Category: Video Games

Fantasy role playing game Tales of Arise has sold three million copies ahead of arriving on the PlayStation Plus Games Catalog and Xbox Game Pass.

Publisher Bandai Namco announced the milestone on X/Twitter, sharing new artwork for the game in celebration. “Over three million of you have shown your support for Tales of Arise,” it said. “Thank you for heling to keep the flame alive.”

Tales of Arise launched in September 2021, meaning it’s sold three million copies in two years and five months.

Over 3 Million of you have shown your support for #TalesOfArise. Thank you for helping to keep the flame alive! pic.twitter.com/rbbsBtGBIB

— Tales of Series (@TalesofSeries) February 21, 2024

The number of players is likely on the verge of another rise, however, as Tales of Arise launched on both PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium and Xbox Game Pass on February 20.

Tales of Arise is the latest entry in the beloved RPG franchise, telling the story of a young man wielding the Blazing Sword and an untouchable girl fighting their oppressors. Players can explore the world of Dahna, where a mix of natural environments change in appearance based on the time of day.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “With an excellent story and cast and a reinvigorated combat system, Tales of Arise is the shot in the arm the long-running Tales RPG series needed to recapture its best moments.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

We may or may not have just gotten confirmation that Borderlands 4 is on its way.

No seriously, you decide. In an interview with IGN to talk about the upcoming Borderlands movie, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford dropped a major hint about a new project he considers to be Gearbox’s best game to date. He made sure to dance around the game’s title, but for context, I had just asked him his personal favorite entry from the Borderlands series.

“Look, we haven’t even announced anything of it,” Pitchford said. “Clearly, we’re working on something. And I know what we’re working on, and holy shit… It’s the greatest thing we’ve ever done. And I can’t wait, but it’s not time yet. It’s not time yet. There will be a time.”

As for when we’ll get more details on this mysterious new project, fans are speculating it will be sooner than you might think. According to ComicBook.com, Borderlands players on Reddit did some sleuthing to predict when they think the game will be unveiled.

The theory starts with a clip posted Feb. 6 from the official Borderlands account on Twitter/X. “This is how it all started,” the caption reads, accompanied by a video that recaps the entire first game. Fans were hopeful in the comments that the video could be setting the stage for a Borderlands 4 reveal.

This is how it all started. Welcome to the Borderlands! pic.twitter.com/XEvy9Haxqc

— Borderlands (@Borderlands) February 6, 2024

Exactly one week later, the account did the same thing for Borderlands 2. On Feb. 13, a nearly three-minute recap of the series’ second installment was uploaded to Twitter, generating further suspicion from Borderlands players that a new game is en route. “Ok… there’s gotta be a reason they’re doing these now right,” one fan asked in the comments.

Ok… there’s gotta be a reason they’re doing these now right?

— Ki11er Six (@Ki11ersix) February 13, 2024

By that logic, one redditor suggested it’s possible the Borderlands account will continue to release recaps of the remaining games (The Pre-Sequel, Tales From the Borderlands, Borderlands 3, New Tales from the Borderlands) leading up to PAX East, an event where Borderlands 3 was announced in 2019.

All signs seem to be pointing towards a new Borderlands game, and it makes sense — why wouldn’t Gearbox want to ride the hype train of its upcoming film adaptation. Plus, this past November, we even spotted Borderlands 4 mentioned among a leaked list of games in development on a now-deleted LinkedIn post.

But for now, we’ll just have to hold tight for an official reveal. And if the fan theories are right, hopefully March 19 yields some answers.

Will this year’s Call of Duty launch day one on Game Pass? Xbox boss Phil Spencer has suggested it will.

Speaking to Game File, Spencer said Microsoft plans for all Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax (Bethesda, MachineGames, iD Software, etc), and Xbox Game Studios games to launch on Game Pass “day one”. That means the games launch straight into the Xbox subscription service the same day they go on general sale.

“Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard and XGS — Xbox Game Studios — will be on Game Pass, day one,” Spencer said.

Microsoft has already announced the upcoming launch of Blizzard’s Diablo 4 into Game Pass, and there is a clear intent to get the Call of Duty back catalog into the library. But the suggestion new Call of Duty games launch straight into Game Pass as well is a somewhat surprising one, given Activision’s resistance to the idea in the past.

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick had stated he didn’t agree with “the idea of a multi-game subscription service as a business proposition.” Then, speaking to IGN last year, Spencer responded to the opposing ideologies to say: “Well, there’s a different person making the decisions.”

It’s easy to see why Spencer would want new Call of Duty games to launch day-one on Game Pass — given their popularity they would no-doubt boost subscriber numbers. However, triple-A publishers have expressed concern about the impact on game sales. Sony, for example, currently does not release its first-party games day-one into its PlayStation Plus subscriptions, preferring to add them later on. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also remains unconvinced by Game Pass. Speaking during a financial call, Zelnick said of releasing big games day-and-date on a Microsoft’s subscription service: “I still don’t think it makes sense. And I believe that it’s now becoming obvious that it doesn’t make sense. It’s just a lost opportunity for the publisher. So, I wouldn’t want to speak for my friend, Phil [Spencer], but our views remain unchanged.”

This year’s Call of Duty game is expected to be another entry in the Black Ops series and set in the Gulf War. Developed primarily by Treyarch, Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War reportedly touches on the global political fallout after the Cold War. Expect a launch in October or November and, based on Spencer’s comments, straight into Game Pass.

For now, Spencer said work is being done to get existing Activision Blizzard games on Game Pass. “We’re doing the back end work to make them come to PC and console simultaneously,” Spencer said.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.