February2023
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 Xbox's Phil Spencer 'Excited' To Bring First Party Game To PlayStation Plus
The Xbox-developed title comes to PS Plus in March
Xbox may be struggling to strike a deal with Sony over Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal, but it doesn't seem to be stopping other agreements going ahead between the two gaming rivals. During yesterday's State of Play livestream, Sony announced that Xbox's Minecraft Dungeons i
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 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...
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...
News Microsoft Agrees Deal With Nvidia To Bring Xbox & ActiBlizz Games To GeForce Now
Phil Spencer has made a statement on the partnership
There's been another big acquisition-led showdown in the EU today, as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and other companies all meet to discuss Xbox's Activision Blizzard deal. One of those other companies is Nvidia, who've just agreed a deal with Microsoft relating to bringing Xbox games to the 'GeForce...
News 2016 Xbox Exclusive 'ReCore' Reappears With Cryptic Social Media Post
Remember ReCore?
ReCore was one of those weird exclusives from the Xbox One era, spawning from an unlikely partnership between Microsoft and a developer with experience working on Metroid Prime. Well, the game's official Instagram page has posted a rather cryptic message this week - its first post in more than five years. We have no idea what this...
News Xbox Series X And S Price Increases Begin To Affect Europe
Sweden is the latest nation to see a price hike
It's been a little under a month since Microsoft announced Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S console price hikes in Japan, and now the company has increased prices in another region. As spotted by Gaming Deputy, both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are now more expensive in Sweden. Both consoles...
News Three Rivals Feel Microsoft's ActiBlizz Deal Would Have 'Negative Impact On Competition'
The latest from the UK CMA's investigation
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is still investigating Xbox's Activision Blizzard deal, with the final report currently set to be published by April 26th. While we've heard plenty about Sony's clear objections to the merger, today the CMA posted new findings relating to other gaming competitors...
News Bethesda Is 'Still Sorting Stuff Out' For Xbox's Upcoming Starfield Showcase
"We'll have more info to share on the showcase when it's ready"
Bethesda is really taking its time over everything Starfield, isn't it? We suppose that should be a good thing in the long run, given how some recent Bethesda games have launched! Anyway, a recent Discord post from a developer over at Bethesda suggests that the team is still figuring...
News Xbox Game Pass Launches Enable 'Secure Success', Says Indie Publisher
"But please gamers, continue to explain why it's bad for us"
Xbox Game Pass has been in the headlines again recently, mainly due to comments coming from the UK CMA's Activision Blizzard report, and following this, Mike Rose of Descenders publisher No More Robots has taken to Twitter once again to talk about how beneficial the service has been for...
News Microsoft Will Defend Its Xbox Activision Blizzard Deal In EU Court Hearing Next Week
Will the company see success?
Some of you may remember (unless you're as lost as we are at this point) that not too long ago, Microsoft reportedly received a 'statement of objections' from the European Commission in regards to the Xbox ActiBlizz deal. That statement basically included a bunch of things the commission wants to see altered for the...
Deals Xbox Anime Sale Continues With Second Wave Of Deep Discounts (February 15-28)
Up to 90% off!
The second wave of Xbox's 'Anime Month' sales promo has arrived, featuring a bunch of themed discounts across movies, TV, and of course, games. Earlier this month we highlighted some of the best deals from round one, and we're back for more with the second wave! We'll be sticking to the games here, with the majority of the following...
Talking Point Do You Buy Less Third-Party Titles Because Of Xbox Game Pass?
Or is it more of a first-party library to you?
The viability of Xbox Game Pass has once again been in the spotlight this week, as Microsoft continues to fight various authorities to pass its Activision Blizzard deal. While the company has seemingly admitted that Game Pass affects individual game sales (a point that seems obvious to us anyway),
Deals A Bunch Of Games Are Discounted By 85-90% This Week On Xbox (February 14-21)
Come grab a bargain
Looking for some super cheap Xbox games this week? We've got you covered. Microsoft has dropped the price on a nice little selection of Xbox titles over the next few days - at over 85% off across multiple promotions. A lot of these deep discounts reside across the ongoing indie and Spotlight sales on Xbox Live — including...
News Microsoft Says Xbox Game Pass 'Creates Another Option' For Devs To Make Money
Despite admitting the service can harm game sales
The UK CMA's recent report on the whole Xbox ActiBlizz deal contained plenty of standout comments, including one relating to Microsoft admitting that Xbox Game Pass can hurt game sales in the 12 months after titles are added to the service. Following this report, the notion that Xbox Game Pass can...
News The Team Behind Xbox Exclusive Shoulder Of Giants 'Wants' To Be Included With Game Pass
"It's definitely something that we want"
Anything indie that manages to find its way onto Xbox Game Pass tends to make a bigger splash on the Xbox platform, and we're starting to see small developers clamour for inclusion on the service. The latest such team is Moving Pieces Interactive — the dev behind S
News Sony Feels Microsoft Is Committing 'Obvious Harassment' In Relation To ActiBlizz Deal
What is going on?!
Not too long ago (although it all seems like a blur at this point), Microsoft ordered Sony to attend court to present its findings regarding Xbox's Activision Blizzard purchase. That court trial hasn't gone ahead yet — the hearing is currently planned for August 2nd — but it seems like Sony isn't too happy with Microsoft's...
Talking Point What Happened To Xbox's 'Resolution Boost' Program?
It was discussed before the Xbox Series X launched
Microsoft has done a pretty amazing job over the last five years-or-so in enhancing our old libraries and bringing them forward to newer consoles. In the Xbox One X era, the team focused on enhancing Xbox 360 and original Xbox games for the system, while the FPS Boost program was a great feature...
News Microsoft CEO Suggests ActiBlizz Deal Would Help Xbox 'Compete' In Japan
Expanding territories
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on CNBC this week to talk about the future of the company, including what's next for the Xbox team. Of course, this discussion led to questions about the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and how Microsoft is responding to the current regulatory approval processes going on around the world...
News UK Authority Proposes Excluding Call Of Duty From Xbox Activision Blizzard Deal
Amongst other potential changes
The UK CMA has today published a new report on its ongoing investigation into Xbox's ActiBlizz deal, and there's a lot to unpack here in regards to the likelihood of the purchase actually going through. While there are plenty of wrinkles to this report, much of the focus is once again centred around Call of Duty. The...