Tag: Microsoft - Page 13
News Microsoft Welcomes Investigation Into Sony's 'Anti-Competitive Tactics' In Japan
The Xbox maker says it "deserves discussion"
Last week, you may remember that a story was doing the rounds about a U.S. senator claiming Sony has a "monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market" in Japan, and that story has evolved substantially over the past few hours. Axios is reporting that 11 members of Congress are concerned Sony is unfairly...
News Bethesda's New DOOM Title Tops Mobile Gaming Charts On Release
Little doom guy
Did you know that a new DOOM game launched this week? While it's not quite the next mainline entry from id Software, 'Mighty DOOM' is out now on mobile devices, and it seems to be performing rather well in its launch week. In fact, Mighty DOOM is now top of the free-to-play charts on both iOS and Android at the time of writing. Of...
News Xbox Takes Major Step Towards Activision Blizzard Approval In UK
No more concerns about Call of Duty and PlayStation
Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard looks to almost be complete in the UK, as the Competition and Markets Authority has today narrowed its "scope of concerns" relating to the deal, specifically in regards to the "lessening of competition". Basically, the CMA no longer thinks that the deal...
News US Senator Takes Jab At Sony's '98% Monopoly' Of High-End Games In Japan
Xbox has a small footprint in the region
Xbox's ongoing pursuit of Activision Blizzard has been the centre of attention in the gaming sphere for months now, as Microsoft continues to try and secure approval for its huge deal. This has meant we've spent plenty of time following court proceedings as of late, and recent comments from a US senator mean...
News Four More EA Titles Will Close Their Online Servers On Xbox In 2023
Following DICE's recent announcement
Yesterday, EA DICE revealed that three Battlefield games would be going permanently offline in the coming months, as the team is "shifting focus towards current and future" titles. Following this announcement, we took another look at EA's 'Online Services Shutdown' support page and spotted four more games that...
News Redfall Dubbed 'Serious GOTY Contender' As Hands-On Previews Go Live
"Redfall has already done enough to convince me..."
Today's the day for Bethesda's Redfall, as the first selection of hands-on previews have just gone live! Various outlets have been getting to play the game recently, and the first impressions seem to be largely positive, albeit with plenty of question marks still surrounding various aspects of how...
News Microsoft Is Making Major Improvements To 'Subscription Management' On Xbox
More control from your console
Microsoft's latest Xbox Insider update notes have dropped information on a welcome change coming to subscription management on Xbox. Currently available to Alpha Ring Xbox Insiders, users can now fully access and change their subscriptions directly from Xbox consoles. Once the feature moves to the full Xbox dashboard,...
News Sony Has 'Sufficient' Time To Develop Call Of Duty Alternatives, Says Microsoft
When taking a 10-year deal into account
The UK CMA has published another new document related to the ongoing Activision Blizzard saga this week, this time focusing on Microsoft's responses to the CMA's questions at a recent remedies hearing. You can take a look at the
Deals All 40+ Backwards Compatible Games In This Week's Xbox Sales (March 21-28)
Plenty of Xbox classics!
Xbox's latest set of digital deals is now live, with more than 500 games currently discounted across various different promotions including a Critically Acclaimed Sale and the usual Deals with Gold / Spotlight offers. This week, we have a fair bit of crossover from the last sales period, with lots of discounts continuing...
News Three EA Games Are Being Fully Delisted On Xbox This April
Update: Mirror's Edge is staying put!
Update: We've got some good news! For those who were disappointed about Mirror's Edge getting delisted on Xbox, EA has since corrected the original post and confirmed that the game will be staying put. Phew! "An earlier version of this announcement included Mirror's Edge. That was an error. We currently have...
News Group Of 'Gamers' Who Tried To Sue Microsoft Faced With Dismissal In Court
"Microsoft's motion to dismiss is GRANTED"
You may recall that back in late 2022, a group of 10 "video gamers" decided to file a federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard, suggesting that the takeover could prove harmful to the industry. However, in a California court this week, a judge sided with...
News Xbox's Phil Spencer Discusses 'Building Towards' New Storefront That'll Rival Apple & Google
"I think it’s a huge opportunity"
Xbox has made it clear that mobile and cloud gaming is an area the brand needs to properly expand into, with Microsoft hoping that the ongoing ActiBlizz deal can help in that field. Another way that the team feels it can push into mobile is by opening up a new storefront on that platform, something that Xbox boss...
News Microsoft Offers ActiBlizz Remedies To EU, Deadline Pushed Back Yet Again
A decision will now be made by late May
These Activision Blizzard news drops are becoming daily again at the moment, with the latest news revolving around Microsoft's attempts to encourage the European Commission to accept the takeover. According to Reuters and Yahoo Finance, Microsoft has now offered remedies to the EU regulator in an attempt to...
Deals Get Up To 85% Off In Xbox & Bethesda Spring Sales On Steam (March 16-23)
Plenty of titles discounted
If you're anything like us and have caved at Valve's current Steam Deck offer (or you game regularly on PC), you might be looking for some new Steam titles to bulk out your PC library. Well, you're in luck! Both Xbox and Bethesda are running major Steam sales right now, with some deep discounts available across a bunch of...
News Microsoft's Desire For Valheim On Console Led To Xbox Series X And S Versions
"They reached out and were interested in seeing this"
Valheim has just made its long awaited console debut, roughly two years after the Viking survival sim made waves on PC in 2021. The console port seems pretty solid too, at least in its opening hours, with both Xbox versions containing smooth performance modes. As it turns out, Xbox was seemingly...
News For Some Reason, Six Games Are Currently Free To Claim With Xbox Live Gold
Including the new GWG title 'Lamentum'
It's the middle of the month, which means Xbox Games With Gold changes with the introduction of March 2023's latest addition to the lineup. That'll be Lamentum, which is available to claim from now through April 15th. However, on checking out this month's newest GWG offering, we spotted that five other titles...
News Xbox Teams Up With 'Ubitus' For Latest 10-Year ActiBlizz Partnership
"Our commitment is to give more players, more choice."
Following yesterday's agreement with Boosteroid to bring Xbox and Activision Blizzard games to the service in the future, Microsoft has penned another 10-year deal today with cloud gaming provider "Ubitus". Xbox boss Phil Spencer says the deal will allow Ubitus to take advantage of Xbox PC...
News Microsoft Isn't Currently Talking To Sony About The Call Of Duty Deal
Other companies are happy to sign 10-year deals
Microsoft yesterday signed another 10-year deal with cloud platform 'Boosteroid' - similar to the 10-year deals it did with Nintendo and Nvidia for Call of Duty. Sony's offer is apparently still on the table, but it seems it's come to a complete halt. In a small update via a story by The Wall Street...
Reaction Should Xbox Produce A Mid-Gen Upgrade If Sony Launches 'PS5 Pro'?
Striving to compete
A huge gaming rumour doing the rounds today (via Insider Gaming), is that Sony is planning on launching a mid-gen PS5 upgrade, with a "tentative release date" of late 2024. If such a device exists and launches around that time, that would put a Sony 'PS5 Pro' console right in line with when Xbox launched its mid-gen Xbox One X...
News All 50+ Backwards Compatible Games In This Week's Xbox Sales (March 14-21)
Xbox & Xbox 360 classics
Another week of Xbox deals is upon us, with more than 600 discounts now available across multiple promotions on Xbox Live. You can find some highlights of these in the following article: <related ids="146461"> A good selection of classic backwards compatible games from the original Xbox and Xbox 360 eras are included...
News Microsoft Signs Another 10-Year Deal In Its Bid To Buy Activision Blizzard
"Players deserve more choice than they have now"
In a bid to further enhance Xbox's case for buying Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has confirmed another 10-year agreement has been put into place following similar deals with Nintendo and Nvidia. This time around,
News Xbox Game Pass 2023 Titles Dominate Steam Wishlist Top 10
5/10 are launching day one on Game Pass!
Xbox Game Pass has a big year ahead of it, especially with major Xbox exclusives like Redfall, Starfield and Forza Motorsport finally landing on Microsoft's subscription service in 2023. However, we know about a decent selection of third-party titles launching day one as well, including Stalker 2 a
News Microsoft Confirms That Xbox Won't Have An E3 Booth This Year
The company is going all-digital in 2023
Although we've had recent confirmation that Xbox is hosting its big summer showcase during E3 week in June, we now know that the company will not be taking part in this year's physical convention in LA. As part of a new company statement provided to
Talking Point What Do You Want To See Most From The Xbox Games Showcase 2023?
Summer is coming
With the announcement of a date for Bethesda's upcoming Starfield Direct event, we also got confirmation on when Xbox's big summer conference lands in 2023. Yep, the annual Xbox Games Showcase hits on June 11th this year, and now that it's firmly marked in our calendars, we've begun thinking about what Xbox might show off.
News Microsoft Is Running Full-Page Newspaper Ads About Call Of Duty On Xbox
"More games, for more players on more platforms"
We've seen that UK regulators have been some of the toughest to convince for Microsoft, so the company is going on the offensive to convince the nation that its Activision Blizzard deal will be good for gaming. As spotted by The Verg
News Sony Just Wants To 'Block' Merger, According To Activision Blizzard CCO
This is why "they keep refusing" the Call of Duty deal
Microsoft's battle with Sony has become quite public in recent months, and while a lot of it has come from official documentation, occasionally there have been some comments made on social media. The latest one comes from Activision Blizzard's Chief Communications Officer, Lulu Cheng Meservey,...
Deals All 40+ Backwards Compatible Games In This Week's Xbox Sales (March 7-14)
We've got a good selection this week!
As part of this week's selection of Xbox promotions, a solid list of backwards compatible games from the original Xbox and Xbox 360 eras are currently discounted on Xbox Live. We've got some big names in here this week, including multiple Fallout titles, a few Assassin's Creed games, and some of Capcom's...
News Microsoft Says Xbox Game Pass Prices Won't Increase If ActiBlizz Deal Goes Through
"Any price increase would be counter-productive"
The UK CMA has posted another document relating to its ongoing Activision Blizzard investigation today, as Microsoft continues in its pursuit to acquire the Call of Duty publisher. This document goes over Xbox's response to making potential 'remedies' to suit all interested parties, and Xbox Game Pass...
News Sony Remains 'Extremely Sceptical' Of Reaching ActiBlizz Agreement With Microsoft
"The Transaction should be prohibited or subject to a structural remedy"
The Activision Blizzard drama has opened up once again today following newly published responses to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority from both Microsoft and Sony, although they're actually dated February 22nd, 2023 - this is just the first time we're getting to see...
News Yes, Halo's Joe Staten Really Has Rejoined Xbox Publishing
It's social media "official" now
At the start of this year when Microsoft announced mass layoffs and some changes within the Xbox division, it was also revealed Halo Infinite's Head of Creative Joseph Staten would be rejoining Xbox Game Studios Publishing. It's admittedly been quite hard for some fans to accept, but now it seems his move back to...
News Xbox Unveils Official 'Velocity Green' Controller, And It's Out Now
Team green
Although it leaked a few weeks ago, Microsoft has taken its sweet time in officially announcing the new Velocity Green Xbox controller. The company has done just that today though - and it's out now worldwide! This new pad is a part of the bright and brash flat colour lineup Microsoft has been building out since the launch of Xbox Series...
Deals 500+ Games Added To This Week's Xbox Sales (March 7-14)
There are LOADS of promotions this week!
Following last week's huge 'Super Saver Sale' on Xbox live, Microsoft has unleash five different promotions onto us for the week of March 7th through March 14th, alongside its normal set of Deals with Gold offers. These promos cover a couple of different publisher sales for Bandai Namco and Capcom, along...
Report Xbox Feels UK CMA Has 'Significantly' Overestimated The Impact Of COD Exclusivity
If it ever happened
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is one of the various regulatory bodies currently overseeing Xbox's Activision Blizzard deal, with the authority consistently hypothesising why the deal could, and possibly should, be blocked. One of those reasons is related to Call of Duty, with the CMA even suggesting that
News Resident Evil 4 Is Now Available To Preload On Xbox, And You Can Install Before You Buy
Via the Xbox app!
Resident Evil 4 Remake is fast approaching as Capcom puts the finishing touches on its latest Resident Evil overhaul following the recent RE2 and RE3 remakes. Although we may see some updates between now and the game's March 24th launch, the game is l
News Xbox Expected To Win Activision Blizzard Battle In EU, Suggests Report
"With its offer of licensing deals to rivals"
It sounds like Microsoft is getting closer to winning the Activision Blizzard battle in Europe, as Reuters is reporting today that the European Commission is not expected to request that Microsoft sells assets in order to complete the deal. In other words, the expectation is that the EU regulator will...
News Microsoft Granted Access To Certain Sony Docs As FTC Continues To Scrutinise ActiBlizz Deal
Some access granted, some denied
Many of you have probably been following Xbox's ongoing Activision Blizzard negotiations, with Microsoft still trying to secure regulatory approval for its mammoth deal. As was perhaps expected, Sony has become one of Microsoft's biggest obstacles for the deal going ahead, and it looks like the PlayStation owner will...
News Hitman Developer Announces Fantasy RPG Once Reportedly Pitched To Xbox
Project Fantasy or Project Dragon?
Long time Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced a new fantasy RPG — aptly named 'Project Fantasy' for now — as the team ramps up its hiring process to get the game made. While this is being treated as a brand-new game announcement (albeit in a very early form), some are beginning to speculate that this...
News Xbox Team Visits Kojima Productions To Kick Off 'Exciting Journey Ahead'
"Bringing engineering, cloud, marketing & production teams together"
One Xbox project that remains shrouded in mystery is the team's upcoming collaboration with Kojima Productions, of course headed up by famous developer Hideo Kojima. We know it's coming, we know it involves 'the cloud' in some fashion, but beyond that we've been largely left in the...
News Game Pass 'Instrumental' In The Development Of Xbox Exclusive The Gunk
The team loved working with Xbox
Xbox console exclusive The Gunk got quite a bit of attention around its launch in late 2020, likely in large part due to the title's Xbox Game Pass inclusion right around when Xbox Series X and S were brand-spanking new. As it turns out, Xbox's involvement in bringing The Gunk to market was "instrumental" in getting...
News Xbox Claimed Some Market Share From PlayStation In 2022, Suggests Analysis Firm
"Sony sheds market share to Microsoft"
Entertainment industry firm Ampere Analysis has posted a new report on the gaming market in 2022, and it makes for some pleasant reading for Xbox fans. The firm has updated its sales estimates for Xbox Series X|S consoles up to the end of 2022, while also claiming that Microsoft gained some market share from...
News Xbox Game Pass Expands To 40 More Countries With PC Preview Program
PC Game Pass is growing
Xbox has revealed that the PC side of its Xbox Game Pass coverage is growing, with a whopping 40 new countries gaining access to the service in preview form. The expansion begins today, with the following countries able to access the PC Game Pass library from February 28th: Albania Algeria Bahrain Bolivia Bosnia and...
Video Xbox Series S Turned Into 'Retro Gaming PC' Running Windows 98
What can't this console do?!
We've seen lots of emulation projects up and running on Xbox Series X|S, in large part thanks to the availability of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) on the two consoles. YouTuber Modern Vintage Gamer is often keen to show some of these projects off, and his latest video attempts to basically turn an Xbox Series S...
News Fallout Creator Says New Vegas Remaster Would Be 'Awesome'
The studio behind the original is now owned by Xbox
Since Xbox's acquisitions of both Obsidian and Bethesda — the two companies behind 2010's Fallout: New Vegas — fans' wishes for a modern remaster of the Xbox 360 RPG have been rife. Having said that, the notion of 'New Vegas Remastered' clearly isn't just a fan wish either. In a new interview...
News Baldur's Gate 3 Devs 'Aren't Playing The Exclusivity Game' With PlayStation
Despite yesterday's 'State of Play' trailer
Update: It turns out the Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 has run into some technical issues during development, which is why it hasn't been announced as of yet. We've covered this story elsewhere on Pure Xbox: <related ids="145700"> Original story: One of yesterday's biggest 'State of Play'...
News Microsoft President Questions Whether Gaming Consoles Will Still Be Around In 10 Years
"There may be someone else standing here in 2033"
Microsoft's continued attempts to push its Activision Blizzard acquisition through are resulting in quite a few 10-year 'deals' being struck by the company. Xbox has agreed such deals with both Nintendo and Nvidia, with
News Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On High-Profile Bethesda Departure
"Looking forward to our continued friendship"
Bethesda has officially confirmed that Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is leaving Xbox studio Tango Gameworks, and the Xbox boss has swiftly commented on the team's high-profile departure. Phil Spencer has taken to Twitter to thank Mikami for his "leadership" and "guidance" since Xbox acquired the...
News Xbox Says It's Offering 'Better Deal' Than Sony's Current COD Contract, Which Expires In 2024
"It's a better deal for Sony than the one they have right now"
Microsoft has been very upfront about offering Sony 10 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation following Xbox's Activision Blizzard acquisition, an offer also extended to Nintendo this week. Even though the likes of Nintendo have now accepted the deal, the PlayStation owner is yet to accept...
Deals Over 40 Games Are Discounted By 85-95% On Xbox This Week (February 21-28)
Come grab a bargain
If you're in the mood to purchase some super cheap Xbox games from February 21st to February 28th, then we've got you covered! Below, we've picked out the games with the absolute biggest discounts in this week's sales. There are some amazing titles in this list, including XCOM 2 at a whopping 95% off, Agents of Mayhem, ONE PIECE...
News Phil Spencer's Xbox Series S Travelled With Him To ActiBlizz Court Hearing
"I love travelling with my Series S"
There may well be lots of serious business talk going down at these Activision Blizzard court proceedings, but it doesn't seem to be stopping Phil Spencer from playing games. The Xbox boss has made sure he can squeeze in some precious gaming time this week, by packing in his Xbox Series S and an xScreen...
News Microsoft And Sony Fail To Make Activision Blizzard Agreement At EU Court Hearing
The Xbox owner has a contract "ready for Sony to sign"
After today's EU court hearing regarding Xbox's purchase of Activision Blizzard, the landscape has changed significantly. Nvidia has agreed a deal with Microsoft, Nintendo has entered an agreement with Xbox - things are looking up. However, there's still the small matter of PlayStation owner...