"One of things that we haven't talked about is the way the saved game architecture works," said Ben Kilgore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. "It's more like a phone a little bit. So you are not going to lose your save game stuff as you are switching between tasks."
Game designers can still decide whether their games will also feature more traditional save points, Kilgore said, but all games will include the ability to stop playing a game and have it essentially save instantly.
For instance, Kilgore said, a player could stop gaming for the day, and then come back the next day and say "Xbox on" and the console is "going to bring you right back to where you were in the game."
The console also supports a universal pause command. Players can...
Achievements on the Xbox One will be complemented by the addition of cloud-driven achievements that can be added to games as developers see fit and new Challenges that can dare players to achieve smaller, limited-time goals in games.
Microsoft's Ben Kilgore, corporate vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business, explained that Xbox One Achievements are cloud-driven, "so even after [developers] ship the game, if they want to go update achievements, add new achievements, they can totally do that."
Xbox One Achievements will be able to span games as well, Microsoft's Phil Harrison said, and developers will even have the option to design Achievements that span Xbox generations. Since Xbox 360 Achievements will carry over to Xbox Live accounts on Xbox One, developers can unlock...
Xbox One will allow Xbox 360 users to transfer music, movies and television downloads from the Xbox 360 across to the new console, Microsoft's corporate vice president Phil Harrison confirmed with Polygon today.
When asked to clarify if there will be a future backward compatibility solution to bring Xbox 360 games and saves to the Xbox One, Harrison confirmed that games will not but other forms of media will be transferable.
"Actually, to be clear music, movies, television will," Harrison said. "All that comes across. Anything that you've acquired from Xbox Video or Xbox Music will move across."
Harrison attributed a "long architectural technical reason," which he didn't share, when asked to clarify why Xbox Games on Demand and Xbox Live Arcade Games could not transfer across to the...
Gameplay videos can be captured in two basic ways, Ben Kilgore, corporate vice president of Xbox program management told Polygon.
Players can simply say "Xbox capture that" and the console will go back and grab the last chunk of gameplay out of the buffer and save it to your hard drive, he said.
Microsoft also plans to give game developers the ability to have the console record "magic moments" from a game automatically.
"We're going to give game developers access so they can actually go out there and record your magic moment for you because they'll be likely to know when something epic is about to happen in the game," Kilgore said. "Single-player [moments] or it could be something like you just make 10 head shots in a row. Something really cool is happening, and you're on a rampage,...
We had a chance to check out the Xbox One's new controller and the future of Kinect during today's visit to Microsoft's Redmond, Wash. campus.
The controller features 40 improvements to the Xbox 360 controller and feels like a slightly lighter, but more solid version of Microsoft's gamepad. Kinect now brings with it the ability to track heartbeats, muscular movement and even facial expressions to determine alertness and mood.
Check out our video for a quick walkthrough of what we saw and a little bit of crab walking.
Carbine Studios revealed two new character paths today for its massively-multiplayer role-playing game, WildStar: the scientist and the settler.
At a recent hands-on event, Carbine showed off the two paths in action: the scientist path is for players who are more interested in the game's story and the world's lore, while the settler path is more skewed toward those who are interested in building things, crafting objects and taming hostiles.
"What settlers do is they do things to improve the areas they're in," executive producer Jeremy Gaffney told Polygon. "They take chaos and make order out of it. So in this particular case, we give you some things to do around town, so if you see something that's broken, you can fix it and get a little reputation."
Gaffney said settlers can also...
The next-generation Kinect will come to Windows PC eventually, Ben Kilgore, corporate vice president of interactive entertainment business confirmed with Polygon today.
When asked if the new Kinect will see a release on the Windows PC, Kilgore responded with, "At some point down the line, yeah."
All Xbox One units will ship with the Kinect sensor, which must be plugged in for the new console to operate, as it is "now an essential and integrated part of the platform."
Using the second generation Kinect, Xbox One will support voice commands allowing users to navigate menus and applications. When the console is in its lowest power setting, referred to as the "wake on voice" setting, users will be able to wake it up with specific verbal Kinect commands.
The first Kinect was originally...
Xbox 360 controllers will not be compatible with the newly announced Xbox One, Microsoft's corporate vice president Phil Spencer told Polygon at the company's unveiling event in Redmond.
The Xbox 360's controller was introduced in 2005. Along with adding a Guide button, it removed and rearranged several of its predecessor's design elements. Spencer, when asked, said they wouldn't be supported.
Xbox One's controller features 40 design changes, including a thinner analogue stick, a new precision pad, integreated battery compartment and Wi-Fi Direct Radio Stack. The controller does not include a touch screen, share button, near-field communication or biometric sensors like its current competitors.
Read our hands-on preview with the Xbox One controller here. For more information on the...
Microsoft won't set the price for Xbox One games and will leave the price point of next-gen games up to publishers, Microsoft Studios' corporate vice president Phil Spencer told Polygon today.
When asked about how games might be priced on the newly announced Xbox One console, Spencer said that's not up to Microsoft.
"As a console holder, we don't actually set pricing," Spencer said. "We actually don't even recommend pricing. Honestly, we don't. Pricing is a publisher-consumer-retailer proposition, something we enable [in] a marketplace for digital content and retail. We'll price our first-party games."
When asked about prices for games published by Microsoft, he declined to be specific.
"We're not announcing the pricing of our first-party games here, but we'll be market competitive...
The footage of EA Sports' Ignite engine shown at today's Xbox One reveal event was pre-rendered using assets from Electronic Arts' next-gen FIFA, Madden, NBA Live and UFC games, says Andrew Wilson, executive vice president of EA Sports.
Asked whether snippets of real-time gameplay were featured in the teaser for FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA Live 14 and EA Sports UFC, Wilson said no and explained the reasoning behind its Xbox One showing.
"It was all pre-rendered," Wilson told Polygon. "Listen, we're not hiding behind that fact. This was an event that we've been planning for a number of months on a new platform. And what we wanted to do was use real game assets, so they're all real game assets, straight out of our game teams, but we had to get it into a format that would be usable in...
Class of Heroes 2, Acquire's dungeon-crawler role-playing game, is set to launch June 4 for $24.99 on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita, MonkeyPaw Games announced today.
Last month, Class of Heroes 2 was available for pre-order for $36.99 from Amazon, which included the UMD disc, game manual and a voucher for a digital copy of the game. Pre-orders closed on May 8.
The game features more than 140 quests, more than a hundred dungeon maps, monster hordes, branching storylines and endings.
"We're extremely excited to release this addicting sequel for more reasons than the obvious localization enhancements," Ray Almeda, marketing and PR manager at MonkeyPaw Games said in a prepared statement. "Class of Heroes 2 is just one of many J-RPGs that...
Microsoft unveiled its next console today: the Xbox One. New controller, new design, new user interface, new features, new games — and a whole lotta news.
Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Xbox One: all the news from Microsoft's next-gen debut
Reports of Xbox One's online requirements and used-game fees are no more than "potential scenarios" and not concrete details, Microsoft told Polygon via email.
"While Phil [Harrison] discussed many potential scenarios around games on Xbox One, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail," Microsoft told Polygon.
Initial news from Wired stated that those with second-hand or used games would be required to pay a small fee before being able to play.
Additionally, Kotaku spoke with vice president Phil Harrison during today's event, where Harrison told the publication that users would need to connect to the internet every day. Microsoft could not confirm these details.
"There have been reports of a specific time...
The 500 GB internal storage featured in the Xbox One will be non-removable and non-user serviceable, and the three USB 3.0 ports will allow for external storage, Albert Penello, senior director of product planning at Microsoft confirmed with Engadget.
In comparison, the hard drive installed in the Xbox 360 is user serviceable and replaceable. According to Penello, external storage via the new console's USB 3.0 ports can be used for storing everything that the internal hard drive can, including downloads and game installs.
In order to play a game, Xbox One will require users to install games from the disc onto the console's HDD; however, the console will allow gamers to play games as they are installing. Xbox One will also allow updates for games and apps to install in the background...
The Xbox One's Kinect microphone is always listening and waiting for specific commands, Microsoft's hardware program manager John Link told Polygon today.
Microsoft revealed today that Xbox One will support commands native commands for powering the console on and off. Xbox 360 Kinect users can power off the console by using voice commands to navigate the menus, but not power on their consoles with the device.
In response to a question about whether that functionality means that Kinect is always on, Link said that Kinect is always listening, but in a limited capacity. It also helps ensure developers can count on the peripheral, he said.
"The Kinect has a variety of settings," he said. "You know, it's always available to the system, so ... you can count, as an application developer...
Strike Suit Zero's Heroes of the Fleet DLC is available now and brings five new missions to Born Ready Games' space combat shooter, the company announced today.
The $6.99 Heroes of the Fleet DLC is available now on Steam, where owners of Strike Suit Zero can also download the game's new free mod tools, which include Steam Workshop support.
All Strike Suit Zero content is on sale for 50 percent off through May 26 on Steam, including the Mega Bundle, which includes the game, an art book and the game's DLC for $19.99 (regularly $39.99).
Strike Suit Zero is available now for Windows PC, and Born Ready is developing Mac and Linux versions for later this year. For more on Strike Suit Zero, be sure to read Polygon's review.
Electronic Arts is developing games for the Wii U, but not as many as the company is developing for Sony and Microsoft's consoles, EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said today during the Stifel Nicolaus 2013 Internet, Media and Communications Conference.
Jorgensen's statement seems to contradict a statement last week from EA spokesman Jeff Brown, who said last week that the company has "no games in development for the Wii U currently."
When asked by a conference attendee which console manufacturer would lead the next generation, Jorgensen said that consumers, not publishers, would be the ones to decide.
"You know, I think Nintendo's business was more [an] extension of their last console," Jorgensen said today. "We are building titles for the Nintendo console, but not...
Microsoft is promising 15 Xbox One games from its stable of first-party studios in the first 12 months, a mix of brand-new IP — like Remedy's Quantum Break — and established franchises — Forza Motorsport 5 from Turn 10 Studios, for example. One of those Xbox One titles, destined for E3 2013, will please fans of veteran developer Rare Ltd., Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer told Polygon.
When we asked Spencer what Rare was up to and whether Microsoft was looking at franchises like Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct for Xbox One, he said that developer's "historic IP" may make an appearance at E3.
"Fans of Rare and Rare IP I think will be pleased with what we're going to show at E3," Spencer said. "We had a limited amount of time today and a lot of story to...
Electronic Arts will give an idea of its plans for the Star Wars license during its E3 2013 press briefing, said EA Labels president Frank Gibeau today.
The press conference will include "a first look at our plans for the Star Wars partnership with Disney," said Gibeau on the company's Beat blog. Earlier this month, EA announced it had signed an exclusive, multi-year licensing agreement with Disney for the rights to produce Star Wars games. EA-owned studios BioWare, Visceral Games and DICE are working on Star Wars projects, but EA does not expect to release a new Star Wars game before April 2014.
EA will also use its E3 press briefing to show off next-generation titles including Battlefield 4 and the next entry in the Need for Speed franchise, as well as next-generation EA Sports...
Xbox 360 Kinect owners had some trouble today watching Microsoft's Xbox One reveal due to device's response to "Xbox" commands spoken during the livestream.
Several users took to Twitter to document their problems, which included pausing, opening Xbox Live or quitting the stream entirely. Polygon's own reviews editor Arthur Gies experienced similar problems with his Kinect while watching the stream.
When the guy on the #XboxReveal stream said "Xbox Live" it activated my Kinect and killed the stream. Good thinking guys.
— Jason Chen (@diskopo) May 21, 2013
Whenever he uses Kinect commands my connect listens and turns off the stream. #xboxreveal Go home Kinect, you're drunk.
— Katy Goodman (@KatGoodman7) May 21, 2013
@ojko7 it wasn't the stream; it's that my Kinect...
Gravity Guy 2 (iOS, Windows Phone 8)
Everyone's favorite Gravity Guy returns! This time, instead of flipping gravity, you're raising platforms to propel yourself across gaps. Even though it sounds duller than the original, it's actually a good deal more engaging.
Trucker Parking Simulator (iOS)
Have you ever wanted to park a truck? Probably not. It sounds really scary. But there's nothing scary about trying to park a truck in a video game, because the worst that can happen is you end up having to restart a level. And damn if I don't find virtual truck parking really satisfying. Call the Teamsters union!
Can Knockdown 3 (iOS, Android)
Finally a game that lets you take down the efforts of carnies the world over! Best can physics I've ever seen.
Smart Match and Game DVR will give console owners a new way of interacting with fellow gamers through social networking sites and Xbox Live using Xbox One, Microsoft announced today.
Using the Smart Match feature, Xbox One offers a new matchmaking system to multiplayer gaming that includes an advanced algorithm to pairs players on the basis of skill, language and reputation. Additionally, Xbox One offers a new alternative to matchmaking lobbies — Instead, console owners can play a game, watch TV or listen to music while they wait for a match to be found. Users can also favorite those matches to quickly find particular players to join up with.
On top of Xbox One's new matchmaking features, the player can make use of its Game DVR feature to save impressive moments throughout their...
All Xbox One units will ship with a Kinect sensor, and the Xbox One must have the new Kinect sensor plugged in at all times in order to run, said Microsoft representatives in a Q&A; about the console.
"The all-new Kinect is now an essential and integrated part of the platform," reads the Q&A.; "By having it as a consistent part of every Xbox One, game and entertainment creators can build experiences that assume the availability of voice, gesture and natural sensing, leading to unrivaled ease of use, premium experiences and interactivity for you."
During the Xbox One reveal event today, Microsoft demonstrated the console's system-level Kinect integration for voice and gesture controls used to do things like switch between games, apps and live TV.
One of Microsoft's primary design goals for the new hardware was to create a "boldly understated" design that would appeal to both traditional game players and a wider audience interested in other types of entertainment, says Senior Principal Creative Director Carl Ledbetter. In practical terms, that means the company went with a 50/50 split matte gray/glossy black look for the console. Or "liquid black" as Microsoft calls it, to give it more of an entertainment industry feel and bring it in line with other Microsoft products like Surface.
According to Ledbetter, Microsoft's internal design hardware team for Xbox 360 was two people, while now that group has 27 people to work on details like creating a functional venting design on the right side of the console and creating consistency...
Trade-in and resell programs have a clear "benefit and a value" for gamers as a whole and add "residual value" to products, GameStop president Tony Bartel told Polygon.
Speaking with us shortly after Microsoft's Xbox One reveal, Bartel spoke about both the company's resolve to transition gamers from the current generation to the next and the importance of second-hand games. Wired reported earlier that Xbox One will include a mandatory install before games can be played, and that second-time users would need to pay a small, one-time fee. Polygon is currently waiting on comment from Microsoft.
When asked about Xbox One's potential second-hand fee, Bartel said the information came "as a surprise" and declined to comment "on speculation."
"All that Microsoft has said so far is that...
The "new generation" of Xbox Live will be compatible with both Xbox 360 and Xbox One and allow users to communicate with each other across consoles.
Microsoft's president of Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, confirmed to Polygon players will be able to chat and communicate across the generational barrier between Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
The integrated Xbox Live service will also allow players to use a single account across multiple systems.
"And because it's all one service, your Xbox Live Gold membership will work on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One," the Xbox website explains.
For more on Microsoft's new console, be sure to explore our StoryStream below.
Xbox One users will be able to have 1000 Xbox Live friends, according to tweets from the Xbox Support Twitter account.
In response to questions regarding the friends list cap, the account confirmed users will have up to 1000 spots to fill.
"1000 friends is indeed confirmed," read one of the tweets.
@bjkedits That is correct, there will be 1000 friends on the Xbox One ^JG
— Xbox Support (1-5) (@XboxSupport) May 21, 2013
Update: Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten told Polygon that the Xbox One won't have the same friend limit as the Xbox 360, which capped users at 100 friends. "You'll be able to have many, many more friends [on Xbox One] — we won't have those types of limits, and you'll see us pulling friends from across other social experiences," he said. Whitten...
The newly announced Xbox One console will instantly boot up from its rest state, Microsoft confirms.
According to the console maker, the new platform will instantly wake up "so it's always ready when you are." Users can also use the voice command "Xbox On," which will boot up the console and, according to Microsoft, can even turn on the user's TV.
Similarly, console owners can pause and resume games instantly, and both downloads and updates will be out of sight so the user won't need to wait to access other content.
Senior vice president for Microsoft's interactive entertainment business Yusuf Mehdi demonstrated the console's voice command features and during today's reveal. Switching between games, music and television on the platform was shown to take mere seconds using these...
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