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
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- 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
Battlefield developer DICE is hiring for a next-gen game
Who wants to work in Stockholm?
DICE, the EA division of mad programmers that play with the Frostbite 2 engine and brought you titles such as Battlefield 3 and Mirror’s Edge, is looking for a senior software engineer to help them craft their next-gen titles. Next-gen as in PlayStation 4 (AKA Orbis), Xbox 720, and Wii U.
What do you need to work at DICE? Hit the jump to find out, complete with translations for those unfamiliar with video game employment vernacular. (more…)
Microsoft working on a new “AAAA” game
I guess grade inflation isn’t just for review scores anymore.
A job listing at Microsoft Studios has revealed that the consolemaker is in the early planning stages of a new “AAAA” game. It appears that the Executive Producer hired to fill this position will be in charge of staffing a brand new team with Microsoft Studios.
The job listing didn’t reveal any other details about the game or even confirm its in development for the Xbox 360. For all we know, the extra “A” is a clue that this this job listing is referring to an Xbox 720/Xbox Next game.
Or I just really wanted to make that “grade inflation” joke.
Microsoft: Xbox 720 will not be announced at E3 2012
If you were hoping for an Xbox 720/Xbox Next announcement at this year’s E3 Expo, you can forget it. Microsoft has confirmed (to Game Informer) that the successor console to the Xbox 360 will not be making an appearance at this June’s industry showcase.
Ryan James, Group PR Manager for Microsoft Studios, said, “While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon. For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360—and it’s the best year ever for Xbox 360. The console is coming off its biggest year ever—a year in which Xbox outsold all other consoles worldwide.”
Sony made a similar pronouncement in January, so it looks like the Wii U will be the only next generation console at E3 2012.
Ready At Dawn creating new IP for next-gen consoles
It looks like Bethesda isn’t the only studio dabbling in next-generation development.
Ready At Dawn has announced they’re looking to fill multiple positions for a new project not of this generation. Exactly which platforms the developer’s next-gen game will appear on are still up in the air, but we do know it’ll be a third-person action/adventure. It also won’t be a sequel to an existing game as Ready At Dawn said the game will be “an exciting new AAA [intellectual property].”
Ready At Dawn is best known as the developer of the two PSP God of War games and the Wii port of Okami. So they’ve definitely built up some goodwill among action/adventure. And I can’t wait to hear more about their next (generation) project.
Bethesda hiring for “future-generation console” project
That’s right, the Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Xbox 720 aren’t next-generation systems, they’re “future-generation.” And Bethesda has a game in the works for at least one of them.
A job listing on parent company ZeniMax Media’s website revealed the following position today:
- Extensive experience programming and optimizing for the Xbox 360 and PS3
- Experience with DirectX 11 a plus
- Passion for making GREAT games, and being part of a GREAT team
- Ability to contribute innovative ideas towards all aspects of game development
- Must create amazing things with minimal oversight
- Experience playing Bethesda Game Studios games a plus
So what we can infer from this listing is that a PS4 and Xbox 720 release for this unannounced game is very likely with a PC release almost a certainty (it is Bethesda after all). And the requirement that applicants have experience playing Bethesda games possibly points towards a new entry in the Elder Scrolls or Fallout series.
I know it’s just speculation right now, but yes please!
Microsoft: No Xbox 720 in 2012
Can it be? Are we actually about to report on some honest-to-god Xbox 720 news that came straight from a Microsoft representative. Why yes, we are.
Cedrick Delmas, Marketing Director of Microsoft France, recently sat down for an interview with French site Le Point (helpfully translated by Google Translate). He candidly discussed the future of the Xbox platform and confirmed that the Xbox 720 won’t be released in 2012:
We are in an industry where it talks a lot, it likes to tell stories. I am not convinced that things are happening this year. The cycle of the Xbox 360 is by no means complete. […] After that, it will happen at E3, it is still premature. What is certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012.
While it’s possible that Delmas isn’t privy to Microsoft’s secret plan to launch the Xbox 720 in 2012, I’d say it’s much more likely the Wii U will be the only next-generation system on display at this year’s E3 Expo.
Rumor: Next Xbox to use Radeon 6670 GPU; 2013 release targeted
Sources close to the Next Xbox project have told IGN that the system will use a GPU similar to the Radeon HD 6670, which includes support for “DirectX11, multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output.”
Additional sources, this time talking to tech site Fudzilla, have said that mass production of the GPU chip, which is believed to be codenamed Oban, will begin in late 2012 for a launch date sometime in late 2013.
Returning to the IGN report, we also got our first estimate at how much more powerful the Xbox 720 is compared to the Xbox 360: “[T]he Xbox 720’s raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360 and will yield 20-percent greater performance than Nintendo’s forthcoming console, the Wii U.”
But of course, all of this information (especially the release date) is straight from the rumor mill and should be taken with a grain of… blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
Is it E3 yet?
Rumor: Microsoft trade show schedule dates new Kinect hardware, next Xbox for 2014
Take this one with a huge grain of salt, but tumblr blog MS nerd has posted a leaked trade show schedule for Microsoft that covers every expo from now until the end of 2014. This treasure trove of data reveals release dates for Windows 8 and Windows 9 as well as info on the next Xbox and a Kinect refresh (both scheduled for 2014).
The most important conferences/dates appear to be E3 2012 (“Xbox SDK, 3G Kinect games announce”), E3 2013 (Xbox “loop” announce), Build 2013 (Xbox “loop” launch), E3 2014 (Kinect HP2 announce, Xbox PU announce), and Nov 2014 (Kinect HP2 launch, Xbox PU RTW).
While these acronyms go unexplained, allow me to take a stab at it. The short timeframe between the Xbox “loop” announcement and its launch likely points to another Xbox Live refresh or some other rebranding scheme. The 2014 dates are much more interesting as Kinect HP2 may possibly stand for “Hardware Profile 2” (meaning a redesign/upgrade for the Kinect sensor) and the Xbox PU may refer to a “Powered Up” Xbox (also known as the Xbox Next among rumormongers). Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.
The full Microsoft conference schedule can be found after the break. (more…)