Microsoft

Being A Sea of Thieves Pirate Sometimes Means Being An Asshole

Sea of Thieves is mostly about hunting down treasure with your friends, but every now and then things get ugly. In a game where everyone wants loot and crews can battle each other at the drop of the hat, the line between being a pirate and being a jerk feels razor-thin. There’s only a few…

Microsoft Executive Is Open To Putting Banjo In The New Smash Bros

Banjo and his partner Kazooie haven’t been in a Nintendo game since 2005’s Banjo-Pilot thanks to complicated intellectual property rigamarole that cropped up when Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002. With a new Smash Bros. coming to the Switch, there’s plenty of speculation about new fighters. Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Gaming seems completely fine with…

Sea Of Thieves Servers Weren’t Prepared For So Many Players

It was anything but smooth sailing for yesterday’s global launch of Sea of Thieves, as the game’s servers struggled to keep up with a massive influx of new pirates. Players were plagued by problems connecting to the game, random disconnects, matchmaking errors and more. At one point, developers had to temporarily suspend new players joining…

Players Say Xbox Game Pass Glitch Is Stopping Them From Playing Some Games [UPDATE]

Xbox Game Pass is supposed to enable Xbox owners to play more games, not less. Unfortunately, over the last few days, some Xbox One owners have reported being unable to play certain games they own due to an error with Game Pass, a problem Microsoft has confirmed it’s looking into. Xbox Game Pass is a…

Microsoft is going to host a separate event at E3 this year. The Microsoft Theater where the company has its June 10 briefing will also have fan activities and game demos. There will still be a Mixer booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center though, so Microsoft isn’t abandoning the E3 show floor completely.  

Microsoft Says Sony Is Holding Back Fortnite Cross-Play

Fortnite: Battle Royale is the latest video game to have cross-platform play among some devices but just can’t link PlayStation and Xbox players. Funny how that keeps happening. Last week we learned that Fornite Battle Royale would be coming to mobile with cross-play between PS4, PC, Android, and iOS. Then, over the weekend in a…

Microsoft Says It’s Fixed Xbox Bug That Exposes People’s Real Names [UPDATE]

Xbox users have started to notice an unwelcome surprise: Their first and last names are suddenly visible to other people without their permission, a problem that Microsoft says it is fixing. Redditor Nadia C. says she received a message this morning alerting her that, instead of her Xbox nickname made of emoji symbols, her real…

The Quest To Make A Better Video Game Controller

Next time you play a video game, look down at the controller in your hand. Is it comfortable? Does it work well with the game you’re playing? Are your fingers all being used efficiently? If you could change one thing, what would it be? This piece originally appeared 9/27/17. About 10 years ago, after permutations…

“Toxic behavior doesn’t just hurt the individual it hurts our entire industry,” said the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, during a keynote address at the 2018 DICE summit. He also touched on low morale following the launch of the Xbox One and the need for more diversity in the gaming industry. You can watch it here

Age Of Empires Is A Weird Game To Play In 2018

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is almost everything an Age of Empires fan could think they want. Unless they want the castles from Age of Kings. An introduction: AoE:DE takes the original 1997 game, throws in its expansion Rise of Rome, cleans up the visuals, makes a few UI changes and sets it loose in…

When Air Jordan Met Xbox

It’s been a poor generation for custom console designs, but I am very in for this official Xbox x Jordan collaboration. Only catch is that they’re for a competition, not a general release The three consoles are each based on an Air Jordan 3 colourway (“Black Cement“, “Free Throw Line“ and “Tinker Hatfield”), and each…

Xbox mobile apps now include party chat functionality. The feature rolled out yesterday, allowing people with either the android or iOS Xbox app on their phone to create or join an Xbox Live Party even when they’re away from their console.

Rare Says Sea Of Thieves Will Run Well Even On Crappy PCs

Usually, when developers talk about PC ports of big games, they emphasize top-tier performance. The best possible graphics, the highest resolutions. God rays, 4k, a million frames per second. Rare, though, has taken a different approach with Sea of Thieves The game, Rare says, will run capably on a whole host of different PC configurations…

When a game owned by Microsoft is available on a Nintendo console, things are sometimes going to get awkward.

Xbox Game Pass Now Gets New Microsoft Games On Day One

Microsoft’s $9.99 a month Xbox game subscription service just got a bit more attractive. Starting with the March 20 release of Sea of Thieves, all new Microsoft Studios games will be available on the service on launch day. TheXbox Game Passoffers subscribers access to more than 100 games from throughout Xbox history, allowing them to…

Xbox One’s Backward Compatibility Is Fantastic

We often criticize gaming platform makers for their missteps, so let us also praise them when they do something great: Xbox One’s backward compatibility feature is nothing short of perfection. Setting up my Xbox One X over the holiday reminded me that I had been meaning to get around to playing Lost Odyssey, an Xbox…

The State Of The Xbox One In 2017

When we talk about the Xbox One in 2017, which Xbox One are we talking about? The original big black box? Last year’s streamlined One S? The ultra-powerful One X? It’s probably best to focus on this year’s model, the Xbox One X. Introduced in 2016 as Project Scorpio, the “world’s most powerful console” is…

If you picked up on Xbox One X during launch, check your console messages. Microsoft’s been passing out codes for a free download of The Lego Batman Movie in all its ultra HD glory. HDR really makes the darkness pop.

The Xbox One X Is A Tough Sell

The Xbox One X does exactly what it’s meant to do, but who is it for? Is it worth buying the most powerful game console ever? Let’s discuss on today’s Kotaku Splitscreen First Kirk and I talk about World of Warcraft Classic, the end of Miiverse, and whether the video game industry is really unsustainable.…

Xbox One X: The Kotaku Review

The Xbox One X is a box filled with powerful components that’s designed to do the same thing as a box with less powerful components, only a little bit better. That’s a weird place for the “world’s most powerful console” to be. In an simpler time, the Xbox One X might have been Microsoft’s next-generation…