The DayOne Show | A Video Games Podcast

While we're only two months into 2026, it's already been a crazy year, and this week brought with it some absolute bombshells that shook the video game industry. Join the crew as we break it all down in the The DayOne Show Episode 302!
This week, the news is nothing if not seismic! Before we get to all the industry happenings, we have to acknowledge all the lovely video games we've been playing this week!
On the review front, Jesse tackled the newly released God of War: Sons of Sparta before heading off to a WWE event. You can find this thoughts on this new PlayStation metroidvania right here.
Beyond indulging his usual obsession with both Fortnite and Rocket League, Nick's also been playing the new God of War, in addition to getting thoroughly stuck in with Mario Tennis Fever and BlazeBlue Entropy Effect X, the latter of which is available right now on Game Pass.
I am working on several reviews at the moment, so can't talk just yet about what I've been playing on that front, but I did release my hands-on preview for DON'T NOD's Aphelion, and have been thoroughly enjoying High on Life 2. I also released my review for Razer's Premium PlayStation controller, the Raiju V3 Pro.
Site wise, we're delighted to announce the new website design for playday.one is now live - we'd love your feedback, so give us a shout and let us know what you think on our forums in this thread. From the team, you can enjoy several pieces of new content, from hands on previews on Milestone's Screamer (alongside an interview) and NTE: Neverness to Everness.
On the news front, and certainly the big topics of discussion this week were some of the craziest occurences in the industry that we've seen in some time. The first was Sony's shocking announcement that saw the closure of beloved studio Bluepoint Games, known for their incredible work on remakes of Demon's Souls, and of course the minor miracle that was Titanfall on the Xbox 360.
Not to be outdone with being the continued focus of the gaming industry's scorn and general derision, Microsoft decided they just had to up the ante. On Friday, they dropped the bombshell - Phil Spencer, after 38 years at Microsoft is retiring, and his replacement is newcomer Asha Sharma, a Microsoft internal promotion from the CoreAI team. Perhaps more shockingly, the announcement saw Sarah Bond, Xbox President leave the business entirely, and Matt Booty getting a promotion to EVP and Chief Content Officer. Crazy times.
We break it all down, in addition to taking all of your community questions and thoughts live in The DayOne Show Episode 302!

It's a new look, and a new week to talk about video games - and there sure are a lot of them on the way! I'm aware we're cheating the count a little here, but this is the DayOne Podcast Episode 301!
This week, I've been at DICE in Las Vegas but we've still managed to play plenty and of course bring you all the latest reviews. I checked out REANIMAL, which is a mesmerizing experience, so much so that I had to reach out to the developers for a chat once I'd rolled credits. Jesse was hard at work on the review for High on Life 2, which we've all been playing once it launched into Xbox Game Pass.
Elsewhere in gaming news, we announced a big rebrand, which saw most folks take the news pretty well. Gyozo went to London to go hand on with Milestone's new racer Screamer, which had a big gameplay overview reveal. The biggest news was of course, Sony's new State of Play which saw a bevvy of cool game announcements and updates.
All of this, plus your community questions in the DayOne Podcast Episode 301! Jump in and say hello!

Well, we did it! 300 Episodes - which equates to over 45 days of listening time! To celebrate this milestone, we made some big announcements that saw The XboxEra Podcast Episode 300 change before your very eyes. Welcome to DayOne!
This week saw some big news, some great games and of course our own big announcement. XboxEra is rebranding, bringing a new name and a new website to our readers, alongside new features like memberships and additional platform coverage. You can read about all of that here - take it in! If you've got questions, we've got answers - hit us up on our Discord and the forums, and we'll do our best to help.
In the meantime, this week saw some cool games, and plenty of news to get stuck into. 34BigThings released Carmageddon Rogue Shift, and we sat down to chat with the game director to learn about how the game came to be. We also enjoyed a great conversation with the Narrative Director at Squanch Games and chatted about High on Life 2, which is heading our way next week alongside a great looking first drop of games for February.
In gaming news, Nintendo had a massive 3rd Party focused Direct with tons of announcements of ports and other releases that look great for Switch 2 owners. Sony announced a new Horizon game, 'Hunters Gathering', and Valve delayed the Steam Machine pricing reveal, with the units now coming at some point in the first half of this year. Epic games shared they want their store to be available on the new Xbox on 'Day One', and indeed AMD's Dr Lisa Su confirmed the chip maker is on target to support a new Xbox in 2027. Lots of this, and more in the XboxEra Podcast Episode 300!

One more episode to 300! Until that time however, we've got a weeks worth of news, a heap of games to chat about and a little time to overshare with our community. It's the XboxEra Podcast Episode 299!
With Nick returning this week, we just had to get his thoughts on the Developer_Direct, so we let him wax lyrical and get in-depth on his thoughts on Forza Horizon 6, Beast of Reincarnation, Kiln and of course, Fable. With February now upon on us, the team talk a little about some of the games we've been playing and that we're looking forward too - with quite a bit of discussion on MIO: Memories in Orbit, Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, Code Vein II and of course, a big discussion on Highguard.
On that, we get deep into whether the reveal at The Game Awards helped or hindered, before we dive into all the latest in video game news, from PlayStation patents for customisable touch screen controllers, a brief discussion on the horrific crimes of Jeffrey Epstein to the dire state of Xbox's financial results this quarter, and if Microsoft really considers fighting for the brand's appearance and reputation.
And of course, we dive into all the questions from our amazing community, be it cheesing boss fights in video games or a discussion about parenting and social media use in a digital age. Fun times!
As always, a big shout out to everyone that supports us here at XboxEra. We couldn't do it without you. If you'd like to support us directly, just head to patreon.com/xboxera and pledge your support.

After a fantastic developer direct showcase from Xbox tokick things off for 2026, the team return to chat through it all - and the news of the week in the XboxEra Podcast Episode 298!
There's plenty to talk about this week, and for the most part, it's all good news! MIO: Memories in Orbit hits Game Pass (and other consoles) and it's really great, according to Jesse. He also took some time to review a new expansion for Cult of the Lamb, which you can read all about in our review. Aarsal has been out adventuring on assignment - Yes, Highguard is real, and you'll hear more from us about it very soon. He also reviewed Final Fantasy 7 now that it's arrived on Xbox, and upset quite a few people in the process. Lastly, Jon has been making swords in Bladesong, and reliving some nostalgic memories with G-Police 'spiritual successor', G-Rebels.
The biggest headline of the week of course is the Xbox Developer_Direct, and you can watch our live reactions right here. Playground Games turned up with a double whammy for Forza Horizon 6 and Fable, Gamefreak showed off Beast of Reincarnation and Double Fine appeared to show pottery-based multiplayer brawler Kiln! It was a great showing overall, and 2026 continues to excite us all with so many great games coming our way.
We also cover plenty of news from the week, including the carnage at Ubisoft, which saw Sands of Time cancelled, and a complete 'reset' at the company. All of this and plenty more - including your community questions in the XboxEra Podcast Episode 298!