Xbox

Microsoft Confirms Some Future Bethesda Games Will Be Exclusive To Xbox And PC [Update]

Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda Software parent company, Zenimax Media, is complete, the company announced today. While the full ramifications of the deal will play out in the months and years to come, Xbox boss Phil Spencer did confirm one thing: some of Bethesda’s future games will be exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms. “With the…

Sorry PS5, Xbox Series X Has Unexpectedly Become My Preferred Console

I started this new generation of game consoles with the expectation that I would be playing most games on the PS5, like how I played most stuff on PS4 last gen. But nearly five months later, I’m spending most of my time on the Xbox Series X and now I feel bad, like I’m ignoring…

Xbox Live Has Been Down For Over 5 Hours (Update: It’s Back)

Update (9:47 p.m. ET, 02/25/2021): Shortly after Kotaku first reported on Xbox Live’s outage, the service appears to be back up and running. You’re welcome! Our original story follows below. Trying to get some gaming in this lovely Thursday night? Well, if you’re on Xbox, that’s too bad, because various functions of Xbox Live have…

Here’s March 2021’s Xbox Live Games With Gold

It’s going to be March again, or it’s still March—it’s hard to say, but you can mark the impossible passage of time with a new batch of Xbox Live Games with Gold games. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold membership. March’s Games with Gold are: Xbox…

Fall Guys Coming To Switch This Summer [Update: And Xbox]

This one’s no hill of beans. Fall Guys will come out on Switch at some point in the summer. Following a savvy, streamer-centric marketing campaign, Fall Guys first came out last August for PC and PlayStation 4, where it exploded in popularity. That month, Fall Guys was one of the “free” games available for PS…

New Xbox Backward-Compatibility Feature Improves Framerates On Select Games

Microsoft announced today that it is further improving Xbox Series X/S enhancements to backward-compatible games with a new feature known as Xbox FPS Boost, which does exactly what it says on the tin. “With certain titles, we can make the experience even better, all with no work required by the developer, and no update needed…

New Microsoft Program Could Help Devs Make Games More Accessible

Microsoft is starting a new program that will allow developers to send in Xbox and PC games to be evaluated by a team of accessibility experts, the company announced today. “Where issues are found, they are noted with reproduction steps, screenshots, and other information to help the developer understand what aspect of a given experience…

Microsoft Announces The All-New Xbox Wireless Headset

Behold the new official Xbox Wireless Headset, a sleek and stylish-looking set of ear cups packed with fancy features like voice isolation and supporting spatial audio technology like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Headphone: X. It’s even got auto-mute, which can be toggled on or off but should probably just be left on. On…

Metro Exodus‘s Free Upgrade Adds 4K Textures And Lots Of Ray Tracing

Last year 4A Games promised us that 2019’s Metro Exodus would be receiving a free next-gen upgrade, for both Microsoft and PlayStation’s new boxes, as well as the series’ home, PC. Today they’ve revealed just how next-gen it’s going to be. Look, I could just pretend for you that I know what a “Fully Ray…

Control Developers Doubled Their Profits In 2020 Without Making A Game

Remedy Entertainment, they behind Max Payne and 2019’s Control, made more than twice as much money in 2020 as they did the year before. Yet they didn’t release a new game. They just kept releasing an old one instead. If you were to stop me in the street and ask me about how things went…

My Son Inadvertently Designed A Metroid Xbox Series X/S Controller

Overwhelmed by the options available at custom controller shop Mega Modz, I turned to nine-year-old Seamus Fahey for design advice. What at first seemed like a completely arbitrary selection of colors and buttons coalesced into this purple, green, red, and orange homage to Metroid, a series that will never be officially playable on an Xbox.…

Agents of Mayhem (Which Is Good BTW) Plays Way Better On My Xbox Series X

The power of next-gen consoles can, in some cases, help improve games that suffered from performance problems. A great example of this is Agents of Mayhem, a good last-gen open-world shooter made even better thanks to the Xbox Series X and its backward compatibility features. Agents of Mayhem was released back in 2017 and developed…

Crash Bandicoot 4 Comes To PS5, Xbox Series X/S And Switch March 12

The excellent if a bit sadistic Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is about to get two upgrades and hopefully not too much of a downgrade on March 12, when the game launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Activision announced the next-gen and friend releases this morning, along with a PC…

Forza Horizon 4 Is Coming To Steam In March

Microsoft’s gorgeous British countryside racer Forza Horizon 4 is coming to Steam on March 9, the company announced today. It marks the latest in a long line of first-party Microsoft games coming to rival platforms, and the first time a Forza game has ever appeared on Valve’s storefront. The Steam version of Forza Horizon 4…

Now This Is A Very Nice Xbox

The Xbox Series S looks very nice in white, but I think it looks even nicer in this bright, bold and decidedly floral paint scheme by 14 year-old Dutch artist Pepijn van der Flier Done with spray paint and Posca pens over multiple layers, then finished with a matte varnish, it’s exactly the kind of…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for going through all the cool indie game demos available in the Steam Game Festival. I would suggest other activities, but there are more demos than there is weekend. The particular demo I am currently enjoying is Devastator by Radiangames, an indie developer we’ve been following since thedays of the Xbox Live…

Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Is Finally Headed To Xbox Game Pass

Remember all those Final Fantasy games Microsoft promised back in 2019 were coming to Xbox Game Pass? Another one is finally about to show up. Microsoft announced this morning that Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age is headed to the Netflix-style subscription service on console and PC, on February 11. Long story short, Microsoft announced…

Control’s Next-Gen Edition Finally Does Justice To Remedy’s Shooter On Consoles

Control left like it was pushing the last generation of consoles to their breaking points, with loads of performance issues on the old machines. Despite these problems it was a great game, my favorite of 2019. Now, with the next-gen release of Control, many of these problems are gone, and an already-great game is improved…

Bleeding Edge Ceases Updates After 10 Months, Ninja Theory Focusing On Other Projects

Ninja Theory announced today that it will no longer be updating Bleeding Edge with new content, though the game will remain playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Bleeding Edge, an online 4v4 action game, was released on March 24 of last year. Now, less than a year later, the game will stop…

Xbox Game Pass now has 18 million subscribers, up 20% from the fall, Microsoft announced during a call with investors today. It also said it sold more Xbox Series X/S’s than during the first month of any other console launch. The company still won’t release specific numbers though.