Battlefield 6‘s servers are ready for launch day on Friday, one of the game’s developers has insisted.
Battlefield lead producer at DICE, David Sirland, replied to a question on X/Twitter about server readiness with a sort of confident sounding “should be!”
“We are planning for [servers to be ready], of course,” Sirland said, “and open beta helped gauge the interest as well.”
He’s not wrong about the beta helping to gauge interest. Battlefield 6 became the series’ biggest beta ever, hitting a peak concurrent user count of 521,079 players on Steam alone, resulting in a lengthy queue for those trying to get into August’s open beta. Whether or not the full, paid release will garner such a draw remains to be seen — but we’ll find out one way or the other on Friday.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developers Sandfall Interactive have wheeled out news that the RPG‘ll be getting a free update which’ll include a new location for its party to explore, more boss battles, and some extra costumes. The studio are teasing that there’ll be other stuff packed into this update, which they say is designed to act as a thank you to folks who’ve delved into the Belle Époque Frenchness.
Trinket Studios (Battle Chef Brigade) and Outersloth revealed their brand new and rather tasty-looking card-battler, Battle Suit Aces, a little while back, and it’s out right this very moment on the Nintendo Switch Entertainment System.
Now, if you’re feeling in any way like this particular writer, you may have just thought, ‘No, no more card-battling games – I reckon I’m all good for now, folks.’ But judging from what we’ve seen of this one, it may well be worth your time, especially if you’re into Persona-styled storylines threaded throughout battles that feature things like massive robots and gigantic monsters. Y’know, all the best things.
Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, Ball x Pit, Supermarket Simulator, and More
Megan Spurr, Senior Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass
We surprise-added a bunch of games last week – for cloud, console, PC, and even the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally handhelds – with more to come, meaning we have something for everyone. Let’s get to the games.
Available Today
Supermarket Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC) Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Run your own supermarket in this store management game! Stock shelves, set your prices, take payments, hire staff, expand your store, handle shoplifters, and design your layout. Purchase goods from online or local markets around town and personally deliver online orders to your customers.
Coming Soon
Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions (PC) – October 9 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Available on console and cloud gaming and now coming to Xbox on PC! Gather your party; the RPG saga returns. Immerse yourself in an epic RPG series where every choice matters. Play over 100 hours of adventure in enhanced editions of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II!
The Casting of Frank Stone(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 14 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
The shadow of Frank Stone looms over Cedar Hills, a town forever altered by his violent past. As a group of young friends are about to discover, Stone’s blood-soaked legacy cuts deep, leaving scars across families, generations, and the very fabric of reality itself.
Ball x Pit(Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 15 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass:Ball x Pit is a brick-breaking, ball-fusing, base-building survival roguelite. Batter hordes of enemies with ricocheting balls and gather the riches of the pit to expand your homestead, generate resources and recruit unique heroes.
The Grinch has a wonderful, awful idea – steal all the presents in Who-ville, using gadgets like his stealthy Santa costume and Candy Cane Lasso. Help him sneak around, freeze creatures with snowballs, and learn the meaning of Christmas along the way, in this festive platformer!
Eternal Strands(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 15 Now with Game Pass Premium
Eternal Strands is the debut fantasy title from Yellow Brick Games. Fight epic, towering creatures while blending magical abilities with an arsenal of powerful weapons to keep the world from crumbling in this third-person, action-adventure game.
Deep in the forgotten corners of the world, a dark force stirs – the Demon King rises once more. Sharpen your wits, seek out powerful artifacts, and stand firm in the face of the apocalypse in this roguelite RPG auto battler.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 15 Now with Game Pass Premium
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black features the high-speed, ninja action of iconic hero Ryu Hayabusa and his deadly Dragon Sword. Embark on a global battle against formidable foes, engage in relentless combat, and play as additional characters Momiji, Ayana and Rachel.
Pax Dei (PC) – October 16 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Welcome to a vast, social sandbox MMO inspired by the legends of the medieval era. Here, myths are real, ghosts exist, and magic is unquestioned. Join thousands of players as you explore the land, build your home, forge your reputation, and craft your own stories. What world will you make?
Keeper(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 17 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! From Lee Petty and Double Fine Productions, Keeper is a story told without words, in which a long-forgotten lighthouse is awakened and, joined by a spirited seabird, it embarks upon a heartening tale of unlikely companionship, and an unexpected journey into realms beyond understanding.
Evil West(Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 21 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Making a return to the Game Pass library! A dark menace consumes the Old West. In solo or co-op, fight with style in visceral, explosive combat against bloodthirsty monstrosities. Eradicate the vampiric hordes with your lightning-fueled gauntlet and become a Wild West Superhero.
Ninja Gaiden 4(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 21 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one with Game Pass! The definitive ninja hack and slash franchise returns with Ninja Gaiden 4! Embark on a cutting-edge adventure where legacy meets innovation in this high-octane blend of style and no-holds-barred combat.
In Case You Missed It
We recently revealed new details about Xbox Game Pass memberships. You can learn more about this below:
Hogwarts Legacy(Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover magical beasts, customize your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents and become the wizard you want to be.
Little Rocket Lab(Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Little Rocket Lab is a cozy, machine building RPG. You play as Morgan, an aspiring engineer! Head home to St. Ambroise to help complete your family’s dream-building a rocket. Help the locals with new machines, be creative, and become the ultimate engineer! That rocket isn’t going to build itself!
DLC / Game Updates
Dead by Daylight: Sinister Grace – Available now The skin tears. The head rises. The hunt begins. In Dead by Daylight: Sinister Grace, play as The Krasue, forever cursed by insatiable hunger and a terrifying creature well suited for The Fog. The Krasue’s blood-drenched tale is one of ambition gone awry.
Diablo IV: Season of Infernal Chaos – Available now Season 10 takes gameplay to chaotic heights, with updates that encourage deeper build experimentation and mastery through powerful Chaos Armor Uniques and deadly class-tailored Chaos Perks. The chaos persists in endgame with revamped Infernal Hordes, now overtaken by new, relentless Chaos Waves.
FBC: Firebreak – Breakpoint Update – Available now The first free Major Update, Breakpoint is packed with systemic overhauls, new content, and quality-of-life improvements – all aimed at making FBC: Firebreak more fun, varied, and rewarding to play.
Grounded 2: Hairy and Scary Update – Available now The Hairy and Scary update unleashes AXL the tarantula with a full armor set to craft, new weapons to wield, and new base décor. Fine-tune your loadout with new gear and build smarter with the streamlined BUILD.M interface as you prepare to face AXL on the back of your Buggy.
Age of Empires II: DE – Chronicles: Alexander the Great – October 14 Pre-order now and save 15%! Prepare for the next chapter in the fan-favorite Chronicles saga by stepping into the sandals of history’s greatest conqueror. Embark on Alexander the Great’s epic journey in this narrative-driven campaign featuring three new civilizations, customizable armies, and fresh storytelling.
In-Game Benefits
Now all Game Pass subscribers can get in-game benefits for eligible free-to-play games and titles in the Xbox Game Pass library, in addition to special offers like Discord Nitro. Specific benefits may vary per plan, region, and time.
Valorant: Play the new Agent Veto (Console and PC) – Available now Upset your enemy’s gameplan and take every fight on YOUR terms with Veto: Valorant’s new Senegalese Sentinel whose Radivore mutation shuts down and shrugs off enemy abilities.
Call of Duty: Warzone – Game Pass Pack 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – October 15 Get a free in-game bundle for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone. This pack includes operator skins, weapon blueprints, emotes, weapon charms and more that you can use in both games.
Leaving October 15
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon. Be sure to pick up where you left off before they go and remember you can save up to 20% off your purchase to keep the fun going!
Cocoon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Core Keeper (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC)
No matter how you want to game – be it on your PC, your console, a metaphorical ton of devices for cloud gaming (maybe a literal ton, if you count the CAR that has cloud gaming??), we have something for you. Talk soon!
While at first glance it may not look like there are many links between Silent Hill f and the Silent Hill games that preceded it, someone has discovered a cheeky little Easter egg hidden in plain sight.
As shared by Frankielollia on TikTok and one of her livestream viewers, during Hinako’s exploration of the Ebisugaoka Middle School, you’ll hear someone tinkling the ivories before opening the stairway door to the second floor. And it’s in one of these second-floor rooms that you’ll find a nod to the original game: a sheet of music displaying the opening notes of the original Silent Hill’s main theme.
As someone who can’t read music, I missed this entirely on my first playthrough, but Frankielollia happened to be streaming when someone who could read music and had a guitar to hand was watching. Together, they worked out what the notes depicted.
Silent Hill f takes us to 1960s Japan, where we follow Hinako Shimizu, a teenager struggling under the pressure of expectations from her friends, family, and society. It’s out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Dead Space fans have reacted in dismay at the cost of cosplaying as series star Isaac Clarke in EA’s new free-to-play Skate, which is currently available in early access.
Skate’s new Isaac Clarke bundle, which includes a homemade-style cardboard Isaac Clarke costume for your skater, a themed skateboard, the Necro Stomp emote and a bunch of stickers, is priced at 3,350 San Van Bucks — Skate’s in-game currency.
A pack of 2,800 San Van Bucks costs $25, while a 500 San Van Bucks pack costs $5. Inconveniently, buying these will leave you needing another 50 Van Bucks — so you’ll need another 500 pack ($5), making for a minimum total spend of $35. (There is at least a USG Ishimura T-shirt for free.)
While Skate is a free-to-play game funded by microtransactions, Dead Space fans have reacted to the bundle’s pricing in disbelief, with many comparing its cost to the price of the franchise’s full games.
Currently, the original Dead Space trilogy is available via Steam for $20 each, though individual games have been offered for as little as $4 each during sales. The celebrated 2023 Dead Space remake is currently $60 — although has been offered for as little as $12 during sales.
In one post on reddit titled “The state of Dead Space,” IllustriousReveal962 wrote: “Let’s hope that one day Dead Space will reach state as an IP that it isn’t solely relegated to just being a skin in a mediocre always online game to boost mtx.”
“You can buy 3 Dead Sapce games with that money (and probably 3 Skate games),” wrote another fan, Diogo Rodriguez, in a post on X. “Dead Space 2 remake got cancelled and now we get this,” wrote cayo0663.
On the left is Isaac Clarke from Dead Space in Skate 3. Model looks incredible & could only be obtained through a cheat code.
On the right is an Issac Clarke outfit in a bundle (pic included of bundle) on Skate 4. It costs roughly $30-$40 and looks horrible.
EA’s Dead Space and Skate franchises have something of a history, with a snazzy Isaac Clarke skin and cool sci-fi skateboard unlockable in Skate 3 for free via cheat code. The franchise’s celebrated 2023 Dead Space remake meanwhile featured an in-game Easter egg for a fictional “Skate 3000.” Many fans have said it should have been a positive this crossover is continuing — but not priced like this.
Image credit: @Realradec.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The classic 1999 version of System Shock 2 is set to be pulled from sale on Steam later this week. It’ll still be kicking around, but as a freebie offered to owners of the game’s 25th anniversary remaster, rather than something you can buy separately on Valve’s store.
We’ve already had a very brief glimpse of System Era Softworks and Devolver Digital’s rather excellent-looking Starseeker Astroneer Expeditions during the Switch 2 Direct six months back, and now the game has gone and got itself a great big 17-minute gameplay reveal, so we can get a proper look at exactly what it entails.
You can check out the reveal video in full above, and following on from our initial excitement at what we gleaned from our first glance back in April (no thanks to livestream hiccups), this in-depth peek shows off a multiplayer space adventure that’s got real promise.
Activision has announced an eye-catching free trial of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 that just so happens to clash with the launch week of rival first-person shooter Battlefield 6.
The week-long free trial of Black Ops 6, which includes full access to the campaign for the first time ever, as well as all of Multiplayer (excluding Ranked Play) and Zombies, kicks off at 9am PT on October 9 — just a day before Battlefield 6’s October 10 release date — and ends 10am PT on October 16.
The Black Ops 6 trial even includes new content from The Haunting update, like the Gravity, Rig, and Mothball Multiplayer maps, Haunted Havoc Zombies limited-time mode, and more.
While Activision hasn’t come out and said this trial is a direct attack on EA’s Battlefield 6 launch, fans are under no illusion about the optics here. It’s worth noting that Black Ops 6 is already playable via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, but the trial will benefit Essential and Premium users on Xbox and of course players on PlayStation and Steam.
It’s the latest salvo in what has become a popcorn-worthy back-and-forth between Activision and EA, with each mega publisher’s big budget FPS vying for the hearts and minds of the gaming community this holiday season.
In a recent interview with DBLTAP, Battlefield 6 design director Shashank Uchil doubled down on EA’s commitment to grounded realism, and even pointed to Call of Duty’s infamous Nicki Minaj skin as something Battlefield 6 doesn’t need.
“It has to be grounded,” he said. “That is what BF3 and BF4 was — it was all soldiers, on the ground. It’s going to be like this,” Uchil said, pointing at the key art featuring soldiers in soldier gear looking out over a wartorn New York City.
He added: “I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj. Let’s keep it real, keep it grounded.”
Both games are crucial releases for their publishers. Battlefield 6 leads the charge, releasing October 10 before Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 counter-attacks on November 14. It will be interesting to see which of the two mega publishers is happiest when the dust settles.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Falling over is the thing in Baby Steps. Sure, the goal in Bennett Foddy and co’s walking sim is technically getting from A to B despite your doughy corpus’ best efforts to get in the way, but it’s the constant stumbling and hilarious unintended pratfalls which make these sorts of games really sing. You get plenty of that playing alone, but for those who want to take things to the next level, Baby Steps has a multiplayer mod that’ll let you slap against your mates and gently bump their mushy forms off course.
