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All Articles: Xbox One
Bethesda will bring “a big mix of stuff” to E3 2018
Bethesda held their first E3 Press Conference in 2015, and they managed to instantly win over the crowd by showcasing the first teaser trailer for Doom. In the years since, the publisher has doubled down on this strategy, and continued to focus on spectacular sequels and expansions to their biggest franchises.
And it sounds like 2018 won’t be any different.
DualShockers tracked down Bethesda’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Pete Hines, at PAX East 2018, and asked him what we can expect from the company’s E3 showcase. As in years past, Hines promised that fans will see “a big mix of stuff” that won’t be limited to one kind of game or genre:
[W]e have a lot of new stuff to talk about at E3. Whether or not folks realize it, this is the hell on Earth time for us with E3. We are in the midst of so much planning and work for all of that content but I’m really excited.
I think we have a lot of stuff that folks are going to like. To my earlier comment, it’s going to be a big mix of stuff that’s all over the place. It’s not going to be like all [one] kind of game or genre. It’s going to be a lot of stuff in a lot of different areas and hopefully, there’s something in there for everybody.
Bethesda always has a lot of irons in the fire, but aside from the constant drumbeat of The Elder Scrolls VI (and the two “big and crazy” projects that will precede it), we don’t have any idea what the publisher is working on.
I guess we’ll all find out together during Bethesda’s E3 Showcase, which will be held on June 10 at 9:30 PM (Eastern Time).
You Don’t Know Jack will return in Jackbox Party Pack 5
Jackbox Games will bring back “You Don’t Know Jack” in this Fall’s Jackbox Party Pack 5 on the PC, consoles, and other “major digital platforms.”
An announcement on the developer’s official website lays out all the details, and it looks the trivia game will include many of the features and question types that fans have come to expect. But it’ll also get a change of scenery so that Jackbox can mock “binge” culture:
We didn’t want to do another YDKJ just because we could. We wanted to wait until we had a fresh take on the classic formula. This version sees the game (and Cookie) acquired by the friendly corporate overlords at Binjpipe, your premiere media bingeing streaming service. It’s a big scenery change that’s led us to update the game in really fun ways, and given us a ton of new stuff to make fun of.
“You Don’t Know Jack” will also include support for up to eight players, as well as “new question types, audience integration, brand new fart sounds, a lot of old fart sounds too, streaming features, begrudging meme references,” and “more than one Frasier joke for some reason.”
Like the previous Jackbox Party Pack collections, Jackbox Party Pack 5 will also include four other games that’ll be announced at a later date. For now, check out the C2E2/PAX East Trailer embedded above. It’s a hilarious takedown of binge-y buzzwords.
The Video Game Canon: 2018’s “Version 2.0” Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The Video Game Canon has been upgraded to “Version 2.0” thanks to the addition of four new lists that were published throughout the last year. Edge Magazine’s “100 Greatest Videogames” issue, Jeux Video’s “Top 100 Best Games of All Time,” Polygon’s massive “500 Best Games of All Time,” and Stuff UK’s “50 Greatest Games of All Time” have reshuffled the ranking in a big way.
Let’s take a look…
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Staff of Polygon name their “500 Best Games of All Time”
Polygon recently celebrated its fifth birthday with a weeklong countdown of their choices for the “500 Best Games of All Time.”
Along with a high-profile roster of special guests (including Jeremy Parish, Susan Arendt, Jon-Paul Dyson, and Benj Edwards), the site’s staff put together this massive ranking of games that includes titles from nearly every platform and stretching back to the very beginning of the medium. They even set some ground rules:
We asked everyone to vote based on innovation, polish and durability, rather than simply personal taste. We cut games released in 2017 to eliminate recency bias. And we left out sequels that we deemed too similar to the games that came before them.
Collecting all those votes together, we then combed through the data for anomalies and came up with the final order you see here.
Polygon’s final tally looks very similar to our own “Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time,” and this includes their selection of Tetris as the #1 game of all time.
Rumor: Xbox 720/Durango to cost $300 with a subscription, $500 standalone
Paul Thurrott is a technology journalist who runs Supersite For Windows. With his high-profile in the tech community, he’s managed to provide accurate reports about the future of Microsoft before. Now, his sources are talking about the Xbox 720/Durango, and Thurrott has appeared on the latest episode of the What the Tech videocast (embedded above) to relay what they told him.
According to Thurrott, he is hearing that the next-generation console will retail for $500, with a $300 “subscription” model also available for purchase. Details on the contract that would go with the subscription contract were unavailable, but Thurott is sure that “Durango is going to be expensive.” The journalist is also hearing that the Xbox 720/Durango will be revealed during a presentation on May 21. A more complete reveal will follow a few weeks later at the E3 Expo. Can’t say there’s anything too shocking about that.
What is surprising is that Thurrott has also corroborated the “always-online” rumor that blew up last week. Writing on his site, Thurrott said: “Folks, the next Xbox is going to require an always-on internet connection. I don’t know the specifics of what that means. […] This piece of information had been communicated to me, along with some other relevant tidbits, in January. It’s true.”
Microsoft’s official statement on the matter (via Major Nelson) is a particularly wordy form of “no comment.” But the statement did say that Adam Orth’s comments “do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products.”
I know the evidence is piling up on the “always-online,” but I’ll be very surprised if it’s present in public version of the Xbox 720/Durango.
MS Creative Director shares his opinion of “always-online” consoles: “Deal with it”
Adam Orth is the Creative Director at Microsoft Studios. But he might have trouble introducing himself over the next few days as his foot has become firmly lodged in his mouth.
Yesterday, Orth took to Twitter and expounded on the rumors that the Xbox 720/Durango would require a constant Internet connection. Since his gaffe, Orth has switched his account to private, but thankfully, a Reddit user was able to capture the offending tweets (with BioWare’s Manveer Heir playing the part of the pissed-off public):
Orth: Sorry, I don’t get the drama around having an “always on” console. Every device now is “always on”. That’s the world we live in. #dealwithit
Heir: Did you learn nothing from Diablo III or SimCity? You know some people’s internet goes out right? Deal with it is a shitty reason
Orth: Electricity goes out too.
Heir: You’ve lived in LA, SF, Seattle… very connected places. Try living in Janesville, WI or Blacksburg, VA
Orth: Why on earth would I live there?
While Orth was using his personal Twitter account to disseminate his personal opinion, this exchange brings new meaning to the words “tone deaf.” A lot of people do live in those places, Mr. Orth, and not all of them have a steady Internet connection (or any Internet connection at all, for that matter).
Microsoft has yet to make any official announcements about what features the Xbox 720/Durango will or will not include, but Orth’s comments have lent quite a bit of weight to the rumors that the console will require an Internet connection. The Wii U launched in November without any kind of “always-on” requirement and Sony has previously promised one won’t be used in the PS4. So this would put the Xbox 720/Durango in a very bad position.
GameStop CEO calls Xbox 720 “a very hot, compelling device”
Somewhere in the bowels of Big Redmond is a prototype version of Microsoft’s next console, the Xbox 720/Durango. The whole world (OK, maybe not Japan) is waiting to get a glimpse of the console and the next-generation games that it’ll support.
One person who doesn’t have to wait is GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines.
Speaking to GamesIndustry International, the leader of North America’s largest game retailer has revealed that not only has he seen the Xbox 720, but that he’s very impressed with it:
“We’ve been spending a lot of time with Microsoft, but we have to let them take the lead on this, but it will be a very hot, compelling device. They are doing some really cool stuff, and I’m eager to hear them start their announcements because I think the world is going to stand up and take notice,” Raines commented.
Microsoft has yet to confirm when they’ll take the wrapping off the next Xbox, but many in the industry expect the system to launch before the end of the year.
SXSW: Pachter predicts next-gen games will cost $70
Michael Patcher, a video game industry analyst for Wedbush Securities Research, has predicted that games for both the next Xbox and the PS4 will cost $70. The infamous Patcher was speaking at a panel at the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX and the quote originally appeared on the Twitter feed of GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley:
At #SXSW panel @michaelpachter says PS4 and next Xbox games will likely cost 70 dollars, 10 dollars more than current gen.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) March 9, 2013
This might be news to Sony as Jack Trenton, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s President and CEO, has previously stated that the PS4, “will offer games with prices ranging from $0.99 to the more traditional $60 range.”