Tag Archives: microsoft

We’ve known through leaks for a while now that Call of Duty’s next game will be a return to Black Ops, with Treyarch leading development. The game is expected to be officially revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, but the release date may have leaked ahead of time. …

In a surprise move today, Microsoft has announced that it has actually opened a new games studio. Following on from last year's Activision Blizzard acquisition, Xbox allowed Toys for Bob to go independent. Now, a new Activision Blizzard studio is opening up to fill the gap.  Elsewhere Entertainment is a …

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to bring four previously exclusive games to rival consoles for the first time. So far, this has led to Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment and Grounded all going to PlayStation or Switch (or both in some cases). Now, it appears Microsoft is planning …

With the current kerfuffle surrounding Microsoft’s surprising moves within Xbox – aka shutting down Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin – fans have begun to fear for Xbox’s many other studios and projects, including the self-described AAAA Perfect Dark reboot. Throughout its development we have heard conflicting reports on the game’s …

Over the past week we have seen a massive shift in the narrative towards Microsoft and Xbox, primarily stemming from the recent closure of 4 internal Bethesda studios including Tango Gameworks of Hi-Fi Rush fame. In protest of this decision, fans have flocked to Hi-Fi Rush – making it the …

Microsoft has been making a lot of headlines in recent days following the announcement that they will be closing down 4 Bethesda studios including the much-loved Tango Gameworks. In amongst all this, the console manufacturer also revealed their plans to launch a standalone Xbox web app, allowing the $3 Trillion …

While Microsoft hasn't interfered with Bethesda's operations much since acquiring the company in 2020, that is slowly starting to change. A round of lay-offs earlier this year impacted several Bethesda teams. Now, a few studios are also being shut down, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. An announcement penned by …

Earlier this year, leaks and rumours sprung up suggesting that the Xbox console exclusive Hi-Fi Rush would be coming to more platforms, specifically PS5 and Nintendo Switch. Of course, Microsoft did wind up announcing that Hi-Fi Rush was coming to more platforms – though only PS5. One month on from …

While Qualcomm is remaining quiet on the launch date for the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, it does appear that OEMs are gearing up to make announcements very soon. Today, Asus has announced its next AI PC launch event, which will feature guest speakers from both Qualcomm …

Shinji Mikami is a legend in the games industry, Known best for his work on the original Resident Evil and its equally as revolutionary RE4, Mikami has a long and varied history in game development. In 2023, he left his studio Tango Gameworks, with a non-compete clause forcing him to …

BlizzCon made its grand return in 2023, after a four year hiatus. Unfortunately, it looks like the event is on the ropes once again, with plans for BlizzCon 2024 being scrapped.  BlizzCon is by no means a cheap event to run, but it has been a core part of the …

Recently, new rumours have surfaced claiming that Xbox studio, The Coalition, is ramping up to reveal the next Gears of War game. Now, it would seem that those involved in the series are putting out some teasers of their own. Liam McIntyre, the voice actor who plays the role of …

In a surprise announcement this week, Meta revealed plans to open up its OS to third parties, allowing other hardware makers to create their own ‘Quest' headsets. One of the first partner on board appears to be none other than Microsoft, just shortly after abandoning its Windows Mixed Reality efforts. …

Over the last console generation, MMOs began becoming increasingly popular on consoles, with games like The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy 14 showing that these types of games can play well with a gamepad rather than a mouse and keyboard. With that in mind, the idea of World of …

In 2023, Microsoft officially did away with Xbox Live Gold, replacing it with a new entry-level version of Game Pass. At the time, Microsoft confirmed plans to update the Game Pass Core library with new games every few months. Now, we've got our first update of 2024, bringing in three …

In 2022, the relationship between Activision Blizzard and its Chinese publishing partner, NetEase, began to rapidly deteriorate, leading to NetEase being dropped as the publisher for Blizzard titles in China and thus making those games inaccessible in the country. Now after acquiring Activision last year, Microsoft has mended fences. Microsoft …

There has been quite a bit of Xbox news this week. We recently learned a lot more about Hellblade 2, which lands on Xbox and PC next month, and we've also recently heard rumours that Gears of War 6 is due to be announced this Summer. Now to cap off …

June is just around the corner and studios/publishers are beginning to lock in their summer announcement plans. We've recently heard several rumours about upcoming announcements from the Xbox team. Recent reports have claimed we'll be getting our first look at Gears 6 this year and as it turns out, we …

As part of Microsoft’s recent shift toward a more multiplatform approach with its first-party games, the console manufacturer has released Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush to the PlayStation 5. Next up is Sea of Thieves, with the team at Rare confirming cross-play, cross-progression, 120fps and more. Publishing an FAQ of sorts …

We've been hearing rumours about The Coalition's development plans for quite some time now. While a small, new IP was in development at one point, this was scrapped to focus all efforts on the next Gears of War game. Now, the time to reveal Gears 6 might be just around …

Ninja Theory co-founder, writer and director, Anteem Antoniades, has left the studio, ahead of the highly anticipated launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.  This move does not immediately spell cause for concern at Ninja Theory, as the studio is filled with many creative people, many of whom are currently leading …

Despite being by far the best selling videogame of all time, Minecraft has for the past 3 years been running on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with last-gen equivalent settings. Following a stealth update to the Xbox’s beta release, Minecraft looks set to finally get official current-gen ports. …

We've been hearing about a new all-digital version of the Xbox Series X for a while now. While previous leaks pointed to a more comprehensive refresh, with an all-new design and 6nm chip at the centre, more recent photos point to a simpler design tweak, showing the Xbox Series X …

Toys For Bob have had an interesting few weeks. Following the completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, the studio announced their intentions to go independent. Microsoft obliged, though are still working with Toys For Bob on their next game. According to one insider, this game is Spyro 4. Releasing a …

Earlier this week, new rumours surfaced suggesting that Xbox is working on a new gaming handheld to rival systems like the Steam Deck and Windows-based alternatives. Having been down this road before, I didn't put much stock in those rumours. However, a newly published interview with Phil Spencer is making the Xbox handheld seem inevitable. 

Ray tracing has become a critical component in the gaming industry. However, this technology often comes at a severe performance cost, especially when GPUs have limited VRAM capacity. As a result, developers have been exploring ways to optimise ray tracing for GPUs with limited memory. Microsoft's new patent (via Tom's …

The handheld console market has been on the rise since the launch of the Nintendo Switch back in 2017. Things have improved further in the last couple of years thanks to the emergence of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. Now, after literal decades of handheld Xbox rumours, it …

Following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, one of the publisher’s dozen+ studios – Toys for Bob – expressed their desire to be independent. Microsoft obliged late last month, freeing the Crash/Spyro devs from their new owners. The positive outcome with Microsoft has now led to a 2nd-party relationship, …

Sea of Thieves will be one of the first titles from Xbox Games Studios to come to PlayStation – following in the footsteps of Pentiment and most-recently Hi-Fi RUSH. Ahead of this, the team at Rare have shared some of their plans for the game’s next 3 Seasons worth of …

Overwatch 2 has not had the best trajectory since its launch, with the free-to-play title losing many of its promised features over time. Following the announcement last year that one of the game’s primary selling points – its PvE campaign – was cancelled, its replacement is now reportedly also on …