Microsoft

Microsoft just announcedthat the Xbox’s E3 briefing will air Sunday, June 11th at 2PM PST, and not on Monday morning, when it usually is.

Final Fantasy XIV‘s Interface Made Futuristic Thanks To HoloLens

We’ve already seen what Microsoft’s HoloLenscan do to Portal. Now, let’s picture what it can do to Final Fantasy XIV Japanese Twitter user Tanufuku created this mock-up to see how it could handle the MMORPG’s interface.  Tanufuku thinks this actually might make the game even more immersive as well as make it possible to play…

Playing Portal In The Real World

Why play Portal on a 2D screen when you can play it all around you in the real world? This Portal demo for Microsoft’s Hololens—an “augmented reality” headset that displays digital content on glasses overlaid on your outside vision—looks incredible. It was made by developer Kenny Wang, who did something similar last year with Pokemon…

RIP Xbox One Snap Mode

Snap Mode, that gimmick on the Xbox One that let you “snap” something else onto the side of your screen while you were watching a movie or playing a game, is no more. Microsoft is ditching the feature to make the console’s dash run faster. The Xbox One’s dash has always been a tad sluggish…

The Xbox One is getting an update soon, and one of the more interesting changes is the addition of a “copilot” mode, which will let two controllers be assigned to one player. This is great news for disabled and young gamers especially, who can use the feature to assign controls or have someone help them…

Platinum Games Apologizes For Scalebound‘s Cancellation 

Earlier this week, Kotaku broke the news that Scalebound seemed to be in trouble. It was, and Microsoft confirmed it was pulling the plug. Now Platinum Games and Scalebound director Hideki Kamiya have issued comments regarding the cancellation. Here is the statement from Platinum Games President and CEO Kenichi Sato: Regarding the Cancellation of Scalebound…

The New Red Xbox One Controller Looks Like Candy And I Want To Eat It

Today Microsoft introduces two new official colors to the Xbox One Wireless Controller line. There’s green and orange, which looks like an escapee from a Halo bundle, and sweet, delicious red, with its colorful candy buttons and delicious gummi analog sticks. It makes my teeth ache. Available exclusively from the Microsoft Store and GameStop, the…

Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries, released a statement on the Halo Waypoint forums clarifying the development of Halo/Mega Bloks project Haggar and confirming its development. She noted that Haggar was “just one example of several similar projects we have evaluated throughout the years.” Ross’ statement reads as follows: “Over the past few days, footage…

Apparent Leaked Footage Reveals Cancelled Mega Bloks Halo Game [Updated]

It seems that Master Chief almost ended up blasting Covenant made of Mega Bloks. After showing the Diddy Kong racing sequel that never was and a scrapped sequel to Oni, archivist Andrew Borman is now reporting on the prototype for Mega Bloks Halo in a new video on his YouTube channel Borman reports that the…

Accidentally Released Forza Horizon 3 Developer Build Reveals Unannounced Vehicles

Players downloading yesterday’s Forza Horizon 3 update on PC got a bit more than they bargained for, in the form of a 53 GB unencrypted developer build of the game, revealing a whole slew of unannounced vehicles that also screwed up players’ save files. The Forza Horizon 3 version ending with .37.2 went live on…

Killer Instinct‘s Thunder Gets A More Culturally Accurate Outfit

Despite working with members of the Nez Percé tribe during the development of the Killer Instinct reboot, developers didn’t get the details of Native American warrior Thunder’s costume quite right. Today’s free Legends of Thunder costume fixes that. According to a post by Killer Instinct senior marketing manager Nicole Fawcette on Xbox Wire, the rush…

The Uncertain Future of Minecraft‘s Independent Servers

For most of its life, Mojang has allowed private Minecraft servers to exist with few, if any, caveats. The largest servers, like Hypixel and Mineplex, have player bases rivaling those of full independent games, as well as enough staff to create experiences that can be almost unrecognizable as Minecraft. But in June of 2014, Mojang…

Asheron’s Call Calls It Quits After 17 Years

On November 2, 1999, Microsoft and Turbine launched Asheron’s Call, a massively multiplayer online fantasy role-playing game that stood toe-to-toe with the likes of EverQuest and Ultima Online. On January 31, Asheron’s Call and its sequel are coming to an end. Asheron’s Call was my first serious MMO, before I got my hands on EQ…

Minecraft Gets A Fallout Makeover

A new add on pack to Minecraft will add locations and characters from the Fallout series. In a new blog post, Mojang revealed that the additions are coming soon to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The pack will cost $5.99 USD and will add a variety…

How To Get To Forza Horizon 3’s New Blizzard Mountain

The first big expansion for Forza Horizon 3 is now live on PC and Xbox One, adding ice and snow to the game’s varied Australian terrain, just a plane ride away. Blizzard Mountain adds a rather expansive new area to the game, a wintry place that’s very friendly to trucks and snow tires. New physics,…

New Update Makes It Even Easier To Play Mini Games Like Skee Ball Inside Halo 5

J. Dickinson Este invented the first Skee Ball machine in 1909, and just over a century later, the game has finally made its way into Halo 5 Reddit user AllAboutPenguins tried to recreate the classic arcade variation on bowling using Halo’s now robust level editing tools, and said “I started building a skeeball map before…

I’m Pretty Into These Buttons Under My Game Controller

Recently I’ve been using a new controller to play video games. It has buttons on the top, and triggers on the back. It also has buttons underneath “Buttons underneath?” you might be saying. “That is madness! What will they think of next??” Or maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Sheesh, this guy is only now learning…

Forza Horizon 3‘s Blizzard Mountain expansion pack brings ice, snow, extreme elevations more to Microsoft’s open-world racing game on December 13. Check out Xbox Wire for more details.

Happy Birthday To The Original Xbox’s First Unofficial Mascot 

Azurik: Rise of Perathia came out within two weeks of the first Xbox’s launch back in November of 2001. It was supposed to be Microsoft’s interpretation of Mario meets Zelda, showing off what the new system could do and creating a iconic dynasty in the process. Instead, the blue-skinned stud rocking Goku hair and goggles…

Microsoft’s Solitaire Now Available On Rival Phones

Microsoft’s own version of Solitaire, one of the most popular and enduring video games of all time, is now available for the first time ever on a platform that isn’t Windows. It’s part of an app—available for both iOSand Android—called Microsoft Solitaire Collection, which bundles five card games (Klondike/classic Solitaire, Spider, Freecell, Tripeaks and Pyramid)…