Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Microsoft clarifies Xbox One game licensing policy
A few days ahead of E3, Microsoft has finally clarified how game licensing and used games will work on the Xbox One. In an FAQ posted on Xbox.com, Microsoft broke it down for prospective Xbox One buyers:
*** All games must be registered with your Xbox Live account. But once registered, all of your games can be downloaded to any Xbox One system as long as you’re logged in with your Live account.
*** “Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games. Anyone can play your games on your console–regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.”
*** You can designate ten “family members” who can log in and download any of your games from any Xbox One.
*** Your friends can borrow your games with two conditions: “[Y]ou can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.”
As for used games, Microsoft has confirmed that all Microsoft-published disc-based games can be traded in or transferred without a fee. However, how the game is removed from your account remains still a mystery. Here’s the kicker, though. Third party publishers can choose to “opt out” of this system and charge a fee for game transfers or entirely disallow Xbox One owners from trading in their games.
So there you have it. Microsoft’s game licensing policies for the Xbox One aren’t quite as bad as we feared, but allowing publishers to deny used game sales is pretty terrible. And it will definitely cost Microsoft at least a few Xbox One sales this holiday season.
PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360 shooter TitanFall is Respawn’s first game
The digital edition of the July 2013 issue of Game Informer was uploaded to the Google Play store a might early and, thanks to NeoGAF user cartman86, we’ve gotten our first look at Respawn Entertainment’s first title: TitanFall. The game, which will be published by Electronic Arts, will be available in Spring 2014 for the PC and Xbox One. An Xbox 360 version is also in the works at an outside development studio.
As expected, TitanFall is a futuristic first person shooter that throws ground troops and mechs (known as Titans) onto the same battlefield and asks them to duke it. The game will be centered around its Multiplayer Campaign mode, while also including additional multiplayer modes and a “One-Player Mode.”
Titans are not your traditional lumbering mechs. They’re fast and powerful, with the ability to jump and scale walls. Titans can also be programmed to remotely follow a ground troop like a giant robotic dog. But ground soldiers can take down a Titan by climbing atop the head and shooting out the brain a la Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers. On the technical side of things, TitanFall is being built with a modified version of Valve’s Source engine and will make use of the Xbox One’s cloud processing feature in some way.
A more official announcement for TitanFall will surely appear at next week’s E3 Expo (or perhaps earlier thanks to this leak).
Harmonix and Disney team up for Fantasia: Music Evolved on Xbox 360, Xbox One
Harmonix isn’t straying very far from their musical roots for their next game. The Rock Band developer has teamed up with Disney to produce Fantasia: Music Evolved for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The Kinect-powered game will be available in 2014.
Fantasia: Music Evolved players will become the next “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and legendary sorcerer Yen Sid will teach you the secrets of magic thanks to a series of on-screen prompts. Correctly following his instructions by flailing your arms and moving body will restore magic to the world and “transform magical worlds.”
Instead of the classical music the Fantasia film was known for, Fantasia: Music Evolved will use more modern music including tracks from AVICII (“Levels”), Bruno Mars (“Locked Out of Heaven”), Fun (“Some Nights”), Kimbra (“Settle Down”), and Queen (“Bohemian Rhapsody”).
Of course, if you really want to see a magical rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” I suggest William Shatner’s version.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Fantasia: Music Evolved
Ubisoft plans to announce multiple next-gen games at E3 2013
Ubisoft’s Fall 2013 lineup will be well represented at this year’s E3 Expo as the publisher plans to display five titles at the gaming showcase, as well as multiple unannounced next-generation games:
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Rayman Legends
- South Park: The Stick of Truth
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
- Watch Dogs
Ubisoft’s E3 Press Conference will take place on Monday, June 10 at 6:00 PM (Eastern Time). The company will post a livestream of the presentation on YouTube for everyone who can’t attend the E3 Expo. Updates from the show floor will also be posted on Ubisoft’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, and official blog during E3 week.
“This is a pivotal moment for the video game industry, and E3 is the opportunity for us to share our vision for the future,” said Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s CEO. “We have many incredible games in development, and we’re especially excited to share more on our next-gen titles, which will deliver more connected, immersive and interactive experiences to our fans.”
So, any guesses on what Ubisoft’s unannounced next-gen games will be?
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, E3 2013, Rayman Legends, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Watch Dogs
Relax, the Xbox One’s Kinect sensor CAN be turned off
After viewing Microsoft’s “Next Xbox Reveal,” you’d be forgiven if you thought the Xbox One could only be controlled through voice commands. Thankfully, a Microsoft spokesman has spoken to Kotaku and confirmed that the system does indeed have a power switch.
“It is not always watching or always listening. Yes, you can turn the system completely off. This would use no power and turn everything off. We’ll share more details about how it all works later.”
The fact that this needed to be clarified is pretty scary. Microsoft has been backtracking thanks to a bevy of miscommunicated official statements ever since the Xbox One was first revealed. In fact, questions about the console’s used game policy started making the online rounds before the presentation was even over.
So it’s not surprising that Microsoft also had to tell Kotaku that the Xbox One’s Kinect sensor will include customizable privacy settings in case you don’t want a 1984-styled two-way camera monitoring you:
“We are designing the new Kinect with simple, easy methods to customize privacy settings, provide clear notifications and meaningful privacy choices for how data will be used, stored and shared.”
So you can put away your tin foil hat… for now.
Zumba Fitness World Party coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii
It’s the news you’ve been waiting for… a Zumba game has been announced for the Xbox One! Majesco has announced that Zumba Fitness World Party is in development for Microsoft’s next-generation console. it will be available “later this year.”
Zumba Fitness World Party is also in the works for release on the Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360 and is scheduled for an October release.
Majesco has provided us with more information about Zumba Fitness World Party than you could ever ask for, which you can find after the break. They also promised that we’ll learn even more about the game at E3 2013. So mark your calendar. (more…)
Not The One: A Comic About the Xbox One Reveal Created in MS Paint
Even though Microsoft’s Xbox One presentation was three days ago, my emotions still feel like they’re on a roller coaster. Using Microsoft’s own MS Paint program, I think I managed to capture my reaction in comic form.
The full comic, “Not The One,” is posted after the break. (more…)
Microsoft executive believes the public will buy ONE BILLION next-gen consoles
Yusuf Mehdi has big dreams. Mehdi, who is Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of the Interactive Division, believes that there’s still plenty of life left in the Xbox 360 and he thinks the system can sell 25 million more consoles over the next five years for a total just north of 100 million. Mehdi laid out his plan to OXM UK, and while it’s ambitious, it sounds like Microsoft wants the Xbox 360 and Xbox One to coexist, at least for a little while:
“We believe over the next five years we can break a 100 million unit installed base. That’s something we’re shooting for, it’s not a financial plan as such, it’s just rough numbers if you will. To sell another 25 million, half of those will probably come from replacements, but half will come from new buyers.”
But that’s just phase one of Medhi’s plan for world domination. He also believes that when the sales of every eighth generation platform (that’s the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U) are added together, they will total over a billion consoles sold during their lifetime:
“Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400 million units. That’s if it’s a game console, over the next decade. We think you can go broader than a game console, that’s our aim, and you can go from 400 million to potentially upwards of a billion units.”
Collectively, the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii have managed to sell about 260 million consoles since November 2005, so this would be quite a growth spurt for the industry.