might see some older games appear on battle.net too soon from xbox as well. pretty awesome tbh

— Jez (@jezcorden.com) 9 April 2025 at 22:36

Gonna need a UI revamp if they're going to start cramming everything into it, Lol.

I suppose Oblivion Remaster will be next too.

How do I turn off Google's shitty AI suggestion in search.

I was a bit surprised at first they didn't add a PS5 release but then I remembered PlayStation has weird rules about early access.

Avowed felt like a test for Battle.net launches and since then they've announced The Outer Worlds 2, Doom: The Dark Ages for it with Jez now hinting at even older titles being ported to it so I suppose the test has been a success? Don't think they'd bother if Avowed did fuck all on Battle.net when they already have a store.

Having said that, no South of Midnight, but the thing is they still seem to be sticking to a theme, ToW and Avowed feel like a match due to them both being AAA RPGs and Battle.net having a big focus on AAA RPGs like Diablo and WoW. Doom even feels like it sort of fits well with the overall theme of AAA Shooters, one with a mature theme, and Crash/Tony Hawk are Activision IP so meh.

So far they seem to be sticking to AAA only but ones with a genre-link to Activision IP, hence why no South of Midnight, I think it'll be true flood gates opening if they put something like Psychonauts 2 on it, Lol, South of Midnight would work too. Maybe Minecraft. Hell it's AAA but Flight Simulator on there would be "different" from what is usually on there.

Can we see some older games from Battle.net show up on Xbox like Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 1?

Edit: Also Diablo 1.

Metal Eden Demo is pretty cool. It's a Cyberpunk Doom FPS. There are some minor technical issues, though. Even in performance mode, it has some hiccups. Sometimes, the gun movement feels wonky. Mechanically, the core retrieval cooldown, being 30 seconds, seems a bit long in a Doom-style arena fight. The B button to dash takes some getting used to. Overall, though, this was fun as hell. If you're excited for Doom? Play the demo of Metal Eden.

The Minecraft soundtrack will be inducted into the US National Recording Registry

www.gamesindustry.biz/minecraft-so...

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— GamesIndustry.biz (@gibiz.bsky.social) 10 April 2025 at 10:42

South of Midnight has crossed 100 reviews now and remains at 78 OpenCritic so it's unlikely to change at this point, aside from maybe a single point in either direction. Honestly, I thought it would dip into the low 70s. 78 is a brilliant score for Compulsion Games and I have to say I was wrong, I used to make joking comments about why Microsoft purchased them but they've just demonstrated the perfect example of what happens when an unknown, average studio, is given time and support to grow.

Contrast sits at 60 OC after 47 reviews. We Happy Few sits at 63 after 112 reviews. That's an increase of 15 - 18 average critic score, a 24% - 30% increase in critical reception. I'd say they've had a major win in the critical reception department so I'm happy for them. Microsoft is 2/2 for releases so far in 2025 with Avowed and South of Midnight, the latter I was most worried about.

Onto Doom! Or Oblivion Remaster but I think that's a risky one to judge too, Lmao.

I'm going to pause AC Shadows for now and start South of Midnight.

Contrast sitting lower than We Happy Few is certifiably insane to me.