Warner Bros. has reportedly decided not to release the Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace, despite the movie being close to finished.

According to The Wrap, Batgirl will not be released either in theaters or on HBO Max. The film was developed and shot before the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, and according to the report, the new leadership under CEO David Zaslave agreed the movie “did not work.”

The Hollywood Reporter meanwhile cites cost-cutting as another reason for shelving the film as well as refocusing on theatrical releases over creating movies for HBO Max.

Batgirl was originally slated to be released as an HBO Max exclusive but later became a theatrical and streaming release. The budget was also expanded to $90 million and there were reshoots as well to expand the scope of the film.

However, the new leadership at Warner Bros. Discovery has decided DC movies should be “big theatrical event films,” which Batgirl was not given it was originally intended to be a streaming-exclusive. The leadership team also reportedly wishes to work with Batgirl star Leslie Grace and Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah soon.

The Batgirl movie was announced in 2021 with the director duo. In the Heights star, Leslie Grace was later announced as the new Barbara Gordon with J.K. Simmons reprising his Justice League role as her father, Jim Gordon.

Brendan Fraser was also reportedly cast as the film’s villain and Michael Keaton was teased to return as Bruce Wayne’s Batman.

A promotional image of Grace as Batgirl revealed that the movie would be utilizing the redesigned Batgirl costume and that it would have been an origin story of sorts according to writer Christina Hodson.

It was reported earlier this year following Discovery’s takeover of WarnerMedia that the new leaders were prioritizing an overhaul of the DC movie team. This included finding a Kevin Feige-like figure to manage the slate and produce more movies like Joker. The new leaders were also unhappy with how top-shelf characters like Superman have seemingly been left to languish.

Currently, DC is a hodgepodge of different films and projects whether it’s Matt Reeves’ The Batman and its many spinoffs and sequel, or holdovers from the Snyderverse such as Aquaman 2 and The Flash. There are also standalone movies like Shazam and Black Adam.

There’s also the other DC movie that was originally announced for HBO Max before getting a theatrical release, Blue Beetle. No word yet on whether that movie will proceed.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

A new Road House remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal is coming to Amazon Prime.

The movie will be a reimagined take on the 1989 original movie about a professional bouncer played who saves a small town from local thugs. The remake is set to begin production later this month in the Dominican Republic.

The new take on Road House follows Gyllenhaal's character, a former UFC fighter, who takes a job as a bouncer at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys. But he "soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise."

Doug Liman, who has worked on The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is set to direct. The script is being written by The Nice Guys' Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry. The rest of the cast includes No Time to Die's Billy Magnussen, The Suicide Squad's Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Lukas Gage, Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, and more.

The original Road House starred Patrick Swayze as the traveling bouncer that comes to Jasper, Missouri to clean up the Double Deuce bar from corrupt businessmen. The original also stars Kelly Lynch and Ben Gazzara.

This is not the first time a Road House remake has been in the works. In 2015, UFC champion and actress Ronda Rousey was set to star in a Road House remake. That movie never saw the light of day. For more, you can check out our list of the best 1980s action movies.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Look, we've all stumbled upon some wacky stuff when making our way down the YouTube rabbit hole, but few of us ever expected to come across a functional toilet that also contains a gaming PC built into its tank. And yet here we are in 2022 at the peak of humanity's technological achievements.

As noticed by Eurogamer, YouTuber Basically Homeless has gone through the unusual but utterly captivating process of building a gaming PC into a custom toilet tank. And while any PC in a toilet is notable, he figured it was worth opting for a moderately powerful "12700 & 3060" option while he was at it.

It's fair, of course, because if you can't play the newest games on your pooper, why even bother, right?

Not content with mobile or handheld gaming while doing his business, Basically Homeless set off on his journey to 120hz toilet gaming by building a wall within the toilet's tank using plexiglass, allowing for a much-needed barrier between the PC components and water. Though it failed on his first attempt, a healthy amount of Flexseal seems to have gotten the job done.

Other modifications include spots cut out on the top of the tank for a cooling fan and on the front of the tank for showing off all of his hard work. He even went so far as to add RGB lighting to keep with traditional expectations. It's all as staggeringly impressive as it is odd.

Basically Homeless stated that building the gaming toilet also allowed him to learn more about plumbing than he'd ever expected, so he was able to gain some valuable skills along the way. But most importantly, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the process of building the gaming toilet, and he's certain to equally enjoy flushing away the competition during his, uh, gaming sessions.

Billy Givens is a freelancer at IGN with over a decade of experience writing gaming, film, and tech content. His work can also be found on GameSpot, USA Today, Digital Trends, Tom's Guide, and more. You'll find him blabbering on about video games and more on Twitter at @mektige.

In its first 60 days of release, Elden Ring became one of YouTube's biggest ever gaming launches, seeing well over 3 billion combined video views.

In stats shared exclusively with IGN, Elden Ring saw 3.4 billion views in the two months after launch, dwarfing the next name on the list, GTA 5 on 1.9 billion. Of course, YouTube has grown since GTA's launch in 2013, making that something of an unfair comparison – but the far more recent Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) saw 1.4 billion, so it's clear quite how successful Elden Ring has been.

YouTube Gaming stops short of calling it the biggest gaming launch ever, but it's clear that FromSoftware's open world masterpiece has set an incredibly high bar for games on YouTube in the future. In large part, that's down to the hunger for different kinds of video about the game, from Let's plays, to guides, to lore explainers.

YouTube Gaming also provided a list of other stats around the biggest launch videos for Elden Ring:

Most Viewed launch videos:

• CoryxKenshin - Elden Ring is Rage Game of 2022 (6.2M views)
• AshesWolf- Elden Ring - MAX LEVEL 713 VS Bosses Gameplay (5.7M views)
• Boomstick Gaming - ELDEN RING | Get “Overpowered” At The Very Start (5.3M views)
• Joel Haver - Elden Ring from the NPC’s Perspective (5M views)
• JackSepticEye - Best Game In The Last 5 Years (4.8M views)

Channels with the most Elden Ring launch views:

• RageGamingVideos (946K subscribers) with 71.6M views
• FightinCowboy (1.07M subscribers) with 39.6M views
• Arekkz Gaming (1.29M subscribers) with 39M views

Content Type Breakdown:

• VOD - 71.3%
• Livestreams - 25.98%
• Shorts - 2.72%

Uploads By Bosses (descending order)

• Margit, The Fell Omen
• Malenia Blade of Miquella
• Godrick the Grafted
• Starscourge Radahn
• Draconic Tree Sentinel

Uploads by Character Class (descending order)

• Samurai
• Hero
• Wretch
• Astrologer
• Warrior

YouTube Gaming also called out some of the Elden Ring community's best-known creators with 'Elden Lord Awards':

• VaatiVidya (2.27M subscribers) - Lore Specialist
• Fextralife (574K subscribers) - All-Knowing Guide
• Distortion2 (313K subscribers) - Bloodhound Stepper
• Zullie the Witch (439K subscribers) - Soulsborne Scholar
• RichaadEB (568K subscribers) - Tarnished Tunemaker

Finally, the team also acknowledged perhaps Elden Ring's best-known hero, Let Me Solo Her – the player that took on the game's hardest boss more than a thousand times, and earned a real-life sword for their efforts. According to YouTube Gaming, videos featuring Let Me Solo Her have accrued over 25 million views alone.

All of this is yet more proof of Elden Ring's status as a true gaming phenomenon. It quickly became one of the fastest-selling games in recent history in both the US and Europe, one of Steam's most played games by concurrent players, and one of the best reviewed games in modern history.

We called it a masterpiece in our 10/10 review, saying it "can easily be held amongst the best open-world games I’ve ever played. Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Elden Ring is one that we’ll be looking back on as a game that moved a genre forward."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Gaming tech company Logitech is teaming up with Chinese publisher Tencent to create a handheld cloud gaming console.

Announced in a tweet from Logitech (below), the device – currently referred to only as the Logitech G Gaming Handheld – will support several cloud gaming services and is expected to be released this year. No images of the console have been released so far.

"We're thrilled to announce an official partnership with Tencent Games to bring a cloud gaming handheld to market later this year that will support multiple cloud gaming services," the post said.

We're thrilled to announce an official partnership with @TencentGames to bring a cloud gaming handheld to market later this year that will support multiple cloud gaming services.

Be the first to learn more by registering for developments updates: https://t.co/tfAmQMTKCD pic.twitter.com/dNfmuKIz3w

— Logitech G (@LogitechG) August 2, 2022

Further details were shared in a blog post that confirmed users will be able to stream high-end games from services such as Xbox's Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA's GeForce Now.

"Logitech G’s leadership in PC and console gaming gear make them an ideal partner to help us realize the vision of bringing a better gaming experience to gamers around the globe," said Daniel Wu, general manager of Tencent Games Smart Solution Innovation Lab. "Today marks the start of a new opportunity for our companies to further push the frontiers of gaming devices."

Ujesh Desai, general manager of Logitech G added: "As someone that grew up playing video games, the idea of being able to stream and play AAA games almost anywhere is super exciting, and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on."

High-end handheld gaming has grown considerably in the last few years, perhaps prompted by the Nintendo Switch's release in 2017, but more recently with the likes of Valve's Steam Deck - though this device is equipped with the hardware to run demanding games locally instead of stream them.

Nintendo has dipped its toe into handheld streaming after launching the service in Japan with games such as Resident Evil 7 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, though later brought it to the west with a couple of games such as Control and the Kingdom Hearts series.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Gaming tech company Logitech is teaming up with Chinese publisher Tencent to create a handheld cloud gaming console.

Announced in a tweet from Logitech (below), the device – currently referred to only as the Logitech G Gaming Handheld – will support several cloud gaming services and is expected to be released this year. No images of the console have been released so far.

"We're thrilled to announce an official partnership with Tencent Games to bring a cloud gaming handheld to market later this year that will support multiple cloud gaming services," the post said.

We're thrilled to announce an official partnership with @TencentGames to bring a cloud gaming handheld to market later this year that will support multiple cloud gaming services.

Be the first to learn more by registering for developments updates: https://t.co/tfAmQMTKCD pic.twitter.com/dNfmuKIz3w

— Logitech G (@LogitechG) August 2, 2022

Further details were shared in a blog post that confirmed users will be able to stream high-end games from services such as Xbox's Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA's GeForce Now.

"Logitech G’s leadership in PC and console gaming gear make them an ideal partner to help us realize the vision of bringing a better gaming experience to gamers around the globe," said Daniel Wu, general manager of Tencent Games Smart Solution Innovation Lab. "Today marks the start of a new opportunity for our companies to further push the frontiers of gaming devices."

Ujesh Desai, general manager of Logitech G added: "As someone that grew up playing video games, the idea of being able to stream and play AAA games almost anywhere is super exciting, and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on."

High-end handheld gaming has grown considerably in the last few years, perhaps prompted by the Nintendo Switch's release in 2017, but more recently with the likes of Valve's Steam Deck - though this device is equipped with the hardware to run demanding games locally instead of stream them.

Nintendo has dipped its toe into handheld streaming after launching the service in Japan with games such as Resident Evil 7 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, though later brought it to the west with a couple of games such as Control and the Kingdom Hearts series.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Madden NFL has been undeniably stuck in a rut this generation. Since the release of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5, EA’s long-running NFL sim has consistently hovered around 65 on Metacritic. The complaints have been the same: unpolished, drab presentation, and modes that have failed to keep pace with the competition.

Many fans trace Madden's decline back to Madden 13, which formed the basic template for the current version of the series. Others go back even further. Wherever it started, it's hard to ignore the sense of malaise that has taken root in reviews, social media, and elsewhere. EA has protested in previous years that it's just a vocal minority, and that the series is actually doing quite well with the average player who isn't extremely online. This year they're embracing it.

"As a game developer, especially on a yearly sports title, it's not as much having thick skin as much as [needing] to have a great filter, because there's a reason that these players are going to say whatever they're going to say about the game, and you've got to figure out why," senior producer Clint Oldenburg tells IGN. "And even if there's a hundred words in there that don't tell you why, there might be one or two that will tell you why, and that's what you got to focus on so that you make sure you're delivering the experience at its core, what those players are asking for."

'A little too animation-based'

Oldenburg and fellow producer Mike Mahar say they've gone through reviews and social media posts "line by line," grouping together bugs and other issues and trying to sort legitimate criticism from the usual noise around annual sports games. What EA Tiburon has come up with in response to all of this criticism is to basically go back to basics. It's not an exciting approach on the face of it, but strip away all of the usual marketing hype words like the confusingly capitalized "FieldSENSE" and you'll find what seems like a pretty fundamental — and much-needed — rebalancing of the action on the field.

In other words, EA may finally be moving away from what has made Madden "Madden" for so long and toward something that more closely resembles actual football. At its core is a desire to move away from gameplay that's a "little too animation-based" — that sense that you're constantly gaming Madden's mechanics every time you pick a play or make a throw.

"Our players have told us very strongly, their words, not ours, Madden has gotten a little bit too animation-based, meaning that they feel like they lose control at critical moments and are watching quick-time events, for lack of a better word," Oldenburg says.

In Madden NFL parlance, that means getting away from the so-called money plays and formations that dominate YouTube every season with a system that's "emergent, organic, and natural." Defense has received the bulk of the improvements, with a greater focus on gang tackles, pass coverage, and quarterback containment.

"I think, from a high level, just the changes we did in deep zone and pass rush this year helps combat the problem of money plays, specifically those deep crossing routes that I already talked about. We added zone drift logic that gives our deep zoners the awareness to not continue drifting up the field if they don't have a vertical threat so they can leverage that deep crossing route," Oldenburg says, referring to a pattern that has been devastatingly effective for several years now due to Madden's various defensive AI quirks.

Oldenburg also talks about fixing formations like Gun Bunch, which have been overpowered for years due to how easily they can be adjusted to open up large parts of the field, as well as the frequently overpowered QB rollouts used to extend plays.

"We think we've clocked that one pretty good this year," Oldenburg says.

The feedback from the beta so far bears out the impact of these changes. If Madden 22 was akin to backyard football in how easy it was to roll out of the pocket and fling the ball to a wide open receiver breaking to the corner or the flats, then Madden 23 should prove to be a rude awakening for many players.

"I think it would be, probably, hubris of us to think that some expert level gamer in our community isn't going to find a glitch in the matrix, so to speak, but we definitely went play-for-play, feedback-for-feedback, with all the stuff we've heard up to this point to try to address it," Mahar says.

One way or another, it's evident that most of the focus for Madden 23 is on rebalancing the gameplay this year. It's much-needed — if the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't fun, then it doesn't matter how much work is put into Franchise Mode or Madden Ultimate Team.

The real test is whether EA Tiburon can put out a polished game. Madden NFL has been heavily criticized in recent years for its strange bugs and glitches, which are endlessly lampooned on social media. To that end, Oldenburg says that polish is a "top priority" in Madden 23, "especially from a gameplay perspective."

EA Tiburon is hoping to catch bugs using something called "vision hooks," which utilizes a mixture of bots and other technology to quickly reproduce troublesome problems. The Madden team is also allocating additional resources to fix bugs during production.

"We are very confident that our game for Madden 23 is going to be the most polished version of Madden that we've had in a long time," Oldenburg says. "What I'm not going to say is it's going to be perfect, but I am going to say that the team is still striving to reach perfection, as hard as that may be to reach. That is what our goal is. Polish is our top priority, and we know that we cannot reach our goals if our players believe that our game is a buggy experience."

Question marks still remain

Elsewhere, Madden remains a question mark. Face of the Franchise — Madden’s tutorialized story mode — is dropping elements like its college football mode while arcade modes like The Yard are receiving only superficial upgrades, with resources instead going toward overhauling free agency in Franchise Mode.

PC players, meanwhile, continue to receive short shrift. Asked why the PC version isn’t keeping pace with the console releases, an EA spokesperson said, "We have a passionate group of players who enjoy Madden NFL on PC. It’s important to our team that the PC version of Madden becomes comparable to the current generation versions, and we’re working towards that in the future."

When Madden 23 arrives later this month, it will be EA’s latest attempt to firmly establish the franchise on the current generation of consoles — and bring some shine back to its faded legacy as well. Fans will be able to see for themselves whether it’s successful when Madden 23 launches into early access on August 16.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Madden NFL has been undeniably stuck in a rut this generation. Since the release of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5, EA’s long-running NFL sim has consistently hovered around 65 on Metacritic. The complaints have been the same: unpolished, drab presentation, and modes that have failed to keep pace with the competition.

Many fans trace Madden's decline back to Madden 13, which formed the basic template for the current version of the series. Others go back even further. Wherever it started, it's hard to ignore the sense of malaise that has taken root in reviews, social media, and elsewhere. EA has protested in previous years that it's just a vocal minority, and that the series is actually doing quite well with the average player who isn't extremely online. This year they're embracing it.

"As a game developer, especially on a yearly sports title, it's not as much having thick skin as much as [needing] to have a great filter, because there's a reason that these players are going to say whatever they're going to say about the game, and you've got to figure out why," senior producer Clint Oldenburg tells IGN. "And even if there's a hundred words in there that don't tell you why, there might be one or two that will tell you why, and that's what you got to focus on so that you make sure you're delivering the experience at its core, what those players are asking for."

'A little too animation-based'

Oldenburg and fellow producer Mike Mahar say they've gone through reviews and social media posts "line by line," grouping together bugs and other issues and trying to sort legitimate criticism from the usual noise around annual sports games. What EA Tiburon has come up with in response to all of this criticism is to basically go back to basics. It's not an exciting approach on the face of it, but strip away all of the usual marketing hype words like the confusingly capitalized "FieldSENSE" and you'll find what seems like a pretty fundamental — and much-needed — rebalancing of the action on the field.

In other words, EA may finally be moving away from what has made Madden "Madden" for so long and toward something that more closely resembles actual football. At its core is a desire to move away from gameplay that's a "little too animation-based" — that sense that you're constantly gaming Madden's mechanics every time you pick a play or make a throw.

"Our players have told us very strongly, their words, not ours, Madden has gotten a little bit too animation-based, meaning that they feel like they lose control at critical moments and are watching quick-time events, for lack of a better word," Oldenburg says.

In Madden NFL parlance, that means getting away from the so-called money plays and formations that dominate YouTube every season with a system that's "emergent, organic, and natural." Defense has received the bulk of the improvements, with a greater focus on gang tackles, pass coverage, and quarterback containment.

"I think, from a high level, just the changes we did in deep zone and pass rush this year helps combat the problem of money plays, specifically those deep crossing routes that I already talked about. We added zone drift logic that gives our deep zoners the awareness to not continue drifting up the field if they don't have a vertical threat so they can leverage that deep crossing route," Oldenburg says, referring to a pattern that has been devastatingly effective for several years now due to Madden's various defensive AI quirks.

Oldenburg also talks about fixing formations like Gun Bunch, which have been overpowered for years due to how easily they can be adjusted to open up large parts of the field, as well as the frequently overpowered QB rollouts used to extend plays.

"We think we've clocked that one pretty good this year," Oldenburg says.

The feedback from the beta so far bears out the impact of these changes. If Madden 22 was akin to backyard football in how easy it was to roll out of the pocket and fling the ball to a wide open receiver breaking to the corner or the flats, then Madden 23 should prove to be a rude awakening for many players.

"I think it would be, probably, hubris of us to think that some expert level gamer in our community isn't going to find a glitch in the matrix, so to speak, but we definitely went play-for-play, feedback-for-feedback, with all the stuff we've heard up to this point to try to address it," Mahar says.

One way or another, it's evident that most of the focus for Madden 23 is on rebalancing the gameplay this year. It's much-needed — if the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't fun, then it doesn't matter how much work is put into Franchise Mode or Madden Ultimate Team.

The real test is whether EA Tiburon can put out a polished game. Madden NFL has been heavily criticized in recent years for its strange bugs and glitches, which are endlessly lampooned on social media. To that end, Oldenburg says that polish is a "top priority" in Madden 23, "especially from a gameplay perspective."

EA Tiburon is hoping to catch bugs using something called "vision hooks," which utilizes a mixture of bots and other technology to quickly reproduce troublesome problems. The Madden team is also allocating additional resources to fix bugs during production.

"We are very confident that our game for Madden 23 is going to be the most polished version of Madden that we've had in a long time," Oldenburg says. "What I'm not going to say is it's going to be perfect, but I am going to say that the team is still striving to reach perfection, as hard as that may be to reach. That is what our goal is. Polish is our top priority, and we know that we cannot reach our goals if our players believe that our game is a buggy experience."

Question marks still remain

Elsewhere, Madden remains a question mark. Face of the Franchise — Madden’s tutorialized story mode — is dropping elements like its college football mode while arcade modes like The Yard are receiving only superficial upgrades, with resources instead going toward overhauling free agency in Franchise Mode.

PC players, meanwhile, continue to receive short shrift. Asked why the PC version isn’t keeping pace with the console releases, an EA spokesperson said, "We have a passionate group of players who enjoy Madden NFL on PC. It’s important to our team that the PC version of Madden becomes comparable to the current generation versions, and we’re working towards that in the future."

When Madden 23 arrives later this month, it will be EA’s latest attempt to firmly establish the franchise on the current generation of consoles — and bring some shine back to its faded legacy as well. Fans will be able to see for themselves whether it’s successful when Madden 23 launches into early access on August 16.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Xbox has confirmed the first wave of games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month. Included in the new selection are Ghost Recon Wildlands, Turbo Golf Racing, Two Point Campus, and more. Both Midnight Fight Express and Immortality are not included in the announcement, but are already confirmed as Game Pass entries near the end of August.

In July, Game Pass saw the likes of Watch Dogs 2, As Dusk Falls, Far Cry 5, Yakuza 0, Last Call BBS, and plenty of other titles hit the service. We're expecting another wave of games to be announced for Game Pass in the second half of the month, so stay tuned for more updates. You can also follow our interactive list of all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games for the full lineup, create wishlists, rank, rate, and manage your backlog.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in This Month

• Ghost Recon Wildlands (Cloud, Console, and PC) — Available Now
• Shenzhen I/O (PC) ID@Xbox — August 4
• Turbo Golf Racing (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) ID@Xbox — August 4
• Two Point Campus (Cloud, Console, and PC) — August 9
• Cooking Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC) — August 11
• Expeditions: Rome (PC) — August 11
• Offworld Trading Company (PC) ID@Xbox — August 11
• Midnight Fight Express (Console, PC) — August 23
• Immortality (Console, PC) — August 30

Everything Leaving Game Pass in August 2022

The following games are leaving the Game Pass library by August 15, so if you want to keep playing them you'll need to finalise a purchase before they leave.

• Boyfriend Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Curse of the Dead Gods (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Library of Ruina (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Starmancer (Game Preview) (PC)
• Train Sim World 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

New Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks This Month

• Fall Guys: Coconut Milk Costume — Available now
• Skate 3: Upgrade Bundle — August 11
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Noweyr Pack — August 16

Best Game Pass Deal Right Now: 2-Years of Game Pass Ultimate for $135 (Save $224)

First up, your Game Pass subscription must not currently be active - I repeat, you must not have an active Game Pass for this to work. Once you're confident, proceed to the next step.

Next, you need to invest in up to 3-years worth of Xbox Live Gold. You can easily buy 12-month Xbox Live Gold codes from Amazon or other retailers, costing $60/£50 depending on your region.

I Recommend Stacking 2-Years of Xbox Live Gold

The maximum amount of stacking for Gold subscriptions is 36-months (costing $180), any more than that will be lost. So, to keep things safe for those who currently have a Gold membership, I recommend sticking to just 2-years' worth (costing $120/£100).

Now, here's the fun part. Once you've redeemed these codes and stacked your Xbox Live Gold membership up to your liking, you can then convert this time to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at a 1:1 ratio.

Head to the Xbox Live Gold upgrade page and proceed to convert the time you've paid for directly into Game Pass Ultimate. If you've never used the upgrade feature before, this will cost $1/£1 (total cost coming to $121/£101). If you have used this before, it will instead cost you $14.99/£10.99 to upgrade.

Overall, at most, you'll be paying only $135 for 2-years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (instead of $359). If you manage to pull off a 3-year conversion, at most you'll be paying $195 instead (instead of $539). Now that's a big discount. Once you're done, just make sure you turn off auto renewal as well.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Xbox has confirmed the first wave of games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month. Included in the new selection are Ghost Recon Wildlands, Turbo Golf Racing, Two Point Campus, and more. Both Midnight Fight Express and Immortality are not included in the announcement, but are already confirmed as Game Pass entries near the end of August.

In July, Game Pass saw the likes of Watch Dogs 2, As Dusk Falls, Far Cry 5, Yakuza 0, Last Call BBS, and plenty of other titles hit the service. We're expecting another wave of games to be announced for Game Pass in the second half of the month, so stay tuned for more updates.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in This Month

• Ghost Recon Wildlands (Cloud, Console, and PC) — Available Now
• Shenzhen I/O (PC) ID@Xbox — August 4
• Turbo Golf Racing (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) ID@Xbox — August 4
• Two Point Campus (Cloud, Console, and PC) — August 9
• Cooking Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC) — August 11
• Expeditions: Rome (PC) — August 11
• Offworld Trading Company (PC) ID@Xbox — August 11
• Midnight Fight Express (Console, PC) — August 23
• Immortality (Console, PC) — August 30

Everything Leaving Game Pass in August 2022

The following games are leaving the Game Pass library by August 15, so if you want to keep playing them you'll need to finalise a purchase before they leave.

• Boyfriend Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Curse of the Dead Gods (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Library of Ruina (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Starmancer (Game Preview) (PC)
• Train Sim World 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

New Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks This Month

• Fall Guys: Coconut Milk Costume — Available now
• Skate 3: Upgrade Bundle — August 11
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Noweyr Pack — August 16

Best Game Pass Deal Right Now: 2-Years of Game Pass Ultimate for $135 (Save $224)

First up, your Game Pass subscription must not currently be active - I repeat, you must not have an active Game Pass for this to work. Once you're confident, proceed to the next step.

Next, you need to invest in up to 3-years worth of Xbox Live Gold. You can easily buy 12-month Xbox Live Gold codes from Amazon or other retailers, costing $60/£50 depending on your region.

I Recommend Stacking 2-Years of Xbox Live Gold

The maximum amount of stacking for Gold subscriptions is 36-months (costing $180), any more than that will be lost. So, to keep things safe for those who currently have a Gold membership, I recommend sticking to just 2-years' worth (costing $120/£100).

Now, here's the fun part. Once you've redeemed these codes and stacked your Xbox Live Gold membership up to your liking, you can then convert this time to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at a 1:1 ratio.

Head to the Xbox Live Gold upgrade page and proceed to convert the time you've paid for directly into Game Pass Ultimate. If you've never used the upgrade feature before, this will cost $1/£1 (total cost coming to $121/£101). If you have used this before, it will instead cost you $14.99/£10.99 to upgrade.

Overall, at most, you'll be paying only $135 for 2-years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (instead of $359). If you manage to pull off a 3-year conversion, at most you'll be paying $195 instead (instead of $539). Now that's a big discount. Once you're done, just make sure you turn off auto renewal as well.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.