Developer Frogwares, known for its work on the Sherlock Holmes franchise, has become the sole publisher of its open-world investigative game The Sinking City after a lengthy legal dispute with Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive).
In a post on social media, Frogwares stated that the latest version of the game will be published on the likes of Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and Gamesplanet in the coming weeks. As we mentioned a little while back, the Switch version of The Sinking City has been unaffected by the ongoing dispute since Frogwares originally published it instead of Nacon.
Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Resident Evil 2, Hell Let Loose, and More
Megan Spurr, Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass
Happy 2024! We hope your new year’s celebration was full of fun and games and that you have even more in store in the days to come. To help with that, let’s add some more games to your “to be played” list!
Available Today
Close to the Sun (Cloud, Console, and PC) Deep in international waters, Tesla’s Helios stands still. An unbound utopia for scientific research, Rose Archer steps aboard in search of her sister, quickly to discover not all is as it seems. Use your wits to guide Rose on her journey to find her sister Ada, overcome dangers unknown to understand the fate of the Helios and its inhabitants in this narrative driven steampunk adventure.
Coming Soon
Hell Let Loose (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 4 Squad up and take to the battlefields of World War II in the ever-expanding, hardcore, first-person shooter experience that is Hell Let Loose. Join other players online in epic, 100 player battles, taking place across huge, to-scale maps, where working as a team is a matter of life and death, and the right – or wrong – decision can turn the tide of battle. We’ll see you on the front lines!
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 9 Become Eivor, a legendary Viking warrior. Explore England’s Dark Ages as you raid your enemies, grow your settlement, and build your political power in the quest to earn a place among the gods in Valhalla in this critically acclaimed entry in the Assassin’s Creed series.
Figment (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 9 An action-adventure game that invites you to explore a unique, surreal universe filled with music, humor and a multi-layered narrative. Join Dusty and his ever-optimistic friend, Piper, on an adventure through the different sides of the mind, seeking to restore the courage that’s been lost.
Super Mega Baseball 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC) EA Play – January 11 Super Mega Baseball 4 is coming soon to PC Game Pass and Ultimate via EA Play, so grab your glove and your bat. It’s time to go yard with the best to ever play the game. Hit, pitch, throw, and slide into home plate with the series’ signature combination of arcade-inspired style and immersive gameplay depth.
We Happy Few (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 11 Making a return to the Game Pass library! From Compulsion Games, set in a drug-fueled, retro futuristic city in an alternative 1960s England, We Happy Few is an action adventure game in which you hide, fight, and conform your way out of a delusional Joy-obsessed world.
Resident Evil 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 16 Revisit the critically acclaimed nightmare of Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2 with new visuals, modern gameplay mechanics, and an over-the-shoulder perspective. Join rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield as they fight to survive a mysterious viral outbreak in Raccoon City that has turned its citizens into terrifying, flesh-eating zombies.
Those Who Remain (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 16 As the lights go out, the embers of darkness are stoked in the sleepy town of Dormont. Confront uncomfortable horrors, keep your sanity in check, and survive the night in this story-driven first-person psychological-thriller.
DLC / Game Updates
Dead by Daylight: Chucky – Available now
Game Pass members save 10% on their purchase! Meet your new best friend ‘til the end. Dead by Daylight: Chucky brings an iconic horror legend into The Fog with a new Killer: The Good Guy – Chucky. Purchasing this add-on unlocks an exclusive Charm: Good Guys Box. Wanna play?
Hello Neighbor 2 Anniversary Update – Available now
To celebrate the recent anniversary of Hello Neighbor 2 there is a new free update to check out. Visit the whole new area – the forest located on the outskirts of Raven Brooks. Explore the church and adjoining graveyard, once a renowned landmark and popular destination for townsfolk, now abandoned and eerily weird. Recent reports of a strange, cloaked figure seen lurking throughout the woods are probably completely unfounded. Are you brave enough to find it out?
Sea of Thieves: Season Ten – Available now Sea of Thieves: Season Ten continues with the arrival of a new way to sail! Enjoy playing Safer Seas mode at your own pace, alone or with a crew of friends, immersing yourself in your adventures without interruption. Other crews and greater rewards await in the existing High Seas mode. Learn more here.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks
Sea of Thieves: Nightshine Parrot Pack – Available Now This pack contains the Nightshine Parrot Jacket, Nightshine Parrot Sails, Nightshine Parrot Figurehead, Nightshine Parrot Hat and Nightshine Parrot Cutlass, as well as 10,000 gold to spend in-game.
Leaving Soon
The following games are leaving soon, so make sure to tie up any loose ends before they go. Remember to use your membership discount to save up to 20% to keep them in your library.
January 5:
Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud and Console)
January 15:
Garden Story (Cloud, Console, and PC)
MotoGP 22 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Persona 4 Golden (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Persona 3 Portable (Cloud, Console, and PC)
That wraps us up! Be sure to toss us a follow on our socials at Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass PC and stay tuned for more updates. Catch you next time!
I greet news of the completion of a Unity remaster for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall with equal parts excitement and horror. Excitement because I have never played Daggerfall and it is one of the weirder, more fantastical Elder Scrolls RPGs – the one with multiple endings which sequels have explained away as somehow all being canon thanks to a metaphysical event called a Dragon Break, whereby timelines branch and reconnect. And horror because I have never played Daggerfall, which is said to be 62,0000 square miles in size, and I’m getting to that point in life where I seriously ask myself whether I can finish certain games before I perish.
Still the journey is more important than reaching the destination, right? Perhaps I can treat it like an occasional walking sim.
Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red is not interested in being acquired despite the likes of Xbox and PlayStation actively seeking out studios to purchase.
Adam Kiciński, chief strategy officer of parent company CD Projekt S.A., told Polish outlet Parkiet that the company is happy and healthy as an independent being.
“We are not interested in integrating ourselves into any larger entity,” Kiciński said. “Throughout our entire lives we have worked towards the position we currently hold. We believe that in a few years, we will be even bigger and stronger.”
Publisher and developer Pichon Games has announced that the gorgeous but gory horror adventure The Bunny Graveyard will be making the jump (heheh) over to Switch at some point in 2024.
Originally released on Steam last September, the game sees you playing as a mouse cursor on a computer (yes, really) and setting out to help a bunny discover the truth behind its existence. Of course, this is a horror adventure, so we can expect a fair number of jumps and scares along the way — many of which can be seen in the above Steam launch trailer.
Last year, Warner Bros. announced the live-action Minecraft movie would be released in cinemas in April 2025. Now, in a new update, Deadline is reporting the actor and musician Jack Black will be joining the cast.
The Kung Fu Panda and Tenacious D star will supposedly be playing the role of the player character Steve in this Jason Momoa-led film. Production on this new movie is “about to get underway”, but details about the plot haven’t been revealed just yet.
While January isn’t always the biggest month on the video game calender, this year there are already several games to look forward to. One of these is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – a new Metroidvania-style take on the classic platforming series.
If you’re wondering just how much bang for your buck you’ll be able to get from this one, according to Game Informer, this new adventure is estimated to be roughly 25 hours. It’s not entirely clear if this is just the main game or a completionist run. However, the length of each playthrough depends on player skill and the amount of exploration.
The NES version of Tetris, believed to be impossible to complete by even the most dedicated fans, has finally been beaten. Thirteen-year-old phenom Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson was the first to pull off the improbable feat, which saw him reach level 157 before hitting what is being called the “final killscreen” by fans.”
A new video charts the community’s progress to beating the famously challenging version of the game, which lacks later features like the ability to store pieces. Even experts were only able to make it to around level 38 before it became impossible to keep up. However, a technique introduced in 2021 called “rolling,” which was achieved by utilizing the bottom of the controller, revolutionized the Tetris community and led to a host of new world records.
The spate of records led the community to wonder just how far Tetris could go. Players pressing into new frontiers began to discover corrupted colors, some of which made the blocks almost too dark to see, which they nicknamed “Charcoal” and “Dusk.” An in-depth investigation led players to realize that the game could be crashed in level 155, resulting in a new kill screen — jargon for a corrupted screen in classic games that prevents players from progressing.
It culminated in December 2023 with a battle between Blue Scuti, a relative unknown, and Justin “Fractal” Yu, the current Classic Tetris world champion, racing to reach the new kill screen and “beat” Tetris. Blue Scuti was the first to reach the goal, though amazingly, he missed the initial crash point. This led to a frantic few minutes as he tried to get to a new point where he could achieve a killscreen, finally achieving his goal in level 157. You can watch the complete run here.
It’s a great day to be alive. It only took 37 years, and this thirteen year old phenom named Blue Scuti became the first human in trillions of attempts to beat Tetris. He made it through dusk, and charcoal. Crawled a mile of shit and came out clean the other side, 120 levels past… pic.twitter.com/iJ5K9XN5kr
It was a huge moment for the Tetris community some 34 years in the making. But the journey is never done, and Tetris fans are already looking toward new horizons. Assuming they were able to avoid the steadily growing number of crash points, a player could theoretically hit level 255, which features a pure red color scheme. Beating that level would bring players all the way back to Level 0, meaning they will have truly reached Tetris’ final frontier and returned to the beginning.
One way or another, the Tetris community remains as vibrant as ever as players continue to uncover new challenges.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
I’m a sucker for games where swords are the pointy death delivery devices they truly are, rather than the big, blunt sticks so many turn them into. First Cut: Samurai Duel seems to be aiming its blades at my heart, then. It’s a 2D sidescrolling swordfighter in which each connecting blow means instant death, and it has a January 17th release date.
Frogwares is “now the sole publisher of The Sinking City on all platforms”, says the developer. This brings to an end several years of uncertainty and litigation, which saw the Lovecraftian RPG delisted from Steam several times and at one point restored by its publisher via an allegedly pirated version of the game.
The downside is that an updated version of the game is coming to all storefronts in the coming weeks and it won’t be compatible with old save files.
