Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Only-On-Xbox documentary series will unearth E.T. Atari 2600 cartridges
One of gaming’s greatest mysteries, the mass burial of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges, will soon be solved – and only on Xbox. A documentary series, set to film in January, will attempt to unearth these fabled games from the New Mexico landfill in which they supposedly reside. The documentary will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One as part of Microsoft’s original programming initiative, and will air sometime in 2014.
For those of you who are not aware, here’s the skinny:
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 is largely considered as a major contributor to the great video game crash of 1983. The game was an awful mess, and millions of copies went unsold. Then, in the middle of the night, Atari drove several garbage trucks full of the game to the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and buried them in a landfill.
So are they really there? We’ll all (well, those of us with an Xbox console) find out together next year when filmmakers Jonathan and Simon Chinn and director Zak Penn go in search of E.T.’s last home.
Capcom leaves coal in our stockings and delays Dead Rising 3: Operation Broken Eagle
I guess this clinches it. Xbox One owners, collectively, have been very very naughty. At least, Santa Justice is the only explanation I can come up with for Capcom’s decision to delay the first downloadable expansion for Dead Rising 3, “Operation Broken Eagle,” from December 24 to January 21.
Or, you can read the official statement the publisher issued to Joystiq for the real explanation:
“Adding new content to the massive open world of Los Perdidos is a major undertaking, and to ensure we provide the best possible experience for players, we are putting a few additional weeks of polish and testing into the episode before it’s released. Stay tuned for additional updates.”
Bah, humbug!
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Rising 3
Lego The Hobbit’s first trailer is here and back again
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug cruised to the top of the box office heap this weekend with a total ticket take of $73 million. So now seems like a perfect time for Warner Bros. Games to unveil the first trailer for Lego The Hobbit, which is due to be released in 2014.
After watching this trailer, I think it’s official, Martin Freeman and Ian McKellan need to be in everything. Lego The Hobbit will be released for (deep breath) the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and 3DS.
Dead Rising 3: Operation Broken Eagle DLC announced
Now that Dead Rising 3 (and the Xbox One console) is available, Capcom has announced the first of four downloadable expansions they have planned for the game.
“Operation Broken Eagle” will star Spec Ops Commander Adam Kane and task the soldier with rescuing the President of the United States. Each expansion will feature a different character and Kane is about as far from Nick Ramos, a mechanic just trying to survive, as you can get. As a Spec Ops Commander, Kane will have access to “over-the-top” military weaponry and tank-like vehicles that “spew bullets.”
Capcom Vancouver’s Josh Bridge has outlined more details of the DLC over at Major Nelson’s blog. And he also wants everyone to know that, if you haven’t purchased the game yet, a Dead Rising 3 demo is now available to download through Xbox Live.
UPDATE: Capcom later announced that “Operation Broken Eagle” will be available to download on December 24 for $9.99 (or as part of a $29.99 Season Pass).
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Rising 3
CoD: Ghosts, Battlefield 4 march to the top of November 2013’s best-selling games chart
With the PS4 and Xbox One now available in stores across the country, the NPD Group is ready to talk about the financial health of the video game industry with their most recent monthly report. Total sales of $2.7 billion fueled the game industry in November, an increase of seven percent over November 2012’s sales numbers. The next-generation had a lot to do with the inflated number, as hardware sales were listed at $1.3 billion for the month, a 58% increase year-over-year.
But what about the games? Well, new releases Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag marched to the top three spots. Below that is a trio of non-November releases (Madden NFL 25, Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K14) and below that is a trio of family-friendly titles (Skylanders Swap Force, Just Dance 2014, Disney Infinity). FIFA 14 rounded out the top ten.
The top ten brought with it an interesting comparison between the two next-generation consoles and there seemed to be no clear-cut winner. According to Joystiq, the PS4 versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Assassin’s Creed IV, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, and FIFA 14 outsold their Xbox One counterparts. But the Xbox One can claim sales superiority with Skylanders Swap Force and Just Dance 2014 among multiplatform releases.
Finally, it was a bad month to be a platform-exclusive game as major releases like Super Mario 3D World, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Forza Motorsport 5, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds failed to crack the top ten.
You can find the complete chart of November 2013’s best-sellng games after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Disney Infinity, FIFA 14, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2014, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, NPD, Skylanders Swap Force
Xbox One reaches two million in total console sales
Are you ready for another next-gen console sales update? Microsoft has announced that they have sold over two million Xbox One consoles across the globe, as of yesterday, December 10. If you’ve got a giant scoreboard at home, be sure to adjust it accordingly.
But those 2.1 million Xbox One owners seem to be pretty happy with their purchase. Since the system’s November 22 launch, they’ve unlocked more than 39 million Xbox One Achievements (totaling more than 595 million Gamerscore).
Yusuf Mehdi, the Xbox Division’s Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, is also pretty pleased with the fan reaction to the Xbox One so far: “We continue to be humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response from our fans. We are thrilled to see sales of Xbox One on a record-setting pace, with over two million Xbox One consoles in homes around the world. Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers. We’re also particularly excited to see consumers engaging in a wide range of games and entertainment experiences on the platform, with more than one million paid transactions* on Xbox Live to date.”
If you recall, Sony announced on December 3 that they’ve sold 2.1 million PS4 consoles so far.
The Elder Scrolls Online will be released on April 4
Bethesda has announced that The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for the PC and Mac on April 4, 2014. In honor of the good news, Game Director Matt Firor has posted an update on ESO’s progress at ElderScrollsOnline.com:
Game development is coming along very well. We completed major systems development, and are focusing on making this the Elder Scrolls game you expect: polishing the hundreds and hundreds of hours of content, making combat even more fun and responsive, fixing quest issues, and much, much more. In fact, we plan on spending the next few months before launch reacting to the latest feedback from internal and external testers and gameplay data we have collected.
The Elder Scrolls Online will also be available for the PS4 and Xbox One, but console gamers will have to wait until June 2014 to explore the massive world the Zenimax Online team is building. But everyone can enjoy the game’s new trailer, “War in Cyrodiil,” which has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged The Elder Scrolls Online
Microsoft sets Halo: Spartan Assault for a December 24 release on Xbox One
Santa Claus is coming to town and he’s bringing presents for all the good girls and boys… including shotguns and assault rifles and rocket launchers! Microsoft has announced that Halo: Spartan Assault, their twin-stick shooter set in the Halo universe, will be released for the Xbox One on Christmas Eve, December 24.
Halo: Spartan Assault was previously released for Windows 8 PCs and devices through the Windows Store. The Xbox One edition will add a co-op mode and new weapons to the game, as well as include the “Operation Hydra” expansion. If you’ve previously purchased the Windows 8 version of Spartan Assault, you’ll be able to upgrade to the Xbox One edition for just $4.99.
If you’re interested in learning more about Halo: Spartan Assault, head over to Xbox Wire for an interview with the game’s Executive Producer, Dan Ayoub.
And if you’re an Xbox 360 owner and you’re interested in Spartan Assault, don’t worry, Microsoft plans to bring the game to the Xbox 360 in January 2014.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: Spartan Assault