2025

Update: Microsoft has issued the following statement to Windows Central in regards to this rumor:

“We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox. For more details, the community can revisit our agreement announcement with AMD.”

In the last few years it is clear that Microsoft is doing some new things that haven’t been done in the gaming space, like bringing their first party games to their competition. Even though Sarah Bond announced that Xbox would have a new console set to be announced in 2026 and they just announced changes to their Game Pass service, a new rumor suggests that they will be instead going full third party. This rumor comes from insider SneakersSO:

Without going into too much detail, not long after the last round of layoffs (next one should be coming in Q1 26 btw – and its going to be just as massive as the last one), some rumblings out of Xbox starting coming out that were a little hard to believe.

The ramifications of the CoD GP gambit not working out were just starting to get properly measured, but the thing that really stuck out to me was that suddenly, really concrete plans for actual MS Xbox HW went from being definitive, to up in the air, which was really startling given that this thing was meant to be out relatively soon. It was one of those situations where, despite folks being told ‘hey, we wanna pull the trigger on this in 2026’, the steps you would need to take in the lead up to delivering a new console gen weren’t being met. Lots of things that were ‘sure things’ started getting pushed. The Costco retailer pulling Xbox, and apparently they are one of many that we’ll learn about soon, told me all I needed to know.

To sum it up: the future of Xbox is software publishing, with a significantly honed-in focus on profitable IPs (CoD, WoW, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Forza Horizon), Cloud gaming being the home of the ‘Xbox platform’, transititioning GamePass into basically becoming the point of entry subscription for xCloud access (which will continue to drive its price tag higher btw, they aren’t done there just yet either), and releasing their software on any device that has a marketplace and users willing to buy their titles.

Maybe some OEM thing will take up the Xbox name, but given what is clearly a collapse in favorable mindshare and faith in said brand, i’m not even sure a 3rd party OEM is gonna want to have an Xbox console by the time MS is done with their reorienting of the division.

If this is true then gaming’s next generation will look a lot different, with Sony and Nintendo being the only two to choose from. Even though they are both consoles, they aren’t exactly in direct competition with each other. Playstation usually goes for power while Nintendo goes for innovation and fun, with the Switch 2 being a console and handheld. It’s possible that Sony will pivot and start to be in more direct competition with Nintendo, but up until now they have mainly focused on Xbox. Even their Playstation Plus service had an overhaul to more closely resemble Game Pass in recent years. This lack of competition could also cause them to not be as consumer friendly. New games are already up to $70 with some rumors saying that the next Grand Theft Auto could be closer to $100.

The future of gaming could be a lot different if one of the three big console makers leave the market. Do you think Microsoft would be willing to leave the console market after already announcing next generation hardware? Let us know.

Last night, I preordered the Final Fantasy VII Remake. I could have played it on PC or even Playstation, but I have an unhealthy addiction to Xbox Achievements and just got a PC, so buying it on Play Anywhere with Xbox Achievements just made sense. It also came with the original Final Fantasy VII for Xbox and for PC. That is what convinced me to preorder it though. I knew when it was announced at the Nintendo Direct that I would be picking up, but I was going to wait until it was on sale or at least wait until it came out, but the preorder bonus material was too good to pass up.

I played a lot of Final Fantasy VII growing up. Multiple playthroughs, different choices made each time, I loved it. With the preorder I can play the original versions of the game now, which is great because I can go through them before the the remake releases on January 22, 2026. I wish more games did this. I have fallen for this kind of preorder bonus three times now. Fallout 3 had me preorder Fallout 4 and South Park Stick of Truth had me preorder Fractured But Whole. I love this idea because it gives you something to play right away in anticipation of playing the new game. I know not all studios can or will do this, I just think this is the best way to get people like me to preorder.

Imagine if movies did this? If you preorder Superman on digital, you get a free digital copy of Creature Commandos or something like that. That might even help curb pirating, though having less streaming services would help more with that. More bang for your buck, that’s for sure, but it’s too bad movie studios won’t do that.

Are you excited for Final Fantasy Intergrade to finally be coming to Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S?

Acclaim was founded in 1987 and remained a big player in the video game industry until 2004. In 2004 the company filed for bankruptcy. Since then the company sold its assets and was pretty much dormant.

In March 2025, they announced that the Acclaim trademark was purchased by a group of executives. The plan was that they would relaunch Acclaim Entertainment as an indie publisher as well as reclaim former Acclaim IPs. Earlier this week, Acclaim held its first showcase to announce its first slate of games.

The games announced were nine indie games, none of which are former Activision IP. The games are:

• Talaka
• GRIDBeat!
• Pixel Washer
• TossDown
• Hyper Yuki
• Ground Zero Hero
• Basketball Classic
• The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest
• Katanaut, which is available now via Steam

You can see the entire presentation and get more information on the games in the video below. If you would like to have your game published and maybe even feature in the next Acclaim Showcase, you can do so via their website.

Do any of these games look exciting to you? Just the name alone, Acclaim has me excited. There is definitely a hit of nostalgia that hits me seeing their logo again.

Blogging has been around a long time and believe it or not, a lot of blogs are still around. They may be in the guise of articles or editorials, but it’s essentially all blog posts. You know what has disappeared from blogs? Comments. Every blog I go to either has something where you need to sign in or just no comments at all. I miss the days where you could leave a comment without the need to sign in or create an account anywhere.

Yes, it can be riddled with toxicity, but it also transforms content from being static, into a dynamic conversation. It let’s the writer know what resonated with the reader, what confused them, etc. Not only can it connect the writer and the commenter, but between it can connect commenters as well. Of course it can also have another benefit as well.

An active comment section can boost SEO, keep readers on the page longer, and signal search engines to mark the content as relevant. You just need to be prepared to moderate, in case the aforementioned toxicity starts to break out. No one wants to read 400 spam comments or people throwing slurs at each other.

Even though I am pulling for comments to come back in 2025, when I started blogging on Lep’s Lair, I used a closed system. I had it setup where every blog post was a forum post and the comments were just forum replies. I know a few websites did it that way back then, but it wasn’t something that ever caught on. Looking back now, it was probably one of the worst way to do blog posts.

I have been abnormally busy, between trying to get work done for new age verification laws that passed, to figuring out HVAC for my shed, 3d printing, medication adjustments and side effects, etc. The problem is that when you do a lot, some stuff gets pushed to the side. Unfortunately this site is what got pushed to the side this time. Things are slowing down with work and I am at a standstill with my HVAC system after I discovered the fan blade in the minisplit system was broken.

Since things are slowing down and changes are on the horizon, I will be back to blogging and everything else here. The rest of this week I will be doing shorter streams with Black Ops 6 zombie mode and then next week I will be back to story modes. I have been playing mainly on PC for a few months now, but I think I will go back to console to play things I have there, like Doom Eternal’s DLC and then jump back to PC for Doom the Dark Ages. I might even play the other Doom games since a lot of them are on PC Game Pass. By Monday I am hoping to have at least 3 new pages coded for work as well as ordered my fan blade so I can install it next week and then finish that project up.

I have lots of other projects going on too. I recently got rid of WP Project Manager and instead started using Fluent Boards, it’s different, but I think it’s better format for me. It looks a lot like Trello and lets you just drag tasks to different stages instead of going into it and choosing it from a drop down.

With Gamescom coming up and going to be getting back into story modes, I should be back to writing here more, so in the next few days I will be ramping things up. Hope you stick around.

July 2nd was a sad day. Microsoft laid off 9000 employees from all across their company, closed some game studios, and cancelled some projects. Among the projects cancelled, are an unannounced MMO, a new game by Romero Games, and the Perfect Dark remake. The cuts come after last month’s Summer Game Fest presentation where new games were shown and before next month’s Gamescom, where it’s sure to show new games. It was announced that Halo would show off what’s next for the franchise in October too. Xbox has more people playing their games and has announced that new hardware is coming, both through partnerships with ASUS and with their next generation Xbox console. The 9000 layoffs is around 4% of all Microsoft employees.

A rumor also came out that Phil Spencer will be retiring in the next few years and is currently working with Sarah Bond and her team to provide a smooth transition. The rumored retirement was said to come shortly after Xbox launches it’s next gen console. Head of Xbox communications, Kari Perez, said that “Phil is not retiring anytime soon.” Does that mean the rumor is false? That depends on what you consider “soon” to be. We know that Xbox is not going to be launching in 2025, so at the earliest it would be late 2026. That would mean that Phil Spencer would retire around early to middle 2027 at the earliest. More likely, the console would be out in 2027 or 2028, which would mean that Phil Spencer could be retiring in 2028 or 2029.

Would they announce his departure if it wasn’t for another few years? Probably not. Phil Spencer is the same age as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, announcing Spencer’s retirement now would probably have people thinking about Satya Nadella’s retirement. That could cause people to start the question of the future of the company, which in turn, could cause stockholders to sell their shares.

Hopefully everyone who is affected by these layoffs find new opportunities quickly.

If you were a kid in the 90s, then you know super hero cartoons on Saturday morning were pretty standard. X-Men and Spider-Man really stood out at the time, so much so that X-Men got a sequel series last year titled X-Men 97. Now, Spider-Man ’94 is going to be getting a sequel, but this time it won’t be a cartoon, it will be a comic.

After we saw Peter and Mary Jane Watson in the X-Men 97 series, that takes place in the same universe, fans speculated how MJ got back. The last time we saw the real Mary Jane she fell into an interdimensional portal. The series ended with a cliffhanger ending the series of Peter getting a promise to get MJ back. The head writer said had the show continued, she would have been found in colonial England. The head writer of the series, John Semper, is not involved with the comic book revival, so it is likely that the colonial England storyline will not be used.

John Semper stated on X (formerly Twitter) that he was not even asked to work on the revival. This news is disappointing to a lot of fans of the show, considering his involvement could ensure the comic felt like the show, while not limiting him in the way that Fox did. In the show they couldn’t show anyone dying, they couldn’t say that Morbius was a real vampire, so they gave him suckers on his hands for draining plasma, etc. One rule that didn’t make any sense, is they couldn’t use the word sinister. X-Men could, they had a character named Mr. Sinister. Spider-Man on the other hand, couldn’t face the Sinister Six, he had to face the Insidious Six. Another one that was strange was that they couldn’t hurt pigeons. I’m not even sure if that was necessary, unless some writer was just adamant about Peter jumping on birds in his spare time.

Spider-Man ’94 #1 will be available from Marvel Comics on September 3rd, 2025.

Xbox has revealed what games are coming in wave 1 for June 2025. Wave 1 has a wide variety of games, including one that was rumored to come to the service a few months ago.

June 5th has Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions coming to Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Standard. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition will be coming to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. On June 11th, with Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard, Barbie Project Friendship will be added. That same day Kingdom: Two Crowns will be coming to PC though Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. EA Sports FC 25 is coming to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on June 12th through EA Play. The Alters is coming to Ultimate and PC Game Pass on day when it’s released on June 13th. June 17 see another day one game come to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass when FBC: Firebreak releases. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time was rumored to come to the service a few months ago, but it will be on Ultimate and PC Game Pass on June 17th. The third game releasing on the 17th for Ultimate and PC is Lost in Random: The Eternal Die.

Games leaving the services on June 15th are Dordogne, Hypnospace Outlaw, Isonzo, Keplerth, My Time At Sandrock, Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends, and Depersonalization. If you were wanting to play them while they are available, you have a few days until they’re gone.

Sony’s State of Play had some games that I am excited for. Playstation Plus is adding the original Resident Evil 2 and 3 as well as Myst and Riven. What I am really excited about is that Twisted Metal 3 and 4 will be coming to the service in July. I played a Twisted Metal game in the 90s on my old PC. I really enjoy the show as well. I am looking forward to diving in to other games in the series.

Mortal Kombat Legacy looks really cool. I loved playing the games growing up and having a kollection (see what I did there?) that I can replay them has me excited. While not every game has been confirmed, the following have been confirmed for the collection: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat Advance, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition.

Pragmata is probably the game I am most looking forward to. I saw it years ago and forgot about it until today. The game looks gorgeous and the story looks very interesting. I cannot wait to check it out.

I am not a big James Bond fan. I don’t think I have ever seen a full 007 movie and I played a bit of Goldeneye growing up. This game looks good though and I think I might check some of the movies out if I happen to enjoy the game.

I have never played a Silent Hill game. I want to, but the first game is impossible to find. I did recently watch both movies though, I really liked them. It just sucks that I am not able to play through all the games. Maybe Sony will add the first Silent Hill game at some point, after all, they are adding Resident Evil 2 and 3 later this summer.

What games are you excited for? Are you excited about any other upcoming showcases?

At 5PM on June 4th, Sony will be having a State of Play. It was rumored for a while, but it was officially confirmed on June 3rd. Personally I wish they’d give more notice. Since it’s all digital now and not shown a theater like E3’s conferences were, they don’t really need to, since people will only watch whenever they want to from the comfort of their home.

There will be a special Death Stranding 2 event later this month, so I don’t expect anything to be shown from that game, but there are others that could be shown off. Insomniac’s hack from a few years ago had Venom pointing to a 2025 release, it’s possible that the game is officially announced during the event. It could be why the DLC for Spider-Man 2 was cancelled.

Something that I think we might see, maybe not at the Sony event, but within the next week, is Starfield and a Halo game being announced for PS5. Starfield being announced could happen at the State of Play, but a new Halo has not been announced yet. If they were going to make an announcement for a Halo game, it would probably be at the Xbox event next week. Xbox has become one of the biggest publishers on Sony’s platform, with Forza and soon Gears of War joining the games available.

There was a tech demo for the Witcher 4 shown at the Unreal event. They specifically stated that it was running on a Playstation 5, so it is possible that there will be a new trailer for the game shown.

I will be watching Sony’s State of Play and potentially even showcasing here what I am excited for. What are you hoping for in the event?

Soulslike games have never been my thing. The lack of difficulty options and pausing has turned me off to all soulslike games. Lies of P is going to change that. Once the expansion is released, there will be two new difficulty options: Butterfly’s Guidance and Awakened Puppet. The current game’s level will be called Legendary Stalker. The options will be available for the expansion and the base game.

“We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players could play the game” said game director Jiwon Choi. A wider audience for the game will be sure to draw more in more people for the sequel that FromSoftware is developing.

The expansion, Lies of P: Overture that includes these options releases this summer. Up until this point I have seen gameplay, but never had any desire to play Lies of P due to its difficulty, but these new options have me questioning if I should play my first Soulslike game.

Are Soulslike games your kind of game? If not will these options entice you into checking them out? Let us know in the comments below.

It should be a good summer for gaming. Not only do we have upcoming games showcases, Gamescom, and game releases, but we have a console release as well. June 5th will see the release of the Nintendo Switch 2. That is one day before Summer Game Fest kick off. We could be seeing the Switch 2 logo show up alongside Playstation and Xbox more than we’ve ever had before.

Dying Light: The Beast, Monster Hunter Wilds, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and more are scheduled to be released over the summer. Some may even be shadowdropped during the showcases. Not to mention in game events and DLCs. Summer 2025 will definitely be big for gaming.

For the showcases, while we said goodbye to E3 a few years ago, Summer Game Fest stepped up and has managed to keep the showcases together. Below are a list of the summer showcases. This list is subject to change and might be updated when more information releases.

Summer Showcases

Access-Ability Summer Showcase – Friday, June 6 – 11:00 AM (EDT)

Summer Game Fest 2025 – Friday, June 6 – 4:45 PM (EDT)

Day of the Devs – Friday, June 6 – 7:00 PM (EDT)

Wholesome Direct – Saturday, June 7 – 12:00 PM (EDT)

Women-led Games Showcase – June 7, 1:00 PM (EDT)

Latin American Games Showcase – June 7, 2:00 PM (EDT)

Future Games Show – Saturday June 7 – 4:00 PM (EDT)

Xbox Games Showcase – Sunday, June 8 – 1:00 PM (EDT)

PC Games Showcase – Sunday, June 8 – 3:00 PM (EDT)

Gamescom Opening Night Live Tuesday, August 19 ? 2:00 PM (EDT)

Ubisoft Forward (rumored, TBA)

Sony State of Play (rumored, TBA)