Key Note Gaming

Microsoft is continuing its drive to revamp brand Xbox with the launch of a feedback platform that gives fans the chance to vote on community requests. Predictably, the request with the most votes is a return to exclusives. Microsoft’s multiplatform push may have increased sales (Forza Horizon 5, for example, has found significant success on PlayStation 5), but it has come at the expense of alienating hardcore Xbox fans, some of whom want Microsoft to return to Xbox exclusivity. Earlier this month, it was reported that new Xbox boss Asha Sharma was “treading carefully” as she worked out what to do with exclusive games. Sharma, who replaced Phil Spencer as boss of Xbox earlier this year, has spent her first few months in the job making a number of significant changes as Microsoft works to win back the hearts and minds of its core gaming fans. Among them was the end of the controversial ‘This is an Xbox’ marketing campaign , quickfire new Xbox console features, and a Game Pass price cut ...

EA has confirmed the first details for F1 25’s 2026 Season Pack update will be made available this Wednesday, May 20. The reveal trailer for the upcoming DLC will be released at 4pm UK time, May 20 (11am EDT/8am PDT, and 1am AEST on May 21). For the time being, EA has revealed the “cover” athletes for the update: seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, former F3 and F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto, and veteran driver Valtteri Bottas, winner of 10 F1 Grands Prix and current owner of the greatest F1 moustache this side of Nigel Mansell. The presence of Bortoleto and Bottas would be no accident, since they represent the two new teams on the 2026 grid: Audi and Cadillac. EA confirmed in late 2025 that there would be no standalone F1 game released alongside the real-life 2026 season , revealing that the 2026 Formula One World Championship would be coming as a paid expansion for the existing F1 25 instead. The content update is set to reflect all the sport’s 2026 changes, with new cars, new dri...

Forza Horizon 6 managed to slip in a sly reference to Pokémon. Xbox and Playground Games' beloved racing franchise has returned, and it's arguably better than ever . Forza Horizon 6 takes the series to Japan, a long-requested setting amongst fans. Not only is Japan a beautiful location for any game, but it has a very strong and thriving car culture. After years of fleshing out the franchise, Playground finally felt comfortable in taking on the setting and making the biggest Forza game yet. As a result, Forza embraces Japan in all kinds of different ways. Of course, there's an emphasis on drifting in the game, there are cherry blossom trees that are so culturally significant they can't be destroyed , and there are all kinds of references to Japanese culture. One of the game's most notable events even sees the player racing a giant mech through the streets of Japan. It's outrageous, but right in line with the tone of Forza. Perhaps one of the most notable Japanes...

Out on 3 June, the Nintendo Switch 2 port of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has had preorders for its physical copies (though Game-Key Cards) drop at retailers like Amazon and Argos. Although the epic follow-up to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been out on PS5 and PC since early 2024 and 2025 respectively, but is finally coming to the Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S next month. Among various preorder bonuses for the Switch 2 preorder, however, (including a reversible alternate box art inlay) is a very unique and limited in-box pre-order bonus: a Zack Fair Magic: The Gathering card. This borderless version of the card, with variant art done by Tetsuya Nomura himself, has specifically been spotted among FF7 Rebirth’s Switch 2 pre-orders on Amazon UK and Argos — both for £43.99, after Amazon cut its initial £49.99 price. On the other hand, Argos’ listing also comes with added in-game pre-order bonuses along with the Zack Fair card: a Posh Chocobo Summon Materia, a Shinra Bangle Mk. II item, and...

Borderlands’ well-documented 11th hour art style change cost Take-Two an extra $50 million in development costs and delayed the game by a year, but without it the now successful franchise would have flopped straight out the gate. That’s according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, who in a sweeping interview with David Senra about his career said his approval of the last minute switch and associated extra cost was “a non-obvious decision” that no-one else would have made, but his trust in the developers was rewarded with a new hit franchise. “We had not turned around the company yet, and we had very limited capital,” Zelnick began, speaking of Take-Two as it was after he had taken over the company in 2007. At the time, Borderlands was due out in 2008 with a realistic art style, but then Zelnick was asked to approve a significant change with the game basically done that would see it rebuilt with a cel-shaded, cartooney art style. “We were developing a game and it was about to be released...

GTA 6 is due out November 19, 2026, but as we all know it’s suffered a number of delays. It was officially announced for a fall 2025 release, but was then delayed to May 2026, and then, again officially, to this November. But in a new interview, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested GTA 6 was internally targeting an even earlier release window — around spring 2025 — before it was announced for fall 2025. Speaking to David Senra in a new video interview about his career , Zelnick said GTA 6 was “about 18 months behind the original date… not much more than that.” That suggests the original plan, even if it wasn’t announced publicly, was to have GTA 6 out spring 2025. Assuming that’s correct, GTA 6 is significantly behind schedule, but Zelnick has gone on the record to say he’s keen to give developer Rockstar Games everything it needs to achieve “perfection.” And there is of course pressure on the game to deliver just that and break every sales record going. Earlier this month, Business...