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Xbox News is a site that brings you the very latest Original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One news, the latest games and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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November 27th, 2018, 16:54 Posted By: wraggster
Cxbx Reloaded Git (2018/11/27) is compiled. Cxbx-Reloaded is an emulator for running Microsoft Xbox (and eventually, Chihiro) games on Microsoft Windows. The project began life as a fork of Cxbx with added 64-bit support. Work is currently underway to backport some of the improvements from Dxbx. Cxbx-Reloaded is still pretty unstable, don't expect it to run much at this point.
Cxbx Reloaded Git Changelog:
* Merge pull request #1510 from LukeUsher/disable-ps-notification
* Disable PS Thread notification routines.
download http://down.emucr.com/v3/6327367370801152
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November 27th, 2018, 16:53 Posted By: wraggster
Xenia Git (2018/11/27) is compiled. Xenia is an experimental emulator for the Xbox 360. It does not run games (yet).
Xenia Status:
Some real games run. Most don't. See the Game compatibility list for currently tracked games and feel free to contribute your own updates, screenshots, and information there following the existing conventions.
Xenia Git Changelog:
* [Kernel] Proper size in XamUserCreateAchievementEnumerator.
* [Kernel] Maybe fix XamEnumerate, again?
* [Vulkan] Use epsilon equality for checking rectangle list form.
* Optimize SPIRV code generated via genspirv command.
* [App] Fix Travis whining.
* Clarify AVX requirement error message.
* [App] Abort out early with an error message if CPU does not support AVX.
* [Kernel] Stub XMsg app 0x000000FE/msg 0x00020021.
* [Kernel] Fix logging of app for XMsgInProcessCall/XMsgSystemProcessCall/XMsgStartIORequest/XMsgStartIORequestEx.
* [Kernel] Some titles seem to explicitly expect X_ERROR_FUNCTION_FAILED to mean no more files when enumerating content.
download https://down.emucr.com/v3/5088026506035200
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November 26th, 2018, 17:39 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft has been very busy recently trying to get on top of the next-gen console battle ground, they have taken a beating recently with Nintendo's Switch, and still increasing sales of PlayStation 4, and as such the latest rumor is M$ is planning to go 'disc-less'!  In the wake of the news that Sony will not be attending E3 next year, Microsoft’s hardware plans for 2019 will likely be a huge win for the brand and for gamers. The company is planning to release an updated console next year, but this device will not be in the Scarlett family, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The Scarlett devices are Microsoft’s next-gen consoles and are not expected until 2020 but in 2019, the company is planning to release a disc-less console. And if this is making you nervous because you have a large collection of physical discs for your current Xbox, Microsoft has you covered.
In addition to the new console, there will be a ‘disc-to-digital’ program that, as the name states, turns your physical games into digital downloads. The idea is that you can take your disc to a participating retailer (like the Microsoft store) and trade in your disc for a digital download.
The goal with the new console is to lower the price point for the hardware. Currently, it costs about $299 to buy into the Xbox One family of devices, Microsoft is looking to lower that price by possibly as much as $100; the new console price point is expected to be $200 or less.
Click to expand...
Disc-Less Xbox One is Coming in 2019
NEWS SOURCE: Microsoft’s Building a Disc-Less Xbox One for Release in 2019 (via) Thurrott
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November 26th, 2018, 16:06 Posted By: wraggster
Thanks to John Lewis et al, heartwarming Christmas adverts are all the rage - to the point where even electronics conglomerate Microsoft is getting in on the action.
The company has produced a short film that highlights the Xbox Adaptive Controller, as well as pushing its strategy to promote accessibility in games with a new slogan: 'When everybody plays, we all win'.
The Adaptive Controller is a device with a variety of different customisable inputs that enables people with almost any disability to enjoy Xbox games. It was unveiled to widespread acclaim earlier this year and released in September.
While it doesn't actually appear much in the ad itself, the short film's narrative - which focuses on wheelchair-bound nine-year-old Owen - puts the controller, and accessibility, at the heart of its message.
The ad arrives at a time where accessibility is increasingly becoming a talking point in video games. Case in point, Activision came under fire earlier this week for not including subtitles in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy - thus limiting the experience for deaf players.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-accessibility
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November 12th, 2018, 20:36 Posted By: wraggster
The next Xbox platform isn't some super powerful 8K console, or a streaming box, or xCloud, or a Windows PC.
Or rather, it's all of those things and (quite possibly) more.
But it appears the real place where Microsoft wants to funnel its customers is through Game Pass - the subscription service that provides its fans with hundreds of games for a monthly fee.
This is not a new thing. We've been discussing it on Gamesindustry.biz now for months. But this weekend's X018 fan fest in Mexico was the most public display of its strategy we've seen so far. Two hours of Game Pass ads and announcements, with just a sprinkling of other AAA non-Game Pass games to satisfy the reluctant subscriber.
If Microsoft continues on this trajectory (and judging by its rhetoric and investment, it's likely it will), then the firm will care as much about which platform you're accessing Game Pass through as Netflix is bothered about which device you're watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on. Indeed, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that gamers will be able to play Sea of Thieves - via xCloud - on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 in the not-too-distant future.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...future-of-xbox
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October 28th, 2018, 20:23 Posted By: wraggster
Xenia Git (2018/10/25) is compiled. Xenia is an experimental emulator for the Xbox 360. It does not run games (yet).
Xenia Status:
Some real games run. Most don't. See the Game compatibility list for currently tracked games and feel free to contribute your own updates, screenshots, and information there following the existing conventions.
Xenia Git Changelog:
* Merge pull request #1240 from 0x8080/Exports
* [Kernel] Define all exports for xboxkrnl/xam/xbdm
* [Kernel] Stub XamShowNuiTroubleshooterUI.
* [Kernel] Stub HidReadKeys.
* [APU] Load XAudio2_8.dll dynamically
https://github.com/benvanik/xenia
http://www.emucr.com/2018/10/xenia-git-20181025.html
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October 28th, 2018, 13:36 Posted By: wraggster
Xbox developer @mborgerson has been for a while working on neat 'project' which is building a complete working Xbox kernel for the original Xbox console, and making it completely open-source and not using any copyrighted code from the official Xbox kernel by Microsoft, currently the project still an 'work-in-progress', but its been moving along recently, so its one to keep an on eye on, check out the introduction below and how to build it in its current WIP state for running on the development version of XQEMU. XQEMU is a low-level machine emulator, which needs a copy of the Xbox system software to start and run games. Unfortunately, this system software cannot be freely distributed due to it being copyrighted material. This means that in order to run XQEMU, the user must dump the MCPX ROM and TSOP flash images from their own physical Xbox. This, of course, can be a significant barrier to entry for many users.
Though it is a goal for XQEMU to continue to maintain compatibility with the official Xbox system software, it is beneficial to also have an open-source alternative path for multiple reasons, namely licensing and performance optimizations. Fortunately, the interface between title and the kernel (API) is simple, clean, and largely documented and can therefore be implemented by an open-source alternative kernel, maintaining binary compatibility with unmodified title code.
Please note: by design, this project contains no copyrighted code from the official Xbox kernel.
Current State
Currently able to boot nxdk samples with full 3D graphics! It'll be a little while before this can boot a real game. In order to use this kernel, you'll need to use a development branch of XQEMU which facilitates loading an XBE.
What's Here
A very basic kernel that will: - Switch to protected mode
- Enable the serial port (printk)
- Perform barebones device init (PCI, VGA, etc)
- Read the EEPROM
- Poke XQEMU to load an XBE into memory
- Patch XBE imports with stub functions
- Jump to XBE entry point
- Handle a handful of kernel function calls
What's Needed
High-level list of major things that need to be implemented next:
Core Stuff:
- Proper kernel memory allocator (SLAB, SLOB might be fine)
- Proper virtual memory allocator for title
- Thread/DPC Scheduler
- Interrupt stuff
HLE Interfaces:
Other Kernel things...
- Rtl functions
- Kernel data exports
- Lots of other kernel stuff
Getting Started
How to Build
Standard build tools and NASM are needed, then make -C src.
How to Run
Check out run.sh to see how to use this with XQEMU. Please note that you'll need the dev branch of XQEMU (mentioned above). Also note that you should not provide a bootrom image when running this kernel.
Click to expand...
OFFICIAL GITHub Project Page: --> https://github.com/mborgerson/xqemu-kernel
via https://www.maxconsole.com/threads/w...rgerson.48934/
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October 28th, 2018, 12:41 Posted By: wraggster
It was a quiet first quarter for Microsoft's gaming division, but that didn't stop it from posting a 44% year-over-year increase in gaming revenue anyway.
The company's Q1 2019 earnings report shows that this increase was driven largely by third-party titles in a quarter that didn't see any first-party releases. Xbox software and and services revenue was up 36% year-over-year on its own, and Xbox Live is now up to 57 million MAU.
Hardware saw an even more dramatic year-over-year increase of 94%, which Microsoft attributes to early sales of holiday hardware bundles.
This increase contributed to $10.75 billion in revenue from the company's "More Personal Computing" segment, which also includes Windows OEM, commercial products, and cloud services. The segment overall saw 15% year-over-year growth.
Microsoft's overall Q1 2019 was $29.1 billion, up 19% year-over-year.
Next quarter looks to be slightly noisier on the gaming side of things with the release of Forza Horizon 4 factored in, as well as the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Microsoft's console subscription service, Xbox All Access.
Update (25/10/2018): Speaking during an investor call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that Xbox Game Pass will be fully expanded to PC.
Currently PC gamers only receive access to the latest first-party titles through Game Pass, but now Microsoft intends to expand the offering to include older titles and third-party releases, reflecting the offering on Xbox.
"Xbox has the key gaming community and the monetisation capabilities," said Nadella. "Whether it's first-party games or third-party games, we are best-in-class in that monetisation and that's what's reflected in the results.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-quiet-q1-2019
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October 15th, 2018, 16:55 Posted By: wraggster
Dubbed Project xCloud, it’s designed to work across consoles, PCs, and even mobile devices. “Scaling and building out Project xCloud is a multi-year journey for us,” explains Microsoft’s cloud gaming chief Kareem Choudhry. [/b]“We’ll begin public trials in 2019 so we can learn and scale with different volumes and locations.”[/b]
Microsoft has built custom hardware for its datacenters, as The Verge previously exclusively reported, so that existing and future Xbox games will be compatible with the services. Games will be streamed to devices, and Microsoft has been testing the xCloud service with Xbox wireless controllers connected to consoles, mobile devices, and PCs. Microsoft says its research teams are “creating ways to combat latency” via advanced network techniques combined with video encoding and decoding. This should make game streaming viable on 4G networks, too.
Public trials of the service will begin next year, and Microsoft’s Xbox game streaming service will face competition from a variety of existing services. The most popular include GeForce Now, PlayStation Now, Shadow, and Liquid Sky. Microsoft’s xCloud unveiling comes just days after Google announced its own Project Stream service that will let testers play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through its Chrome browser on a laptop or desktop. Microsoft isn’t revealing exactly what it’s doing differently than the competition, but we’ll find out more details when public testing starts in 2019.
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October 15th, 2018, 16:35 Posted By: wraggster
It goes without saying that Microsoft has had a tough time of it this generation - the kind of tough time that leads inevitably to a certain kind of commentary where each bit of positive news is placed under the microscope to see if this time, finally, it might be the long-awaited sign that things are "turning a corner" for the embattled platform.
This kind of discussion hovered around the PS3 in the last few years of the past generation; it was conspicuous by its absence from the ill-fated Wii U, which nobody ever really expected to turn a corner, or indeed to do any manoeuvring that didn't involve running into a wall.
Lately, it's the turn of Xbox; after a woeful start to the generation and a couple of years coughing on the dust kicked up by PS4 as it raced ahead, Xbox now seems to have made enough solid, good moves for people to start thinking in corner-turning terms."The resuscitation of the Xbox brand will come as the result of many, many positive decisions and morsels of good news, not as a single turning point"
Console platforms don't turn corners, though - not in the snappy sense that phrase conjures. Console platforms are like giant seafaring tankers; they don't spin on a dime, they ponderously and carefully change course, manoeuvres that must be carefully plotted and which take a very long time to execute. The resuscitation of the Xbox brand will come as the result of many, many positive decisions and morsels of good news, not as a single turning point - and progress to that end needs to be measured as a summation of a host of things about the platform, not assumed from a single hit title or high-profile studio signing.
Where, then, does Xbox stand right now - as we reach the point in the generation where companies actually start to talk openly about plans for future hardware, as Sony did this week? Well, a fair assessment of everything that's happened of late would conclude that Microsoft seems to actually be succeeding in turning the tanker around.
In this week's news alone we saw great performance for Forza Horizon this week, reports that hugely respected studio Obsidian might be added to the already impressive line-up of first party developers announced earlier in the year, and updates to a few more slow-burning stories like the very solid expansion of the back-compatible library that's been happening for quite some time now.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ker-is-turning
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September 14th, 2018, 20:31 Posted By: wraggster
Studio bosses at Treyarch have shed some light on the decision to forgo a traditional single-player campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Speaking during an interview with Gamespot, David Vonderhaar and Dan Bunting touched on the ways in which Black Ops 4 evolved since prototyping, and how Treyarch has "built a culture of adaption" internally.
Bunting said the decision not include a traditional campaign was more a case of adapting to succeed than it was anything else.
"The most important aspect of game development is being able to adapt," he said.
If you can't look at something that you're doing honestly and say, 'This thing isn't good enough' or 'This isn't what we want,' and 'We need to make a change.'
"If you can't do that yourself, then you're not adapting. You're not going to evolve in a way that's going to constantly deliver exciting experiences for your fans."
According Vonderhaar, it wasn't a case of the campaign getting cut, but rather never really having one to begin with.
From the outset, Black Ops 4 was intended as being a social experience, Bunting explained.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...or-black-ops-4
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September 13th, 2018, 20:40 Posted By: wraggster
Heres some interesting Xbox One exploit news :
Earlier today, @XVMM posted up some key info on 'getting started' on your path of enlightenment when using the 'dev mode' that is available on all Xbox One consoles, now normally this UWP is sandboxed, but thanks to the anonymous creators if this unique exploit you can now get a shell (cmd.exe) and win32 code execution on Xbox One in UWP Devkit mode.
Normally you can only deploy "sandboxed" UWP containers with very limited access rights, hence this write-up, which is very technical, but its aim at those that want to explore more of inner workings and power of XB1 console itself, and hopefully now with this information out to public, more developers will get on-board and help expand the scene of greatness in the Xbox landscape. Preamble
This is not an exploit or breakthrough of any sort. It's simply taking advantage of provided debugging features in developer mode! This is for any one who may be curious and want to reverse engineer the Xbox One. This is also mainly provided for anyone who wants to just have a go at reversing the system. There's a lot to utilize with the public features anyway.
Prerequisites- Must be in developer-mode (obviously)
- Have some form of SSH/telnet client. (PuTTy, etc)
- At least have Visual Studio 2015 or 2017
To get started without putting up with developing UWP applications we can instead utilize the open SSH connection provided by the console. This is only available in developer mode, just in case you get any ideas. If you're using Windows and will be using standard command prompt for telnet then make sure you enable it first!
- Control Panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off"
- Tick "Telnet client"
- Done
Howto
- First open up whatever client you have for SSH, in this instance PuTTy, and connect using your console IP and default port. There will be a pop-up. Just hit yes.
- Now it will ask for login details. Make sure you have Dev Home opened and hit __Show Visual Studio Pin__. Keep note of this pin but also remember it will change after a small period of time!
Use the following credentials:
```
Username: DevToolsUser
Password: The Visual Studio pin provided in Dev Home.
```
- If all goes successfully then you can either stick with it or initialize telnet. Run the following command in order to do so:
```
devtoolslauncher LaunchForProfiling telnetd "cmd.exe 24"
```
- Open command prompt on Windows and run:
```
telnet [consoleip] 24
# (Example: telnet 192.168.1.5 24)
```
The telnet session will be running under the VSProfilingAccount privileges which is the same as what the VS debugger runs under when building UWP apps.
Keep in mind that there is not too much of a difference at this stage. It just allows a tiny bit more flexibility.
Basic file system exploration:
You can do this by accessing the Xbox Device Portal on your computer and going to File Explorer tab. There will be an option near the top right that is called Browse. Using this will show you credentials that can be used to access the developer scratch. We can use the developer scratch to store our junctions to navigate throughout the mounted drives.
Code:
Using telnet or SSH, go to `D:\DevelopmentFiles`.
```
>D:
>cd DevelopmentFiles
>mkdir Links
# And run the following:
>mklink /J "Links\System" C:\
# If the result is successful then double check:
>cd links\system
>dir
```
If it gives you a directory listing then there you go!
You can get easier access by opening File Explorer on Windows and typing the following into the file path bar: `\\<console ip>`
It will prompt for login details. If you open the device portal and go to File Explorer tab then on right side hit browse; you will be given details to use. Once in then you can access most but not all volumes.
(Refer to "Mount points" to find out more)
Next steps
So what now? Well, I'm going to provide a small "template" which you can use in order to write a standard "Win32" application. The only difference is that it will run on the Xbox One.
(Requires Windows 10 SDK compatible with Xbox One and probably Visual Studio 2017, at least 2015.)
XRF: Attached below.
Place anywhere on the console and run `xrf cinfo` for a basic spit of console info.
Additional information:
Basic introduction:
The Xbox One currently runs 3 separate operating systems with each prioritized with their own purpose.
These are known as:
- Host OS
- System OS
- Game OS
System and Game OS both reside in their own partition:
- Shared Resource Access - Runs apps and renders the UI experience.
- Exclusive Resource Access - Runs games and has more priority with resources.
These operations are stored in an Xbox Virtual Disk (XVD) with a small bootloader, currently assumed based on previous data dumps, that contains the kernel, HAL and other important system files. These get stored in the
User Data section of each.
- host.xvd | ExtHost.xvd
- System.xvd
- era.xvd
System and Host are stored in both the flash and on the console hard drive. The Game OS XVD is stored with each packaged game that is released for the Xbox One. Although this requires another look; it appears that when a user launches a game, System then initiates a call that mounts the package to the ERA partition which then boots into the Game OS before finally mounting and starting the game.
Mount points:
Within the SRA Partition, the following are mounted to each drive letter
Code:
\\.\C:\ -> System.xvd
\\.\D:\ -> USB (typically for retail) (Development scratch for dev-mode)
\\.\J:\ -> SystemTools.xvd (dev-mode only)
\\.\L:\ -> en-%s (languages)
\\.\M:\ -> SystemMisc.xvd
\\.\P:\ -> Page file
\\.\S:\ -> Settings.xvd | Settings-devkit.xvd
\\.\T:\ -> Temp.xvd (or whatever)
\\.\U:\ -> user.xvd / user-devkit.xvd
\\.\X:\ -> SystemAux.xvd
\\.\Y:\ -> SystemAuxF.xvd
Click to expand...
Attached below, is a sample template, source, binary to get your started on your path of enlightenment on your Xbox One console!
DISCORD SERVER Discussion Invite: --> https://discord.gg/gr4cHXN
NEWS SOURCE: Xbox One - Getting somewhat started (via) GBATemp
via https://www.maxconsole.com/threads/x...devmode.48513/
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September 7th, 2018, 21:52 Posted By: wraggster
Xbox has been all about the future in recent months.
Since E3, the conversation on Gamesindustry.biz has been around subscription services and what we can expect from Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and all the new studios the company has added to its roster.
And the big reveals at E3 itself featured Gears of War, Halo, Cyberpunk 2077 - big games that are more than a year away from release.
Now, as we head into that crucial year-end sales period, the focus switches to the here and now. At Gamescom last month, Xbox put the final touches on its Christmas sales plans. There was the typical reveal of new hardware bundles, plus PR around the big Xbox products that it plans to focus on in the weeks ahead - Forza Horizon 4, Game Pass and Sea of Thieves amongst them.
Exclusive content is obviously crucial, and we'll come back to that, but Xbox is also going big with third-party titles this year. In fact, Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg tells us it has "more third-party partnerships this year than we have ever had."
"A lot of it is our partners, especially after we launched Xbox One X, are interested in making sure they are able to work with a platform that is going to be a showcase for their games," he says. "We start with the developers. They want to show their games where they look and play the best, and so having the performance advantage and being able to show their games in 4K, with great frame-rates, is great for those folks. And then on the business side there are mutual benefits; we can go to market together, we can do bundles, we can introduce people to their franchises and they can help us sell consoles."
Those third-party deals with titles such as Battlefield and Tomb Raider will prove crucial in Microsoft delivering its message on how much more powerful Xbox One X is compared with its competitors (40 per cent more powerful, according to Microsoft). Yet it can only really do that with the games it partners with. PlayStation has its own third-party deals with big titles this Christmas, such as with Red Dead Redemption 2, so how does Xbox get its 'better with X' messaging out in relation to those?
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ht-time-period
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September 4th, 2018, 21:35 Posted By: wraggster
XQEMU Git (2018/09/04) is compiled. XQEMU is a open source, cross-platform emulator for the original Xbox (and Sega Chihiro). It is currently in very early stages of development. XQEMU is built on-top of QEMU.
XQEMU Git Changelog
* nvnet: don't trigger interrupt if no packets are sent
* nv2a: Fix EXP and LOG
http://www.emucr.com/2018/09/xqemu-git-20180904.html
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August 29th, 2018, 21:04 Posted By: wraggster
A new Xbox One X bundle has been unveiled by Microsoft today, showing off a white version of the system. This specific coloration is called Robot White, and will come bundled with a copy of Fallout 76. You can pre-order it starting today, and it will launch on November 14 for $499.99. Also announced was a new Xbox One Elite controller, in a matching white color and retailing for the standard price of $149.99, offering the same features as the original Elite Controller. Both of these will be sold exclusively at the Microsoft Store or at GameStop in the United States, but will be sold at all participating retailers in the rest of the world.
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August 28th, 2018, 21:55 Posted By: wraggster
Earlier this month, we ran an editorial on how the race to produce a "Netflix of games" could wind up hurting developers, even if it works out well for customers as well as the people running these services. After that article, Microsoft reached out to offer an interview on the subject with the company's head of gaming services Ben Decker and Game Pass head of planning Matt Percy.
Much of the editorial discussed the implications of subscription services like Game Pass becoming the primary way for people to enjoy the hobby in the same way some people rely on Netflix or services like Spotify and Pandora for all their needs in other media. Decker insisted that isn't the plan for Game Pass.
Microsoft's first-party AAA new releases could be a big draw for Game Pass
"When we launched it, we thought an ever-increasing number of titles might be something that was really important to gamers," he admitted. "But as it turns out, that's not really what they're asking for. What we get from our customers isn't, 'I want a subscription that has thousands and thousands of games.' What we heard from them is, 'I want a subscription with 100, or a little more than 100, games. But I want them to be really good games. And I want a curated portfolio where I know what's in there is going to be really great to play.'
"We don't have a goal of being the subscription where you get all your content. This is meant to be additive to the ecosystem. We don't see a future where subscriptions are dominant. We see a future where customers have choice between a subscription and purchase-to-own, where there's a mixed ecosystem because that's what customers want, and that's what developers want."
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...nant-microsoft
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August 27th, 2018, 21:18 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft is continuing to heavily market their "games as a service" plan, with the success of their Game Pass service. The company has furthered this idea by recently announcing Xbox All Access, which will allow for consumers to pay a monthly fee for an Xbox One bundle that comes with Xbox Live and Game Pass as well. Instead of paying upfront, you'll instead pay $21.99 a month for an Xbox One S, or $34.99 for the more powerful Xbox One X, both of which include the aforementioned Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold. You pay this fee for a contract of 24 months, after which you get to keep the system for no interest, assuming you made all your payments on time. After combining all the payments, customers will pay just a little bit more than they would have by buying two years of Game Pass and Xbox Live alongside a console, however, the bonus to this deal is that you do not have to come up with all of the cost at once.
Currently, this appears to be a limited time plan, and only available to those in the United States at this time. You'll also need to visit a physical Microsoft Store to actually sign up for Xbox All Access.
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August 24th, 2018, 18:03 Posted By: wraggster
When it comes to business announcements, you don't get much bigger than Xbox revealing five new studios at E3.
It was a power play from a company eager to reclaim lost market share, and a commitment to gaming by Microsoft's senior management team.
Yet what was also surprising were the types of studio that it had picked up. Out of the four developers acquired (the fifth is a whole new team), you'd only really class one as a AAA studio - Playground Games. The other three - Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and Undead Labs - are mid-sized businesses. They make unique games with small(ish) teams in a relatively short time span. If you thought these companies were acquired to produce the sort of God of War-sized content that has served PlayStation so well this generation, then you're overestimating the scale of these outfits.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-ninja-theory
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August 24th, 2018, 00:25 Posted By: wraggster
Reports have emerged that suggests Microsoft could combine both Xbox hardware and its online offering into a single monthly subscription.
The Verge claims to have heard from sources familiar with the platform holder's plans that the offer - codenamed Project Largo - will see players pay a monthly free to gain either an Xbox One S or Xbox One X, along with Xbox Live Gold membership and the Xbox Game Pass.
The site reports that the Xbox One X offer would bundle the 4K console and the two services in for $34.99 per month in a two-year contract - a total spend of $839.76.
The subscription package is believed to be called Xbox All Access, as also reported by Windows Central. This will only be available via Microsoft's retail stores initially and only to US customers, but if it proves to be popular the platform holder could roll this out to other markets.
It's an intriguing prospect, and one that builds on a previous Microsoft experiment: six year ago, the firm offered an Xbox 360 for $99, providing consumers committed to a two-month Xbox Live contract at $15 per month.
It also plays into the long-suspected shift towards a smartphone-style model, something that was widely discussed when both the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro were announced. These incremental hardware updates are deemed by some to be the console equivalent of a mid-generation iPhone, and possibly testing the waters for a market where players pick up their console as part of a mobile-style contract rather than a hefty one-off payment.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...access-service
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