Join me in an all-new article where I will attempt to cherry-pick all the biggest and most important pieces of the previous week and bring them all into one quick read. As we progress through our busy lives, worrying about the cost of living crisis, working all the hours god sends and only having a little time spare to enjoy our favourite hobby of video games, you may get lost in what gaming news has been knocking about. Let me dig it all out so you don’t have to go trawling!

Xbox

There was quite a bit happening in the world of Xbox in this last week. After the hype of the shadow drop from Hi-Fi Rush had a chance to die off, we managed to see some bits and bobs. Some decent news and some not-so-great but there’s always something to trigger some topics in gaming discussions. Here are the key points from last week.

• Microsoft & Team Xbox announced that 46 different titles would be de-listed from the Xbox 360 marketplace on 7th February 2023. These titles will still be backward compatible and available on Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S storefronts
• Twitter had a mini meltdown as the gaming community learnt that the upcoming exclusive Redfall requires a constant internet connection to function even in the solo mode. In this day and age, does it really matter?
• Japan sees a price increase for the Xbox Series S and X
• According to Jeff Grubb, The Coalition has scrapped plans on their smaller developments to fully focus on Gears Of War 6
• Xbox Games With Gold were announced as “For The King” and “Guts ‘n’ Goals” for February 2023
• In an IGN interview with Phil Spencer, Halo will always be important for the Xbox brand and 2022 wasn’t the best year for which he takes responsibility for

PlayStation

Playstation has been a little on the quiet side of late, after the roaring success of God Of War Ragnarok, we see some trickles of news coming through in the last week.

• PlayStation Plus Essentials games were revealed as OlliOlli World, Evil Dead The Game, Destiny 2: Beyond Light & Mafia Definitive Edition
• PlayStation Plus Collection is being withdrawn on the 9th of May 2023. Make sure you redeem all of the games before it is too late!
• Again, according to Jeff Grubb “Wolverine” is targeting a fall 2024 release window and an M rating
• Sony announced a whopping 7.1 million consoles were shipped in the last quarter with $8.8 billion in revenue

The Big Shut Down

Unfortunately, we are going to see many titles have the shutters pulled down in the coming months. Whether this is down to dwindling player numbers or lack of revenue remains to be seen.

• Knockout City will be dodging servers altogether after 6th June 2023 and the game will no longer function on consoles. The PC will receive a version where private servers can be hosted.
• Epic Games and Iron Galaxy will be chucking Rumbleverse into the fire pit on 28th February 2023 after a mere six months
• Crossfire X will end on 18th May 2023 alongside the single-player portion of the game. After the game received a terrible launch and negative reviews, I can’t say I am surprised
• Turtle Rock Studios have officially announced that there will be no more additional content for Back 4 Blood
• EA is shutting down both Apex Legend Mobile & Battlefield Mobile which also dissolves studio Industrial Toys
• EA also cancels an unannounced iteration of Titanfall/Apex universe which was rumoured to be single player