The Xbox One may be trailing behind the PlayStation 4 in the current-generation sales race, but Microsoft has high hopes for its console this holiday. Speaking with GameSpot this week at E3 2015, Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg said a string of blockbuster exclusive games and new backward compatibility functionality will lead to a “massive migration” of Xbox 360 owners moving to Xbox One.
“A lot of people have been waiting for the next Halo; a lot of people have been waiting for Gears; a lot of people have been waiting for backwards compatibility,” Greenberg said.
“And so we think having all of that coming this holiday; we expect we’re going to see a massive migration,” he added. “We expect millions of Xbox 360 owners to migrate and move to Xbox One. We see that the majority of people who buy an Xbox One today own an Xbox 360. So our fanbase has stayed very loyal. And frankly, they’re waiting for those new releases to come this year.”
Greenberg stressed that you should not underestimate how pivotal backwards compatibility will be in encouraging people to upgrade from an Xbox 360 to an Xbox One.
You can watch our full interview with Greenberg below.
When developer Bungie announced Destiny’s next expansion, The Taken King, I was skeptical of its story. I was not particularly impressed with the narrative in the base game. But I was able to go hands-on with the first mission in The Taken King, and I came away believing that Bungie is pushing hard to make this expansion’s story special.
When the mission started, I dropped onto Mars’ moon, Phobos, a new location in Destiny. The sky was full with ships and in the distance and the red planet hung in the sky. I started running along a cliff toward a structure. A massive Cabal ship rose up over the cliff, only a few feet from me, but it quickly flew away. As I rounded the corner and came into view of a Cabal war base, sounds of fighting and destruction rose in my ears. I spotted forms of Cabal and my mind prepared for combat. These Cabal, however, were dying. One crawled for a few seconds and then fell prostrate at my feet. Another was just a heap by the building. Something ominous was happening and murdering all of the Cabal. Something had shifted in Destiny’s world; I was not fighting the normal enemies any longer.
This is just the opening of the next chapter in Destiny’s story, and the sinister atmosphere weighed heavily across the entire thing. Later in the level, I encountered the new enemy type, the Taken, for the first time. The black-and-white enemies shudder and shift, as if they’re caught in between worlds. They take on forms that you’ve seen before, but they behave in very different ways. Salvos of rockets join the familiar guns and melee attacks, and some of the foes split into two.
All of this contributes to a level that seems so original compared to the rest of Destiny. From what I saw, The Taken King isn’t shying away from going in a different direction and expanding out the Destiny experience. Using the Hunter’s new Shadowshot super move, I tied together a bunch of the fallen and picked them off with a great new pulse rifle. Phobos looks like no other Destiny environment, with Cabal architecture blending with dark Hive caverns. The story seems more in-your-face and more immediate.
In fact, it feels like some of the epic Halo campaign levels that Bungie is famous for. The Taken King channels those memorable moments in Halo when you see the Flood coming in and battling with a huge Covenant fleet. This mission had that same feeling of surprise and unease when I saw the Cabal brought to their knees by an unseen force.
It seemed so new to the world of Destiny. The scale of this mission far exceeds the majority of the original Destiny campaign. Its reveal is impactful, and I genuinely experienced fear when I saw the Cabal brutally and mysteriously killed. I loved my time in the demo, exploring a world that I had never seen before and discovering secrets of Destiny lore. The Taken King is shaping up to be a great time to start playing Destiny again, and it’s sure to appeal to Halo fans who have been wanting Bungie to return to its roots.
As the level drew to a close, I recognized Bungie’s efforts to improve the story and the world. The demo I played made me very optimistic for the future of Destiny’s narrative.
Microsoft did not talk about its motion-sensing Xbox peripheral Kinect during the company’s E3 briefing this week or at all during the show itself. Some fans might be wondering how committed Microsoft is to the technology considering it didn’t take any time to talk about it at the year’s biggest gaming show.
But now, Xbox executive Aaron Greenberg has spoken out to assure fans that Kinect is here to stay.
“We are absolutely continuing to support Kinect,” Greenberg told GameSpot this week at E3.
He went on to say that Microsoft is “innovating with Kinect in a different way,” pointing out that there are features included with the new Xbox One user interface that will leverage Kinect. One of these is Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri-like digital assistant, that will be available on Xbox One sometime in the future.
“So we’re continuing to support Kinect where it makes sense,” Greenberg added.
When the Xbox One launched in November 2013, all Xbox One bundles came with Kinect. But this changed a year later, when Microsoft released a Kinect-free bundle and offered the camera as an optional add-on. Greenberg stressed that consumers having a choice is an important part of the overall Xbox One strategy.
“We really want Kinect to be a choice for customers. For me, I love it; I turn my Xbox One with Kinect; I use it for entertainment; I use it to do screenshots and all that,” he said. “I like to be able to have my hands on the controller and use voice commands. But, frankly, a lot of people also want a better value and don’t want to have to pay for it. So we’re not going to force people to do that. We give people the choice.”
You can watch our full interview with Greenberg below.
It feels like it just started, but we’re here at the final day of E3. Before we say goodbye to the Los Angeles convention center, we have one final roundup of the best content from our expansive show coverage.
From what I’ve seen and played of Kingdom Come: Deliverance , an upcoming historical RPG, it looks cool! This E3 trailer, showing stuff like combat and horse-riding, only has me more psyched.
I don’t know what the final Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will cost. The fact that it won’t come with its amazing motion controller makes me want to wait. But even with just an Xbox One gamepad , there are already mindblowing experiences to be had. Here are all of them.
The reveal of big games is sometimes accompanied by the release of some of their concept art, and this E3 has proven to be no different. Inside you’ll find concept and promotional images for games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2 and Fallout 4.
Moments before stealing the show at Sony’s press conference by announcing the Final Fantasy VII remake that may make it in time for the PS5, Square Enix whipped out World of Final Fantasy, a chibi-sprite game that promised to be “adorably familiar” and looked like something made for kids.
Winter hasn’t arrived yet on Game of Thrones, but there’s still a bit of “winter of our discontent” going on. Season five veered way off George R.R. Martin’s road, with shall we say mixed results. Here’s how to get Thrones back on its game.
“Don’t give each other secret looks!” The Film Arcade has debuted the full trailer for Jim Strouse’s People, Places, Things, starring Jemaine Clement as a graphic novel artist/teacher struggling with his life as a single father. Jim Strouse is the very talented filmmaker who brought us Grace is Gone and The Winning Season, two other Sundance gems from a few years back (if you haven’t seen either yet, please go watch both of them right away). This new film also stars Regina Hall, Jessica Williams and Stephanie Allynne. I saw this at Sundance and it’s really, really good. Nothing groundbreaking, but just a feel good charmer that will leave you with a smile and some optimism. This is a lovely trailer for a movie I hope doesn’t get ignored. ›››
