News

• After Burner Climax will be delisted from the Xbox Live Marketplace on December 24, 2014. A producer of After Burner Climax, Noriyuki Shimoda, confirms via Twitter the removal of the game from distribution. The PlayStation Network is currently seeing a sale for the title and it is unknown at this time whether or not the Xbox Live Marketplace will see an equivalent sale.
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Special Editions was quietly delisted from the Xbox Live Marketplace while Deep Silver had it listed for its Deal of the Week from December 2-9. While it was sad to see it removed before the sale officially ended, at least the publisher can say the game was put on sale before removal.
• JUJU launches on the Xbox Live Marketplace today, December 10. The game is already available now for $14.99 USD and the download size is 1.75GB. After the jump is a launch trailer for the title. Check it out to see JUJU in action.

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Latest texture pack arrives Wednesday.
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#dealwithit

That was Adam Orth’s comment in 2013 about future consoles being “always-online.” It was the comment that sparked major internet backlash, put him on his path to be released from Microsoft and set his life in a spiral.

You could say his life was…Adrift. You could say, this is his attempt to #dealwithit.

Studio Three One Zero describes Adrift as “an immersive First Person Experience (FPX) that tells the story of an astronaut in peril. Floating silently amongst the wreckage of a destroyed space station with no memory and a severely damaged EVA suit, the only survivor struggles to determine the cause of the catastrophic event that took the lives of everyone on board. The player fights to stay alive by exploring the wreckage for precious resources, and overcomes the challenges of an unforgiving environment to repair the damaged emergency escape vehicle and safely return home.”

Sound familiar? Parallels can be drawn to Adam Orth’s experience and his attempts to salvage his life, pick up the pieces and learn from his mistakes in the process.

Check out the trailer below for the first look at Adrift.

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Just this last Saturday, December 5, 2014, saw the first ever The Game Awards 2014 air on TV, as well as streamed online. In the announcement press release for The Game Awards 2014 20+ year industry veteran Geoff Keighley writes, ”

“Today I’m proud to announce The Game Awards 2014, a new show that will be coming on December 5. After spending over two decades working in games media, this year I’m creating a new independent celebration for our industry.“

While there were many various winner’s over all consoles and handhelds, as well as PC, there was one winner that stands out for XBLA Fans. Valiant Hearts: The Great War brought home two awards, to game developer Ubisoft Montpellier, from the inaugural The Game Awards 2014.

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Announced at The Game Awards 2014 was the next chapter in the classic tale from Sierra Games. Starting over 30 years ago gamers have been living the stories of the royal family of the Kingdom of Daventry in King’s Quest. But it has been over 15 years since we have had a new quest to take. That all ends in 2015 though when The Odd Gentlemen, the studio behind The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, brings a new King’s Quest tale to the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Stayed tuned for more information on the new King’s Quest as it becomes available. Continue reading to see the official launch trailer.

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After a long wait, on December 9, 2014, the sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light finally comes to the Xbox One in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. This time Lara and her rival, Carter Bell, are trapped in the Temple of Osiris and with the help of two imprisoned gods, Horus and Isis, they must work together to solve puzzles, fight deities and find a way to defeat another god, the evil Set.

“After the immensely positive reception we received for our debut co-op adventure Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, we always hoped that we would find the time for Lara to return in another classic AAA digital arcade title,” said Darrell Gallagher, Head of Product Development and Studios in a Square Enix press release

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In the eight months immediately following the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches in November of 2013, Sony, riding high on major public relations victories over Microsoft, led next-gen console sales by a supposed margin of nearly two to one. Despite selling at a pace much quicker than the last-gen-market-leading Xbox 360 did during the same point in its life cycle, the Xbox One was lagging far behind the PlayStation 4 in market share.

So Microsoft made some changes.

Executives Don Mattrick and Marc Whitten left the company. Phil Spencer took over as the head of the Xbox team. Kinect was unbundled from the console. Larger multimedia initiatives were cut entirely or made ancillary in favor of a focus on gaming first and foremost. Finally, the Xbox One’s price was temporarily (for the holidays) dropped to $350 with a $60 retail game bundled in.

Those maneuvers seem to be paying off, as data reporting firm InfoScout found that the Xbox One enjoyed a Black Friday sales lead of 22 percent over the PlayStation 4, according to data compiled from more than 180,000 sales receipts. InfoScout followed up by conducting a survey of 350 consumers who purchased a console on Black Friday, and found that 71 percent of Xbox One buyers cited cost as a major influence on their purchase. Comparatively, just 48 percent of PlayStation 4 buyers surveyed indicated that price played a major role in their purchase decision.

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World Series of Poker: Full House Pro for Xbox Live Arcade will be shut down on March 4, 2015, developer Pipeworks software has announced.

Following is a timeline of events leading up its closure:

• World Series of Poker: Full House Pro for the Xbox 360 was originally released to the public on September 3, 2013.
• World Series of Poker: Full House Pro for Windows 8 was released on April 9, 2014 that featured cross-platform play.
• New weekly events stopped occurring after the week of May 29, 2014.
• An announcement on June 3, 2014 from the developer’s website stated the development phase had ended and new content would be not created anymore for World Series of Poker: Full House Pro.
• An announcement on September 4, 2014 from the developer’s website stated that World Series of Poker: Full House Pro will close on March 4, 2015.

What does this mean to the players? Click ahead to find out for yourself.

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Warface was publicly released for the Xbox 360 on April 22, 2014. Less then one year has passed, but Crytek has already announced that Warface for the Xbox 360 will no longer be available after February 1, 2015.

A Warface moderator on the xbox.com forums had this to say: “It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce you the upcoming closure of Warface: Xbox 360 Edition. We considered every option before making the difficult decision to end the product that brought us together.”

The moderator then goes into further detail saying, “We’re always evaluating our portfolio to ensure that the experiences available on Xbox suit the needs of our community. Player demand and creative direction sometimes mandate that we shift our focus onto other games and opportunities.”

How will this affect the players? Jump inside to find out.

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The historical origins of Giana Sisters date back to 1987 with the release of The Great Giana Sisters on the Commodore 64. Fast forward to March 20, 2013, Xbox Live Arcade saw the release of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams for $15.00 USD. For fans of the XBLA game and curious newcomers alike, Black Forest Games is introducing Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams — Director’s Cut to Xbox One users on December 12, 2014 for 14,99 € and undisclosed USD price.

What is the difference between the Xbox 360 version and Xbox One version?

More everything.

This release encompasses the original Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams as well as the add-on Rise of the Owlverlord. On top of that, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams — Director’s Cut will also contain The Christmas Levels and The Halloween Levels, which will total for 38 action filled levels in 1080p HD graphics at 60 frames per second.

Included after the jump is an early announcement trailer of the festivities coming soon.

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