Microsoft has pulled the veil back on its next console ever so slightly, which means there's a lot we still don't know. The company has only talked about Project Scarlett in broad strokes at this point, leaving many questions unanswered. One of those questions is whether or not the Project Scarlett name refers to a single machine or multiple ones.
The Xbox Live service went down around 5PM ET for many players, resulting in reports and acknowledgement from the Xbox team. Via its Xbox Support account, the company said that engineers are working on addressing the issue, but that there's limited info to share. An hour later, the team said it is still investigating the matter involving error code 0x87DD0006.
This year’s E3 signaled a shift in the coming years of gaming. The event wasn’t just about video games, but how we would get hold of them. It seems every publisher and their dog wants to implement a subscription service for video games – a Netflix for gaming of sorts. Google, EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft are among the list of publishers in the heated race. With all these similar announcements, the industry looks to be saturating quickly – even more confusingly than TV-streaming services.
Would you believe it? The time has come to talk about next-generation consoles again. The PS4 and Xbox One have been in service for almost eight years and it’s time for a new phase of gaming machines. While Microsoft and Sony have been rather tight-lipped about their upcoming consoles, the recent E3 press conference in Los Angeles has brought us some exciting announcements.
These days, people usually equate "online identity" with things like avatars or bitmojis. At the most basic level, however, an online user is almost always identified by their online handles or nicknames. In the Xbox world, that name is called "Gamertag" and it's going through a rather major change. Now only will it now let gamers use characters from among 10 new supported alphabets, it will also let you grab a Gamertag that might already be used by someone else, but with one minor catch.
They say that all good things must come to an end but Microsoft is making sure it won't end on a sad note. Xbox One's Backward Compatibility program surprised the industry for pulling off something some thought would be both technically infeasible and also a bad business move. Over that time, the program has added more than 600 titles from the original Xbox, a.k.a. the Xbox Classic, and the Xbox 360, becoming available to all generations of Xbox One consoles. Sadly, that library will no longer grow after this week but Microsoft promises not to worry because it'll be back soon.
Yesterday, Microsoft shared the first details about its next-generation Xbox, which for now is called Project Scarlett. We didn't get to see the box itself, and we don't know how many consoles will comprise the Project Scarlett family, so there's still a lot that's unknown. Microsoft probably won't be talking more specifics for a while either, as Project Scarlett isn't due out until Holiday 2020 - around a year and a half from now.
Microsoft hosted its E3 2019 press conference yesterday, and just like last year, it was packed to the brim with new announcements and trailers. In recent years Microsoft has adopted something of a "blink and you'll miss it" format, giving us game announcements rapid-fire for pretty much the entire duration of its show. There was a lot to take in and some things inevitably fell through the cracks, so here's every trailer that debuted at Microsoft's E3 2019 show yesterday.
As expected, Microsoft devoted some of its E3 2019 show to dishing the first details about the next-generation Xbox. We didn't get to see the console itself, but, much like Sony did with the PlayStation 5, Microsoft is painting the next Xbox's capabilities in broad strokes. In the end, we're left with the feeling that the next Xbox will be able to go toe-to-toe with the PlayStation 5, setting the stage for another round of the console wars.
There's a new Xbox Elite controller in town, and if you take your gaming seriously - on Xbox or PC - then you should be paying attention. The new Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 made its official debut at Microsoft's E3 2019 keynote today, billed as "the world's most advanced controller" and with the hardware specs to back that big claim up.
Microsoft has acquired Double Fine Productions, with the storied game studio joining Xbox Studios and celebrating with a new Psychonauts 2 trailer. The news was confirmed at Microsoft's big Xbox E3 2019 press conference, with Double Fine founder Tim Schafer coming on-stage to unveil the newest game preview.
Of all the people we expected to see at the Xbox E3 2019 event, Keanu Reeves wasn't on the list, but the iconic actor turned up to talk about a new game he's featuring in. Cyberpunk 2077 sees the start of movies like The Matrix and John Wick once again step into the future in CD Projekt Red's upcoming title.