Microsoft News Articles
Tuesday2nd Oct 2018
News Sequel To Minecraft Doesn't "Make Sense" According To Microsoft's Helen Chiang
It would fracture the community
When games are successful, naturally sequels are expected. The insanely popular Minecraft appears to be taking a different approach. When Microsoft forked out a whopping $2.5 billion for the franchise in 2014, analysts expected the company would quickly churn out a sequel to make it a worthwhile transaction. It's now...
Thursday22nd Mar 2018
News Xbox's Phil Spencer Is Still Open To Banjo And Kazooie Appearing In Super Smash Bros.
Rare is also open to giving IP to third parties
As we all know, Rare used to be a solid partner for Nintendo. During the N64 years, Nintendo held a significant stake in the UK firm, which created seminal games like Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64. It was also the company responsible for the N64...
Tuesday30th Jan 2018
Rumour Get That Pinch Of Salt Ready, Apparently Microsoft Is Preparing To Buy Electronic Arts
Keep a straight face
While the Switch and PlayStation 4 continue to sell robustly, over in the land of Xbox things aren't looking quite as rosy. Even the most ardent supporter of Microsoft's console hardware would admit that there's a serious shortage of quality first-party exclusive games on the machine right now and that's only going to hold the...
Tuesday16th Jan 2018
Rumour A New Perfect Dark Game Is In Development, But Rare Isn't Involved
And it's not for a Nintendo system, obviously
Reports are surfacing online about a potential new entry in the popular Perfect Dark series, which began life on the Nintendo 64. According to the rumour, Gears of War studio The Coalition has been tasked with reviving the franchise, which is now owned by Microsoft following the purchase of IP holder...
Monday6th Nov 2017
News Microsoft Wants To Reach Gamers On Rival Systems, Says Xbox Chief Phil Spencer
Focus is on growing game sales and services, apparently
Microsoft is about to launch the Xbox One X worldwide, the company's latest play in what has become an increasingly competitive hardware arena. The Xbox One has lost out to the PlayStation 4 in terms of global share, while Nintendo's Switch has seemingly carved out a whole new sector of the...
Tuesday19th Sep 2017
News Halo Is Coming To The Nintendo Switch, In A Fashion
Yup, it's a Minecraft mash-up pack
Fans of the Master Chief, rejoice! Microsoft's million-selling Halo series is finally coming to a Nintendo console - but before you get too excited, we should point out that it's happening under the guise of a Minecraft mash-up pack. The pack will become available on Switch thanks to the launch of Minecraft's new...
Monday15th Aug 2016
Video Augmented Reality NES Gaming Finally Gives Us A Reason To Want Microsoft's HoloLens
Super Mario Bros. on your living room wall
Virtual Reality may be the flavour of the moment right now, but Microsoft is attempting to chart a different course with its HoloLens headset. This expensive piece of kit uses Augmented Reality to create unique experiences and has plenty of applications in the sphere of gaming - running NES games being just...
Tuesday28th Jun 2016
News Activision Was Closer To Owning Rare Than You Might Think
Xbox co-creator Ed Fries says it was a close-run thing
UK company Rare is responsible for some of the best games of the past 30 years, and was once a Nintendo second-party studio thanks to the Japanese giant purchasing 49 percent of the firm. Nintendo and Rare's alliance resulted in titles like Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, GoldenEye 007,...
Thursday12th May 2016
News Microsoft's Phil Spencer Says Minecraft Partnership With Nintendo Has Been "Great"
"Nice to see Minecraft doing so well on the Wii U"
The head of Microsoft's Xbox division is quite a chilled out guy. Not only does he find the very concept of console wars "distasteful", but he can't stop saying nice things about Nintendo, claiming that the Japanese firm is a "bea
Monday29th Feb 2016
Weirdness This Is Conker As You've Never Seen Him Before, And Won't Ever Want To Again
Say hello to "Young Conker"
Conker is one of Rare's most iconic characters, largely because he's a complete subversion of everything a cute, platforming mascot should be. Originally conceived as your typical fluffy hero, Conker only really found fame when Chris Seavor - he of Rusty Pup fame - took the character and turned him on his head, creating...
Monday14th Dec 2015
News Microsoft Gets Cute About Possible Rare Replay Release On Wii U
"Suggest it to the great folks at @RareLtd"
As we all know, Minecraft on Wii U is no longer a fantasy - it's real. And, as many have pointed out, that means that Microsoft is releasing a game on a Nintendo system. Wonders never cease, right? This event has predictably triggered a frenzied response online, with some incredibly optimistic individuals...
Wednesday9th Dec 2015
News Microsoft's Phil Spencer "Would Be Happy" To See Nintendo Games On Xbox One
Looked at working with Nintendo on GoldenEye "many times"
Is Hell feeling a bit chilly? Are pigs taking to the skies? It might be prudent to check, because Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has voiced the opinion that he would love to see Nintendo games on the Xbox One. It's an outlandish statement, but one which has a logical root. It has just been...
Thursday5th Mar 2015
Yacht Club Games "keeping an eye out" for Nintendo possibilities
Remember when Shovel Knight was a Nintendo console exclusive? Nice, wasn't it? Those days are long past now, with developer Yacht Club Games confirming that the faux-retro platformer is headed to both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. To rub a bit more salt into the wound, it was confirmed...
Sunday30th Jun 2013
News Microsoft Execs Thought They Owned Donkey Kong After Acquiring Rare
Conker's Bad Fur Day director tells an amusing tale
Back in 2002 Microsoft forked out $375 million to acquire UK-based developer Rare, which had previously enjoyed a long prosperous period with Nintendo. Of course that meant all of Rare's intellectual properties went along for the ride, including Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie. However, according...
Monday6th May 2013
News Violent Video Games Blamed for Knife Attack in Scotland
14-year old viciously assaulted after "an argument about Xbox games"
Violent video games are getting more bad rep this week, after a senior Scottish Police officer blamed them for a recent knife attack in Clydebank. The perpetrator — who is only 13 years old and apparently already a father — is reported to have slashed the throat of a 14-year...
Thursday13th Jan 2011
News Nintendo Praises Sony and Microsoft's Contributions to Gaming Industry
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
Gone are the days when you could call Nintendo a big fish in a small pond. Modern gaming has undoubtedly expanded the size of the waters, and there are once again, several big fish that inhabit said pond. Speaking at the Learning Without Frontiers conference yesterday in London, General Manager of...
Tuesday18th May 2010
News Microsoft Manager Gives 3DS the Thumbs Up
Takashi Sensui also reveals Microsoft's own preparations for the 3D realm
It's always professional of rival companies to give credit where it's due, but it's even more respectable when it seems genuine. It seems that Nintendo's first steps into the 3D gaming world have garnered positive comments from a Microsoft big-cheese. Speaking to the Nikkei...
Friday17th Jul 2009
News Nintendo Still Dominating NPD Charts
MotionPlus off to a good start.
Another month, another Nintendo sales win for the U.S. Despite declining overall hardware sales by 38 percent year-over-year, Nintendo still managed to carve out over half of console and portable sales for the month of June, with Wii moving around 374,000 units and the DS family raking in a bazonga 766,500 handhelds...
Monday23rd Mar 2009
Bungie's third iteration in its console-profiling Halo series has recently been 1upp-ed in sales by Nintendo's calorie-zapping Balance Board title.
As well as topping the NPD charts for last month in the U.S of A for what seems like the gazillionth time, Wii Fit has also reached the milestone selling amount of six million (that's a lot of flab...
Tuesday15th Jul 2008
E3 2008 Original Banjo Kazooie Xbox LIVE Bound
Nintendo are shunned, Rare's masterpiece original Banjo Kazooie is to be made available on Xbox LIVE later this year, tying into the new game Nuts & Bolts.
At its E3 press conference, Microsoft announced that Rare's original Banjo platformer will be released this year for the Xbox Live Arcade. The game will feature slightly upgraded visuals and the...
