Month: May 2018

With just about a month to go before E3 2018 kicks off, Microsoft is continuing to tease what’s in store for its briefing at the big-time gaming show. After suggesting that games from Japanese publishers will be on stage, Microsoft has now teased its showing even more. In a blog post today, Microsoft’s Mike Nichols said the company has a “great briefing filled with new games” on tap.

“We’re hard at work on exciting plans for E3, from what will be a great briefing filled with new games to the fan experience at the Microsoft Theater,” Nichols said. “This is our biggest E3 yet, and we look forward to a great week for gamers. Again, thank you to the amazing Xbox community.”

Microsoft’s E3 2018 briefing takes place on Sunday, June 11, starting at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET. Whereas last year we knew that Xbox One X (then Project Scorpio) would be a major highlight, we know relatively less about this year’s show.

In January, Spencer said that there would be some “positive changes” at E3 for Microsoft, which could have been a reference to the company’s decision to hire out the nearby Microsoft Theatre. Microsoft will still have a presence on the E3 show floor, but it will be dedicated to Mixer exclusively, while the rest of the activities take place across the street in the Microsoft Theatre.

One possible announcement from Microsoft this year is Halo 6, which has been discussed but not formally revealed. Microsoft is also said to be working on a PlayStation Now-like game-streaming service. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on E3 2018 in the days and weeks ahead.

In other E3 news, The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red has confirmed it will attend E3 this year. Intriguingly, the Polish studio might be talking about an unspecified RPG at the show.

When Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would play Xbox 360 games through backwards compatibility, some wondered how popular the feature might be. As it turns out, it’s very popular. Microsoft announced today that Xbox One players have collectively logged almost 1 billion hours playing Original Xbox and Xbox 360 games on Xbox One.

In June 2017, Microsoft announced that people had spent 508 million hours using backwards compatibility, so usage is only growing. According to Microsoft, around half of all Xbox One owners have used the feature. Some have questioned whether or not people actually use backwards compatibility, and of course they do.

Microsoft adds more games to the backwards compatibility catalog on a semi-regular basis; just this week, Saints Row 2 was added. In addition to hundreds of Xbox 360 games, there are more than two-dozen Original Xbox games in the catalog. You can see a full rundown of all the backwards compatibility games here.

In some cases, backwards compatibility games look markedly improved on Xbox One X. Red Dead Redemption, for example–a game that came out in 2010–looks stunning on Microsoft’s newest console.

In related news, as of this week, Gamerscore you unlock playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox One counts toward the monthly Xbox Live Gamerscore leaderboard.

Microsoft’s blog post today contained some other noteworthy Xbox datapoints, including:

• The number of Xbox Live players is up 13 percent year-over-year.
• Xbox One sales up 15 percent year-over-year.
• More than 600,000 “friendships” have been made using the Looking For Group feature.
• There are now more than 1.2 million Clubs on Xbox Live.
• There are now more than 200 games that are “enhanced” for Xbox One X.
• Players have collectively logged more than 4 billion hours of ID@Xbox games.
• Mixer now has more than 10 million active users.

Epic Games has provided Fortnite: Battle Royale players with a lot to digest in the big Season 4 update, and not all of is apparent from the patch notes. Your first post-update Battle Bus trip over the island will reveal some of the big changes, like the comet laying waste to Dusty Depot, which has resulted in a massive crater. But as fans are digging in further, they’re finding there’s much more to find on the island that you might assume at first.

The lead up to Season 4’s debut suggested that the comet would finally crash and that we would get a superhero-themed season. Some of the skins match up with that, but the newly modified island itself seems to hold additional pieces of the puzzle. Pull your attention away from Dusty Divot and Risky Reels and you’ll find other new areas that aren’t labeled on the in-game map.

Take, for instance, the unnamed area just southeast of Lonely Lodge. If you head up to the roof of the house, you’ll find one of the letters to seek out for Week 1’s challenges. But it’s underground that holds the more intriguing discovery. Either by breaking through a floor at the (apparent) bottom level of the staircase or by building ramps off the edge of the cliff, you can find an underground base, as shown in this video posted on Reddit by TopiKoodaa.

Down there, you’ll find computers, security cameras, a locker room, and more, along with a logo on a wall for an as-of-yet undetermined group. Over in Salty Springs, as shown by Reddit user __Kaneda__, there’s a similar but smaller secret room to be found through a hole hidden behind a staircase.

Even more elaborate is what’s located just northeast of Snobby Shores. Ascend toward the house up on a mountain, and you’ll find a giant missile sticking out of a silo, as shown in Philendrium‘s video. Jump in, and you’ll find more computers, cars, and security cameras, as well as another logo. It all looks a bit like a Bond villain’s lair.

Potential superhero/villain bases aside, there’s also something much different in another area of the map. As shown in Qpaniic‘s screenshot, there’s a destroyed building with what looks like a huge dinosaur track in its place. With one of Season 4’s themes seemingly being moviemaking, it’s possible this is just meant to be part of a set. Still, considering that players tried to interpret Morse code messages from controller vibrations in trying to crack the mystery of the comet, this is sure to spur some new theories about what awaits in Season 4 or 5.

For the time being, none of these new areas ultimately have a major impact on the way Battle Royale plays, but it’s still fun to see the island evolve. The underground bases also tease the possibility of some ongoing story that may play out over the course of the season. That’s purely speculation at this point, but after how things played out with the comet, figuring out what’s next and going along for the ride will be half the fun for Fortnite fans.