ProGamer: news, software, games

Amazon is also offering an exclusive Steelbook edition of the game. It's $10 more than the standard edition and includes a selection of physical bonuses. Here's what you get: Control Resonant base game Steelbook case 3 x fine art prints Key art poster Preorders for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are available at Amazon. Preorder at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/) Control Resonant Digital Deluxe Edition $60 | Releases September 22

The $60 standard editon of the game for PS5 and Xbox Series X comes with the following preorder bonuses, as detailed above. Physical preorders are available at Amazon. Digital preorders are also available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Preorder at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/CONTROL-Resonant-Steelbook-Xbox-X/dp/B0H3WQP7C6?tag=gamespot-preorders-20) Control Resonant Steelbook Edition (Amazon Exclusive) $70 | Releases September 24

All versions of Control Resonant will include the Pickpocket's Tool Artifact and the Hiss Corruption Outfit for the game's protagonist, Dylan Faden. If you purchase the game for PS5, you'll get an exclusive costume for Dylan, the Occult Outfit. On top of these in-game bonuses, preordering the Digital Deluxe Edition will grant you access to the full game up to 48 hours early starting September 22. Control Resonant Standard Edition $60 | Releases September 24

Control Resonant Steelbook Edition (Amazon Exclusive) $70 | Releases September 24 Preorder at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/) Remedy Entertainment's next game, Control Resonant (https://www.gamespot.com/games/control-resonant/), has a release date of September 24 locked in, and preorders are now open for the game's various physical editions. Here's a look at every edition available to preorder and the bonuses that come with each one, including the PS5 edition that offers 48 hours of early access. Control Resonant preorder bonuses

Control Resonant Standard Edition $60 | Releases September 24 Preorder at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/CONTROL-Resonant-Steelbook-Xbox-X/dp/B0H3WQP7C6?tag=gamespot-preorders-20)

Where To Preorder Control Resonant https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-to-preorder-control-resonant/

Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 Ports Have Apparently Leaked https://www.ign.com/articles/call-of-duty-black-ops-1-and-2-ports-have-apparently-leaked It would seem as though Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 may be coming to modern platforms.

Halo: Campaign Evolved Collector's Edition Includes a Relic of a Bygone Gaming Era https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-campaign-evolved-collectors-edition-includes-a-relic-of-a-bygone-gaming-era Halo: Campaign Evolved isn't just remaking a 25 year old game, it's remaking the entire era it comes from.

Xbox Says Gears of War: E-Day PS5 Port Was Not Pulled 'Last-Minute' After Art With PS5 Logo Leaks https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-says-gears-of-war-e-day-ps5-port-was-not-pulled-last-minute-after-art-with-ps5-logo-leaks Xbox says Gears of War: E-Day was not pulled from PlayStation "last-minute" after the company accidentally published an image showing Gears of War: E-Day with PS5 as one of its launch platforms.

With so many more remakes on the horizon biding for attention, it feels ever more important to update or reimagine a classic that justifies its existence, especially if the original is already on modern platforms. With Resident Evil Veronica (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/resident-evil-veronica-can-fix-one-of-the-series-biggest-mistakes/), I get to see my best girl Claire Redfield back in the limelight, while Capcom seems to be hinting at significant changes, from a new first-person perspective to potentially making the initial raid on Umbrella's Paris facility fully playable. Likewise, there's a greater canvas for reimagining Lara Croft's original adventure in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, including a modern control scheme that leaves tank controls in the dust. But if I want to revisit Persona 4's smalltown Japanese charms while battling shadows in the TV world, I'm still searching for a reason to drop $70 for a shinier version of it in 2027 when I can fire up the very best version of Persona 4 on my Switch, laptop, or even my Vita today.

It’s Hard To Get Excited For Persona 4 Revival https://www.gamespot.com/articles/its-hard-to-get-excited-for-persona-4-revival/ Video game remakes used to be a genuine surprise, whereas now they have become as common in the release schedule as new titles. But I don't think I've ever felt as unexcited about an upcoming remake as I have for Persona 4 Revival (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/persona-4-revival-coming-february-2027-included-in-game-pass/). That says a lot when I hold the original as one of my favorite JRPGs of all time, which I've sunk several hundred hours into across multiple playthroughs. On paper, you can see why a remake makes sense. Persona 4 is, after all, a beloved classic that's about to be old enough to vote (or at least get a part-time job, if we're going by its 2012 expanded edition, Persona 4 Golden). In other words, plenty of time has passed to introduce it to newcomers, and it provides something to tide over longtime fans who will likely have to wait several more years for the newly announced Persona 6. The thing is that everyone already did get reintroduced to Persona 4 just a few years ago when Persona 4 Golden finally made its way to all modern platforms, after breaking free of its Vita exclusivity with a Steam port in 2020. Golden, for me, is one of the best expanded versions of a game ever, not just throwing in new content but meaningfully integrating it into the original story, along with a host of quality-of-life improvements. Later ports providing the option to play this game set in Japan with Japanese audio made it an even more definitive edition. To call this remake a 'Revival' then feels a little disingenuous when the original is far from dormant, inaccessible, or dated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH1QsxBjXyk Revival may boast shinier Unreal visuals, but from the latest trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase, it doesn't even feel like a significant overhaul to me. That is perhaps credit to the incredible style of Persona 4, whose character designs and art direction still ooze so much personality almost two decades later. Sure, Revival's character models and environments are at a higher fidelity than the PS2 visuals of the original, but it feels a moot point when anime character portraits, though redrawn, are still the primary means of presenting much of the story's dialogue. Were these cutscenes that felt on par with watching an anime, I might have been more impressed. You might say this was similar for Persona 3 Reload, given both original games debuted on PlayStation 2. But I felt there was more justification for giving that game the remake treatment, with the potential to deliver a definitive version that combined the content of Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable. That Atlus failed to do--not including a choice of a female protagonist, and then subsequently added Aigis's storyline as a paid expansion--felt like a hugely missed opportunity. Considering that fumble, you can understand why I'm skeptical that Revival can improve upon Persona 4 Golden's already immaculate package. For instance, it's confirmed that Revival will include new events during your time as a high schooler in Inaba, just like Golden did, but that risks adding bloat to an already long game or upsetting fans by cutting existing content. As for what else is changing, it seems like there will be a new English voice cast, as was the case with Persona 3 Reload, though it may not be surprising given how original voice actors Yuri Lowenthal and Troy Baker have become huge stars in the years since. More contentious is whether the script will make any changes to the way the game's queer-coded characters' arcs are represented, but given how this continues to come up in criticism and debate amongst fans, it's hard to imagine any changes or lack thereof that won't just lead to more arguments.

Also during the talk, Ball discussed how Xbox Game Pass lost "millions" of subscribers in the period of a few months after the dramatic 50% price hike was announced in October 2025. Microsoft slashed the price of Game Pass Ultimate down to $23/month (from $30/month) after Sharma became Xbox CEO, but Ball said the price is still higher than where it was this time last year ($20/month). The value of the offering has now changed, he said, referring to how new Call of Duty titles are no longer included on day one, and the changes to Game Pass this year are so far "resonating" with users, he said.

The 25th anniversary Xbox console The messaging from Microsoft around exclusives under the leadership of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been muddy (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xboxs-showcase-wanted-exclusives-to-be-a-big-deal-but-made-everything-more-confusing/), and Ball said Microsoft has more work to do to communicate its strategy around exclusives to fans and partners. Also in the interview, Ball talked about the Xbox hardware business, pushing back against the idea that it's a dying market for Microsoft. "We have no desire to move away from the console business," he said. "We are making an investment in our platform, the console platform that is going to be strengthened by these exclusives," he added. Ball went on to acknowledge that certain Xbox exclusives will sell fewer units than they might otherwise if they were multiplatform, but that is a short-term issue, and making these changes will help Xbox's console business grow in the future, he claimed. A Project Helix rethink Microsoft is making these statements about Xbox and hardware during a time when the AI craze is driving up component prices so much that people are very worried about what the new console, Project Helix, might cost when it releases. "The crisis is not yet getting better," Ball said, admitting that he previously underestimated how bad things might get. "The window in which we and others are gonna have to work through is getting longer, and that is going to constrain the category," he said. Today, demand for Xbox consoles is outstripping supply, Ball said. "We are producing them as quickly as possible. These is a severe limitation to how quickly we can do that, but it's not a question of appetite," he said. "That is a prilvege as a company. It is a challenge for us to figure out." How will this all impact Project Helix? Ball said, "We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping." "We are very cognizant of the ways in which we need the change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it's flexible," he added. "We are working hard to rethinking what that console model can look like, not in an exclusionary way, but in an additive way, so that as we take a look at this crisis, which may have acute effects for 2-2.5 years." "We are working very hard to figure out the best way to navigate it or a way that works for everyone, that does not ask too much from players, but also does detract from the other investments that we need to make as a company," he added. "We also have tens of millions of people who we ask to spend $500 which is still an incredible sum of money. Those people that we asked to buy a console years ago, we still have an obligation to them to meet their expectations and to have them feel rewarded for which platform they chose." "Is it fixable?" Also during the interview, Ball recalled his first conversations after joining Xbox and how Sharma asked him straight up about Xbox, "Is it fixable?" Ball said he's a "strategic optimist" and believes it's "incredibly defeatist to think there is any scenario that you can't do better; that you can't improve." "I joined because I believed I could contribute to that," he said. "I joined because of what she told me she wanted to achieve, I believed was right and achievable. And then I had conversations with [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella] and others at the company to validate, where do you want to go? When do you wanna go? How are we gonna do this? Do you think we can do this? Do you want us to do that?" "All of that bolstered my confidence from the original disposition of strategic optimism. If we can turn this company around and grow it, do better by our players, and we need to do that, and we are; we languished for several years." Game Pass lost "millions" of subscribers after price hike A

Is Xbox Fixable? https://www.gamespot.com/articles/is-xbox-fixable/ At Summer Game Fest today, Xbox's new chief strategy officer Matthew Ball spoke about some of the company's big moves recently, including its strategy on exclusives and what's next for the company in the hardware space with Project Helix (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/next-xbox-release-date-specs-display-price/1100-6525379/). He made these comments at The Game Business Live. "Reliable pipeline" of exclusives On the subject of exclusives, Ball said, "Everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important," and Microsoft is no different. The first two console exclusives that Microsoft announced at the Xbox Games Showcase were Gears of War: E-Day this October and Clockwork Revolution in 2027. Ball said Xbox players can expect a "reliable pipeline" of Xbox-exclusives that "validates their historical investment" in the Xbox platform and keeps them there. Microsoft's major live-service multiplayer games, like Call of Duty, will continue to be multiplatform releases going forward, he said. Additionally, titles that were previously announced for non-Xbox platforms will still come to those platforms because of previously agreed-upon plans, Ball said.