Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
The Video Game Canon – Halo: Combat Evolved
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at Microsoft’s first attempt to enter the console market and the birth of Halo: Combat Evolved. Here’s a teaser…
Microsoft is usually portrayed as the stodgy suit in contrast to Apple’s hip turtleneck, but would you believe that the first Xbox prototype was built on a whim by a quartet of guys from the company’s engineering department?
Kevin Bachus, Otto Berkes, Seamus Blackley, and Ted Hase first took their “DirectX Box” to Ed Fries, the head of Microsoft’s video game division, in 1998. Even though everyone in the world had played a dozen hands (or more) of Windows Solitaire, Microsoft wasn’t a big player in the game development arena at the time. Similar to today’s line of console-like PCs, the original “DirectX Box” was an off-the-shelf Windows PC with a video card and a hard drive that hid the Windows-ness of the system from the player.
Before the “DirectX Box” could move forward, Fries and his team had to fight off a challenge from a separate team within Microsoft that had worked with Sega to produce some of the system software for the Dreamcast. They were pushing for the company to create a more traditional console (no Windows, no hard drive), and Bill Gates himself ultimately stepped in to give his blessing to Fries and his “DirectX Box.”
[…]
[Eventually,] Microsoft toted their Xbox prototype, which was a massive X-shaped silver box with a glowing green core, to the 2000 Game Developers Conference, and officially announced their intention to take over the living room (with an assist from Bill Gates and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). A few months after that, the company purchased Bungie Studios and their upcoming game, Halo: Combat Evolved.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in Features, PC, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: Combat Evolved
Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together will launch alongside the Switch on March 3
We’re less than a week away from the launch of the Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo has announced that yet another game will be ready for the console’s debut on March 3. Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together, a co-op puzzle game starring a pair of anthropomorphic pieces of paper, will be available to download through the Nintendo eShop on Day One.
To better familiarize yourself with Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together, feel free to press Play on the latest episode of the consolemaker’s “Nintendo Minute” show. Hosts Kit and Krysta provide a pretty decent overview of the game as they work their way through three adorable puzzles.
Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together will be priced at $19.99 and offer three game modes including World Mode (which can also be played solo), Party Mode, and Blitz Mode.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together
Overwatch wins “Game of the Year” (and three other awards) at 2017 DICE Awards
Blizzard made their mark on last night’s DICE Awards presentation when Overwatch took home the trophy in four categories, including “Game of the Year.” The shooter was also honored as “Action Game of the Year,” as well as for “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design” and “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay.”
It was also a good night for Naughty Dog, as the developer claimed four victories for their work on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End including “Adventure Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement in Story,” “Outstanding Technical Achievement,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Animation.”
The full list of winners at the 2017 DICE Awards (including Pokemon Go for “Mobile Game of the Year,” Pokemon Sun and Moon for “Handheld Game of the Year,” and three awards for Inside ) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (2016), Inside, Overwatch, Pokemon Go, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Xbox Store Today: Forma.8, Riptide GP Renegade, World Heroes, more
A big batch of new Xbox One games were added to the Xbox Games Store today…
Xbox One owners now have the opportunity to download Forma.8, a “MetroidVania” that stars a small exploration probe known as Forma.8. This little guy is stranded on an alien planet, and it has to search through ancient alien civilizations for a powerful energy source that will save the world.
Also available to download this week for the Xbox One is Riptide GP: Renegade, a futuristic racing game that features “illicit hydrojet racing.”
And lastly this week, SNK is has begun to bring games from the NeoGeo back catalog to the Xbox One, and they’ve decided to start with World Heroes, one-on-one fighting game, and Neo Turf Masters, a classic golf game.
More details about all of these games (and more than a half dozen other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
More than 80 games will be on display in the Indie Megabooth at PAX East 2017
PAX East 2017 will open its doors in exactly 336 hours, and the Indie Megabooth has finally announced which games it’ll have on display at the Boston-based convention this year.
Dozens upon dozens of indie titles will get a chance to shine in a couple of weeks, including some of our favorites from years past. We selected Vertex Pop’s Graceful Explosion Machine, Hypersect’s Inversus, and Pocketwatch’s Tooth & Tail for our Best of PAX East 2016 roundup and all of them will be on display in the Indie Megabooth this year. Refactor, an alumnus of our Best of PAX East 2014 roundup (when it was known as Tetropolis) has also earned a spot in the PAX East 2017 edition of the Indie Megabooth.
The Indie Megabooth continues to grow and change, and this year, in addition to the Minibooth area and the Tabletop area, it’ll also have a “Visual Novel Reading Room” within its carpeted confines for PAX East attendees.
You can find the full list of games set to be included in the Indie Megabooth at PAX East 2017 after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Graceful Explosion Machine, Inversus, PAX East 2017, Refactor, Tabletop Games, Tooth and Tail
BadLand Games will publish a retail edition of Axiom Verge this Summer; Switch re-release is also a possibility
Axiom Verge, Thomas Happ’s retro-tastic Metroid homage, will soon be available on retail store shelves nationwide.
BadLand Games has announced they’ll publish a special Multiverse Edition ($29.99) of Axiom Verge this Summer for the PS4, Vita, and Wii U, as well as a game-only Standard Edition ($19.99) for the PS4. The Multiverse Edition will include a copy of the game, as well as a Deluxe Booklet with developer’s commentary and art, a double-sided poster, and a Making-Of Documentary on DVD.
“Fans have been asking for a physical retail version of Axiom Verge since the game originally launched,” Happ said. “I’m extremely excited that the Multiverse Edition will be coming to retail soon. As a solo developer, it’s always been a dream of mine to see a game that I made end up on the store shelves!”
This is great news for game collectors, especially because Axiom Verge is a favorite here at Warp Zoned. The side-scroller earned a spot on our “Apocalypse List” and took home “Best Game Where an Alien’s Head Pops Like a Grape” at the 2015 Golden Pixel Awards.
In other Axiom Verge news, PR Guru Dan Adelman said on Twitter that he’s currently talking to Nintendo about re-releasing the side-scroller on the Switch. However, any plans to port Axiom Verge to the Switch are currently on hold because he’s “waiting for my old co-workers to return my calls.”
Matt Groening and David X. Cohen will help bring Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow to mobile devices
Good news, everyone! Futurama, Matt Groening’s cartoon chronicle of the year 3000, will rise from the sitcom graveyard a third time as Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow, an upcoming mobile game from TinyCo.
TinyCo is best known as the developer of Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, and in addition to working with Groening, they’ve recruited Executive Producer David X. Cohen and the show’s original animators at Rough Draft Studios to help produce the game.
“Futurama is back, bigger and better than ever! Or possibly smaller and equally good. But either way, it’s back!” said Cohen. “We’ve got completely new stories from the original writers, cast, and animators. This is the real Futurama deal.”
“I love this game because it feels just like Futurama,” added Groening. “Except now you get to jab the characters in the face.”
TinyCo will unveil more details about Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow soon, and the game is expected to launch later this year for iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire devices.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow
Nintendo Download: Harvest Moon 64, Forma.8, more
Even though Nintendo plans to officially retire the Wii U in a week’s time, the consolemaker is still making classic titles available to download through its Virtual Console. This week, the farming simulation Harvest Moon 64, which was originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, is now available to purchase.
Elsewhere on the Wii U eShop, players will be able to download Forma.8, a unique “MetroidVania” with a minimalist visual aesthetic. Players will take control of a small exploration probe known as Forma.8, and they must explore the surface of an alien planet to find a powerful energy source before its too late.
You can learn more about both of these games (and a few other new additions to the Nintendo eShop) after the break. (more…)