microsoft

Today at Microsoft’s annual pre-E3 press conference, Xbox head Phil Spencer took the stage to announce that Xbox 360 backwards compatibility was coming to the Xbox One.

Similarly to the Xbox 360’s backwards compatibility feature with the original Xbox, only certain Xbox 360 titles will be available when the program launches, which is right now for Xbox preview program members. Xbox One owners at large will get access to the feature starting this holiday.

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Gamers with an eye on E3, which seems to have started earlier than ever this year, knew Oculus Rift was set to hold a media briefing full of announcements …
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Effective immediately, the standard 500 GB Xbox One has been given a price drop to $349 USD, Microsoft announced today. Would-be Xbox owners who still want to pay the original price, however, will again get that option when Microsoft releases a new 1 TB model of its games console for $399 on June 16 in the United States and later this month in additional “select markets.”

On top of more storage space, the new SKU will also feature a matte black finish, a USB 3.0 drive and the oft-rumored new Xbox One game controller. This new controller features retooled bumpers, the ability to receive wireless firmware updates and a new 3.5 mm headset jack that will allow gamers to plug headphones directly into their controllers.

The new console will come bundled with Halo: The Master Chief Collection for a limited time in select regions.

With the new Xbox gamepad in hand, gamers will be able to adjust headset volume, mic monitoring and in-game voice and game audio balance through the Xbox One’s Settings menu. Microsoft also said that headset audio quality will be improved and the max volume level will be increased. All previously released controller accessories will function with the new pad, including the Stereo Headset Adapter, which puts headset audio controls at players’ fingertips.

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XBLA Fans may not seem the proper venue for a bit of PC gaming news, but Microsoft has given us reason to talk about that other platform it’s known for. And it’s probably going to give us even more reasons to do so at this year’s E3.

Most Xbox fans are already aware that Microsoft is set to make its annual E3 media briefing on Monday, June 15 at 9:30 AM PDT, during which time the console holder will show off its console gaming plans for the second half of 2015 and beyond. But that won’t be the only media briefing Microsoft will take part in this E3. Microsoft will also make an appearance at the first ever PC Gaming Show, which starts on Tuesday, June 16 at 5 PM EST.

Microsoft has joined chip maker AMD in co-sponsoring the event being put on by the folks over at PC Gamer. Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer will be joined by some game developers to share Microsoft’s plans for spelling Xbox as Windows 10.

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For one month at least, Microsoft got a break from being Sony’s punching bag in the console sales race. GamesBeat reports that NPD’s April sales numbers show the Xbox One outselling the PlayStation 4 last month for the first time since January.

“As the best-selling console in the U.S. in April, fans set record April sales and engagement for Xbox One last month,” Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols told GamesBeat in response to the April figures. “Xbox One console sales in the U.S. increased 63 percent in April 2015 compared to April 2014, and Xbox Live comparisons showed the number of active global users [Xbox One and Xbox 360] grew 24 percent. We are grateful to our fans for their passion and support and are looking forward to sharing more on the best game lineup in Xbox history at E3.”

Last month’s sales results mean that Microsoft’s next-gen console has outsold Sony’s in the United States for half of the first four months of 2015. No doubt as a result of a temporary price cut, the Xbox One also dominated the hardware sales charts during the crucial retail months of November and December in 2014.

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Microsoft will hold its annual E3 media briefing at 9:00 AM PST on June 15 at Los Angeles’ Galen Center, the company announced via email invitations today. In what …
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The original Xbox cost $299.99 when it went on sale in the United States in 2001. However, GamesIndustry.biz reports that if some at Microsoft had had their way, the console would have been significantly cheaper — as in $299.99 cheaper.

Oddworld Inhabitants’ Lorne Lanning recently told GamesIndustry.biz that during the early days of the Xbox’s development, some Microsoft employees suggested that the company give its inaugural games console away for free. “At the time, [Microsoft] thought that the core market was going to be casual,” he said. “They were going to be the casual gamers’ machine. Now, that’s why they approached us because they said, ‘We think you’ve got something that competes in that Mario space, and we think Mario’s the thing to kill… We see that space. We want that audience. We love Oddworld, so why don’t you get on this bandwagon? And we might give the box away.'”

His story was corroborated by Seamus Blackley, the console’s co-creator. “In the early days of Xbox, especially before we had figured out how to get greenlit for the project as a pure game console, everybody and their brother who saw the new project starting tried to come in and say it should be free, say it should be forced to run Windows after some period of time,” said Blackley.

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During the Game Developers Conference earlier this month, Lionhead’s head of engineering touched on the philosophy and technology that will be used for Fable Legends‘ cross-platform play. Raymond Arifianto explained …
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The $2.5 billion deal that saw Minecraft change hands from creator Markus “Notch” Persson to Microsoft all started with a tweet, reports Forbes.

“Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life?” Persson tweeted in June of last year. “Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig.”

Mojang CEO Carl Manneh read the tweet, and, by his estimation, the phone rang just 30 seconds later. A most interested party was on the line: Microsoft. The console holder and software giant wanted to know if Persson was serious. So did Manneh.

As it turned out, the Minecraft mastermind had written the tweet half-jokingly, but things quickly turned serious when Persson realized this was his chance to divorce himself from Minecraft. He had once sworn he would never sell out, but after years of dealing with caustic communications — sometimes in regards to content changes Persson wasn’t even aware of, let alone responsible for — Persson had a change of heart.

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Mike Mika has a problem. Gamers who’ve secured free copies of #IDARB, his multiplayer hybrid basketball/platformer game, likely don’t consider it to be a problem, but for Mika and his team at developer Other Ocean Interactive, it absolutely is. And it’s one that the head of development at Other Ocean can’t help but exacerbate.

“The problem we have, everything is so…we’re just so fixed in our ways,” the design director tells XBLA Fans, “it’s like, ‘Well, this should just be free. It should just be free.’ And we’re probably part of the problem when you hear people complain about free-to-play games, and how that’s been a race to the bottom on being able to make money. I can see how that happens, because while we’re putting this game together it feels like the right thing to do by all the gamers is to give [#IDARB] to them. I’m sure it’s dangerous. We can’t afford to keep giving it to them.”

But he wishes that they could. While acknowledging that giving too much away is “dangerous,” Mika says that his studio is “definitely erring on the side of being as extremely fair as possible.” No one who’s followed #IDARB (It Draws a Red Box) would dispute that that’s exactly what Other Ocean has done with its game. Mika solicited the help of every gamer with an opinion when designing #IDARB. Then he gave his game away for free before it released. Then he again gave it away for free when it released. Now he wants to give some additional #IDARB content away for free — all of its additional content, actually. But he can’t do that; he’s got a family to feed, and a studio to make profitable. So how does Mika do that? Where does he draw the line between what’s free and what’s for sale? He’s not really sure.

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