Tag: Microsoft - Page 13
News Xbox Opens In-Person 'Audio-Visual Experience' Featuring Hellblade 2
Get immersed into Senua's twisted world
Xbox has announced some pretty cool in-person events happening in the UK and Germany right now - and they both feature an "Immersive Audio-Visual Experience" based on some of the team's biggest games. Hosted at the Charing Cross Road Outernet Store in London and The Lighthouse of Digital Art in Berlin, Xbox...
News Xbox & Activision Blizzard Are Merging At A 'Really Impressive Speed', Says Xbox CFO
"The speed at which we've worked together is really impressive"
Xbox and Activision Blizzard have only been one entity for a little over a month, at least officially, but the two companies seem to be coming together at speedy pace so far. Speaking at a recent summit, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart talked about the team integrating with ActiBlizz, and how the...
News These Xbox Series S Console Wraps Look Sweet, But They're Not Official
Series X only gets the Microsoft treatment
Back in August, Xbox announced its 'Console Wraps' for the Series X - right ahead of Starfield's big launch the month after. Sadly, we've not seen anything similar for Xbox Series S yet, however a third-party company has decided to take matters into its own hands. The UK-based '
Talking Point Will Fallout 4's Next-Gen Upgrade Be Delayed Into 2024?
Did you forget about it?
Today, outlet Vanity Fair dropped some new shots of Amazon Prime's Fallout TV show, and while it's nice to get another look at the upcoming adaptation, the news got us thinking about one thing in particular. Where is our next-gen upgrade for Fallout 4? That's right, if you cast your mind back to just over a year ago,...
News Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (November 28)
Update: There's a surprise late addition!
Update: We've got a surprise third addition! Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition is also now available with Xbox Game Pass (as documented elsewhere on Pure Xbox), so we've added it into the list down below. <related ids="158876"> Original story: Microsoft is closing out its
News Xbox Series S Accidentally Bundled With Physical Game At Dutch Retailer
"There was indeed a mistake in the store"
We've seen some game store fumbles in our time but this is a good one! Dutch retailer MediaMarkt recently made a huge error when trying to promote the Xbox Series S - one of the company's stores actually bundled the all-digital console with a physical game. Imagine it, you're a kid excited as all heck for...
News Xbox Encourages Fans To Vote For First-Party Games At TGA 2023
"What a great chance to support some of your favorites"
The Game Awards 2023 is upon us, and votes for the show's 'Players' Voice' award are now open. Unlike the rest of TGA's awards, this one is a purely-fan voted category - and Xbox is pushing its audience to vote for some first-party favourites. Among the 30-strong shortlist are four Xbox-owned...
Soapbox 'Xbox Developer Direct' Needs To Return In Early 2024
TGA is good, but Dev Direct is better
The Game Awards 2023 is right around the corner at this point, with Geoff Keighley's big show landing on December 7th this year. While I enjoy what TGA brings to the table most years, it is a bit bloated these days, and its impending arrival is making me yearn for another
News The Game Awards Host Reminisces About 'Special' Moment With Phil Spencer & Rival Execs
"It was a special time when we did that"
It's been five years since Xbox boss Phil Spencer joined PlayStation's Shawn Layden and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé on-stage at The Game Awards 2018 - delivering a lovely speech about unity across the gaming industry. Half a decade on, as part of a recent Q&A session ahead of this year's awards show, TGA...
News State Of Decay 3 Developer Seemingly Working On Another Project At Xbox
Multiple 'projects' are being developed at Undead Labs
It's been a while since we've heard anything official on State of Decay 3, hasn't it? The open world zombie-slaying sequel was unveiled in 2020, before basically going into hiding ever since. Well, a new LinkedIn update from an ex-Undead Labs developer could hint at why things are progressing...
Reaction Should We Really Be Surprised By 'Declining' Xbox Console Sales?
Europe's figures have dropped off in 2023
Well, there's been some mad drama surrounding Europe's recent console sales figures, hasn't there? Gamesindustry.biz released some info on this earlier in the week, strongly suggesting that Xbox Series X|S sales are "struggling" in the region. While there are certainly other factors in play here — like the...
Feature Xbox 360 Took The Gaming World By Storm 18 Years Ago Today
A massive Xbox anniversary
November always brings around some famous anniversaries in the Xbox world, and perhaps none are quite as famous as this one. 18 years ago today, Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in North America, and there really hasn't been a more appropriate time to wheel out the old 'rest is history' trope, has there? This is...
News Steam Black Friday Sale Now Live, Get Up To 88% Off Xbox & Bethesda Titles
Including Starfield, Redfall and more
We have another round of Black Friday gaming deals now live, thanks to Steam's sales going up this week. Technically, Valve calls this its 'Autumn Sale', but it coincides with with the industry's range of Black Friday discounts so it's basically a Black Friday sale. Anyway, technicalities out of the way, you can...
News 'Against The Storm' Added To December 2023's Game Pass Lineup
"Reclaim the wilderness in the face of apocalyptic rains"
Literally this weekend we posted that just one Game Pass title was confirmed for December 2023, and well, we now have another game announced! For now, this will only be available on PC Game Pass, but nevertheless, Against the Storm is joining the Game Pass library on December 8th. Truth be...
News Call Of Duty: MW3 Sets 'New Modern Warfare Engagement Records'
A "historic launch" under the Xbox banner
Although Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 didn't have the best reception at launch and reportedly had a rushed development cycle, it's still performed like no other game in the series before, setting all-new records. According to a
Deals Five More Backwards Compatible Games Added To This Week's Xbox Sales (November 21-28)
Loads of Black Friday discounts are still available too!
Xbox's huge Black Friday digital sale is still live, featuring around 100 backwards compatible titles, but the team has just added another five classic games to the discount pile - and there are some good ones in here too. So, we've gathered up all of the newly-discounted backwards compatible...
News Bethesda Still Has 'About 250' Developers Working On Starfield
Even months after launch!
By now we know that Starfield was a gargantuan development effort for everyone working on the game at Bethesda Game Studios - it took the team almost a decade to make this thing happen. However, we weren't aware of just how many folks are still working on the title after it's shipped! Thanks to a new interview with Wired,...
News Spirittea's Xbox Game Pass Launch Was 'A Ridiculously Good Experience' For The Team
"Over 100,000 people have played the game on Game Pass"
Spirittea's launch earlier this month marked another day one Xbox Game Pass arrival, and its publisher is again singing the praises of Microsoft's subscription service. Frequently a fan of the model, No More Robots founder Mike Rose has taken to Twitter to say that its latest Game Pass deal was...
News Xbox Revenue Would Overtake PlayStation With ActiBlizz On Board, Says Data Firm
Looking at 2023 figures so far
Microsoft's huge Activision Blizzard deal has always been seen as a bit of a money-maker for the Xbox owner, especially with such valuable franchises in-play across Activision, Blizzard and indeed King. Series' such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft will bring in lots of additional revenue for Xbox,...
News Bethesda's Starfield Drops To 'Mixed' User Reviews On Steam
The game's overall rating is now classed as 'Mixed'
The long-awaited Starfield finally released on Xbox and PC back in early September, and the consensus around launch was largely positive - including here at Pure Xbox where we scored the game 9/10. However, despite a decent Steam reception on release (the game sat at a 'Mostly Positive' rating for...
News Microsoft Is Offering 20% Discounts & Free Engraving On Xbox Controllers For Black Friday
The offers are now live!
What has slowly become 'Black Friday week' is now in full swing, as we can see by Xbox's latest console offers and the ongoing digital game sale now live on the Xbox Store. Well, the team is making it three-for-three with some accessory offers now live on the Microsoft Store as well. For the next week, you can get 20% off...
News Xbox Will Apparently Show Up At The Game Awards 2023
"I pretty much know that Xbox is there"
There's been a bit of controversy surrounding Xbox and this year's The Game Awards show, especially with Starfield failing to make the Game of the Year nominee list this year. However, despite this omission, it's looking like Xbox will be at the show in some fashion. Yep, according to Windows Central's Jez...
News Gabe Newell Reflects On Exiting Microsoft To Go Make Half-Life
"On the surface, we should have failed"
Valve is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of its iconic first-person shooter Half-Life, and as part of this, it's released a lengthy documentary discussing the entire history of the project. It also happens to have a segment touching on the co-founders' departure from Microsoft. This includes both...
News Xbox Leadership Features In TIME's Top 100 Climate List For 2023
Phil Spencer thanks director of gaming sustainability
Xbox has been taking all sorts of action to improve gaming sustainability, and one of the people driving this change within the company is the Director of Gaming Sustainability, Trista Patterson. In celebration of her efforts, she's now made TIME's top "100 climate" list - highlighting the "most...
News SEGA Exec Responds Once Again To Idea Of Potential Xbox Acquisition
"We feel honoured"
Earlier this year, documents from an FTC hearing revealed that Phil Spencer and his Xbox team were seriously considering a potential acquisition of SEGA back in 2020 and 2021, but obviously that never ended up materialising. Nevertheless, SEGA has been asked about this on multiple occasions since, and this latest example comes...
News Crash Bandicoot Dev 'Excited' About New Chapter With Team Xbox
As it reflects on the launch of Crash Team Rumble
Toys For Bob, the developer behind the revival of Crash Bandicoot and also the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, has issued a brief message on social media, revealing how "excited" it is about its "new chapter" under the Xbox banner. The same studio released its new game Crash Team Rumble earlier this year...
News Xbox Account Syncing Update Begins Rolling Out On Nvidia GeForce Now
There's also a limited-time PC Game Pass offer
Earlier this year, Microsoft entered into a 10-year agreement with Nvidia to bring Xbox's catalog of cloud titles to GeForce Now. Since then, all sorts of first-party games have been added to the streaming service. In an update today, it's been announced Nvidia is rolling out its newest GeForce Now...
News Team Green Reflects On 22 Years Since The Birth Of Xbox
"Thank you to everyone who has been party of this journey"
Yesterday we celebrated Xbox's 22nd birthday - yep, the big green machine is now 22 years of age, as is the Xbox brand as a whole! As you'd probably expect, some of Xbox's public-facing execs have commented on the big anniversary too, and we're feeling all warm and fuzzy inside thinking back...
News Microsoft Unveils Console Discounts For Black Friday, Including $50 Off Select Bundles
"Includes everything you need to play right out of the box"
Microsoft has announced its full suite of Xbox Black Friday sales for 2023, including discounts on its pair of current-gen consoles. The company will be offering up $50 discounts on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S systems, and the sales sound pretty widespread - at least in the US...
Talking Point Today Marks 22 Years Of Xbox As OG Console Celebrates A Big Birthday
Happy birthday to the big green machine
The big 22! Yep, Xbox is now 22 years of age as Microsoft launched its first ever gaming console on November 15th, 2001. We still remember the days of the OG Xbox very fondly, and what came after has been an amazing ride for Xbox fans around the world. It's always weird to think that whenever we talk about...
Reaction Looking Back, Xbox Has Had Some Strange GOTY Omissions Over The Years
Or are we just salty about Starfield?
Yesterday, Geoff Keighley & co. unveiled this year's Game of the Year nominees for The Game Awards 2023 - and we noted that Bethesda's brand-new IP Starfield failed to make the GOTY cut, despite being nominated for Best RPG. This GOTY omission has got folks talking (and us thinking) about Xbox's history with...
News Another Seven Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass Soon (November 30)
Including a batch of EA departures
Microsoft has revealed another seven games leaving Xbox Game Pass in the latter part of November 2023, and it includes a few pretty big departures from EA and others. Since April, three classic Battlefield titles have been unavailable to purchase as EA removed them from digital storefronts. Ahead of their online...
Random Xbox Fan Shows Ridiculously Dusty Series X Console After 3 Years Of Use
Xbox Series Xscrement
Xbox Series X|S just passed three years on the market this month, which means all of our launch-era consoles have had plenty of time to get dirty, full of grime, and load up on huge stacks of dust. While one of our very own Series X consoles has gathered plenty of dust in just a couple of years (pictured up above is our Halo...
News Xbox's Latest Custom Console Bundle Features An Edible Chocolate Controller
Wonkalicious
We have another custom Xbox console unveiling today, and this is certainly a unique bundle if nothing else! To coincide with the upcoming Wonka film, Microsoft has created a new custom Xbox Series X console package that's themed on all-things chocolate - including an actual edible controller. As you've probably guessed already, you...
News Xbox Celebrates New Series X Wraps With Free Dynamic Backgrounds
Here's what they look like
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced special Xbox Series X console wraps, which are able to give the higher tier model a new look at an affordable price. While the Starfield design was the primary focus at the time, alongside this was actually the reveal of an 'Arctic Camo' and 'Mineral Camo' design. These other themes...
Talking Point Xbox Series X|S Has Been Out For Three Years, And It's Now Hitting Its Stride
Happy third birthday, Xbox Series X|S!
We're officially three years into the current generation of Xbox gaming! Yep, Xbox Series X|S hit the market three years ago today, bringing super-fast SSD speeds and plenty of 120FPS gaming to Xbox fans around the world on November 10, 2020. We must admit though, it's been a bit of a weird generation so far,...
News Former Xbox Boss Reflects On His Famous Tattoo As Halo 2 Turns 19
"We at Xbox changed blockbuster gaming marketing forever"
This week marks 19 years since Bungie's global hit Halo 2 arrived on the original Xbox. While we're not quite at the two-decade milestone just yet, there are already some celebrations going down. Former Xbox boss Peter Moore has used it as an opportunity to reflect on that famous Halo 2...
News Xbox Wants 'All Of The Games' In Its Portfolio To Matter, Not Just Huge IP
Matt Booty: From Halo to Psychonauts "and everything in between"
Following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Team Xbox now have more studios (and games) than ever. If there was any concern about how all this is going to be managed or if certain franchises will be overshadowed by others, there's apparently no need to worry...
News Steam Deck Dual-Boot Windows Support Is Still A High Priority For Valve
A new Steam Deck OLED has just been announced
Valve has just lifted the lid on the Steam Deck OLED, the next iteration of its portable handheld gaming hardware. As part of this, it's now reassuring fans native dual-boot support for the system is "high on the list" of priorities. As highlighted by The Verge, Valve designer Lawrence Yang recently...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 9-12)
Included with Game Pass Core & Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox's latest set of Free Play Days titles is now live - with four games making up this week's promotion. We do have a few Xbox Game Pass titles in here this weekend, but none are available on Game Pass Core - so there are some good options here for members of Microsoft's entry-level subscription...
News Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (November 9)
Including a brand-new AAA release!
Welcome to your biggest Xbox Game Pass drop of the month so far! We have three titles heading to the library today, including a major AAA launch in Like a Dragon Gaiden and your latest addition to the EA Play selection with Wild Hearts. Here's an introduction to each of today's new Xbox Game Pass arrivals:
News Return To The Skies In Flight Simulator's Free Content Update
Nordics & Greenland available now
Ahead of the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, the existing release Microsoft Flight Simulator has received a new content update 'World Update XV'. This new update focuses on the Nordics & Greenland and adds 90 "hand-made" points of interest, 10 triangulated irregular network cities, 5 hand-crafted...
News 'Clockwork Revolution' Dev inXile Talks About Benefits Of Working Under Xbox
"They trust us"
It's well-known how Microsoft likes to let its studios within Xbox do their own thing nowadays, and it seems it's no different for Wasteland developer inXile Entertainment, who is currently working on its RPG-inspired game, Clockwork Revolution. In an appearance on 'The Fourth Curtain' podcast recently, the studio head of InXile,...
News Microsoft Appoints Former Forza Boss As New Xbox Game Studios Head
Matt Booty recently moved into a new role
Last month, Xbox revealed a company reshuffle with multiple executives moving into new roles. One of these individuals was Matt Booty, who is now 'President of Game Content and Studios' overseeing Bethesda and leaving behind his old role as Xbox Game Studios head. If you're wondering who is replacing this...
News Xbox Boss Makes Time To Help Mentor Game Critics In New York
"Spencer was honest, self-deprecating and offered sage advice"
It's safe to say that Phil Spencer has been busy as of late, right? The Xbox boss has been doing his fair share of travelling and meeting dev teams recently as Microsoft wraps up its ActiBlizz purchase, but as we've come to expect from the main man, he's also made time for a less...
Talking Point Xbox's Influential Gears Of War Sequel Is Now 15 Years Old
Happy belated birthday, Gears 2!
Ahh, the original Gears trilogy - one of our absolute favourite collections in the Xbox library. We had so much fun on these games back in the day, and this week, the second game in the series celebrated a rather substantial birthday. Gears of War 2 is now 15 years of age, and it was a pretty influential game for its...
News Microsoft Adds New Feature To Help Track Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass
This could come in pretty handy!
For a good while now, Microsoft has typically updated us all on what's leaving Xbox Game Pass through its regular Xbox Wire roundups. These roundups are clear and concise enough, but they don't give players much time to find such info before the titles leave the library - usually around two weeks or so. However, the...
News Blizzard President Says 'Players Have No Patience' And 'Want New Stuff Every Day'
So it aims to serve up "more content" in a "responsible" way
Blizzard's president Mike Ybarra is currently doing the press rounds, and in the same interview with The Verge, he touched on content delivery in modern games, noting how challenging it can be to find the right balance to satisfy everyone in the community. Ybarra, who leads massive...
News Xbox's 'Buy Two, Get One Free' Sale Contains Really Random Selection Of Games
From Starfield to, err, Pure Farming 2018?!
Xbox's latest set of deals is now available, with more than 300 offers live for at least the next week or so across various Xbox promotions. However, we have another sales promo that expires later this week (on November 10th), and it features a very random selection of titles. Yep, it's one of those 'buy...
News Blizzard Open To StarCraft Revival Under Microsoft, New Idea Requires 'Vision And Passion'
Blizzard president: "I'll bet on that team"
Now that Microsoft and Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has gone through, there are many fans out there calling for the return of series like StarCraft. Believe it or not, but the last entry released was the remaster of the original title back in 2017, so what are the future plans for this famous...
