Yesterday at a special presentation, Microsoft formally announced the Xbox One. Now that the company has finally produced a clearer impression of the console, we can look back at the rumors that had been following it for the last several months. Here's a list of what came true, what didn't, and what we still don't know.
The Xbox One won't play existing Xbox 360 games, according to Xbox Live corporate VP Marc Whitten. The hardware architecture is too different, so you'll have to keep your current system plugged in to play the current generation of games.
Today at Microsoft's Xbox One presentation, Phil Spencer presented the next game from Remedy. Titled Quantum Break, Spencer said it centers around the choices you make impacting the game world. A short trailer showed a live-action scene of a little girl talking to an adult woman. The little girl touched the woman to show what makes her "special," and the scene shifted to in-game footage of a tanker crashing through a bridge. After some brief clips, the slogan was: "time is the fire in which we burn."
It is expected that Call of Duty: Ghosts will be a big part of the Next Xbox's reveal tomorrow. But if you need a rather tiny glimpse of what to look forward to, developer Infinity Ward has released a micro-video onto Vine.
Microsoft will announce their next Xbox console tomorrow and Shacknews will have live updates. All day today, we'll take a look back at the Xbox 360 and discuss what the future holds.
Microsoft is on the verge of unveiling its entry into gaming's next generation and fans are starting to compile memories of the Xbox 360's eight years on the market. Not all of those memories, however, are positive. In fact, some Xbox 360 owners will come away from this generation with one lasting image from the last eight years--the infamous Red Ring of Death.
Microsoft will announce their next Xbox console tomorrow and Shacknews will have live updates. All day today, we'll take a look back at the Xbox 360 and discuss what the future holds.
Like any console on the verge of announcement, the Next Xbox has been rife with rumors for months. Some are more persistent than others, but as time has passed without official word from Microsoft, the console has gained a very distinct image in the collective minds of the Internet. This isn't necessarily what the console will be, but it's what the Internet thinks it will be. Starting tomorrow, we get to discover just how close the rumors were to the reality.
Microsoft will announce their next Xbox console tomorrow and Shacknews will have live updates. All day today, we'll take a look back at the Xbox 360 and discuss what the future holds.
With Xbox 360 now over seven years old, gamers that have subscribed to Live Gold have spent over $400 to access the service. Tomorrow, Microsoft will announce their next-gen console--but will they announce a next-gen Live service to go along with the new hardware? If so, what does Microsoft have to do in order to keep people paying year after year?
Many gamers are quite content with paying for Gold, if only because the service offers more than the competition. Fans like @rezonolicious think the fee is worth it for the "superior online" offered by Live. @passthemstickss points out that Live has private and party chats, and the addition of new media partners on Live allows him to "use it as a cable box," helping him save $15 every month.
Twitch TV, the game-centric video streaming service, is available as an Xbox 360 app starting today. That means Xbox Live Gold subscribers can kick up their heels and watch streaming videos on their nice large screens with minimum fuss and muss.
Both Sony and Microsoft are hopping aboard the free-to-play models in the next generation, according to Epic Games VP Mark Rein. Speaking at the UK's Game Horizon conference, Rein said that the two companies are both actively courting developers with talk of F2P models and in-app purchases.
Wolfenstein: The New Order, announced yesterday from MachineGames, won't have a multiplayer mode. The developer revealed the single-player focus today, along with new revelations about the story and setting of the franchise's return.
Were it not for id Software's seminal Wolfenstein 3D, who knows how we'd be shooting men in the face today? Publisher Bethesda Softworks today announced a "reimagining" of the Nazi-busting FPS in Wolfenstein: The New Order, developed by MachineGames. This is the first game from the studio founded by Starbreeze veterans, which Bethesda owner ZeniMax snapped up in 2010.
Rumors have been circulating for quite a while that the next Xbox will require an always-on Internet connection. Most recently, sources claimed that the system would only grant a 3-minute offline grace period. A purported internal memo now contradicts those reports, stating that the system will "just work" when it comes to certain offline functions that users expect.
Read more: 'Playing a single player game' should 'just work' »
There has been plenty of speculation about what the next Xbox will be called when it is revealed later this month by Microsoft. But a little domain digging indicates that it could be the Xbox Fusion, based on web domains that Microsoft has held for years.
Updated with more official details and comments from Activision.
Lo and behold, the rumors are true. Activision has gone to Twitter to confirm that Call of Duty: Ghosts is, indeed, this year's entry in the long-running COD franchise. The tweet describes the game as "the next generation of Call of Duty."
According to Activision, Ghosts will be powered by a "new, next-gen Call of Duty engine," likely the DirectX 11 engine leaked last year. In addition to PS4 and next Xbox versions, Ghosts will also be available on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Those versions will be available on November 5th. (Next-gen consoles have yet to be dated.)
What is IllumiRoom? First debuted at CES this year, it's a fascinating experiment from Microsoft that combines a Kinect camera and projector to "blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment we live in." There are a number of applications for the technology, but its integration with gaming proves to be the most exciting. For example, you could have imagery projected around the room, expanding the game beyond the boundaries of your television. You can even project weather effects in the room, to add an extra layer of immersion while playing a game.
Microsoft says that the tech would be possible on "a next-generation gaming console," which makes it seem likely to arrive on the next Xbox. However, Microsoft continuously repeats that "it's purely a research project."
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