What do heists, dinosaurs falling out of the skies, and puzzles all have in common? If it is anything other than "games coming to Xbox Game Pass", I would very much like to know! We have games coming soon that we announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase (looking at you, Exoprimal), and we even have a surprise return today with Grand Theft Auto V. Let's get to the games!

Available Today: Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud and Console)
When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber, and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government, and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody—least of all each other. Includes both the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S versions of Grand Theft Auto V.

Axios has recently interviewed Microsoft's game studio chief Matt Booty about development strategies for the company's vast array of first party studios (under the banner of Xbox Game Studios). Several of these teams have not yet released any Xbox Series console and Windows PC exclusives, with only a couple of examples newly revealed at last weekend's Xbox Games Showcase. Booty believes that closer collaboration between first party studios will help improve output and quality, with the added benefit of catching up with big rivals—Axios mentions Sony/PlayStation and Nintendo producing a number of excellent games in recent times. The Coalition is mentioned as a prime example of a studio spreading its expert knowledge of Unreal Engine 5 to other parts of the Xbox division.

Booty acknowledges that his company has taken into account that AAA game development is taking longer than before (compared to previous generations...more on that in a bit). He states that the expected norm nowadays for a high-end project will take "four and five and six years" to finish, due to "a longer creation process...(and the) increased complexity of modern games, plus the desire to reach higher technical marks with 4K-compatible graphics and advanced lighting...There are higher expectations. The level of fidelity that we're able to deliver just goes up." Microsoft's management of its game development teams has been called into question following the poor launch state of Redfall (an Arkane/Bethesda production). Booty says that the "house style" is somewhere between the parent group's set of rules and complete creative freedom at each development house: "We optimize for creative output, which can have some pros and cons, sure, but that is the goal."

Pursue your dream of an aviation career with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This brand-new simulator is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming to create the most sophisticated, immersive and awe-inspiring flight simulator of all time. To achieve this unprecedented level of accuracy, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is powered by the significantly evolved Asobo Studio engine.

Available day one on Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows 10/11, and Steam. Coming 2024. We look forward to sharing more information about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in the future.

Bethesda has unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Starfield during the Starfield Direct after the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, showing some impressive graphics from this upcoming sci-fi RPG. Shortly after, we got the confirmation from the Game Director, Todd Howard, that the game will actually be locked at 30 FPS, which does not sounds surprising, especially after the full PC system requirements got revealed.

Bethesda has put a lot of effort into Starfield, and it shows it the seen trailer. The team is also claiming that this game will have "the fewest bugs of any Bethesda game ever shipped," according to an interview that the Xbox Game Studios Head, Matt Booty, gave to Giant Bomb. He also added that there are a lot of people internally playing Starfield, and Phil Spencer, head of Xbox Games Studio, told the same outfit that the game had a much earlier release date, and was delayed twice, so hopefully we'll have a solid game at launch. Unfortunately, Todd Howard, also confirmed that the game will run at full 4K on the Xbox Series X and at 1440p on the Xbox Series S, but will be locked at 30 FPS on both consoles.

Today we announced Clockwork Revolution at the Xbox Games Showcase, a fantastical, first-person action RPG, with dynamic time-bending combat, deep interconnected roleplaying systems, and the ability to create your own unique character from the ground up. The project is led by Game Director Chad Moore and Principal Designer Jason Anderson, who just happen to have created one of the greatest steampunk RPGs of all time—Arcanum.

Settings and Story
Clockwork Revolution takes place in the vibrant Victorian-era metropolis of Avalon, where steam trains fly overhead, wealthy industrialists replace their limbs with ornate clockwork prosthetics, and mechanical servants fulfill their masters' every whim. But this new age of wonders holds a dark secret—it's been carefully constructed by the ruthless Lady Ironwood. Through use of a time travel device, she's changed key moments in Avalon's history, keeping the working class struggling in the slums and factories, while bringing herself immense wealth and power. That's where you come in…

Keep the NVIDIA and Microsoft party going this GFN Thursday with Grounded, Deathloop and Pentiment now available to stream for GeForce NOW members this week. These three Xbox Game Studio titles are part of the dozen additions to the GeForce NOW library.

Triple Threat
NVIDIA and Microsoft's partnership continues to flourish with this week's game additions.

From races and stories to road trips and expeditions, since arriving in Mexico you've embarked on the most incredible journeys through beautiful landscapes, vibrant towns and diverse biomes. There is so much rich heritage and culture to discover in this locale, so just how well do you know it? Explore the Horizon will test your Forza Horizon 5 map knowledge and lead you to breathtaking scenery along the way. With 6 new-to-Forza cars, upgraded Photo Mode features, overlanding modifications for select vehicles, and Pathfinder accolades to complete, this will be a Mexican journey like no other. Dust off your camera and charge up your sat-nav, we're going on an adventure!

GAME FIXES & RELEASE NOTES
Explore the Horizon will be available to download on Xbox, Windows and Steam from Tuesday, May 23. Players can immediately try out the new Photo Mode improvements and explore Mexico under a new lens with Pathfinder accolades. Series content will be available on Thursday, May 25 until June 22.

There were rumblings late last week about China's competition regulatory bodies giving Microsoft the go ahead for its proposed takeover of the Activision, Blizzard & King games publishing group. The crowd-sourced content site Seeking Alpha was the first online outlet to break the news last Friday - the author had learned from capital market firm - Dealreporter - that China's State Administration for Market Regulation had granted unconditional approval for the $68.7 billion bid, following the conclusion of a "Phase 3" investigation. The latest judgement arrived only a few days after the EU Commission's approval of the deal.

Microsoft has chosen to make an official announcement about this verdict - and has today released statements to several gaming news outlets, including GamesIndustry.biz and Eurogamer: "China's unconditional clearance of our acquisition of Activision Blizzard follows clearance decisions from jurisdictions such as the European Union and Japan, bringing the total to 37 countries representing more than two billion people. The acquisition combined with our recent commitments to the European Commission will empower consumers worldwide to play more games on more devices." Microsoft's next challenge sits with the US government's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - a final deliberation is due this August.

We're continuing to deliver on our promise to bring high-quality, immersive PC games from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda to more people in more ways. Today, we're announcing that Deathloop, Gears 5, Grounded and Pentiment will be available to play for Boosteroid members beginning June 1. This is another step to ensure players worldwide have access to great content on their terms.

Boosteroid customers in the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, countries across the European Union, and the United States will soon be able to jump in as Kait Diaz to take on the Horde in Gears 5, team up with friends to survive and explore the backyard of Grounded, attempt to escape a seemingly never-ending timeloop in Deathloop, or experience life in an illustrated world with Pentiment. These four titles are just the start - we'll regularly add more hits and fan favorites from our extensive catalog of PC games. Boosteroid members will be able to access games purchased through Steam or the Epic Game Store (for eligible titles) to start, with support for games purchased through the Microsoft Store coming soon.

A huge thank you to all of our Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition players for your record-setting support and to everyone who has played Return of Rome so far! This is the biggest DLC launch in Age of Empires II history! We've been listening to your feedback and would like to share our plan to address the concerns regarding your in-game experience and your desire to see Age of Empires campaigns in Return of Rome.

We are actively monitoring the issues you're reporting and will address them as soon as possible. This includes disruptions to your hotkey settings, issues preventing UI mods from loading in correctly, and games failing to load. The hotkey disruption was a one-time adjustment. You can visit our support page if you need help getting them reconfigured. Our teams are paying close attention to the reports you make and are thankful for your continued trust.

Get ready for action - the first Xbox game title is now streaming from GeForce GPUs in the cloud directly to GeForce NOW members, with more to come later this month. Gears 5 comes to the service this GFN Thursday. Keep reading to find out what other entries from the Xbox library will be streaming on GeForce NOW soon. Also, time's almost up on an exclusive discount for six-month GeForce NOW Priority memberships. Sign up today to save 40% before the offer ends on Sunday, May 21.

All Geared Up
NVIDIA and Microsoft have been working together to bring the first Xbox PC titles to the GeForce NOW library. With their gaming fueled by GeForce GPU servers in the cloud, members can access the best of Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda titles across nearly any device, including underpowered PCs, Macs, iOS and Android mobile devices, NVIDIA SHIELD TV, supported smart TVs and more.

Over the last 20 years, Age of Empires II has consistently been viewed as the cornerstone of this great RTS franchise. Praised for its myriad mechanical improvements over the first game, unique units and the addition of gates to stop yourself accidentally imprisoning your on-screen warriors, Age of Empires II ushered in an era almost as unforgettable as the in-game factions we love to roleplay.

But a groundbreaking sequel always has an origin story that started it all, and the first Age of Empires title is by no means being left behind. The latest expansion, Return of Rome, is set to bring integral parts of the game's original content into Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as its own self-contained offering, plus some brand new additions for fans to get stuck into.

Everything you need to know - what to expect with the newest Return of Rome DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. What is Return of Rome? Return of Rome is a completely new type of expansion, which brings classic Age of Empires gameplay, style and key experiences as a brand new self-contained experience. Also...

Starting this weekend, some of your favorite content creators are ready to show YOU an exclusive preview of the upcoming DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome. Want to know more about the upcoming addition of the 16 Age of Empires civilizations, the brand-new Lac-Viet, or the new Romans to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition? Well, we have fantastic news for you: some of your favorite content creators have been granted early access to the Return of Rome DLC, and you'll be getting a sneak preview of the exclusive units, civilization bonuses, and other new additions ahead of release!

Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox Game Studios, appeared on the popular (Xbox-themed) Kinda Funny Games podcast earlier this week for a video interview (Xcast Episode 137). The almost 45-minute long conversation touched upon several topics relating to gaming matters at Microsoft, with the hosts managing to corner Spencer about the recent (not so good) launch of Bethesda and Arkane's horror FPS Redfall. Gaming community feedback has not exactly been encouraging in the wake of the game's release two days ago, and Spencer admits that he shares similar sentiments: "I'll just say all up, there's nothing that's more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community. I've been a part of it for a long time. I obviously work on Xbox, head of the business, have a lot of friends, get a lot of feedback. And just to watch the community lose confidence, be disappointed, I'm disappointed. I'm upset with myself. I revisit our process - I think back to the announcement of 60 FPS and then we weren't shipping 60 FPS, that was our punch in the chin, rightfully, a couple of weeks ago. And then seeing the game come out and the critical response was not what we wanted, and it's disappointing."

He continues his thought about reacting to feedback this early on in the process: "What can we learn? What can we get better? One thing I'll fight is what went wrong. There's clearly quality and execution things we can do, but one thing I won't do is push against creative aspirations of our teams. Then a lot of people will say, hey, you've got teams, teams know how to do one kind of game, just force them to go do the one kind of game they have a proven track record for. I'm just not a believer in that. Maybe that means I'll under deliver for some of our fans out there. But when a team like Rare wants to do Sea of Thieves, when a team like Obsidian wants to do Grounded, when Tango wants to go do Hi-Fi (Rush) when everybody probably thought they were doing The Evil Within 3, I want to give the teams the creative platform to go and push their ability, push their aspirations."

From May 4th through 15th, owners of Age of Empires IV on Steam will have an opportunity to dive into all the amazing content, updates and changes coming in Season Five! The Age of Empires IV Public Update Preview (PUP) presents an opportunity for our incredible players to get hands-on experience with exciting changes ahead of major updates. They also provide an opportunity to give feedback and help us prepare for upcoming major releases. PUP builds will generally contain new features, content, balance changes and bug fixes.

A New Game Mode, Team Voice Chat, Trade Updates and More!
Among the content highlighted in this PUP is Empire Wars, a new, quick-to-action game mode where players start with a burgeoning empire, ready to dive into combat or advance to the next Age! Players begin the match with a variety of pre-built buildings and villagers already tasked on resource collection. Not only that, but you'll be able to try out three news maps before they officially go live, including Golden Heights, Migration, and Volcanic Island!

The Grounded team is excited to bring Update 1.2.0 to the community this week. Rightfully titled The Super Duper update, this massive update brings with it many quality-of-life changes, more than a hundred new items to craft, a brand new Base Coziness feature, and wasps, a new terrifying creature to fight. But first, let's dive into the Super Duper… an item duplication machine!

THE SUPER DUPER UPDATE
Item Duplication - The Super Duper is a new piece of equipment installed in the Oak Lab. Players will find the Super Duper machine the next time they visit BURG.L! This machine will allow players to duplicate specific equipment and items using Raw Science. To use the Super Duper, players must locate Duper Discs throughout the yard. The first disc unlocks operation of the machine, while the other discs grant the player the ability to unlock duping of higher-tier equipment and items. It can even duplicate trinkets, unique items, and upgrade stones. Making this even more helpful for players, any item duplicated will include all of the item's Smithing upgrades, saving a lot of time for when you and your friends need to gear up quickly and get back to adventuring.

Brad Smith, vice chair and president at Microsoft has been doing the rounds with the UK press, and the incensed executive continues to express anger about the nation's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) preventing his company's proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard. The UK antitrust watchdog yesterday blocked the deal on the grounds that a merging of (already massive) games publishers could result in a potentially catastrophic skew in Microsoft's favor within the fast growing cloud gaming market sector. The CMA's latest findings suggest that the takeover would "lead to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come." This verdict comes as a major blow to Microsoft's gaming division following a number of victories - including Japan's competition regulator approving the takeover bid late last month. The company's gaming division (Xbox Game Studios) is awaiting verdicts from the EU commission and US Federal Trade Commission.

In a business-themed podcast interview (conducted by the BBC), Microsoft boss Brad Smith declared that the UK government's blocking of the merger represented a bad move "for Britain" in terms of attracting international business. Microsoft has been operating in country for four decades, and Smith casts doubt on that relationship - in his opinion - the mega corporation has experienced its "darkest day" in the region: "It does more than shake our confidence in the future of the opportunity to grow a technology business in Britain than we've ever confronted before. People are shocked, people are disappointed, and people's confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken." Smith insists that fledgling companies should look elsewhere to start a base of operations: "There's a clear message here - the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom."

In February, we brought a preview of PC Game Pass to 40 new countries for the first time ever. The response was incredible. Thank you to all the players who jumped in to test the experience and help us shape the preview. New members looking to join PC Game Pass can head to PC Game Pass website to learn more about local pricing as well as how to sign up.

To celebrate the launch, new members will receive a special welcome offer for their first three months for a limited time. Those who were a part of our Insider Program will receive two free months of PC Game Pass membership, with no further action needed, as a thank you for helping us shape the experience and being one of the first PC Game Pass members in your country. This will be available directly in member's accounts in the coming days.

The Return of Rome campaign is set for a May 16 2023 release date according to a tweet posted by the official Age of Empires account. The latest campaign expansion for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition follows several (almost) yearly DLC drops since the re-mastered strategy game's debut in late 2019 - Lords of the West (January 2021), Dawn of the Dukes (August 2021) and Dynasties of India (April 2022). Last year's India campaign added a significant amount of content, in the form of three new civilizations: the Bengalis, Dravidians, and Gurjaras. Three new campaigns were added to the base game and introduced a trio of new empires: Babur, Rajendra, and Devapala. The entire Indian civilization within the game was renamed to the Hindustanis.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome was first announced, albeit briefly, during a livestream on 25 October 2022, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the real time strategy game series. Details are scarce about the actual content on offer, but the upcoming campaign is expected to feature all 16 of the original civilizations from the first entry in the franchise (AoE) according to an internal Xbox Games Studios memo.