February2024
News Xbox Adds Another Seven New Dynamic Backgrounds For Series X|S
Take your pick!
Xbox continues to bolster its Dynamic Background roster and the latest drop includes seven themes celebrating several events throughout 2023. Below is the full list of what's included in this latest Dynamic Background update. We've also got some samples of some of them: International Day of World's Indigenous People 2023 Gaming...
News Xbox 'Providing Support To Enable Dedicated Servers' In Palworld
It's now "the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch ever"
Palworld has become an overnight sensation and Xbox has now confirmed it's performing just as well on Game Pass. It's officially the subscription service's "biggest" third-party launch ever, with more than 7 million Xbox players experiencing the game since its 'Game Preview' debut last month...
January2024
News Microsoft Adds 'Vapor Collection' To Xbox Design Lab & Unveils New Special Edition Controller
"Introducing the newest collection"
Microsoft is back with even more Xbox controller options today, as the team expands its Design Lab program into 'Vapor' territory. Remember last year's 'Stormcloud Vapor' pad? Well, you can now apply the very same effect to Xbox Design Lab controllers across a variety of different colours. They're calling this...
News Xbox Predicts 'Hardware Decline' Despite Huge Revenue Boost From ActiBlizz
Services are on the up
Microsoft's latest earnings report has been an eye-opening one, with its gaming division posting huge revenue boosts - propelling the sector to Microsoft's third largest business within the company. While much of that is attributed to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one area that doesn't seem to be growing so fast is...
News Gaming Becomes Microsoft's 'Third Largest Business' In Latest Quarter
It has surpassed Windows with the help of ActiBlizz
It's been a bit of a wild start to the year for Xbox with a Developer Direct, mass layoffs, some record-breaking milestones, and now the
News Xbox's Gaming Revenue Receives Huge 49% Boost YoY From Activision Blizzard Acquisition
The second quarter fiscal year 2024 results are in
Microsoft has just released its earning results for FY24 Q2 and Xbox's gaming revenue has experienced huge growth in the latest quarter, up by 49% year-over-year. This growth is credited mostly to Microsoft securing Activision Blizzard, which closed last year on October 13, 2023. This latest figure...
News 'Visions Of Mana' Isn't Launching On Xbox Game Pass Despite Dev Direct Appearance
"This was an error"
On the back of Xbox Developer Direct there were rumours that Visions of Mana might be coming to Xbox Game Pass - fuelled by some vague wording on the Xbox website. Well, the team has now come out and confirmed that the Square Enix RPG is not launch
News Halo Infinite Releases New Halo Wars-Themed Operation, Reveals Free 20-Tier Pass
Content Update 29 is out today
Halo Infinite receives a brand-new update today, which sees the departure of Seasons and the introduction of content updates. As previously noted, Content Update 29 adds a new Arena map "Illusion", new Forge features including a 'Covenant object palette, a free Mark IV armor core and
News Microsoft Will Apparently Announce Blizzard's New President 'Next Week'
Mike Ybarra is departing
Xbox this week revealed it was laying off 1,900 employees and in the process, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who was an ex-Microsoft executive before this, also announced his departure. There's still obviously a lot to take in, but if you are wondering who will replace Ybarra, apparently that update will be happening as...
News Halo Infinite Says Goodbye To 'Seasons' With Community Montage
From here on out it's "Content Updates"
Last week, 343 Industries announced it would be ending "Seasons" in Halo Infinite, with this model being replaced by "Content Updates" in the future. With this in mind, the developer has now put together a compilation video of Season 5: Reckoning - highlighting the many talented players within the community...
Talking Point Would You Buy A 'Revised' Xbox Series X|S Controller In 2024?
Or are you perfectly happy with the current one?
After first leaking last September, this week brought fresh rumours that a new Xbox controller could be revealed soon. Reportedly set to be announced around the time of Xbox's summer showcase this year (although unconfirmed at this stage), project "Sebile" sounds promising so far. According to that...
Feature Hellblade 2 Brings True 'Cinematic Immersion' To Xbox This May, And We're Hyped For It
A proper Xbox blockbuster launches in just a few months
This year's Xbox Developer Direct delivered big - with huge deep dives for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed and Ara: History Untold. However, only one of the show's titles feels like it's truly within touching distance, and that's Ninja Theory's Hellbl
News Microsoft Hits Historic $3 Trillion Valuation On Same Day Of Xbox Layoffs
It's the second company after Apple to achieve this
Microsoft announced 1,900 jobs had been axed in the Xbox division earlier today, with MS Gaming CEO Phil Spencer explaining how the goal going forward is for leadership to "align on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure" to support the whole of its growing business...
News Apple Opens The Door For Xbox Cloud Gaming App On Its Devices
Developers can now submit game streaming apps
Xbox Cloud Gaming has managed to natively roll out on a lot of devices so far, but on Apple products, it's only been accessible through browsers. Fortunately, this may change in the future - with the iPhone maker announcing developers are now able to "submit a single app with the capability to stream all...
News Xbox Is Employing 'A More Focused Strategy' After Merging With Activision Blizzard
"Together we will continue to create amazing games"
Following the Microsoft and Blizzard layoff news posted earlier today, Xbox's Matt Booty has also made a lengthy statement on the company's reasoning behind such a huge round of job losses. Coming by wa
News Blizzard President Quits Microsoft, In-Development Survival Game Also Cancelled
"It’s an incredibly hard day"
After today's megaton news of almost 2,000 job losses over at Team Xbox, we have even more disruption amongst the ranks. Long-time Blizzard president and ex-Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra has announced his departure from the studio - and with it the cancellation of Blizzard's in-development survival game. Ybarra has...
News Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs Across Xbox, Bethesda And Activision Blizzard Teams
"We have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce"
The move to bring Activision Blizzard into the Xbox ecosystem has largely been seen as a positive one, but unfortunately we have some bad news to share today. As part of a company restructure post-ActiBlizz deal, Microsoft has laid off almost 2,000 people. Shared by IGN...
News 'People Can Fly' Reportedly Cuts 30 Devs From Unannounced Square Enix Project
The same team has a new triple-A collab with Microsoft
People Can Fly, the Polish developer associated with titles like Outriders and Gears of War: Judgement, has reportedly axed 30 developers who were working on a new "unannounced" Square Enix title, codenamed Project Gemini. The company's developer director told Kotaku it was a result of "budget...
News Halo Infinite's New Multiplayer Map Channels OG Halo, Here's A First-Look
Multiple other updates are coming next week
Last week, 343 Industries announced it would be bringing multiple new features to Halo Infinite on January 30th, including a new Arena map called "Illusion". Now, as part of this, it's published an overview along with a first-look preview trailer. The map itself evokes "the feeling and design" of maps...
News Xbox Introduces New 'Indie Selects' Collection, Separate To Xbox Game Pass Lineup
"A new collection will go live every Wednesday"
Microsoft has announced 'Indie Selects', a new curation program that aims to showcase some of Xbox's best indie games available on the Microsoft Store. Every Wednesday, a new collection of titles will be showcased - front and centre under Xbox's new 'Indie Games' store tab. This week's lineup features...
News Halo TV Star Sends Blunt Message To Fans About No-Helmet Master Chief
"There's no point discussing it"
Paramount's Halo TV series has had its fair share of ups and downs so far, but one of the showrunner's most controversial decisions up to now has been revealing no-helmet Master Chief. Yep, Halo's main star goes helmet-free at t
Talking Point Do You Think Xbox Will Release Another Disc-Based Console?
Or could Xbox Series X be the last one?
Throughout this generation we've been very happy with where things are with Xbox Series X and S, but we're starting to wonder if Microsoft would ever go with a similar approach again. Of course, releasing two different consoles on day one isn't the 'normal' way to do things anyway, but more specifically -...
News Starfield Discs Could Be Removed From Sale At US Retail Giant Soon
Living in a digital world
It's not rocket science to suggest that Xbox is a digital-focused game seller these days - after all, Xbox Game Pass is a massive part of the company's overall strategy. However, even though the Xbox Series X still supports discs of course, it looks like one of the team's biggest releases isn't doing so well in physical...
Rumour Major Xbox Series X|S Controller Revision Still To Be Revealed This Year
"Ahead of June showcase"
Back in September, leaked FTC documents from the huge Activision Blizzard case revealed numerous bits of upcoming Xbox hardware, including an Xbox Series X console refresh and a brand-new Xbox controller revision. At the time of writing, neither of these have been officially announced by Microsoft, but The Verge's Tom Warren...
News 'Quake 6' Was Teased At Xbox Developer Direct, And We Didn't Even Spot It
You cheeky fellows
The dust is beginning to settle on Xbox Developer Direct 2024, but not before fans have managed to extract one final teaser from the showcase. During MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle segment, Bethesda seems to have teased a new Quake game. Yep, during a section of Indiana Jones developer chit-chat, a whiteboard is...