Microsoft’s Xbox has been around since 2001, and over that time the gaming brand has given us huge hits like Halo, Gears of War, Forza, and more. Today, the Xbox brand covers consoles like the Xbox One, PC gaming, and has even expanded to other platforms. You can play Minecraft on everything from a computer to an iPhone to a Nintendo Switch. Along the way, Microsoft has pioneered modern services like Xbox Live and Game Pass, introducing new ways to play games. And with Project Scarlett on the horizon, the Xbox looks to have a bright future.
Sure, the Xbox One’s disc strategy blew up in the company’s face, giving Sony the perfect ammo. But as Tom reveals, Microsoft decided to secretly start printing unique serial numbers on its discs way back then — a decision that’s paying off now!
Physint just switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox, and Hideo Kojima appeared at Xbox’s Tokyo game show stream today to reveal the lead role for the game. Swedish actor and producer Bill Skarsgård, best known for playing Pennywise the Clown in the It horror films, will portray the lead role alongside Charlee Fraser in Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game. Kojima says Physint “continues to make steady progress,” months after Sony gave the studio an unexpected cancellation notice in June.
There will be a panel at 4:45 PM ET (1:45 PT) today at BlizzCon where more info will be revealed, but for now you’ll have to satisfy your thirst for fire, brimstone, and Sanctuary with this short teaser.
The terms of the contract apply to nearly 1,900 workers across Blizzard, including teams that work on World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, quality assurance, and more. The contract comes after two years of bargaining and includes new protections that give workers the opportunity to be “recalled” into open positions within 14 months after a layoff.
And it’s not because of post-work cocktails. The Trump administration decided to mark 25 years of Xbox with a flagrant disregard for copyright. It would be funny, if not for the fact it’s all a promotion for a website full of mini games for deporting people.
How can Xbox possibly get to a billion users per day while cutting studios? Oh, just by obtaining three more hits as big as Minecraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush. “We’ve got three billion-dollar annual franchises every year. I think we should have six to eight in the coming years,” she tells BBC News.
She says she will invest: “Last year was a record spend on content and services and we’re going to match that.”
The $899.99 console went on sale at 10AM ET and was out of stock right after, and eBay’s sold listings show that people are paying more than $2,000 to buy confirmed preorders, Polygon reports. The console looks cool, but I wouldn’t say it’s $2,000 cool.
I dig just about everything in the new 18-minute video demo that you can watch on YouTube. (I can’t embed it because it’s age-gated.) The whole vibe is way more interesting to me than yet another grimdark fantasy.
Fable launches on February 23rd, 2027.
You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to preorder the $899.99 translucent green Xbox Series X (unless you received an early invitation from Microsoft), but you can preorder the matching controller now for $79.99. The device will begin shipping on October 20th.
Gamescom 2026 is about to kick off in Cologne, Germany, and Microsoft is setting the scene with a local billboard teasing its upcoming 25th anniversary Xbox Series X console. Xbox still hasn’t confirmed a specific release date or price, but a recent leak suggests it may cost $900.
HyperX is announcing a slew of new gaming accessories for its Level Awakening livestream event — most notable is the $149.99 Cloud Alpha Air, due out in September.
The open-back headset allows users to stay more in-tune with their surroundings while gaming. The wired headphones weigh just 10.1 ounces / 287g (with detachable boom mic) and connect to PCs or consoles via 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C, or USB-A.
Microsoft and Ikea started teasing a collaboration earlier this month. The pair are teaming up for a co-designed collection of items, including cushions and stools that could pair well with an Xbox fridge. The items will be shown first at Microsoft’s Xbox booth at gamescom next week.
Beginning today, Xbox Insiders will be able to “view, sort, and delete local game saves that aren’t currently in use,” according to a blog post about a few new features in testing. Your saves will remain backed up in the cloud.
After releasing a buildable Xbox 360 in 2023, Mattel is back with a DIY recreation of Microsoft’s original console complete with a chonky replica of the Duke controller. The $324, 3,509-piece set is part of Mattel’s Lego-like Brick Shop line and includes gaming dioramas hidden inside plus interactive lighting and console sounds.
Ahead of Gears of War: E-Day releasing in October, Microsoft opened preorders for a new $89.99 Xbox controller featuring “3D molded, laser-etched details of cracked asphalt with red, glowing cracks.” On September 30th the Xbox Design Lab will also introduce a new E-Day design with a top case featuring artwork by illustrator Luke Preece.
Xbox and PC gamers in Australia are reportedly being notified that they’ll soon need to verify their age before purchasing 18+ rated apps and games on both the Xbox Store and Microsoft Store. Existing purchases and downloads won’t be affected. Microsoft has a September 9th deadline to comply with Australian online safety rules, or risk facing an almost AUS$50 million fine (about $34.9 million in US monies).
Xbox Insiders will be able to choose if they want game chat and party chat audio in their captures, according to a blog post. Players can individually control if their voice is included in a capture.
The post also includes details about new ways to their sort achievement history, the ability to restore previous versions of cloud saves, and an upgrade to wishlists that now lets you add up to 1,000 games.
Microsoft said Thursday that it’s been rolling the app out “over the past month” to supported TVs running Hisense’s VIDAA OS. The company announced earlier this year that the app was on the way.
The Xbox app is also available on select Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and LG TVs.
The outage, which lasted for nearly a day, blocked people from playing some digital and disc games. You can read Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet’s full explanation on X, but here’s a key part of it:
What happened. Late last night, a licensing service that sits outside of XBOX, but which XBOX depends upon, began failing. This caused some sign-in scenarios to fail, and it caused many scenarios that require an entitlement check to also fail, such as listing out your Full Library and launching games that you own. It also affected several of our publishing and store partners who depend on those same systems which is why some of you saw issues in specific games and not others.
The new remake of Halo: Combat Evolved is out today, and it’s an excellent reimagining of an FPS classic. But it also comes at a very weird time for the Xbox brand and Microsoft’s gaming ambitions. You can check out my full review below.
