Gamespot

The Nintendo Switch continues to win over people's hearts with every passing year since its launch. After the middling reception of the Wii U, many were concerned about how the company could possibly manage against industry giants like Sony and Microsoft in the increasingly competitive games market. However, Nintendo succeeded against all odds with the Switch's intuitive and innovative design. Capable of transitioning from a portable to a living room console at will, the promise of the Switch is one that has captured the imaginations of the game playing public.

Alongside the Switch's release was the universally praised The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, giving it the killer app it needed to quickly rise to the top of console sales charts and dramatically increase Nintendo's revenue. But in the years since its launch, there has been no shortage of amazing games. We've got big first-party games like Mario and Fire Emblem. On the other hand, there are indie darlings like Dead Cells, Celeste, and Stardew Valley.

Dragon Ball FighterZ continues to grow its character roster, and new fighter Kefla will be available on February 28. If you have the FighterZ Pass 3, however, you can start playing as her a little earlier.

Kefla was introduced in Dragon Ball Super, and she's a fusion of characters Caulifla and Kale because creator Akira Toriyama never tires of vegetable puns. A viciously fast fighter, Kefla makes use of multiple energy attacks and redirection, and her most powerful Super attacks leave very little room for escape.

Having been out for more than half a decade already, it isn't outlandish to wonder when Rainbow Six Siege might be making the move to free-to-play. According to game director Leroy Athanassoff, it's a move he and his team have been wanting too.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Athanassoff explained that the decision to move towards free-to-play isn't up to the development team, with numerous business decisions standing in the way. Athanassoff wants the game to be accessible to as many players as possible, but also points out how that brings with it new challenges.

It's not as simple as changing the price, says Athanassoff, with many features required to combat abusive player behavior when a game is freely open to everyone. Smurf accounts (a practice where high-skill players will create new accounts to play with lower level ones) are a huge concern, and it's the biggest hurdle Athanassoff says his team needs to overcome before considering free-to-play.

Indie studio Crema has shared its plans for the Pokemon-inspired MMO Temtem over the rest of the year. In what the studio is calling its short term roadmap, it details new features and creatures coming through the fall.

For spring, the studio is aiming to include ranked matchmaking, spectator mode, in-game chat with chat bubbles, and club management. The ranked matchmaking and spectator mode are notably marked as "V1," so the studio still plans to iterate on both. In the summer, it will add the new Kisiwa Island with 25 more temtem, player housing, climbing gear, and revisions to emotes. Finally, in fall players will get another 25 temtem including the first mythical monster, in-game tournaments, a quest diary, and achievements.

The developer also promised updates coming soon on mid-term goals. Some of those include a Trading House, Dojo Wars, and more details about the end-game.

When Resident Evil 3 Remake was announced late last year, I was juiced. Despite the PS1 original's shortcomings, I have a particular fondness for it--a love rooted in a youth spent organically discovering its charms shortly after the release of Resident Evil 4. With my rose-tinted passion for the game, I expected that I'd be partial to what Capcom is doing with its reimagining of RE3, especially after last year's incredible Resident Evil 2 Remake, but I still had some concerns. Chief among them: how could Capcom hope to reinvigorate another classic Resident Evil game so soon? Not only that, but one that's mostly a point-five-sequel that branched off in a more action-focused direction? After playing a few hours of RE3 at a preview event, I found that the answer is once again by creatively reinterpreting the original's legacy.

Set before and after the second game, RE3 has you playing as fan-favorite protagonist S.T.A.R.S. officer Jill Valentine, as she struggles to find a way out of Raccoon City at the onset of the T-Virus outbreak. With zombies lurking, that's a big ask, and it gets worse when Jill realizes she's being hunted by a Tyrant-like Umbrella bioweapon known as the Nemesis.

MMO games have changed considerably over the last decade, with many moving to a free-to-play model in place of subscriptions or premium purchases. However, not every MMO has needed to adopt this model, and according to Jeonghee Jin, CEO of Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss America, the genre is moving in two distinct directions.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Jin said there are different types of experiences players crave, ranging from the more modern games with unprecedented freedom to old-school games like Runescape that provide more basic and nostalgic experiences.

A new Xbox One dashboard update is now available, and it makes some big changes to the familiar user interface. The new design is simplified and more vertically oriented, having nixed the series of tabs that you would cycle with the shoulder buttons in the old dash.

By default, the new dashboard has your recently opened games and apps appear right out front, and scrolling down opens tabs for Xbox Game Pass, Store, Community, Mixer, and Xbox Live Gold. You can also select the "Add More" function to customize with additional rows from your own Groups, Clubs, and so on. If you aren't interested in having a given row, they can be removed--even the default ones.

The new update also includes image support in messaging conversations and increased control over where notifications appear through the Settings menu. Other subtle tweaks come to Xbox Game Pass, which lets you download an individual game from within a bundle. You also get more flexibility when moving games around using external storage.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) will run in San Francisco from March 16 through to March 20, but some major game publishers are dropping out. EA has become the latest company to pull out from the conference, following PlayStation and Kojima Productions.

EA has sent through a statement to GameSpot, confirming that they will not be officially participating in GDC, and are restricting non-essential travel due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Their statement follows.

"Having closely followed the global situation with Coronavirus and with the recent escalation of cases in new regions, we have decided to take additional steps to protect the wellbeing of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel. As a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate."

It's been six years since the Xbox One released, but the system has just now gotten a feature that players have wanted since the beginning. Xbox Insiders are now reporting on Reddit that the latest update allows players to eject the discs from their systems with a press of the X button, meaning that you can make the system spit out the disc without needing to get up and press the button on the console.

Of course, with so many players going digital now, especially with Xbox Game Pass, this feature might get less of a workout now than it would have in 2013. Still, it's going to be a handy feature for many players once they receive the update, especially collectors or anyone who uses their Xbox One as a DVD player.

This is one area in which the Xbox One has lagged behind the Xbox 360, which allowed players to eject discs with the controller, too. The PlayStation 4 has also long allowed users to eject discs with the controller.

Black Mesa, the fan-made Half-Life remake from the team at Crowbar Collective, will leave Early Access and release its 1.0 build on March 5, 2020. The game, which hit Steam Early Access in May 2015, has been in development for an extremely long time--as project lead Adam Engels says in the release date announcement, he joined the project 14 years ago.

"For the majority of its development, Black Mesa was a volunteer project," Engels's post says. "Even after we got the green light to sell the game, we still did not make any money until late June of 2015."

"We think this upcoming 1.0 release is the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet. The anticipation and excitement around our project is beyond flattering." The game will continue to receive support and bug fixes after its 1.0 release, the post states.

It's not just Sony and Square Enix that are abandoning or scaling back their PAX East plans amid concerns about the coronavirus. Japanese publisher Capcom has announced that concerns around the virus are leading to some changes for the company's plans at the Boston gaming show.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Capcom said members of the Monster Hunter: World development team who planned to travel from Japan to Boston for a fan gathering called Monster Hunter: Festa are no longer going to make the trip. The event will still go on, and there will be some news about the Iceborne expansion, but the developers won't be there for the previously scheduled autograph session.

"Our sincere apologies for inconvenience!" the statement says.

Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem series had an extremely strong 2019, with Fire Emblem: Three Houses earning critical acclaim and the best launch sales figures in the series history. Meanwhile, the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes has made more money than any other Nintendo mobile game.

This success has allowed Intelligent Systems to grow, according to their updated company profile (which is in Japanese, but has been translated and summarized by Siliconera). The developer now has 169 employees, the highest number they've ever had. This includes 68 graphic designers and 63 programmers.

This figure has grown from the 130 employees the company had in 2011, before the release of the very popular Fire Emblem: Awakening. The studio is also employing more women than ever before, now making up 31% of the team.

If you've played Escape From Tarkov this past week, you've probably noticed particularly long queue times when waiting to load into a raid. These server issues have not gone unacknowledged by developer Battlestate Games. The team took to Twitter today to notify players of an update meant to reduce match loading times, but even after a series of technical updates and fixes, the frequent server outages persist.

Earlier today, Battlestate Games posted yet again that they are working on fixing the server issues. For updates on Escape From Tarkov's server status, check back here for updates or consult Down Detector for moment-to-moment updates from the community.

Just a few weeks ago, Battlestate Games gave every player 1 million in-game roubles as an attempt to make up for lost time and gear resulting from server issues earlier in the month.

Rainbow Six Siege is a team-based game that is at its best when you're playing with friends, but that won't always be the case--often players will want to jump in alone, and when they do, there's no option to solo queue. Solo queuing means being matched with other players who are also not in squads, so that you don't end up facing an extremely communicative, well-prepared team.

This is a feature that players have wanted for a while, and it seems that the developers are taking notice. As reported by VG247, the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account recently responded to a tweet about a lack of a solo queue option to let the user know that the idea "had been passed up the chain to the devs".

Square Enix has announced it is scaling back some of its plans for PAX East later this month due to ongoing concerns about the coronavirus. In a blog post, the publisher said the Final Fantasy XIV Online developers who planned to travel from the team's HQ in Japan will now stay home.

"Sadly Square Enix has decided to cancel the PAX East attendance of staff who would be travelling from the Japan offices," the company said in a statement. "This difficult decision was based on our desire to prevent any potential spread of the virus and to prioritize the health and safety of our team and our fans."

Because the development team won't be attending PAX East, Square Enix is scaling back its events surrounding Final Fantasy XIV. Specifically, Square Enix is cancelling the "A Look Behind the Screen" panel. But it's not all bad news, as the team will conduct a livestream featuring the developers in place of this. The developer signings and photo opportunities will of course no longer go foward, while the fan gathering event slated for February 28 has also been scrapped.

Devolver Digital has announced Disc Room, a new game from the creators of Minit and High Hell. It's Devolver's latest challenging 2D affair, with an interesting art style and the promise of plenty of violence.

The game is set inside a deadly alien craft, a huge disc that appears in Jupiter's orbit in 2089. You play as a scientist who must explore rooms filled with alien saw blades that are constantly trying to slice you up, figuring out the labyrinthine structure of the craft and gaining new abilities as you go.

You'll unlock an invincibility dash, time-bending, and even a cloning mechanic as you go, and the press release promises that you'll die plenty--"In Disc Room the only way out is through Death."

It's safe to say that Animal Crossing fans are hyped out of their minds for the newest mainline entry in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which releases March 20 on Nintendo Switch. The highly anticipated game takes players to a deserted island via the Nook Inc. charter plane, where you'll begin to create your own island paradise by gathering natural resources, crafting items, and building a community from scratch.

Animal Crossing fans are so excited to start their New Horizons journey that people have started creating their own passports and boarding passes to celebrate their upcoming island adventures. First shared in a post on Reddit, this free Animal Crossing passport and boarding pass generator was created by user T0Rtur3 (with designs by user Celesmeh), and you can check out examples of what these look like below. When creating your passport, you can choose from a few stock character designs and stamps as well as input your name, friend code, and name of your island. There aren't a ton of customization options yet, but this is still a really cute way of sharing your friend code with other players.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently sat down with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price recently for a wide-ranging and very fascinating interview that covers a number of noteworthy topics.

In the hour-long interview, Spencer speaks about the future of Xbox, including the xCloud streaming service along with some high-level thoughts on what Microsoft will deliver in the next-generation of gaming. Spencer also speaks about Microsoft's efforts in the area of accessibility and helping make sure gamers with disabilities don't feel left out on Xbox.

Also in the interview, Spencer spoke about why he enjoys Fortnite, some of his regrets over the years (like moving the Bungie team from Chicago to Washington after the acquisition), and how things have been progressing with all the game studios that Microsoft acquired over the past few years. Spencer also discusses Microsoft's thinking around business models, including subscription offerings and microtransactions.

Drew McCoy, one of the founding members of Titanfall and Apex Legends studio Respawn, has left the company. He announced the news on Twitter, saying he will "absolutely cherish" his time at studio.

McCoy worked at Call of Duty 4 studio Infinity Ward before he--along with many others--followed Infinity Ward founders Vince Zampella and Jason West to their new studio, Respawn, in 2010.

"I'll miss the people the most--the daily arguments, successes, failures, and everything in between," McCoy said. He said he's "not sure where [he's] going yet," though he teased he will likely stay in the gaming industry.

Although recently released creature-collecting MMO Temtem borrows a lot from a lovely little series you may have heard of called Pokemon, it also takes pains to distinguish itself from the most profitable entertainment franchise of all time.

One such diversion is Temtem’s unwavering commitment to double battles, to the extent that single battles have been entirely purged from its format. As Kallie Plagge mentioned in her piece on what Pokemon can learn from Temtem, that’s a good thing.

Doubles is the most prestigious category in competitive Pokemon circuits--in fact, it is the official format for Pokemon’s VGC (Video Game Championship) tournaments. However, many Pokemon fans will have rarely experienced the dynamic of double battles outside of the few-and-far-between instances in single-player, which is why it’s significant that Temtem has adopted the format exclusively.

It has officially been a year since Red Candle Games was forced to delist its outstanding first-person psychological horror title, Devotion, and there is still no sign that it will ever return. However, Harvard University will be taking steps to ensure that the game and its legacy, will be preserved.

According to a post from Red Candle’s Facebook page, the Harvard-Yenching Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts will be adding both Devotion and its predecessor, harrowing indie horror title Detention, to its collection. The library is home to one of the biggest and most carefully curated collections of historically significant East Asian art in the United States.

Famously, Devotion was pulled due to outrage from Chinese players that the game contained art assets seemingly mocking Chinese president Xi Jinping, and pointing out his resemblance to Winnie the Pooh, a sensitive subject in the country. Devotion's removal led to Red Candle Games' publisher pulling all support for it, and its removal from sale on Steam. All videos of Devotion were also removed from the company’s YouTube channel, and Red Candle Games left Weibo, China's biggest social media platform. However, the inclusion of Detention in the library suggests the games are being inducted less for their controversy but for being legitimately powerful East Asian art. Both games use the actual historical backdrop of Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s to tell their horror stories. With only ten days on the market, Devotion’s legacy has become much like P.T.'s: a game better known for its tragic cancellation more than the brilliant, thought-provoking horror experience it is.

There are some new quests in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne for the week of February 21 to 27. Regal Event Quests have returned--they include The Moon is a Harsh Queen, A Glance of Sliver, and We Three Kings--and additional quest events, like Fired-Up Bruisers, Balloon Fight, Colorful Carnival, and Desert Desserts are also available.

Completing The Moon is a Harsh Queen, A Glance of Sliver, and We Three Kings successfully will earn you bonus rank points and an opportunity to get Gold Rathian materials, Silver Rathalos materials, and Large Elder Dragon Gems, respectively.

In Colorful Carnival, Desert Desserts, Fire up Bruisers, you'll be rewarded with bonus rank points, as well as Fey Wyvern Gems, ore materials, Monster Slogbones, respectively. Balloon Fight is an item quest and you'll receive Increased Hard Armor Sphere rewards that are useful for armor upgrades.

It's officially tax season, folks, and if you're on top of your game and filed early, there's a chance you've already received (or will soon receive) that sweet tax refund. Many retailers like to offer sales around this time of year as a way of helping you spend that new excess money, and GameStop is getting in on the action with a sale of its own. The Tax Sale is live now until March 7 and includes game deals for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch as well as discounts on accessories, collectibles, apparel, and more.

Last month, Overwatch developer Blizzard announced the impending addition of a new experimental card that allows players to test out possible radical changes to gameplay. Today, director Jeff Kaplan revealed the details behind the first experimental mode that will most likely be released February 25th, "but stuff could go wrong, [and it] may be delayed a little bit."

Named the Triple Damage, the experimental mode is for damage players. Instead of the standard two tanks, three damage characters, and two supports, this exploratory setting will introduce a new team composition: one tank, three damage characters, and one support player.

It's a pretty big change, especially for tank mains, and Kaplan assured fans that any setting tested in the experimental card is not one that will be definitely implemented. That is to say: tank players, do not worry about this team composition becoming permanent

Spiritfarer is shaping up to be a colorful and whimsical take on death, and the game's new teaser trailer shows off the jobs you'll be doing as a ferrymaster for deceased souls. Managing the dead isn't easy, and there are quite a few moving parts to keep under control.

In the gameplay teaser, we see protagonist Stella cut down a tree with the help of the spirit cat Daffodil, and later mine for ore that is used to power the ferry. She can also shear sheep, buy items, and harvest crops, and she can feed townspeople in order to strengthen relationships. Despite the macabre central theme, it's still a lighthearted game with kindness at its core.

If you played through any of the Mass Effect trilogy, there's a high probability you played Shepherd as a Paragon opposed to a Renegade--at least on the first playthrough. And the stats back it up.

According to former Bioware cinematic designer John Ebenger, around 92% of players opted to be the good guy in their Mass Effect playthrough. "Something like 92% of Mass Effect players were Paragon. And we put a lot of work in to the Renegade content too :(," Ebenger wrote in a tweet.

Paragon and Renegade occupied opposite sides of Mass Effect's binary morality system. Players could choose different lines of dialogue and actions that fit one of the two sides, with each decision adding points to their character's score as a either a Paragon or Renegade. Filling up one side would open up more choices down that path, so you were incentivised to pick one and stick with it instead of mixing and matching according to the situation.

Popstar Grimes hosted a livestream over the weekend in which she answered a whole host of fan questions. One user asked her about Cyberpunk 2077, and the singer wasn't shy when opening up about her role in the game, revealing more than developer CD Projekt Red is probably comfortable with sharing. As a result, spoilers ahead.

"I did my voice acting for Lizzy Wizzy, that game is going to be fucking good," Grimes explained, via Reddit. "I mean I haven't played it, but I saw someone play an hour of the game. I play a pop star who committed suicide on stage, and they had to quickly come and perform emergency surgery and replace her whole body with cybernetics while she was dead for an hour. Then she finished the show as a cyborg. One of the greatest pieces of performance art ever made."

Archived video of the livestream has since been taken down, but you can watch a mirror of it below.

Capcom has released some of the best games of the past few years with hits like Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 7, the Resident Evil 2 remake, and Devil May Cry 5. We'll see if that trend continues come April 3 when the Resident Evil 3 remake arrives on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Right now, you can save 27% on your pre-order at Green Man Gaming, dropping the price of Resident Evil 3's PC version to $43.79, as part of GMG's Capcom publisher sale. Most of the games offered in the sale, including Resident Evil 3, are Steam codes

If you have some catching up to do, the entire Resident Evil franchise is steeply discounted as well. The aforementioned Resident Evil 2 remake is $16.83 (was $60), Resident Evil 7 is $13.20 (was $30), and often overlooked Resident Evil: Revelations is just $6.07 (was $30).

One rocky launch, major hotfix, and even a nerfed ability or two later, the newly released Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is still seeing great success on Steam. Despite an average Metacritic score, it remains in the list of top 10 Steam games by concurrent players, according to Steam Charts. While its first major update, patch 1.0.4.0, addressed some of the server issues present at launch as well as a slew of other bugs, the developers over at Wolcen Studio are aware of what's left to fix.

In an update on Wolcen's official website, the Wolcen team has provided a "non-exhaustive list of critical issues" it's currently working to address in upcoming updates, notably patch 1.0.5.0 and patch 1.0.6.0. The post acknowledges that there are plenty of other issues not listed here that are still being worked on, and thanks the community for its support.

Read the full list of current known issues in Wolcen below or check out the developer's blog post.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward has shared a few details on what's coming to the multiplayer shooter this week. Playlist updates are typically released every Tuesday, and the headline addition this week is a twist on the massive 32v32 Ground War game mode.

An infantry-only playlist is being added, removing both tanks and APCs from the equation. This should make Ground War matches akin to extra-large variants on the usual Modern Warfare action, as opposed to the Battlefield-tinged mayhem that comes from adding vehicles to the mix.

Gunfight's 3v3 sniper variant is also coming back this week, taking place on Rust. Gunfight is getting a new map, too, called Bazaar. This was previously teased in the Season 2 roadmap.

The Pokemon Company has been giving away a variety of freebies for Pokemon Sword and Shield since the games' launch, but time is running out to claim a few of them. Three Mystery Gift codes are set to expire later this week, making this your last chance to take advantage of them.

The codes in question are valid until the end of the month and grant you a few useful items, including 10 Premier Balls, 20 Battle Points, and one Bottle Cap. The latter two gifts in particular are nice freebies; Battle Points are a special in-game currency used to purchase battle-focused items from the Battle Tower in Wyndon, while a Bottle Cap can be used to Hyper Train a Pokemon at the same facility, maxing out one of their base stats.

To claim the free items, select Mystery Gift from the menu screen and choose the option to get a gift with a code/password. Enter the following codes when prompted and the respective gifts will be downloaded into your game:

If you enjoy bashing people over the head with giant metal arms, we have good news for you. French publisher Dotemu has unveiled the final playable fighter for Streets of Rage 4, Floyd Iraia, and he has a fair resemblance to a certain fighting game character who loves to pull people's arms off, i.e. Jax from Mortal Kombat. He can pound the ground, and he even says "gotcha!" when he grabs enemies, too.

Streets of Rage 4 is a much-anticipated new title in Sega's beat 'em up series, which hasn't seen an entry in over 25 years. The game is under development by publisher Dotemu and Lizardcube, which is best known for their remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, with additional support from Guard Crush Games.

As part of the same announcement, Dotemu revealed that the game will feature four-player local multiplayer, a first for the series, as well as two-player online modes. The release date for the game has yet to be announced, but all sources point towards some time in 2020. It's unclear if Mr. X will show up at the end to mow you down with a machine-gun, but it's a fair bet at this point.

Despite hitting an impressive milestone this month, Nvidia's GeForce Now subscription service is still experiencing some growing pains. The company has announced that a large portion of Bethesda Softworks games will be removed from the service.

Nvidia's community manager Cory Banks posted on the company's forums, stating that "most" of Bethesda's titles will be removed from GeForce Now. Banks didn't clarify which titles have been removed, but he noted that Wolfenstein: Youngblood will remain available for all subscribers; Founders can still experience the first-person shooter with RTX On.

Reports suggest that all of Bethesda's games have been removed. In Nvidia's forums, players are saying that games they just bought, be it Doom or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, have suddenly been removed. And on Twitter, many are sharing similar experiences, with even older games such as Fallout: New Vegas getting pulled from their libraries.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal couldn't be more different, but they do share one exciting trait: their release date. New Horizons and Doom Eternal launch in less than a month on March 20, and we imagine there are plenty of folks out there who plan on picking up both. For those interested in slaying demons and picking flowers on March 20, Walmart will be selling Switch exclusive New Horizons and Doom Eternal for PS4, Xbox One, and PC for $49.94 each.

Spotted by Wario64, the $10 discounts aren't all that surprising. For the past year, the retail giant has routinely offered first-party Switch games and multi-platform AAA hits for $50 at launch. You'll have to go to your local Walmart store to save $10 on New Horizons for Switch, as the offer is in stores only for now. Pre-ordering online will still cost you the full $60.

As part of a bundle of new details about the upcoming Xbox Series X, Microsoft has unveiled a new feature called "Smart Delivery." According to the blog post, Smart Delivery is designed to make sure that players are downloading the version of the game that corresponds to their Xbox.

Microsoft says that it's committed to using this feature on all its first-party games, including the upcoming Halo Infinite, which is also coming to Game Pass. This means that players will only have to purchase a given game once in order to play what Microsoft terms the "best available version" for the Xbox console they choose to play on--even if they upgrade to newer hardware later.

Smart Delivery will be available for all developers and publishers on the Xbox platform. The technology is intended for games that will release on Xbox One first and come to the upcoming Xbox Series X later.

Microsoft has given more details about the Xbox Series X, including technical specs and consumer-facing features like its new Smart Delivery. In the process, it also reaffirmed it will continue to support some of its current initiatives, like Game Pass, for the upcoming Halo Infinite.

In the announcement, Microsoft confirmed that Game Pass will continue to include first-party games, specifically name-dropping Halo Infinite. The post also briefly mentioned its array of 15 Xbox Game Studios in relation to Game Pass. In addition, the Series X will be backward compatible with previous Xbox generations, so any Game Pass games from prior generations will be playable too.

Halo Infinite is also the flagship product for Microsoft's new Smart Delivery feature. That means you'll be able to purchase it and any other participating game on Xbox One, and when you upgrade your hardware to the Series X, you'll already own the next-gen version. Third-party participation is voluntary, but CD Projekt Red has already said Cyberpunk 2077 will be included.

Microsoft has revealed a plethora of new information regarding its next-generation console, the Xbox Series X. Among all the technical talk is confirmation of Microsoft's backwards compatibility stance with the Series X, and its ability to play games from every Xbox generation yet.

In a blog post penned by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, he states that the Xbox Series X will encompass four generations of gaming. The post explains that all currently backwards compatible titles from the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 will be brought forward to the Xbox Series X, while Microsoft is still compiling the list of Xbox One games that will be backwards compatible on day one.

Microsoft has not announced any new additions to the Xbox and Xbox 360 backwards compatibility libraries for Xbox One for some time, saying at E3 2019 that the focus was shifting towards backwards compatibility for what we now know is the Xbox Series X. As it stands, the backward compatible library on Xbox One encompasses over 600 games, all of which will work on the Series X.

Kojima Productions is the latest gaming company to announce that it will not be attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March due to the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Studio founder Hideo Kojima was slated to give an hour-long talk on the design philosophy of last year's divisive hit Death Stranding.

"Kojima Productions has made the difficult decision to cancel our participation at the 2020 Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to novel coronavirus," a post on the studio's website reads. "Although much-anticipated, unfortunately this cancellation also includes Hideo Kojima’s session on [March 19] and Eric Johnson’s session on [March 16]."

The studio's announcement follows similar proclamations from other major players in the gaming space, such as Sony, which cancelled its GDC appearance and PAX East showcase over COVID-19 concerns. This included the highly-anticipated public demo of The Last of Us 2. This prompted the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, to urge the company to reconsider its decision, citing the fact that only one case of the virus has been confirmed in the city. At this time, Sony has shown no indication that it will reverse its decision.

Microsoft has shared a load of new details about the Xbox Series X, but one of the biggest consumer-facing moves is a feature the company calls Smart Delivery. It essentially functions as a forward-facing cross-buy, letting you purchase a game once and then have access to it on whatever Xbox hardware you own.

The opening volley is Microsoft's first-party flagship game, Halo Infinite. That means that you can purchase it on your Xbox One and upgrade to Xbox Series X later, without having to re-purchase the game. The Smart Delivery feature means you'll get "the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you're playing on." The announcement also confirmed Halo Infinite will be a Game Pass title.

The company signaled this approach in January when it said it won't be launching the Xbox Series X with next-gen exclusives. That means you won't have to purchase the new console to play Halo Infinite, but one purchase stays with you across console generations. Since Microsoft's new approach is to release more console variations throughout the lifecycle, this should help assure players that they can buy some games without having to re-purchase them later.

GameStop PowerUp Rewards Pro members are about to see a major change to their benefits. The games retailer announced today that all Pro members will now receive a $5 monthly coupon as a key benefit of their membership. The $5 coupon is replacing another popular benefit where members could get 10% off used games and accessories. This 10% discount is no longer available.

The $5 certificate is an in-store-only promotion and can be redeemed on "pretty much everything in the store," GameStop told GameSpot. This includes new games, pre-owned games, accessories, hardware, collectibles, in-game currency, full-game downloads, and more. Unfortunately, the $5 coupon expires every month, so you'll need to use it or lose it.

It's no secret that this change was on the way--GameStop has been testing out the benefit in select stores since last summer, and according to the retailer, it saw a double-digit increase in Pro membership sign-ups as a result. "Based on customer feedback, our PowerUp Rewards Pro-level membership has evolved to provide our most loyal customers the opportunity to choose how they want to be rewarded," Frank Hamlin, chief customer officer, said in a press release.