Here’s everything Microsoft owns after the Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard doesn’t give the maker of Xbox and the home of Halo control of everything significant in console gaming. Sony still stands apart with its strong stable of PlayStation exclusives, while Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Ubisoft continue to jockey for position across all platforms. But it’s damn close to […]

Halo servers for Xbox 360 games shutting down next month

All the versions of Halo still playable on Xbox 360 will lose online services on Jan. 13, 2022, 343 Industries announced on Monday. The shutdown does not affect games in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection anthology, 343 emphasized. The closure affects Halo 3 (2007), Halo 3: ODST (2009), Halo: Reach (2010), Halo: Combat Evolved […]

Castlevania and Resident Evil headline Games With Gold’s Halloween offerings

The two biggest names on Xbox Live’s Games with Gold lineup for October 2021 come from the Xbox 360 — and the Sega Dreamcast, originally. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X headline the backward-compatible offerings for the Halloween-themed month. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X is the high-definition remaster of 2000’s Resident […]

Space Jam 2 is getting a video game tie-in

Space Jam: A New Legacy, the sequel to the iconic ’90s sports comedy with Looney Tunes characters, is getting a video game tie-in. Space Jam: A New Legacy – The Game will launch exclusively as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks program on July 1. It will become free-to-play on the Microsoft Store […]

Xbox Live is getting a new name

After over 18 years, Microsoft will soon rename Xbox Live. The service will be called Xbox network. Some of the earliest mentions of the name change came from beta testers of Xbox’s new dashboard, however Microsoft has since confirmed the changes itself. In a statement to The Verge, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “‘Xbox network’ refers […]

Skyrim, Fallout 4, and other Bethesda games get FPS Boost on Xbox Series X

Five games from publisher Bethesda Softworks now support Microsoft’s FPS Boost feature, the technology that increases frame rates for games running on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, nearly doubling their original frame rates. Those titles are Dishonored: Definitive Edition, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Prey. Microsoft […]

Xbox Live goes down on Xbox Series X launch day

The Xbox Series X and Series S launched Tuesday and … welp, a general outage on Xbox Live this afternoon left many with the new console unable to play its games. Microsoft’s support team acknowledged the outage beginning at 1:01 p.m ET. and said they were working on it. With users unable to log into […]

Halo 3 fans spent 13 years trying to break into a skybox

By now it should be clear that Termacious Trickocity are a tenacious bunch: The Halo group has made a name for itself by achieving elaborate exploits that the wider community often regards as impossible. But usually, when a challenge stands in its way, Trickocity have objects to play with, like weapons or cover, which can […]