Items tagged with xbox one
When it comes to developing games, the easier it is to make a game for multiple systems, the better it is for gamers because studios can make better games with more resources that function across all platforms. Microsoft has announced that it has launched a new Expanded Resource feature in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update that has moved the development industry closer to the goal of creating one game that can run anywhere. Expanded Resources gives developers access to 6 exclusive cores, 5GB of RAM, and full access to the GPU. In case you didn't already realize, when Windows 10 launched back in July of 2015, the Xbox One and Windows PCs share the same codebase for game development and...
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We are an impatient society; we need everything "right now", the faster the better. Microsoft is looking to fuel this need for urgency with a new method for installing and streaming games on the Xbox One called "Intelligent Delivery". Intelligent Delivery strips a game's assets down to data chunks that are individually tagged. There could be tags for 4K assets in a game or for each local language that is supported. So, if you live in the United States and play a game that is enjoyed by a world audience, like FIFA 2018, you would only need to download the English audio tracks instead of countless other languages that wouldn't add to the gameplay (like Spanish, Portuguese or French). Likewise,...
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Nintendo has been hitting its stride over the last year or so, starting with its sweet retro NES Classic Edition that turned out to be incredibly popular with gamers looking for some old school gaming. The company followed up that success in March with the extremely popular Nintendo Switch, which has been rising up the ranks on the sales charts. News out of the UK this week has confirmed that the Switch is handily outselling the Xbox One despite the UK being one of Nintendo's slower markets. The Switch is ahead of the Xbox One for 2017 sales according to current sales data. Christopher Dring, of GamesIndistry.biz, wrote on Twitter, "UK sales of Switch are slower compared with other markets....
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If you've been waiting patiently for the arrival of Forza Motorsport 7, you'll be glad to hear that the game has gone gold. That means that the game has been finalized and is be prepped for packaging for those of you that still prefer to purchase physical game discs. While news of "gold" status for Forza Motorsport 7 is exciting enough, Microsoft also announced that a demo version of the game is less than two weeks away. Starting on September 19th, you'll be able to download a playable demo that will allow you to take control of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS (a car that Porsche introduced to the world at E3) as you blast around the new Dubai circuit. You'll also be able to take the wheel of a Nissan...
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Participants of the Xbox Insider program were recently treated to a Minecraft beta that added mouse and keyboard support to the mix. If you have been wondering when Microsoft will roll out official support for keyboards and mice to the Xbox One community at large, Microsoft still does not have a specific date to share, though Xbox Platform CVP Mike Ybarra did promise that it is coming soon. "Keyboard and mouse support is definitely coming. We have to be very smart in how we do that. We'll leave it a lot up to developer choice. A lot of people tweet me and say 'you can't do this because of fairness,' and we understand that. We run two platforms; the Xbox platform, and the Windows platform," Ybarra...
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Having wrapped up the Destiny 2 beta on PC yesterday, which Bungie called a "huge success," the developer decided it was time to talk about dates for the upcoming game's Endgame content. Bungie also confirmed that its servers will go live around the world starting at midnight on September 6, 2017. In anticipation of the launch, PlayStation 4 players who pre-ordered Destiny 2 can start pre-loading the game to their consoles right now. "After launch, there will be a few rituals and firsts that you might want to plan for as you ascend to orbit around the Destiny Endgame. Some of these activities will be ready and waiting as soon as you play your way through to them. Others will go live shortly thereafter,...
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Microsoft is looking ahead to its Xbox One X console that will deliver true 4K game play and is ready to move on from its original Xbox One system. In fact, it already has, for the most part. A peek at the Microsoft Store shows that Microsoft is no longer selling the original Xbox One in the United States, save for a refurbished unit with a 500GB hard drive. Otherwise, there are no other listings. In the United Kingdom, the landing page for the Xbox One shows it as being "out of stock." That is probably a permanent thing, considering that Microsoft discontinued production of the Xbox One a few months ago. With no more units being made and the Microsoft Store depleted of stock, it appears that...
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Razer just lit up the gaming controller scene, and we mean that literally. The company's new Wolverine Ultimate is a "professional-grade" controller built for the Xbox One and PC in the style of an Xbox One controller, with an RGB lighting strip built in and support for Razer's Chroma illumination effects. Users can customize the lighting effects through Razer's Synapse software. With an RGB light strip inside, users have 16.8 million color options to choose from. They can also play around with various effects that include static, spectrum cycling, breathing, wave, and more. In addition, the Wolverine Ultimate is the first console product to support the Razer Chroma SDK, allowing developers to...
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When it comes to cross-platform play, Microsoft is "trying to lead by example," according to Aaron Greenberg, head of marketing for the company's Xbox division. And to Microsoft's credit, it has been able to bring cross-platform play to the Xbox One and Windows PCs. But what about Sony and the PlayStation 4? As stubborn as Sony appears to be on the matter, Greenberg confirmed in an interview with Gamereactor that Microsoft is in talks with Sony on the subject. "We're talking to Sony [about cross-play], we do partner with them on Minecraft and of course we would like to enable them to be part of that; one community, to unite gamers," Greenberg said."So we're talking to them and we're hopeful that...
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Nintendo was in need of a win leading up to the launch of its hybrid Switch console, and despite the skepticism that gamers would embrace a comparatively under powered game console to Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, they have done just that. According to NPD Group, Nintendo was the big winner in July, outselling both the Xbox One and PS4 in the US. Unfortunately NPD Group did not provide exact figures for individual console sales, though seeing the Switch land on top is vindication for Nintendo's decision to go with its gut, something that did not work out so well when designing the Wii U. And though the Switch launched to a limited catalog of games—The Legend of Zelda: Breath...
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Fans of the Lord of the Rings world wanting a new video game to play have to wait until October for Middle-earth: Shadow of War to land for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Ahead of that official launch, a new video has landed that shows a cool endgame mission type that has players defending the fortresses they won while conquering all of Mordor in the main game. The special end-game missions start after the main story ends and sees Sauron's army counter-assaulting Talion as they attack different regions in an attempt to get the fortresses the player has taken back. Reports indicate that assaults from the opposing force get progressively harder as time goes by and that the assaults are in stages. The challenge...
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There are a lot of things that draw gamers to purchase a new console and those include things like cool controls and great graphics. One of the things that most draws gamers to part with their money on new hardware are exclusive games that are only offered on said console, but those games have to be appealing.Nintendo is pulling out all the stops on the Switch and the console is getting a bunch of exclusive titles that are helping to sell lots of consoles. In fact, the Switch will have more exclusive game titles in nine months than the Xbox One had in all of 2016 and 2017 combined. Microsoft is catching lots of flack for not spending money on exclusive titles which means that the exclusives end...
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Microsoft is revamping its confusing Xbox Insider program to be more inclusive. After evaluation feedback from fans, Microsoft made the decision to open up the program to everyone, though it is not quite that straightforward. There are four tiers, and the one that was previously known as Ring 4 (now called Omega) is the one that anyone can join, regardless of experience. Let's back up for a moment. Back in 2014, Microsoft launched two testing programs for the Xbox One and Windows—the Xbox Preview program and Windows Insider program, respectively. At Build 2016, Microsoft said it planned to merge the two programs, but later changed its mind. A few months later, Microsoft relaunched its Xbox One...
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Xbox Insiders can zip over to the Alpha Ring right now and get a look at an update that will land for all Xbox One owners later this year. The new update brings some big changes to the Home screen, and is the direct result of feedback Microsoft says it received from gamers . The Home screen changes are all about personalization according to Microsoft, and it brings the new Microsoft Fluent Design aesthetic to the Xbox One console. Players will be able to do things like adding a favorite game or friend to the Home screen by selecting the content or friend you like, pressing the menu button on the controller, and then selecting "add to Home." That action creates a block of content that can be moved...
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Microsoft has begun rolling out a new update to Xbox One and Xbox One S game consoles that includes a handful of goodies based on customer feedback. One of those is the ability to upload custom Gamerpics. Rather than being forced to choose from a preset selection, Xbox One gamers will be able to use actual photos of themselves, or whatever they want, on their Xbox profile. "Choose how you want to express yourself," Microsoft says, though the company also warns to "keep it clean." Any uploaded Gamerpics must abide by Microsoft's Code of Conduct, which prohibits "controversial" content, including pornography, violent content, anything involving sensitive events (current or historical), and so forth....
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Microsoft has hyped up the Xbox One X as “the most powerful console ever made”, which is undeniable, and proclaims that it is the only current generation console that can render in “True 4K”. Although Microsoft has told us that titles like Forza Motorsport 7 will be able to easily break the 60 fps barrier at 4K, the company has been less than forthcoming about the 4K performance of other games. Fortunately, Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry has given us a highly detailed analysis of nine gaming titles and how they perform on the Xbox One. Digital Foundry sourced its information from a number of developers, who were reticent to providing both the performance figures and the title of the games being...
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There is always that one dissenter who ruins the fun for everyone else. When it comes to gaming, that dissenter is Sony. In a perfect world, it would not matter which gaming platform you pledge your alliance to, cross-platform play would be possible among them all. That is something Microsoft and publishers have been pushing for, though Sony is refusing to participate in the fun by blocking cross-platform play on the PlayStation 4. Image Source: Flickr (- EMR -) Let us back up for a moment. During a media briefing at E3, Microsoft announced that cross-platform support was being added to Minecraft, the hugely popular sandbox title it acquired for $2.5 billion (among other assets) nearly three...
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The 4K-capable Xbox One X might be the gaming console hardware stare of E3 (so far), but Seagate is making some waves of its own with the introduction of the new Game Drive Hub for the Xbox One. The external hard drive offers a positively massive, for a console, 8TB of storage space. Microsoft is promoting its recently-launched Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which offers 100+ games and requires you to download each full game to your hard drive instead of streaming it directly. The 1TB HDD that is included with the new Xbox One X might not be enough to keep up with your downloading habits with Xbox Game Pass, so the Game Hub Drive definitely can help in that area. It is capable of holding...
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Project Scorpio has been on the minds of console gamers for the past few months, and Microsoft today officially unveiled its latest gaming console. The console is simply called the Xbox One X, which isn’t exactly as cool as Project Scorpio, but we'll let that slide given what Microsoft has in store graphically for gamers. The console also doesn’t stray too far from the Xbox One S in design, and could easily be mistaken for its lesser sibling. While it doesn’t break new ground aesthetically, it’s actually smaller than the Xbox One S despite being billed as “the most powerful console ever made”. Microsoft confirmed the specs for the Xbox One X, which it provided earlier this year: Eight custom...
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Electronic Arts has found itself in a giving mood lately (again). During the game publisher's EA Play event on Friday, EA boss Andre Wilson stepped on stage to announce that the company is providing a week of free gaming through its Origin Access and EA Access services for PC and Xbox One, respectively. And if you're a PlayStation 4 owner, you're also getting a free trial for some of EA's games on PS4.The free trial is EA's way of thanking gamers for participating in a recent Play to Give event in which players could complete in in-game challenges during June 2-4 to raise funds. Millions of gamers took part in the event en route to a $1 million donation from EA made in support of anti-bullying."All...
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One of the biggest advantages of Microsoft's Xbox One is that gamers are not locked into playing only Xbox One games. Through its backwards compatibility feature, Microsoft allows playback of hundreds of Xbox 360 games, meaning those titles sitting on the shelf are not going to rot if a user's actual Xbox 360 console dies. As cool as that feature is, it's just the tip of the iceberg of what the Xbox One can do. While it's not entirely intuitive, users can install custom software to allow them to play games from other consoles, including Game Boy Advance, PSP, Nintendo 64, and even the original PSone. Soon, Sega's Dreamcast is going to be added to that list. We can forgive you if you didn't even...
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One of the greatest appeals of Netflix is that for a monthly fee, you have nearly unlimited access to a wealth of movies and television shows, as well as some seriously entertaining original series. What if a service existed for gaming that was similar to Netflix in terms of its addictive content? Microsoft just launched Xbox Games Pass, a video game subscription service that has the potential to do just. Xbox One owners can pay $10 USD a month in order to access over one hundred different games currently. Gamers will then need to download the games directly to their hard drive and install them on their Xbox One or Xbox 360. They will also need to still maintain an Internet connection. This mode...
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