load times, and performance are welcome changes which seem to have emerged from all the feedback FC 26 received.

If you’ve been thinking about stepping onto the pitch with your PC, this is all probably good news ahead of the game’s global release on September 25th, though Ultimate Edition owners can start playing on September 18th.

Since Microsoft itself hasn’t yet offered an official list of all supported games for Disc-to-Digital, the community has taken it upon itself. Stat-tracking website Xbox Collection Tracker has set up a brand-new page where users can check out a crowd-sourced list of games that support the physical-to-digital transition. There are also plenty of filtering options, including Game Pass availability, publishers, and developers.

As for users who might decide to get rid of their physical game discs after getting a digital license linked to their account, Microsoft has noted that it might ask for evidence of continued ownership of the disc in the future.

“A disc-to-digital license is associated with the qualifying game disc. To maintain access to certain disc-to-digital licensing benefits, you may be required to demonstrate continued possession of the qualifying disc. For example, if you lose, sell, give away, or otherwise no longer possess a qualifying disc, access to associated disc-to-digital licenses may be limited or revoked.”

In the meantime, discs are going to continue to work just fine even after they are used to get a digital license. This means that, at the very least, Xbox users can lend their games to friends as long as they get them back at a later date. Players with gaming PCs might also appreciate the ability to play their Xbox Play Anywhere titles across the various platforms.

There is currently also no word on whether or not Microsoft has any plans to expand support of its Disc-to-Digital program to also include Xbox and Xbox 360 games.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had recently spoken about the future of gaming hardware and even physical game media. In an interview, she noted that “players love physical media”, and that Xbox wants to continue to offer choices to its users.

“I know players love physical media, and I know there’s a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice. There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves. We’re announcing the ability for players for 1,000 titles with physical discs to be able to have a digital entitlement. We’ve long pioneered backwards compatibility, and so you’ll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations.”

When it comes to Project Helix, Sharma didn’t commit one way or another about whether its support of discs will continue. Rather, she spoke about how the company plans to deal with ever-inflating component costs. Interestingly, she also spoke about how Microsoft’s next-generation gaming hardware – known as Project Helix – might end up being “a great family of devices” rather than a single home console.

The package includes the original Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, while adding several extras. Players can start as either the Heavy Knight or Idus Knight, unlock four new armor sets, and customize Torrent with three new appearance options. The additional content is also being sold separately as the Tarnished Pack for existing players on other platforms.

Patch 1.17 accompanies the release and adds support for the DLC alongside balance changes and bug fixes. It also introduces new weapons and NPC invasion events in Caelid and Leyndell, Royal Capital. Head here for the full details, especially since this could be the last major balance patch that the title ever receives.

We reviewed Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 and came away impressed with how the final port turned out. After concerns about earlier builds, the finished version delivered a stable 30 FPS performance at 1080p in both docked and handheld play, with the compromises generally proving minor. We scored it nine out of ten, though we thought the $80 asking price was difficult to ignore.

Owing to the desert setting of DayZ: Badlands, players will have to be careful about many new survival elements, like potential dehydration from being out in the sun for too long. Water is also a scarce commodity in the new map, and players will have to start figuring out how to get their hands on regional clothing that provides low insulation.

With hostile players being an ever-present threat, especially when it comes to locations where more valuable loot will be available, the personal radio is getting some enhancements as well. Along with being tools for long-distance communication, personal radios can also receive transmissions that, when decoded, reveal coordinates for new locations with valuable loot.

Decoding these transmissions will be a major task as well, and players will need to get their hands on all the tools they can find in order to do so. This might include things like local language ciphers and other decoding tools.

The trailer also gives us a look at the new rebuilding options in DayZ: Badlands, which allow players to find dilapidated structures and fortify them with brand-new materials. Details about this feature, as well as the desert environment of the Nasdara map, were revealed back in July.

DayZ: Badlands is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

“I know players love physical media, and I know there’s a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice.”

She also brought up the fact that Xbox recently announced its new initiative that would give players with physical copies of Xbox One and Series X games digital licenses for those titles that can be added to their library. “There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves. We’re announcing the ability for players for 1,000 titles with physical discs to be able to have a digital entitlement.”

“We’ve long pioneered backwards compatibility, and so you’ll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations.”

When it comes to Project Helix, however, Sharma didn’t confirm one way or another whether the company would continue to support physical media. Rather, her main subject of discussion was how Xbox could deal with the ever-increasing component costs in the current market and balance raw hardware performance and keeping prices down.

“This next generation, we have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability alongside performance. As an industry, we’re in the middle of ‘Rampocalypse’. All of the industry needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency. That is something that we have not had to do [previously].

“But with the crisis that’s currently happening in hardware and components, it is absolutely something all of us need to be thinking about and innovating on and giving people more choice in terms of how they play their console and how they purchase their console.”

Xbox announced its disc-to-digital initiative earlier this month, and the feature is slated to be available for testing to Xbox Insiders from August 31st onwards. Thousands of Xbox One and Xbox Series X games will be supported. To get digital entitlement for their physical games, players have to pop the disc into their console to see the option. Making the switch also brings in benefits like cloud gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere. Along with this, the physical copy of the game will still be usable on its own.

While a noteworthy feature on its own, it also provides hints about Microsoft’s plans regarding backwards compatibility on future consoles. The fact that Xbox and Xbox 360 discs aren’t currently supported is also interesting, and the company is likely still working on a way for players with decades-old game libraries to bring them forward to modern hardware. Xbox players also have to keep in mind that not every game across Xbox One and Xbox Series X is currently supported. However, as we saw with the company’s backwards compatibility efforts, the number of supported games will likely go up over time.