Microsoft

A Young Man’s Ego Doomed A Much-Hyped Jurassic Park Game

Do you remember what you were like at age 25? It was only four years ago for me, and I already think I was pretty much the worst back then. Seamus Blackley also doesn’t have a stellar opinion of the man he used to be at 25. At the time, he was executive producer on…

Microsoft’s New Studio Acquisitions Show How Much Xbox Has Changed

It came as a mild surprise when Microsoft announced Saturday that it was purchasing not just one but two mid-sized studios with a focus on role-playing games. But as strange as it seems on the surface, the deal makes perfect sense for all three parties. At the end of a relatively uneventful Xbox showcase in…

Everything Xbox Announced During XO18

This afternoon there was a special edition of the Inside Xbox show as part of X018, an event which is “a global celebration of all things Xbox,” and lots of things were announced for the Xbox universe of games. There were a lot of moving parts to the two-hour episode, so here’s a breakdown of…

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Has Died

Paul Allen, who along with Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, has died at the age of 65 of complications associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Allen—who also owned the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers—first overcame Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1982, before also beating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009 until its recurrence earlier this month. He was one of…

Sources: Microsoft Is Close To Buying Obsidian

Microsoft is finalizing a deal to acquire the independent development studio Obsidian Entertainment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations. We don’t know if ink is on paper yet, and plenty of major acquisition deals have fallen apart in the final hours, but those close to the companies believe it is all but done.…

Microsoft Announces Xbox Game Streaming Service

Today, Microsoft announced its plans to enter the world of video game streaming with Project xCloud, an ambitious service with a silly title that promises to allow the streaming of Xbox One games across computers, phones, and tablets. Microsoft says it’s currently testing out Project xCloud and plans to open up tests to the public…

Sea of Thieves‘ New Volcanic Region Is Difficult And Hilarious

Rare’s online pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves launched into some rough waters, feeling more like a beta than full game. Since then, the developers have worked to make the seas more treacherous and exciting. Last week’s Forsaken Shores content adds an entirely new region packed with dangerous volcanoes and difficult quests. It’s the perfect…

Windows Will No Longer Interrupt Your Games To Annoy You About Updates

We’ve all been there: you’re in the zone with a game—so dialed in that you can practically smell the body odor of the man you just kicked off a cliff—but then, suddenly, it’s gone. Windows has decided it’s update time, and also that you can go fuck yourself. Mercifully, that problem is now history. The…

Every Car In Forza Horizon 4 Has Its Own Perk Tree, So Of Course I’m Hooked

Back in 2016 I spent a great deal of time farming skill points in Forza Horizon 3 in order to unlock bonuses in the game’s Skill Shop perks tree. In Forza Horizon 4, every single one of the over 450 cars in the game has its own perks tree to unlock. I am filled with…

X018—a “global celebration of all things Xbox”—will be held in Mexico City on November 10-11. There’ll be thousands of fans in attendance, but announcements will be streamed online as well.

Xbox One Getting Mouse + Keyboard Support

FPS games (and…strategy games?) are about to get a lot more precise on the Xbox One, with the announcement today that Microsoft is “enabling mouse and keyboard support on Xbox One for select Xbox Insiders in the coming weeks.” It’s a game-by-game thing, with developers free to choose whether they implement the added compatibility or…

Microsoft’s Custom Charity Consoles Are Great

Xbox and Make-A-Wish are teaming up again for their Consoles For Kids charity drive, and the 2018 batch of custom-designed celebrity consoles are looking very pretty. How pretty you find them may depend on your feelings towards a particular celebrity, since many of them just have someone’s face plastered over the front, but there are…

Microsoft is rolling out Alexa support for Xbox One starting with the Insider program. This new set of features, called Xbox Skill, works with the Echo and other Alexa and Cortana-enabled devices, and includes being able to power the system on. It doesn’t yet include a voice command for getting more exclusives.

Oh, This Is Nice

The Xbox Elite Controller, which is fantastic, has only ever been available in black. Now, it’s also available in a very fetching shade of white. I bring this up for two reasons. Firstly, because I like it a lot! And secondly, because after trashing a controller earlier in the week, I’m bringing balance to the…

New Xbox All Access Program Lets You Pay Monthly For An Xbox, Game Pass, And Xbox Live

Microsoft has a new monthly financing program for the Xbox One called Xbox All Access, according to a blog post over at the Xbox website. The program allows users to commit to a two-year plan where they pay monthly for either an Xbox One S or an Xbox One X and subscriptions to both Xbox…

There Are Never Enough AA Batteries Around To Power My Xbox One Controller

Two AA batteries. That’s all I recently needed to turn my Xbox One controller on and get back to steaming dumplings in Overcooked 2. It was around 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday, though, and I didn’t have any left. I found an Energizer box crammed upside down in a coffee table drawer. It was empty.…

Halo 5: The Kotaku Re-Review

Each new Halo game since 2007’s Halo 3 gets some praise, then fades, and then is pointed to as a sign that the Xbox’s once-unstoppable franchise is hitting a wall. Halo 5, released in 2015, deserves a different reputation. The first new Halo game on Xbox One got the accolades three years ago, then faded as…

Yakuza Was Also Pitched To Nintendo & Microsoft

Sure,it’s on PC now, but the Yakuza series is synonymous with three generations of PlayStation consoles. And for good reason: Nintendo and Microsoft had their chance, but simply weren’t interested in the Japanese gangster saga. The latest issue of Edge magazine has an enormous interview with series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, where he reveals for the…

Sea of Thieves‘ New Update Finally Makes Things Feel Dangerous

Sea of Thieves is full of jerk playersand giant sharks, but the game has never felt all that dangerous. The latest update, Cursed Sails, mostly corrects that. The addition of terrifying skeleton threats, battles packed with cursed cannonballs, and a brand new player ship brings a welcome sense of urgency to a game that often…

After briefly getting the world excited over the prospect of a new hardware announcement at Gamescom next month, Microsoft has changed a line in its blog post from promising “all-new Xbox hardware and accessories” to “new Xbox One bundles and accessories.” Whoops!