It seems as though nobody's future at Xbox is particularly certain after this year's intense layoff spree at the Microsoft-owned gaming giant, but some game studios have been hit harder by Asha Sharma's Xbox Reset plans. In the late-September restructuring that saw Activision take over the Halo franchise, Microsoft also merged Turn 10 and Playground Games into a single studio, in what many saw as the last nail in the coffin for the Forza Motorsport franchise.

Following the merger, an internal email reported on by The Verge announced that Dan Greenwalt, the head of Turn 10 games with a 27-year tenure, has "decided that this is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft." In the memo, Trevor Williams, head of Playground Games, announced that Dan Greenwalt would remain on in some capacity to serve as an advisor for Williams and Playground Games COO, Michel Bastien. Forza Motorsport was already on the ropes when it was announced that the current version of the game, which launched in 2023, would no longer be getting support. It's unclear whether Forza Motorsport will continue as a franchise or if the absorption of Turn 10 into Playground Games means that its developers will be permanently reassigned to games like Fable, which Microsoft appears to be betting the farm on, or Forza Horizon 6, which has shown itself to be a cash-cow in a struggling gaming industry.

A jailbroken PlayStation 5 can now run original Xbox games, which is quite ironic, to say the least. Developer ZiZc3 has published XPSemu Alpha 1 on GitHub, a port of the open-source xemu emulator that runs as a native PS5 app. In the developer's own testing, an unmodified Halo 2 holds 30 FPS on average. With the community 60 FPS patch, it apparently reaches 51 to 60 FPS in the opening and 36 to 50 FPS during gameplay. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is said to run smoothly as well. The other results, however, are less impressive. Forza Motorsport drops to 15 to 21 FPS in races, and Fable: The Lost Chapters falls to 10 to 20 FPS in heavy scenes. It looks like the CPU is the limit here.

ZiZc3 says the emulated Xbox CPU thread stays at 85 to 97% load while the GPU sits mostly idle. That spare headroom lets you raise the internal resolution by 4x at almost no cost. You'll need your own Xbox BIOS, MCPX boot ROM, hard disk image, and games as XISO files, since discs aren't supported. Save states are missing, and audio DSP emulation is off by default because it hurts performance. Frame generation through an FSR 3 port is on the roadmap. XPSemu comes about a week after ProsperoEden brought Switch games to jailbroken PS5s and the Relapse exploit unlocked nearly every PS5 model, so more ports like this are probably on the way.

Mere hours after it was leaked that Xbox would be continuing its recent slew of layoffs, Xbox Wire published an internal email, officially confirming those layoffs and providing a glimpse into the future of the Xbox game development landscape. As a result of the layoffs, which will see 268 employees out of work, there also will be changes to several studios at Xbox, including Activision, Bethesda, King, Playground, and Turn 10.

It seems as though all of the layoffs this time around came out of the Halo Studios team, and Microsoft has left Activision in charge of the next Halo game as a result. Xbox says that a small team at Halo Studios will remain in order to support Activision in the franchise's development. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory, which was previously in negotiations on deals to exit Xbox's ownership, will officially close down instead of being bought. The Hellblade/Senua franchise will seemingly be developed by another studio at Xbox, following the closure of Ninja Theory. Xbox claims that two separate buyout deals had fallen through. For the time being, it seems as though Blizzard has escaped its anticipated layoffs.

In a recent episode of the MinnMax podcast, Mike Brown, creative director of Forza Horizon 5 and co-founder of Maverick Games since leaving Playground Games to work on Clutch at Maverick Games, commented on Xbox's recent sweeping changes and the state of Xbox Game Pass. He has a lot of praise for the former Xbox leadership, both Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer, and comments that the current state of Xbox and the recent layoffs are both "sad."

Brown goes on to say about Game Pass that "they've obviously invested a fortune in the concept of Game Pass, as a service," which has led to "loads of acquisitions" in order to get games in Game Pass, but he adds that "not enough people have subscribed to it at prices that they needed to pay in order to make that business viable." He explains that the concept of Game Pass was "well-meaning," "player-focussed," and a "good concept."

Valve is making a fortune, as confirmed by the latest data from Alinea Analytics, which estimates Steam has generated an impressive $11.1 billion in revenue in the first half of the year. These numbers are not only record-setting for Valve but also highlight the significant influence Steam has within the gaming community. As a privately-owned company, Valve's revenue figures are not publicly disclosed. However, analysis from Alinea Analytics estimates that the gross revenue for the first six months of the year is $11.1 billion, nearly matching the entire year of 2021 ($11.4 billion), when the COVID pandemic significantly boosted the gaming community as people stayed home for extended periods.

Interestingly, the majority of Steam's revenue comes from older games. The report notes that only 21% of the revenue stream has come from 2026 game releases, while the rest is supported by a catalog of older titles. Perhaps gamers have been saving up to purchase older games or simply waiting for new releases to resolve the initial bugs and issues that often accompany major game launches. The top-selling games in the first half of 2026 include Forza Horizon 6, generating $197.7 million since launch, Resident Evil Requiem with $194.5 million, and Crimson Desert with $190.1 million from game sales. A complete chart with more games is included below.

Forza Horizon 6 recently launched on PC and Xbox Series consoles on May 19 to impressive player counts on Steam, and it has largely retained those concurrent player counts, returning to around 280,000 peak concurrent players daily throughout its launch week. It makes sense, then, that sales figures are also strong, at least according to estimates by Alinea Analytics. The analytics firm estimated in a recent report that Forza Horizon 6 had sold 4.9 million units and reached as much as $325 million.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of [Forza Horizon 6] is now live]

According to Alinea, 1.7 million gamers purchased the $120 Advanced Access version, but more interestingly, 42% of those copies sold were purchased by Xbox gaming players—although this includes PC, console, and cloud. In addition to the high sales figures, over 3 million Game Pass gamers played Forza Horizon 6 in the game's launch week. The revenue split between Steam and Xbox is almost dead even, with the former estimated to account for 49% of the game's revenue, while Xbox accounted for 51%. Previous rumors indicated that Xbox Gaming may be looking to lay deeper roots in China, but Forza Horizon 6's sales performance in China confirms that it already has a strong foothold in China, which accounted for 13% of the Horizon 6 Steam players.

The weekend prior to launch, Forza Horizon 6 featured advanced access for buyers of the $120 Premium Edition of the game, garnering peak concurrent player counts of just over 172,000 players on the first day of Advanced Access. Following Advanced Access, the new racing game officially launched to a global audience on May 19, and it appears to have been a successful launch day so far. Nine hours after the official release, Forza Horizon 6 peaked at 273,148 concurrent players on Steam, making it a very successful launch compared to Playground Games's Forza Horizon 5, which only managed to reach a peak of 81,086 concurrent steam players in 2022.

By comparison, Subnautica 2, which launched but a few days earlier in Early Access on Steam and on the Xbox Series consoles, managed to garner over 467,000 concurrent players on Steam on launch day. Forza Horizon 6 also launched on Xbox Series X|S, and on PC via the Microsoft Store, so the actual player turn out was likely much higher than that, despite the premium $69.99 price tag. The Steam review rating for Forza Horizon 6 is also quite positive, currently at 86% positive, and the game's proprietary ForzaTech engine acquitted itself admirably in our performance testing on both handheld devices and on more powerful hardware.

Forza Horizon 6 officially launches on May 19, but advanced access for buyers of the $119.99 Premium Edition kicked off on May 15, and it appears as though, despite a recent leak of the game ahead of the official launch, gamers have come out in droves to play the new open-world racing game. On Steam alone, Forza Horizon 6 crossed 172,000 peak concurrent players just seven hours after the advanced access launch. The game has also reached second place in Steam's official Top Sellers chart, falling just short of taking away Subnautica 2's number-one spot following its immensely successful launch just a day before Forza Horizon 6's advanced access.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth performance review of Forza Horizon 6 is now live]

This being Steam data, it gives us little insight into the performance of the game beyond blatant speculation, but it's safe to say the real total peak player counts are significantly higher than the 172,000 players on Steam. Some gamers will have bought the game on the Microsoft store for PC, and others may have purchased it on their Xbox Series consoles. The high player counts do suggest that the official launch will be a big one. Forza Horizon 6 has already surpassed the peak concurrent player count of Horizon 5 by more than 100%. Since Horizon 6's predecessor launched, it hasn't managed to garner more than 81,096 concurrent players, and player counts for that game were down to around 15,000 peak concurrent players by the end of the game's second month on the market. How Horizon 6 fares in terms of player retention remains to be seen, but there

It was recently revealed that Forza Horizon 6 game files have made their way online ahead of the game's official release, with SteamDB reporting early on May 11 that the game's "file list appeared on SteamDB because someone (could be someone else) uses our token dumper" to upload the information. SteamDB postulates that it was a "reviewer or similar" who leaked the game. Playground Games, the developer behind the Forza Horizon series has quickly responded to the game leak, addressing the community directly with consequences for anyone caught with the leaked files and denying any involvement in the leak, which was previously thought to have been as a result of a glitch in the Steam preloading system. According to Playground, the Forza Horizon 6 build leak "is not the result of a preload issue," echoing SteamDB's statement on the matter. Meanwhile, PC players who paid full price for the game, $69.99 or up to $119.99 for the Deluxe Edition, are still unable to preload the game ahead of its official May 19 launch, according to discussions on Steam forums.

However, unlike the rather calm response issued by Capcom when Resident Evil: Requiem's narrative leaked ahead of launch, Playground Games is also "taking strict enforcement action" against anyone accessing the build. The action in question will be franchise-wide and hardware bans, meaning there is a risk associated with playing the pre-release leaked version of the game. These threats have not seemed to deter some, with some players going so far as to post their game reviews based on the build on sites like Reddit. Repackers have also already been hard at work posting their repackaged versions of the leaked game to forums like r/CrackWatch. There may also be workarounds for hardware bans, but many in the aforementioned Reddit post have mentioned that they will simply play the game offline to avoid the hardware bans. Testing for TechPowerUp's in-depth performance review of Forza Horizon 6 has been running since last week and the article will go live on May 14 when the review embargo ends.

With the official launch of Forza Horizon 6 around the corner, Microsoft and Playground Games have just divulged a little more information about the upcoming driving sim, specifically its world, car line-up, and official console performance modes and expected frame rates. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly Forza Horizon 6 will feature two distinct performance modes on the Xbox Series X and S consoles. Performance Mode will allow the game to run at 60 FPS on both consoles, at 4K resolution with dynamic upscaling on the Series X and 1080p with dynamic scaling on the Series S. Quality Mode, on the other hand, will target 30 FPS on both Xbox variants, at 4K native resolution with "increased visual fidelity" on the Series X and 1440p with dynamic scaling to maintain the target frame rate. Horizon 6 will also feature a number of accessibility features, including AutoDrive, Proximity Radar, High Contrast mode, colorblind filters, and ASL and BSL interpreters for cut-scenes. There is also an option to modify the game speed in offline mode, which should make the game more accessible to kids and those with limited mobility and reflexes, especially when used in conjunction with difficulty settings.

The announcement revealed that gamers can start preloading Forza Horizon 6 on both PC and Xbox already, from the library page for preorderers and Game Pass subscribers, from the Microsoft Store, or using the Xbox app for smartphones if you're planning on buying a physical edition. Microsoft will also be giving Forza veterans login rewards in the form of free special car unlocks that will appear in players' garages after they complete the introductory mission. These cars depend on the game players previously played: 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray for Forza Motorsport; 2021 Mercedes-AMD ONE for Forza Horizon 5; 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan for Forza Horizon 4; 2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 for Forza Horizon 3; 2014 Lamborghini Huracán LP-610-4 for Forza Horizon 2; and 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS for Forza Horizon.

With the launch of Forza Horizon 6 around the corner, it's about time that Xbox Games announce the official Xbox accessories to go along with the latest installment in the racing sim franchise. The official Forza Horizon 6 accessory bundle consists of a limited edition wireless Xbox controller and a limited edition wireless headset. From a hardware perspective, both seem identical to their non-limited edition versions, but the Forza Horizon 6 versions have some unique aesthetic touches.

Both the Forza Horizon 6 controller and the headset feature striking neon blue, pink, and yellow accents. Where the controller has metallic silver accents and opaque plastic components, the controller brings back the transparent tech look and features a printed racetrack design across the front of the controller's face. Like other Xbox Wireless Controllers and headsets, the limited edition Forza Horizon 6 versions are compatible with Android, iOS, Windows PCs, and Xbox Series and Xbox One consoles. The limited edition Forza Horizon 6 Xbox controller is available for $89.99 from the Microsoft Store, while the wireless headset is $134.99 on the Microsoft Store.

With the May 19 launch of Forza Horizon 6 just around the corner, Microsoft and Playground Games have officially revealed the minimum hardware requirements for the new racing game, and, at least on the low end, Forza Horizon 6 will not ask players for a lot when it comes to hardware. The minimum spec for the game to run is an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 paired with 16 GB of RAM, an SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, Radeon RX 6500 XT, or Intel Arc A380 GPU. This should make the game playable at 1080p, 60 FPS at low settings preset. For 1440p at 60 FPS and high settings, or the recommended hardware spec, Horizon 6 will demand an Intel Core i5-12400F or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, Radeon RX 6700 XT, or Intel Arc A580 GPU and 16 GB of memory.

The "Extreme" requirements, which target 4K native at 60 FPS, call for an Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT with 24 GB of RAM, while the "Extreme RT" option, which targets 4K upscaled with Ray Tracing enabled, bumps up the GPU requirement to an RTX 5070 Ti or an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT as well as requiring 32 GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD. The game also supports DLSS 4, AMD FSR 3 and 4, and Intel XeSS 2.1, as well as Ray Traced Reflections and Global Illumination, and the engine aims for "high, uncapped framerates," and will support both the Valve Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally handhelds, although there is no word on whether there will be a graphics preset for the handhelds.

Yesterday, Microsoft used the fourth edition of its regular Developer_Direct showcase to promote Fable's path to release. The comedy-heavy fantasy open world experience is projected to launch this autumn on PC platforms, as well as Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles. Certain industry observers have questioned the validity of this broad (Q3/Q4) timetable—weighing in with theories of Playground Games' PS5 port arriving at a later date. A simultaneous launch across multiple rival hardware systems is a tall task, especially for a studio more accustomed to making racing games on primary Xbox and PC platforms. A first try—2021's Forza Horizon 5—successfully headed over to PlayStation 5, last year. Instead of opting into using Epic's popular Unreal Engine 5, the British development outfit's Fable team has stuck with in-house ForzaTech engine tech. This week, senior Playground Games staffers have engaged with members of the press—many journalists have asked about the UK-based team's approach to getting Fable ported over to PS5.

Bravely, a select few interviewers have broached the subject of a possible Switch 2 version. Late last night, Jez Corden disclosed that he was informed about a potential conversion onto Nintendo's latest hybrid console, but this future prospect: "isn't 100% definite for now, but under consideration for the future." The Windows Central scribe/executive editor elaborated further in social media exchanges—he mentioned that "decision-making" was in the hands of "logistics," as of January 22. Corden believes that development of a speculative Switch 2 port has not started yet, but rates its chances of approval in the near future. A small selection of former Xbox exclusives have turned up on Switch 1 in the recent past. Last October, Phil Spencer—Microsoft Gaming's CEO—mentioned that Nintendo had provided "excellent support" of in-progress Xbox-to-Switch 2 titles. Weeks later, former NoA boss—the ever-dynamic Reggie Fils-Aimé—expressed surprise about the current lack of first-party Xbox games on Switch 2.

Today at Developer_Direct, we got our first in-depth look at Fable, the open world, action-RPG "new beginning" for a truly legendary Xbox series—and learned that it will arrive this Autumn. From a specially created new team at Playground Games (Forza Horizon), this huge, ambitious, hilarious game aims to bring what you love about Fable, and provide a fresh perspective on this legendary franchise.

During Developer_Direct, we learned how the story begins, saw combat in action, had character customization confirmed, discovered how Fable's classic morality system is being reintroduced in a whole new way, found out about the game's Living Population of unique NPCs, and so, so much more. But there are always more questions to be answered, which is why I tracked down Fable's GM and Game Director, Ralph Fulton to dig deeper into some of the big topics we just learned about.

It was previously revealed that Forza Horizon 6 would launch sometime in 2026, although an official launch date has yet to be revealed beyond that. However, the release date for the next instalment in the open-world racing game series has been reportedly spotted inside Forza Horizon 5, of all places. According to @XBOXF10 on X, an in-game pop-up appeared in Forza Horizon 5 after leaving the garage that presented a pre-order offer for Forza Horizon 6. The aforementioned pre-order offer would grant early access to Forza Horizon 6 and allow players to "play 4 days early starting May 15," suggesting that the official release for Forza Horizon 6 is on May 19.

Incidentally, the pre-order bundle would also give players access to two post-launch expansions, a welcome pack, a VIP membership, and the Car Pass and Time Attack Car Pass. Pre-orderers will also receive an exclusive pre-tuned Ferrari J50 when Horizon 6 launches. The screenshot also reveals that Forza Horizon 6 will have a total of 550 vehicles and claims that Horizon 6 will have the biggest open world of any Forza game to date.

2026 is going to be an incredible year for Xbox players—you might even call it a… fabled year. To celebrate, we're kicking it off with the fourth installment of our Developer_Direct broadcast on January 22, bringing you news, new gameplay, and insights directly from the incredible teams working on titles coming this year. Presented by the game creators themselves, Developer_Direct will once again give you an inside look at not just the games, but the studios working to bring them to life. Fittingly for Xbox's 25th anniversary year, that includes the return of some of our most legendary franchises, which rub shoulders with a brand-new title from one of Japan's most beloved studios.

The show includes not one but two titles from Playground Games, with the UK studio bringing us a first extended look at Fable, as well as the debut of gameplay for Forza Horizon 6. We'll also be taking a trip to Tokyo to visit the legendary Game Freak, offering a first in-depth look at Beast of Reincarnation, which we revealed at Xbox Games Showcase last year.

Forza Motorsport, in its most recent iteration, launched in October 2023, but despite the relatively recent release date, it seems as though the game's developer, Turn 10 Studios, is already starting to sunset the multiplayer racing sim, although the game will remain playable for the foreseeable future. Turn10 said in a recent announcement that it would no longer be adding any in-game content—cars, tracks, or features—to Forza Motorsport, nor will the studio provide regular bug fixes or updates. However, the studio says that it will still offer online support for multiplayer gameplay, although it's unclear how long this will last.

In addition to the continued server maintenance, Turn 10 will also host a number of special events and competitions throughout 2026, seemingly in an effort to keep players around and as a way for players to earn past special event rewards, cars, and other content that was previously limited. Turn 10 says it is ceasing further development of Forza Motorsport in order to "shift its focus" to the upcoming Forza Horizon 6 game that was announced earlier this year. This news also comes after Turn 10 Studios lost about half of its staff in July 2025 when Xbox Games laid off a sizeable number of staff across multiple subsidiaries.

As previously leaked, Forza Horizon 6, the latest entry into Xbox Game Studios's racing sim franchise, has been officially announced at the Tokyo Game Show, alongside a short reveal trailer. The reveal and trailer confirms that Forza Horizon 6 will be a PC and Xbox timed exclusive, with a PlayStation 5 port confirmed for a later date. The port will be developed in conjunction with Turn 10 Studios. Horizon 6 is also confirmed to be launching on Steam alongside Xbox and the Microsoft Store, and there is already a Steam page where you can wishlist the game.

The trailer for Forza Horizon 6 doesn't give away much of the game's contents, but it shows off Mount Fuji and the Japanese countryside, implying that the game will feature races on some twisty mountain roads. The Steam Store page confirms that Horizon 6 will once again feature an open world, and the announcement article has hinted that exploration and scenery will once again be a large part of the game's allure.

According to a new report out of Insider Gaming, the next installment in the Forza Horizon racing game franchise will be released at Tokyo Game Show 2025. The report cites leaked internal documentation that has been "widely circulated" suggesting that Microsoft's next Xbox Game Studios racing game will be launched at the end of September at the game show in Japan's capital. Posts on X, by notable gaming reporters, Tom Henderson and NatetheHate purport to corroborate these release date claims.

NatetheHate also goes as far as to suggest that there may not be a Switch version and confirm that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan, mirroring the reveal locale. Previous speculation about Forza Horizon 5 points to technical limitations of the Switch hardware being behind Forza Horizon 5's lack of a Switch release, so the same may be true for the Switch 2. Forza Horizon 5 demands an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 in its recommended specs—which was already five years old by the time the game launched—and if we extrapolate that to modern hardware, that would mean Forza Horizon 6 will likely recommend an RTX 2000- or 3000-series GPU, much like Borderlands 4. The Tokyo Game Show is slated to kick off on September 25 and run until September 28.

With nearly 900 cars available in the game, over 40 thematic game updates, two expansions, and so much more content, our team is excited to announce that this spring, PlayStation 5 players will be able to explore Mexico's beautiful roads and experience the Horizon Festival for the first time as we are officially launching Forza Horizon 5 on PS5.

The PlayStation 5 version of Forza Horizon 5, developed by Panic Button in partnership with Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games, will have the same content as the Xbox and PC releases of the game. Previously released Car Packs, as well as the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions, will also be available for purchase.

Forza Motorsport, Xbox Studios's cinematic 2023 live-service racing sim, is getting a nice visual upgrade in an upcoming update (titled Update 15) shortly after the first anniversary of its release. On December 9, Forza Motorsport will get Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI), making the racing game and all its shiny cars look more realistic. RTGI will be available for all PC versions of Forza Motorsport as of December 9—as long as the game is up-to-date that is—although it will need to be manually enabled in the game's graphics settings. After being enabled, RTGI will apply to both gameplay rendering and in-game cinematics, as well as the built-in photo mode.

While Forza Motorsport's minimum recommended GPU specification is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, you will need at least an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series or AMD RX 6000-series graphics card to take advantage of RTGI, with the game's developer, Turn 10, recommending an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or better for high graphics and RTGI settings. For the uninitiated, RTGI helps increase realism by simulating how light interacts with surfaces and materials, more accurately rendering indirect lighting and shadows in-game. In NVIDIA's blog post announcing the updated visuals for Forza Motorsport, it recommends using the RTGI in conjunction with DLSS Super Resolution or DLAA to get the highest frame rates. Forza Motorsport is available for PC on Steam (currently 50% off), the Microsoft Store, and PC Game Pass

More than 600 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Marvel Rivals launch with DLSS 3, Path of Exile 2 enters Early Access with day-one support for DLSS Super Resolution, and the Delta Force PC Global Open Beta kicks-off, also with day-one DLSS Super Resolution support. On December 9th, Forza Motorsport's next update introduces support for immersive Ray-Traced Global Illumination lighting. And in the near future, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's next update introduces support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Launching With DLSS 3 & Ray Tracing
Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on December 6th with the game's Digital Premium Edition Advanced Access launch, followed by its general release on December 9th. Step into the shoes of Indiana Jones and embark on a single-player, narrative-driven journey that spans the globe during the height of the legendary archaeologist's career. From the hallowed halls of the Vatican and the sunken temples of Sukhothai to the pyramids of Egypt and the snowy peaks of the Himalayas.

Hi everyone, in January we shared with you all a status update on 3 key areas of feedback from the Forza Motorsport community that our team is working to improve—Car Progression, Forza Race Regulations and Drivatar AI. For Car Progression, today we began collecting feedback from various sources on changes that will give players freedom to equip the parts they need regardless of car level. We have additional changes to the system in various states of design and testing with plans to implement these changes as soon as possible. For Forza Race Regulations, we have enabled Race Marshals and some content creators the ability to flag in-game incidents for review to help feed changes to the adjudication model that will improve the system. Lastly, we're testing out fixes to the Drivatar AI to alleviate competitors bunching up around Turn 1 and causing the first few AI opponents to reach insurmountable leads. Beyond those key changes, we're investigating other priority fixes for the AI that improve their overall driving behavior and reduce how aggressively they stick to the racing line. These are just a few examples of where we are prioritizing work in these areas, and we will be sharing more on each soon.

While we have 3 distinct teams here at Turn 10 working on these key improvements, we're also actively developing fixes and improvements to other areas of the game. These will begin rolling out alongside Update 5 in February and will include a Skip Practice option to the Career mode pre-race menu to make it more discoverable, and a save point after finishing a Practice session so you can complete the Featured Race later. We're also developing fixes and quality-of-life improvements to the Livery Editor based on the reports you've shared with us, including custom advanced zoom for applying decals, the ability to paint upgraded brake calipers, and a prompt to save your design when exiting the Livery Editor. While this update is in active development, we wanted to share an earlier-than-usual look at some of the changes we're targeting for this release.

The fastest way to give the gift of cloud gaming starts this GFN Thursday: For a limited time, every six-month GeForce NOW Ultimate membership includes three months of PC Game Pass. Also, the newest GeForce NOW app update is rolling out to members, including Xbox Game Syncing and more improvements. Plus, take advantage of a heroic, new members-only Guild Wars 2 reward. It's all topped off by support for 18 more games in the GeForce NOW library this week.

Give the Gift of Gaming
Unwrap the gift of gaming: For a limited time, gamers who sign up for the six-month GeForce NOW Ultimate membership will also receive three free months of PC Game Pass - a $30 value. With it, Ultimate members can play a collection of high-quality Xbox PC titles with the power of a GeForce RTX 4080 rig in the cloud. Jump into the action in iconic franchises like Age of Empires, DOOM, Forza and more, with support for more titles added every GFN Thursday. Seamlessly launch supported favorites across nearly any device at up to 4K and 120 frames per second or at up to 240 FPS with NVIDIA Reflex technology in supported titles for lowest-latency streaming. This special offer is only here for a limited time, so upgrade today.

As autumn continues, we have another week of big game releases to look forward to, hopefully with something that'll suit most gamers here. This week's AAA title involves a lot of sand, wars and monuments. As for the rest of this week's new games, you can be a tycoon, a driver of very expensive motor vehicles, craft your own stick, pretend to be a starship captain or you could be a monster slayer. Let us know if any of these tickle your fancy in the poll.

Total War: Pharaoh / This week's AAA title / Wednesday 11 October
In Total War: Pharaoh, the newest entry in the award-winning grand strategy series, immerse yourself in ancient Egypt at the zenith of its power and experience the dramatic events that threaten its destruction. With dynamic real-time battles and incredible turn-based empire management, can you rise above your adversaries to become Egypt's last great Pharaoh and stand against the collapse of an iconic civilisation?