When EA announced its Access service a few weeks ago, everyone stood up and took notice. While the folks at Sony apparently didn't think it was a big deal, those on the limited beta felt otherwise. Now, as of today, that beta has given way to a full service that is available to anyone in the United States who owns an Xbox One that's connected to the Internet.
A short while ago, EA announced a deal with Microsoft that would allow gamers to play a number of titles from its catalog for a subscription fee. At $4.99 for the month or $29.99 for a whole year, it seemed to good to be true, but in actual fact, it just got even better.
The Xbox 360 may have arrived in white, well, off-white originally, with Microsoft adding a darker model at a later date, but this time around, the console sports a shiny, jet-black finish. Obviously, some prospective Xbox One owners were hoping for an alternative to the rather understated aesthetic of the software maker's latest entertainment machine, and this fall, the white color option will arrive as a part of the Sunset Overdrive bundle in October.
Electronic Arts, or EA as it is often referred, is one of the most well-respected and renowned gaming publishers on the planet, and has, in its decorated history, presented us with some truly seminal titles. Now, it's fair to say that apart from Titanfall, Xbox One owners haven't had much to claim over their PS4-toting rivals in the battle of one-upmanship so far. However, EA has just rolled out a special deal for Xbox One customers that offers access to a number of those aforementioned great games for a cost of just $5 per month, which, if you've already stumped up the cash for the console itself, is chickenfeed by comparison.
Today, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, has just kicked off, and Microsoft has gotten us under way by announcing the release dates of some big titles headed to the Xbox later on this year. The keynote confirmed the retail market date of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Forza Horizon 2 1080p, as well as demoing the likes of Evolve, Assassin's Creed Unity, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Sunset Overdrive, and of course, Halo 5, so if you've been waiting for any of these epic titles to land, check the low-down after the jump!
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One may still be in relative infancy given the life cycles of previous-gen machines, but in this fast-moving culture of technology, folks are always looking ahead to what's next. While it will be a number of years before the respective successors of these two consoles manifest, though, the wait mightn't be as long as we suspected and in fact, work has perhaps already started on the PlayStation 5 and what will likely be referred to as the Xbox Two.
Microsoft spent an unspeakable amount of money in improving the Xbox One's controller over that of its predecessor, but up until now, PC gamers haven't been able to take advantage of it without following the fairly tedious, hacky methods demonstrated on YouTube and such. But now, the official PC driver for the Xbox One control pad has just been rolled out, so if you want to enjoy your favorite titles on Windows while also utilizing the decidedly comfortable new controller, check the details below.
When the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 emerged all those years ago, it was always assumed that both would offer backwards compatibility with the titles of their respective predecessors, but in the run-up to the current-gen machines - particularly Microsoft's Xbox One - it quickly became apparent that things wouldn't be so clear-cut. Since the Xbox maker’s latest entertainment machine landed late last year, gamers have been in limbo with regards to eventual support for Xbox 360 titles, and now some encouraging news has been revealed to suggest that this may, in future, become a possibility, which follows on forward from an earlier report that suggested the same thing.
Microsoft is really ringing the changes today in order to boost console sales, and off the back of the news that the Xbox One will soon drop $100 off its price tag by removing the currently-bundled Kinect sensor, the software giant has also decided that in order to enjoy the likes of Netflix, Hulu and YouTube on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, users will no longer have to stump up for a Xbox LIVE Gold subscription.
We knew that the next-gen console price wars wouldn't take too long to commence, and Microsoft has lit the blue touchpaper to rival Sony by dropping the price of its Xbox One from $499 to just $399. Of course, such a significant decrease some six months after launch was always going to present a catch, and in this case you'll have to forgo the Kinect motion / voice sensor if you want to take advantage of the price-drop. Still, if you're a purist and were never particularly enchanted by the improvements made to the original Kinect sensor, your decision on which console to purchase just got interesting.