Xbox Game Studios News Articles
Friday10th May 2024
News Xbox Mobile Store Launches This July With Its Own 'First Party Portfolio'
Expect games like Candy Crush and Minecraft
For some time now Microsoft has been planning to launch its very own Xbox mobile store in hopes of shifting consumers away from the competition. Now, in a new interview at Bloomberg's Technology Summit, Xbox president Sarah Bond has confirmed the launch is on the horizon. Xbox's mobile store will...
Tuesday7th May 2024
News Xbox Exec Provides Reasoning Behind Bethesda Studio Closures
"I’m sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda teams"
We're all somewhat in shock by today's news surrounding the closure of four Bethesda development studios, including the teams behind the likes of Hi-Fi RUSH and Redfall. While it's hard to wrap your head around why Xbox would go out and buy these studios only to shut them down a few years...
News Phil Spencer Set To Take Part In Big Interview After 2024 Xbox Games Showcase
Things are heating up ahead of the big day
Xbox Showcase season is really starting to kick into gear now! We recently got all the details on when exactly the 2024 summer show will take place, and now outlet IGN has announced that it will be hosting an interview with Xbox Boss Phil Spencer right after the show. According to IGN's Xbox guru Ryan...
Tuesday16th Apr 2024
News Xbox's Towerborne Beta Is Opening Up To More Players Ahead Of 2024 Launch
"Sign up thru the Insider Program today"
Xbox Game Studios' Towerborne first opened up pre-release playtesting last year, and now the team has announced another expansion to its Insider Program. Developer Stoic will be "opening the doors" to more players "very soon" as the team continues to build towards the game's full launch. At the moment we...
Tuesday12th Mar 2024
News Gears Of War Creator Thinks 'The More, The Merrier' In Regards To Getting Gears On PS5
"You know, I think ‘the more, the merrier'"
Xbox has ported a small selection of its games to other platforms recently — as was much publicised last month — however, despite just four titles having been mentioned by Microsoft, fans are still wondering what might be next to move over. And, in a recent interview with Game Rant,
Thursday7th Mar 2024
News Xbox Adds More First-Party Games To Boosteroid Cloud Gaming Service
From Bethesda & Xbox Game Studios
Microsoft has today announced another batch of games for Boosteroid; the cloud gaming service involved in one of Xbox's 10-year deals surrounding the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Today's batch of titles are as follows: Deathloop, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death
Monday26th Feb 2024
News Xbox First-Party Title 'Pentiment' Seems To Run Much Better On PlayStation 5
Update: Director confirms it's "just a bug"
Update: Well, we've got an official answer about this! Pentiment Director Josh Sawyer has confirmed the omission of 120FPS on Xbox is "just a bug", and the feature will added to the Xbox version in the next patch. Original story: Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment is the first of
Friday23rd Feb 2024
News Xbox Influencer Klobrille Shares Impressive Player Numbers For First-Party Lineup
Two games now have over 35 million players!
If Xbox Game Pass helps drive one thing it's huge player numbers - especially for some of the bigger AAA games out there. Naturally, Xbox's own first-party releases get lots of attention on Game Pass — and indeed the platform in general — and influencer Klobrille has gathered some of the team's recent...
Saturday10th Feb 2024
News Xbox Supposedly 'Very Surprised' At The Extent Of The Latest Rumours
Apparently not much is "set in stone"
Rumours about Xbox's future have been circulating online recently, with the company to directly address this in a "business update event" early next week. There have been some pretty wild claims so far, but apparently, nothing is "set in stone" according to Insider Gaming's owner Tom Henderson. He has been...
Wednesday7th Feb 2024
News 343 Hires New Art Director To Lead 'A Very Exciting New Era' For Halo
"I am incredibly proud to join 343 Industries"
Halo developer 343 Industries appears to making moves for its next major release. Following on from hints last month at an 'unannounced' project being in the works, the team has hired a brand-new art director to lead the series "into a very exciting new era". The news comes from LinkedIn, where former...
Wednesday31st Jan 2024
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
Tuesday30th Jan 2024
News Shapeshifter Games Apparently 'Co-Developing' Xbox Game Studios Project
Update: Confirmed as Clockwork Revolution
Update: It's now been confirmed by InXile Entertainment that Shapeshifter Games has been working on the upcoming Clockwork Revolution as a "co-development partner". Here's a bit more about the collaboration: "Shortly after Volition closed, we flew to Illinois and worked with Xbox and the then ex-Volition...
Wednesday17th Jan 2024
News Sea Of Thieves Season 11 Adds New Underwater 'Diving' Mechanic For Fast Travel
"Explore a redesigned Quest system"
The team at Rare has delivered its deep dive into Sea Of Thieves Season 11, featuring a major change to how quests can be tackled going forward. Yep, the game's new 'Diving' mechanic allows players to effectively fast travel to quests rather than need to sail the high seas towards an objective. This is an...
Thursday11th Jan 2024
News Starfield And Hi-Fi RUSH Nominated For Multiple D.I.C.E. Awards
Activision Blizzard games are also in the running
Starfield has already picked up some awards, including our own Game of the Year award here at Pure Xbox, and now it's received even more nominations from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. At this year's 27th annual D.I.C.E. Awards, Starfield is in the running for "role-playing game of...
Thursday4th Jan 2024
News Xbox Studio Double Fine Teases 'Cool Things In Store' Ahead Of 25th Anniversary
"There's tons of fun on the way"
2024 is only just kicking into gear, but Xbox studio Double Fine is already teasing some of what we can expect to see this year and beyond. The Psychonauts 2 developer celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, and it seems to have things planned for this year and its anniversary year. The team isn't quite ready to...
Friday15th Dec 2023
News Multiple Xbox Exclusives Nominated At BAFTAs, But None Make The 'Best Games' List
The nominees are in
Around a month ago we found out that Starfield wasn't going to be up for 'Game of the Year' at The Game Awards, and it's now the same case for this year's BAFTA ceremony. Although the winner won't be announced until next April, Starfield isn't in the running for 'Best Game' at the event - in fact, nothing from Xbox Game Studios...
Tuesday12th Dec 2023
News It Looks Like Xbox Has Another Exclusive Aiming For 2024 Release
Alongside Hellblade 2, Avowed & more!
At the moment we have quite a few Xbox exclusives locked in for 2024, including Hellblade 2, Avowed and Towerborne - just to name a few! Now, it looks like we might have another big first-party to game to add to that list of 2024 releases. Compulsion Games' South of Midnight —
Monday27th Nov 2023
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...
Friday10th Nov 2023
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...
Friday27th Oct 2023
News Activision Blizzard Documents Its 44-Year History With New Infographic Featuring Xbox
"We begin an exciting new chapter"
It's been an exciting period for Microsoft and Xbox with the finalisation of the Activision Blizzard (and King) acquisition. Now, as part of this, Activision Blizzard has released a huge infographic documenting the entire history of both companies, the eventual merger, and joining team Xbox. Throughout it, there...
News Here's A Look At Microsoft And Xbox's New Gaming Leadership Structure
See for yourself
It's been another big week for team Xbox with the latest announcement of a Microsoft reshuffle which sees some familiar faces promoted. Perhaps the biggest changes apart from Activision Blizzard, are the promotions of two execs. As noted in the initial announcement, Matt Booty is now 'president of game content and studios'...
Thursday26th Oct 2023
News Microsoft Reshuffle Makes Huge Changes To Team Xbox, Matt Booty & Sarah Bond Promoted
We have a new structure in place at Xbox
Xbox is in the midst of making massive changes to its leadership structure, as a result of recent acquisitions like that of Bethesda Softworks and Activision Blizzard. As detailed by The Verge, multiple Xbox execs will hold new roles after the company reshuffle, including familiar faces like Sarah Bond and
Tuesday17th Oct 2023
News Xbox Head Thanks Bethesda Veteran Pete Hines For His Services
"24 years of being at the heart of Bethesda"
Yesterday, Bethesda veteran and head of publishing, Pete Hines, announced he would be retiring after 24 years of service at the company. In a follow-up to this, Phil Spencer and some others within the Xbox family have thanked Hines for his contribution to the Bethesda family over the years. Xbox and...
Friday29th Sep 2023
News Phil Spencer Visits Hi-Fi RUSH Xbox Studio Tango Gameworks
Checking up on the team in Japan
The Tokyo Game Show recently took place, and as usual, Xbox aired its own showcase featuring all sorts of announcements for the local market in Japan. Of course, the Xbox head Phil Spencer was also present, and apart from a recent message talking about the "great" time he had, Hi-Fi RUSH and The Evil Within studio...
Wednesday20th Sep 2023
News Starfield Has Already Surpassed 10 Million Players
It's not even been out for a month yet
2023 has been an amazing year in the world of video games, and one of the biggest success stories so far has been Bethesda and Xbox's open-world space RPG, Starfield. After its arrival at the beginning of this month, it's already become Bethesda's biggest game launch ever ahead of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls...
Thursday31st Aug 2023
News Starfield Director Todd Howard Praises Xbox In Internal Memo
"I cannot imagine a better place to create games"
Ahead of the early access launch of Starfield on Xbox, PC and Game Pass, the game's director Todd Howard has issued an internal memo - thanking the teams at Bethesda, ZeniMax, Xbox and Microsoft for their contributions. While it is mostly just Todd thanking a bunch of people and reflecting on the...
Wednesday12th Jul 2023
News Xbox Boss Acknowledges 'Team Effort' In Victory Against FTC
"We take an important step forward"
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has had a busy few months not only promoting Xbox's upcoming lineup at the recent showcase but also attending the Microsoft v FTC hearing. Now that the acquisition has been given the all-clear in the United States, Phil has taken the time to t
Thursday6th Jul 2023
PSA Crackdown 1 & 2 Are Still Free On Xbox As Sequel Turns 13
Officially a teen!
Once upon a time the Crackdown series was a notable staple within the Xbox first-party lineup. While the third game only came out four years ago (can you believe that?!), it's the first two Xbox 360 titles we have fond memories of - and one of them has just turned 13! Yep, Crackdown 2 launched on this very day in the US back in...
News Xbox Adds Another Free Dynamic Background, Available Now On Series X|S
Try out this new Hi-Fi RUSH theme
If you want even more Hi-Fi RUSH in your life, then you might want to check out the new dynamic background for Xbox Series X|S. Following Tango Gameworks Ghostwire: Tokyo one, we've now got this cool looking one feature Chai and the rest of the gang. To apply it, you'll need to enter the Settings menu >...
Monday3rd Jul 2023
Deals Get Up To 85% Off Major Xbox Titles In The Steam Summer Sale
Bargains to be had!
The Steam Summer Sale is always a major event for PC gamers, especially those looking to add a bargain to their Steam libraries. We're even more interested these days due to Xbox's renewed investment in PC gaming, including bringing first-party games to Steam. As part of this year's summer promo, Xbox Game Studios is hosting...
