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'Alan Wake' developer may bring the cult classic to more consoles
Alan Wake might make its way to PS4 or Switch (or even mobile) after developer Remedy Entertainment snagged back the publishing rights to the 2010 cult classic from Microsoft. It told investors it would earn royalty payments of about 2.5 million euros this year for its previously released games, and, in a related move, it regained the rights to Alan Wake.
Microsoft Studios is dead, long live Xbox Game Studios
Microsoft has rebranded its game-development business, just slightly, from Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios. This new name comprises all 13 game studios and publishing organizations that Microsoft has gobbled up over the years, including Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment, Halo house 343 Industries, Gears of War studio The Coalition, Hellblade creator NInja Theory and Wasteland 2 company inXile Entertainment.
'Ori and the Blind Forest' finally makes its way to retail
What began on Xbox One as a digital title, then a definitive edition on the same console, followed by one on PC is finally making its way to bricks and mortar stores. On June 14th, you'll be able to walk into your favorite fine purveyor of video games and grab a hard copy of Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition for $20. More than just the base game with added bits to explore and story to (probably) cry over, a post on Xbox Wire says the domestic physical release includes Ori's soundtrack on CD. It isn't glow-in-the-dark vinyl, but hey, at least you won't have to get up to flip the record every 20 minutes or so next month.
Microsoft is buying 'Minecraft' and its development studio for $2.5 billion
Microsoft confirmed this morning that it's buying massively popular game Minecraft and the studio behind it, Mojang. The purchase amount is $2.5 billion. Don't panic: Microsoft says it "plans to continue to make Minecraft available across all the platforms on which it is available today: PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and PlayStation." Though Microsoft is purchasing the Minecraft intellectual property -- game, licensing, and any other rights involved -- it isn't getting the game's creator, Markus "Notch" Persson. A note from the Mojang team says, "Notch, Carl, and Jakob are leaving. We don't know what they're planning. It won't be Minecraft-related but it will probably be cool" (Carl Manneh is Mojang's CEO and Jakob Porser is a co-founder).
Project Spark lets users build game worlds with Kinect voice control and SmartGlass
Hoping you'd get to do some casual game building on the Xbox One? Microsoft Game Studios' newly revealed Project Spark may be for you. It'll allow users to craft their own digital spaces using Kinect Voice controls to add topographical features like mountains, plains and rivers, while fine tuning things with fingers through SmartGlass. Of course, the look of the world isn't all you can manipulate, as Project Spark also lets you create logic and rules for the objects and characters in your personal digital utopia. Oh, and if you aren't planning on grabbing a One right away, the game looks to be coming to PCs running Windows 8 as well. Update: Check out two preview videos embedded after the break. Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.
Insomniac's Sunset Overdrive is our first look at a cloud-infused Xbox One game (update: video)
Insomniac is usually busy developing games for Sony hardware, but company head Ted Price hopped up on stage to reveal Sunset Overdrive. In development with Microsoft Studios, the title is billed as a "open world shooter where the experience can change every day." Though we're told gamers will be able to affect what happens in the world by using the cloud, we're still short on details regarding how that'll happen and what changes. For now, screenshots with hyper-stylized graphics and Mirror's Edge-like parkour will have to sate our curiosity.%Gallery-190849% Update: Head past the jump to catch the entirety of the teaser trailer. Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.
Microsoft axes Flight development, cuts 35 jobs at Vancouver games studio
Microsoft is laying off staff at its Vancouver studio after it halted development on Flight and "Project Columbia," a Kinect-based virtual storybook for children. A representative speaking to Joystiq said that the 35 people affected would receive help to find new roles within the company, and that it remains invested in the city's industry. In a statement to Kotaku, included after the break, it added that it would continue to support the free title, which was itself a revival of the doomed MS Flight Simulator, and that it would remain available for download.
Mad Catz partnering with Microsoft Studios for Halo 4-branded headsets
Looks like Mad Catz has more up its sleeve than just the Wii U accessories it announced at E3 last week. The company just announced a partnership with Microsoft Studios to create Halo 4-branded gaming headsets. Mad Catz says it worked with sound engineers to make sure the headsets complement Halo's "epic sci-fi universe." Alas, that's about all we know right now. Photos and pricing into remain MIA, though the accessories maker says the products will be available in time for the 2012 holiday season.
Peter Molyneux leaves Lionhead and Microsoft to found 22 Cans
Peter Molyneux will leave Microsoft Game / Lionhead Studios once he's finished developing Fable: The Journey for Kinect. He'll be replaced by co-founder Mark Webley at the studio, with Redmond yet to name his successor at corporate level. Molyneux will partner with (Lionhead's) former CTO Tim Rance and Director Peter Murphy on 22 Cans, developing games under their own flag as he did when founding Lionhead and Bullfrog before that. The new company is based in Farnborough, 12 miles west of Lionhead's Guildford location and was registered on February 20th of this year. Given our childhood love of both Bullfrog and Lionhead's games, we wish both parties the very best -- you can check out when he visited The Engadget Show here.
Microsoft to open mobile games studio, develop and incubate Windows Phone 7 titles
Microsoft employees may eat their own dog food, but they won't have to code cross-platform Windows Phone 7 games in their spare time -- Redmond job postings recently revealed that there's a studio for that, which will develop and publish first- and second-party titles on the company's dime. According to job descriptions, the newly-christened "MGS Mobile" will develop "showcase" Windows Phone 7 titles with an emphasis on connected play, and also incubate titles from indie devs and partners like the original Microsoft Game Studios, its older Xbox-based sibling. Interestingly enough, games won't necessarily be limited to Windows Phone 7 devices, but may appear on "emerging mobile platforms" as well -- the idea being to advance Microsoft's position in the mobile gaming space rather than just pimp the WP7 platform. Is the world ready for Halo on MeeGo? Oh, you bet your britches it is. Just don't expect to see Xbox games on Android, yo. Update: Looks like Microsoft's actually been on the job hunt since June. It's just so hard to find good employees these days.
Early reports show IE not faring well in the post-ballot screen days
Most PC users hit the web using Internet Explorer by default, simply because that's what came along with Windows. Now, after antitrust investigations, European users get a choice of browser to install via ballot screen, and initial reports are not good for 'ol IE. According to Statcounter, IE use in France has dropped 2.5 percent since last month's implementation of the ballot, 1.3 percent in Italy, and 1 percent in Britain. It's still early days, and it'll take more than this to chip away from IE's 62 percent lead in the browser war, but it's certainly not a good trend for Microsoft. With that in mind, we're going to have to ask you to place your bets now.
Behold: New Too Human previews hit
We're just two months out from the release of Too Human, a game that would have garnered its share of attention – though not nearly as much as it's getting for being in development 10 years across at least three platforms. The game (the first in a planned trilogy) is finally hitting on Xbox 360, and two of our blogosphere compatriots have offered up their thoughts on its current state in new previews. Read what MTV and Wired had to say after the break. Source: 'Too Human' Xbox 360 Preview, In The Shadow of 'Metal Gear' – MTVSource: Too Human in 10 hours – Wired%Gallery-16464%
Halo Wars release strategy: 'when it's done'
If we had a dollar for every time we've heard the phrase "our game will ship when it's done" from a developer, we'd have enough money to ... buy Halo Wars when it's eventually released. Despite MS tagging the game as one of it's biggies for '08 back in January, the Ensemble Studios developed RTS set in Master Chief's 'hood is seeming a little more iffy for this year.First off, the game missed the recent Xbox Spring Showcase in May. Now Graham Somers, Ensemble's community manager, has uttered the words "when," "it's," and "done" one after another in an interview with Halo Wars Addict. Somers' answer came when asked if the game will hit in 2008 or 2009. We have been seeing a pickup in new details on the game recently – which is promising – and will hopefully have something more solid to go on than those three dreaded words come E3 next month. That said, can someone please put a dollar in the jar labeled "WID" on their way out? Thanks.[Via X3F]%Gallery-1676%
Microsoft to use SpeedTree for multiple projects in 2008
The next time you're frolicking through a dense forest in your favorite video game, be sure to bark out your gratitude to the widely used SpeedTree program and its painstaking planting, positioning and watering of all the nearby faux foliage. Microsoft Games Studios clearly appreciates this in-game gardening, having just entered into a new agreement with Interactive Data Visualization Inc. for the use of SpeedTree RT, a cross-platform real-time tree-generating program. A variant of the software was previously employed in both Project Gotham Racing 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4.The agreement will see SpeedTree RT, which has already been incorporated into the Unreal Engine, used for multiple unannounced projects on the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows platforms. We can't venture any guesses as to what these titles may be, but we feel safe in our assumption that none of them will be set in Antarctica. [Via GameDaily]Read -- Press Release (PDF)
Joystiq's Top 10 of 2007: Mass Effect
If you've ever borrowed a great novel from a library (ask your parents), you would know that all those reams of text can latch on to your thoughts regardless of the tattered, pig-eared and terrifyingly sticky pages they're printed on. Mass Effect is just such an experience, its story spread across technically dubious and slow-turning sheets filled with text that randomly pops in and out of existence. You also have to read several chapters while standing in the world's slowest elevator, for some reason.Still, these are complaints that are best gotten over with in the first paragraph and promptly forgotten, for Mass Effect makes its rich story heard well above the incessant clacking of the Xbox 360's exhausted DVD drive. It may seem strange to place emphasis on the massive universe and nuanced characters over the increasingly vague term of "gameplay," but BioWare's craft has masterfully blurred the lines between plot and play. We can't remember the last time we preferred chatting to aliens as opposed to shooting them in... whatever approximates a face. A laborious inventory system and initially confusing combat certainly detract from the game's (forbidden) planet-hopping journey, but the cinematic ambition on display and tough choices to be made will linger in your memory for much, much longer. In a bountiful year which encouraged us to breathlessly rush from game to epic game, it's remarkable that Mass Effect could make us pause long enough to consider the consequences of our actions.%Gallery-1968% He sounds like a cereal (killer) ->
Too Human surfaces, offers video diary
The first in a series of Two Human video diaries has hit the intertubes. Microsoft protests that the video is also available on Xbox Live Marketplace, but our attempts to locate it thus far have proven unsuccessful. The video features Silicon Knights employees describing Baldur, the game's protagonist, and some of the reasoning behind choosing one of the more obscure Norse gods as a main character. There's also a rather off topic bit about what the developers do to blow off steam. Honestly, we've never thought of starting a club for pitching pencils into ceiling tiles, but we're seriously considering it now. Oh, and if you wait until the very end, you might see a few snippets of gameplay that you haven't seen before. Click. Watch. Enjoy.
Joystiq plays Gears of War PC
Joystiq recently got a chance to try out Gears of War for the PC at DigitalLife. The verdict: it's Gears of War alright. Beyond some necessary changes made to the control scheme for mouse users, the game is essentially the same one we all fell in love with last November. Joystiq does note that the visuals are markedly improved and pulling off headshots is (expectedly) much easier with a mouse. The build at Digital Life has its share of problems and bugs, but such problems should be ironed out in time for the game's release later this year. Hit the "read" link for Joystiq's full hands-on impressions.
Halo 3: find all the golden skulls video
Supposedly, this video contains the locations all nine of the golden Halo skulls. Frankly, we really don't know because we haven't watched it. We're trying to find them the old fashioned way, you see. Still, we know that not everyone cares about that sort of thing, and some of us have more important things to worry about. As such, we're providing this video as a service to our readers. Watch, learn, and enjoy. Remember, if you want to grab those campaign achievements, you more or less have to have at least one skull turned on. Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, there be spoilers in the video. You have been warned. [Via Joystiq]
Halo 3: campaign scoring and you
So, we've all managed to plow through the Halo 3 campaign now, right? After all, the game has been available for more than 24 hours, so everyone should have beaten it by now, all of its secrets laid bare. Good, because now it's time to delve into campaign scoring. A brand new feature in Halo 3, campaign scoring helps players net achievements and find a way to compete with their friends even during cooperative play (as if Team Slayer wasn't enough?). Bungie.net has posted a campaign scoring guide to help players get the most out of the feature. For those that have been wondering how many points each Grunt, Brute, and Jackal are worth, the guide is the place to find out. Not only that, but the guide explains difficulty multipliers (i.e. kills are worth more on Heroic than on Normal), style multipliers, and Halo skulls. By the way, the guide contains spoilers, so those still avoiding them had best look away. The rest of us, however, can get the most out of campaign scoring using the guide. Oh, the guide also gives a few "tips" on how to maximize your individual score at the expense of others. Our favorite: melee your teammate as he charges into the fray. This will drop his shields. By the time he softens up the enemies, he'll probably be dead, leaving them all for you. Hello multikill bonus!
Halo 3 Limited Edition: scratched discs ahoy [update]
[Update: Microsoft is now offering free replacements for scratched discs received in the Halo 3 Limited Edition throughout the rest of 2007. It should be noted that those wishing to use this program will have to pay to ship their original scratched disc to Microsoft. The replacement, however, is free. For more details, follow this link. Thanks to Matthew Mac for pointing this out.] Joystiq reports that many gamers are receiving scratched discs in the Halo 3 Limited Edition (the one in the tin case). Well, we can confirm that report, as our very own Limited Edition came with scratches (as you can see above). Upon opening the package this morning, the "Essentials" DVD, which contains bonus materials, was loose in the case. The game disc was held firmly in place though, so no worries there. The scratches on the disc appear to be minor. So far, we haven't encountered any hitches in our bonus content, so we're not rushing out to make an angry return just yet, but we'll see. For those of you who have yet to pick up your Limited Edition, you may want to check it out before leaving the store.
