The gaming industry has delivered some more interesting gaming news today, including the upcoming early access release on Xbox of Towerborne and some interesting indie news.
Before we get into the news here are handy links to gaming news that did get its own separate coverage.
- War Thunder Hornet’s Sting Introduces F/A-18 & More in First Major Update of 2025
- Euro Truck Simulator 2 Shows the Lakes of Finland from Nordic Horizons DLC
- Train Sim World 5 Releases First Welsh Route Cardiff City Network
- Pokémon Opens MLB Season in Japan and Shohei Ohtani is Officially Garchomp
- Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Patch 1.3 Features Over 1,200 Changes
- Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Reveals New Look At Bachelorette Goddess Matsuri
You can check out all the news below. Incidentally, if you’re interested specifically in flight simulation news, we have a dedicated roundup.
Towerborne Coming to Xbox With Cross-Play Soon
While Stoic’s looter-brawler action RPG Towerborne is already available in early access on Steam, it’ll soon be time for it to expand to Xbox Series X|S and the Windows Store for PC via Microsoft’s own version of early access, Game Preview.
Specifically, the game will be made available on the new platforms on April 29 with full cross-play and cross-progression with the Steam version.
At the same time, the game will also receive the big Class Mastery update, allowing players to make their Aces unique.
The update will also include a reimagined world map and questline, new Umbra pets (bringing the total number to 11), a new enemy type, new legendary items, and more, as you can read in the official announcement.
Cities: Skylines 2 Gets Anniversary Patch With Plenty of Fixes and More
Today Cities: Skylines 2 received its anniversary patch, numbered 1.2.5f1. It includes improvements to one of the issues the game still has, homelessness. It’s been tackled with the following tweaks.
- Homelessness statistic
- Homelessness added to Population Info View
- Homeless households visible and selectable in parks’ Selected Info Panel
- Improvements to when citizens move out to reduce homelessness
Children will now behave more flexibly and realistically when they become adults, as their parents won’t kick them out of the house right away.
- Newly adult citizens need a job before moving out.
- They contribute to the household’s wealth until the household can afford to provide them with starting money, giving them a better chance to start a new life on their own.
- They check if there are available homes in the city before moving out.
- If there are not enough homes available in the city, they may choose to move out of the city and become commuters. Commuters can and often will move to the city when housing becomes available.
There’s plenty more in the update, and you can find the patch notes on the official forums.
Age of Empires 4 DLC Knights of Cross and Rose Revealed
A new Age of Empires 4 DLC has been revealed, and it’s Knights of Cross and Rose, featuring two new variant factions. Specifically, we’ll get the Knights Templar (French variant) and House of Lancaster (English variant).
The DLC will also include the new Historical Battles mode with the optional Conqueror mode, on top of 10 multiplayer and skirmish maps.
It’ll release for PC and Xbox on April 8, and it’ll be priced at $14.99, with a pre-order discount at $12.74.
iD@Xbox Has Paid $5 Billion to Indie Developers
Today Microsoft announced that its indie initiative iD@Xbox has paid over $5 billion to the indie developers it supports since its launch in 2013.
Just in the past year, over 1,000 games have launched with the initiative’s support, including well-known names Balatro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Phasmophobia.
This follows the news that there are now over 1,000 games supporting Xbox Play Anywhere out in the woods.