I am incredibly excited to announce that Ultimate General: Civil War is officially coming to Xbox consoles on March 4. For the first time, console players can experience the tactical depth of this acclaimed strategy game from the comfort of their living room.

You won’t have to wait long to take command and test your skills.  We are preparing a playable demo targeting February 9, 2026, giving you a chance to experience the game’s mechanics firsthand.

Ultimate General: Civil War is a tactical real-time strategy game where you oversee a massive historical campaign from 1861 to 1865. The game is designed to be a simulator where every decision matters—from the positioning of your artillery to the morale of your infantry brigades.

On Xbox and XPA, you will fight through an extensive campaign featuring dozens of battles, ranging from smaller skirmishes to massive conflicts that span several days. You aren’t just watching from above; you are managing army composition, weapon supplies, and officer progression. Your units learn and grow stronger with every engagement, carrying their experience throughout the entire campaign.

Optimized for Xbox Controllers

Bringing a precise RTS to consoles was a significant challenge. Our goal was to ensure the game feels native to the gamepad, rather than just emulating a mouse.

In Ultimate General: Civil War, you control your units by drawing their movement paths directly onto the terrain. This mechanic feels incredibly natural on the Xbox Wireless Controller. You can draw flanking manoeuvres through forests or set up defensive perimeters on high ground with simple analog stick movements. We have adapted the experience to ensure that commanding a massive army feels intuitive and responsive on the console.

Prepare for Battle

The upcoming demo will be the perfect opportunity to learn how to manage cover, utilize terrain advantages, and break the enemy line using these optimized controls.

We can’t wait for you to try the demo February 9 and see how you rewrite history when the full game arrives on March 4, and you can add it to your wishlist now!

Ultimate General: Civil War

Samustai LTD

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

——-THE FOLLOWING GAME WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR XBOX SERIES CONSOLES ONLY!——-

«Ultimate General: Civil War» is a tactical real time strategy war game.

Fight in the American Civil War campaign (1861-1865) – from small engagements to massive battles that can last several days over hundreds of square miles of terrain. Based on your successes and reputation you might get access to more corps, divisions and brigades. Keep your soldiers alive and they will learn to fight better, turning from green rookies to crack veterans. The Officers rank up based on their units’ performance, but it’s war and they can be wounded or even get killed in action. There is a huge variety of Civil War weaponry from mass produced Enfield pattern rifles to rare Whitworths. Certain weapons can only be captured by raiding supplies or taken from the enemy on the battlefield. Detach skirmishers to send them to scout those hills ahead. Or merge several brigades into one bigger division if it’s needed. Dismount the cavalry to become less visible to the enemy or mount for fast flanking charges and supply raids.

Use every opportunity to overthrow your enemy and win the battle.

Usher in the new year with new member rewards for Battlefield 6, Madden NFL 26, Apex Legends, and more!

January Member Rewards

A new year comes with endless possibility … and a new batch of rewards to claim, starting with Battlefield 6 — EA’s latest title and the new standard of FPS combat. Purchase Battlefield 6 with your 10% member discount on the digital version of the full game and grab an EA Play Deployment Pack, EA Play Season 1 Pack, and Battle Pass XP Boost.

As we head into the year 2026, keep building your dream roster with a Madden Ultimate Team EA Play January Pack. Launch Madden NFL 26 and enter Ultimate Team from Jan 1-31 to claim your Pack.

Compete for rewards with a Football Ultimate Team Draft Token in EA Sports FC 26, available in Ultimate Team from Dec 25 to Jan 29.

Unlock tiers of the Podium Pass to earn prizes even faster, and race to the top step of the podium with the EA Play 5,000 XP Boost for F1 25.

Pick up the Gold Broodling Weapon Charm in Apex Legends and equip it to your favorite weapon before battling for glory, fame, and fortune in style.

Sim-sational New Year

Celebrate a Sim-sational New Year with EA Play on the Xbox PC App. This month embrace classic chaos with re-releases of The Sims and The Sims 2, coming to EA Play on Jan 22. Keep the cozy vibes rolling with MySims: Cozy Bundle joining The Play List Jan 29.

EA Sports Week

From goals to touchdowns, there’s a way for every sports fan to score during EA Sports Week. You can get up to 60% off select EA Sports games, only until January 26. Or try them out during Xbox Free Play Days from Jan 15-18 or for up to 10 hours anytime with a Game Pass Ultimate or EA Play membership.

To learn more about EA Play, check out X and Instagram, or visit here. For more details on all the EA Play member benefits this month, visit the EA Play Member Benefits site. Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See EA Play Terms for details.

Members can experience the world of EA with unlimited access to a collection of top titles, trials of select new games, in-game member rewards, 10% on EA digital purchases and more.

Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Microsoft continue to collaborate to improve player safety across our platforms. We believe gaming is for everyone and strive to provide experiences that are positive and enjoyable for all, especially for our youngest players. We work to accomplish this by pursuing a multidisciplinary approach, integrating advanced technology, research-driven insights, supportive community efforts, and skilled human oversight.

Since first announcing our shared commitment in 2020, we’ve partnered behind the scenes with Nintendo and Sony Interactive Entertainment on these efforts because we can accomplish more when we work toward the same goal. As we continue to invest in, adapt, and amplify our approaches to player safety, we have also evolved our shared principles to ensure they represent our constant efforts to keep our communities safe. Our latest shared principles reflect new innovations in player safety that have evolved with technological advancements, and new ways in which we collaborate through key industry initiatives and with trade associations.

Prevention: Empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences

• We provide controls that let players customize their gaming experience. We support parents with the tools and information necessary to help them customize appropriate gaming experiences for their children.
• We recognize that for safety features to be useful, they must be easy to use and understand. We promote the availability of our safety tools and provide guidance on how to use them through our platforms, support channels, services, on our websites, and in retail stores to reach more players and parents.
• We inform our parents and players about our codes of conduct and terms of use to support positive gaming experiences for everyone. We enforce these policies through a variety of preventive and remedial measures. We design our products with transparency and player empowerment at their core, aiming to make experiences that are intuitive and respect players’ choices.

Partnership: We partner with industry peers, publishers, regulators, law enforcement, and our communities to advance player safety

• Our commitment to safety is central, and we believe collaboration benefits the video game industry and all players by fostering safe gaming experiences.
• We partner and engage with global and regional industry trade organizations, industry members, regulators, law enforcement, non-profit organizations, and experts to develop and/or advance online safety initiatives. These include Thriving in Games Group, the Family Online Safety Institute, and others.
• We conduct shared research to inform policy decisions and to drive industry innovation. Individually, we have engaged with external research centers that study play and wellbeing.
• We partner with our community to promote safe gaming behavior and encourage the use of reporting tools to call out bad actors, and we have tools and processes in place to support rapid response to emerging incidents.
• We collaborate with ratings agencies such as the ESRB and PEGI, among others, to ensure that our games are rated for the appropriate audience, and work closely with the Entertainment Software Association and other trade associations to share trust & safety information designed to educate and promote positive play experiences.
• We invest in leading technology and proactive collaboration to help thwart improper conduct and content. We participate in key industry initiatives, including the Tech Coalition and its Lantern program, that are dedicated to enhancing child safety through technology, knowledge-sharing, and transparency.

Responsibility: We hold ourselves accountable for making our platforms as safe as possible for all players

• We make it easy for players to report violations of our codes of conduct and community guidelines, which we work to refine and evolve to support our player communities.
• In addition to removing content not suitable for our services, we take appropriate enforcement actions for violations, including restricting players from using our services for misconduct, with escalating restrictions for egregious or repeat violations. We engage in responsible and transparent practices, including the ethical use of all data, and deploy process enhancement technologies with skilled human oversight.
• We comply with all applicable laws in the places we do business and respond to legitimate requests from law enforcement. We promptly notify law enforcement if we observe unlawful conduct or where we believe a player is at risk of imminent harm.
• We publish our rules and requirements, and we ensure that players who have been reported understand the requirements for continued engagement with our platforms.

This partnership reflects our dedication to collaborating on solutions that enhance player safety and ensure our games are welcoming for everyone. The video game industry has a strong legacy of prioritizing player safety, especially for children. At the same time, we recognize that these challenges require collaboration and shared values, and so we welcome others to commit to the safety and well-being of players everywhere.

Horror doesn’t always come from monsters.

Sometimes it comes from obligation.
From silence.
From a debt that cannot be repaid.

When the team at Studio Ortica, based in Turin, Italy, began working on Loan Shark, they weren’t interested in building a traditional horror experience filled with combat encounters or overt shocks. Instead, they wanted to explore something more familiar, more uncomfortable, and deeply rooted in lived experience: the quiet dread of owing something you can never truly give back.

That idea, debt as horror, is not abstract in Northern Italy. It is cultural.

A Different Kind of Italian Horror

Turin is a city shaped by restraint. Long winters. Industrial history. Catholic architecture that towers over daily life without spectacle. Unlike the sun-washed imagery often associated with Italy, this is a place where stories tend to unfold inward, where consequences matter more than spectacle, and where morality is often framed as an unavoidable reckoning rather than a heroic choice.

These influences run quietly through Loan Shark.

Italian storytelling tradition, from post-war literature to regional folklore, often avoid clear heroes and villains. Instead, they focus on inevitability. On characters trapped by circumstance. On moral decisions that are technically “choices,” but never feel free.

Loan Shark adopts that sensibility fully.

You are not a warrior.
You are not a saviour.
You are a person who made a bad deal and now has to live inside it.

The Weight of Obligation

At the heart of Loan Shark is a simple premise: a single night, a single boat, and a debt that cannot be delayed.

Rather than treating debt as just number on a screen, the game treats it as a presence. It shapes how you move. When you act. What you fear. The true weight comes from the atmosphere itself: from strained conversations and the constant awareness that time is slipping away whether you act or hesitate.

This approach mirrors how obligation is often depicted in Italian narrative traditions. Debt is rarely loud. It doesn’t announce itself. It waits.

In Loan Shark, fear doesn’t come from what is chasing you. It comes from what you already owe.

Catholic Guilt Without Preaching

Northern Italy’s Catholic heritage is not presented in Loan Shark through overt religious imagery or doctrine. Instead, it appears in something more subtle: moral consequence without absolution.

Many games offer binary morality systems. Good choices and bad ones, rewards and punishments. Loan Shark deliberately avoids this framing. The choices you make are rarely framed as ethical victories. They are compromises. Delays. Attempts to survive one more moment.

This reflects a worldview where guilt is not erased by good intentions, and where consequences arrive regardless of how well-meaning you believe yourself to be.

You are not asked to redeem yourself.
You are asked to endure.

The Sea as Indifference, Not Romance

Although Loan Shark takes place on the water, the sea is not romanticised. It is not freedom. It is not escape.

In Italian storytelling, nature is often indifferent rather than hostile, unmoved by human struggle. The sea in Loan Shark behaves the same way. It does not attack you. It does not help you. It simply exists, absorbing sound, swallowing light, and reminding you how small your situation really is.

This indifference amplifies the horror. There is no villain monologue echoing across the waves. No dramatic storm to signal danger. Just the steady understanding that no one is coming.

Designing Fear Through Restraint

Studio Ortica’s small team of Nicola Dau, Luca Folino and Tremotino leaned heavily into restraint as a design philosophy. The game’s scale is intentionally narrow: one setting, one night, one unfolding spiral of consequence.

This wasn’t a limitation as much as it was a creative decision.

By reducing scope, the team was able to focus on tone, pacing, and psychological pressure. Every interaction matters. Every silence lingers. Every sound carries weight.

This design approach aligns naturally with console play, particularly on Xbox, where immersive audio, controlled pacing, and focused play sessions allow atmosphere to do the heavy lifting. Loan Shark is designed to be experienced deliberately with lights low, and attention fully engaged.

A Horror That Trusts the Player

Perhaps the most Italian aspect of Loan Shark is its refusal to explain itself too much.

The game trusts players to read between the lines. It trusts implication. It allows discomfort to exist without immediately resolving it. In a medium often driven by explicit feedback and constant reinforcement, this restraint feels almost radical.

But it is also deeply human.

Fear, after all, is rarely about what we see.
It is about what we already understand and cannot avoid.

Bringing a Local Voice to a Global Audience

While Loan Shark is shaped by Northern Italian sensibilities, its themes are universal. Debt, obligation, desperation, and moral compromise are not bound by borders. They resonate precisely because they are familiar.

Studio Ortica’s achievement lies in refusing to sand down those cultural edges in pursuit of mass appeal. Instead, they leaned into specificity trusting that authenticity would travel.

On Xbox, Loan Shark stands as an example of how small, focused games can deliver powerful emotional experiences without spectacle. It is horror built from atmosphere, storytelling, and uncomfortable truths rather than mechanical escalation.

And in doing so, it offers something increasingly rare: a quiet, unsettling experience that stays with you long after the screen goes dark.

Not because of what it shows you —
but because of what it asks you to live with.

Loan Shark

Dark Product

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$4.99

Get it now

You’re an indebted angler, trapped in a vicious cycle of borrowing and desperation. One dark, endless night at sea you haul up something unnatural: a talking fish named Cagliuso. It promises you riches — but its bargains come with terrifying strings.
In LOAN SHARK, the nets you cast bring more than fish. They pull you toward sacrifice, secrets, and a deadline you may never meet. The “loan shark” isn’t just metaphoric — something is stalking the waters, your time is running out, and every deal you strike pushes you deeper into the unknown.

First and foremost, we at Stoic want to take a moment and salute our amazing community who joined us in the Towerborne early access journey. It’s no exaggeration to say that the game would not be what it is without our community. Thank you to every Ace for your valuable feedback, passion, ideas and dedication which shaped Towerborne into our full game release.

That’s right, we’re excited to announce that we will be exiting early access and Xbox Game Preview and launching our full game on February 26, 2026, on Xbox, PC, Steam and PlayStation 5. This is all tied to a major 1.0 update to the game, and a shift in how you play and access. For those who have been with us from the start, there is a lot of new content and updates for you. And for those who will experience Towerborne for the first time, welcome! Let’s jump in.

A Reimagined Launch Experience

With this full game update, Towerborne shifts from its original vision as a free-to-play, always online title into a buy once, offline game – you will own the complete experience permanently, with offline play and online co-op.

This change required deep structural rebuilding over the past year, transforming systems originally designed around constant connectivity. The result is a stronger, more accessible, and more player-friendly version of Towerborne — one we’re incredibly proud to bring to launch.

What’s Coming in the Full Game Update on February 26, 2026

• A complete story & final showdown: We have an updated and complete story, a full narrative arc featuring a major antagonist, new side quests, and an overhauled Bounty Board.
• Who’s the boss?: we’ve added two new bosses, including the big bad boss (that would be the antagonist we mentioned), lieutenants, and umbra enemies.
• Fully reworked difficulty system: we’ve added an entirely new difficulty system, a complete rebalance of the game, and a new ‘Brutal’ difficulty for those who enjoy breaking controllers and swearing at their screens.
• Map it out: we’ve reworked and reimagined the World Map and added a new coastal biome.
• New Encounters & Combat Challenges: we’ve added new gear and player abilities, a new Forge system with the ability to modify, upgrade, and re-roll stats
• Is there more? Yes, there’s more! We have new music from the man/myth/maestro Austin Wintory, a bunch of quality of life and bug fixes, no more cosmetic purchasing – you can acquire all cosmetics free through gameplay, we added a TON of new cosmetics, and we’ve included multiple save slots and the ability to import your current character and associated loot.

That’s just a high-level look at what you can expect with the full game release of Towerborne. This major update represents a huge shift for the game and the community, and we have worked hard to incorporate as much of your feedback as we could. We could not have done this without your participation and contributions, and again, we want to thank each and every one of you.

For more details, including how your game and items will transition from early access and game preview to full release, please visit www.towerborne.com/FAQ.

Grab Towerborne’s full game Standard or Deluxe editions on February 26, 2026, to join the fight.