Spencer recently made an interesting declaration: that Microsoft is going to be more clear and transparent this console cycle, and that the reveal of the games people can expect to play on the Series X is “soon”. It is, obviously, an exciting comment, but it is also something that inspires some confidence in the Xbox brand going into the next generation, and demonstrates that they may have learned from the mistakes that have sunk them in the past.

The more straightforward part of that statement is, obviously, about the games. Those game announcements and reveals are coming soon, hopefully – general expectation appears to be that Microsoft will show some titles off next month – and that brings with it a level of excitement. Not least because this is the first time we get to really see what a bespoke next generation Xbox Series X game might be like (our only glimpses at the next generation so far have been Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2), but also because this will probably be the first time we see some results from Microsoft’s recent spate of acquisitions.

In response to the criticisms about the company’s failings on the first party and exclusive games front, Microsoft has bought out a lot of promising looking studios – from Ninja Theory to Playground Games – and this will be the first time we get to see some real fruits of their shopping spree (the few games we have seen from these studios since their purchase have been smaller scale experimental projects, such as Bleeding Edge).

But the more interesting part of the statement is Spencer’s declaration that Xbox will be more transparent and “authentic” this generation, not least because it is an implicit admission of mistakes, as well as a tacit admission of not being that the previous generation. While under Phil Spencer, Xbox’s marketing and messaging has generally been clear and straightforward, the Xbox One’s fate was sealed very early on in the console generation, when Microsoft’s confusing and frankly arrogant messaging surrounding the then upcoming console (from the always online DRM to its relative lack of power next to the PS4 to the forced inclusion of Kinect) ended up damaging the console’s perception with the public strongly.

It never recovered, and among many of the more casual gaming public, a lot of misunderstandings surrounding the console remained (such as a belief that you could not play used games on the console, because the Xbox One had originally been planned to not allow that).

As I said, this is something they slowly became better at over the course of the generation. By the time they were introducing fan favorite initiatives such as backward compatibility, Play Anywhere, or Game Pass, there was a refreshing earnestness and honesty about their messaging. We were told exactly what we were getting, and nothing more.

But even in spite of that, there were some lingering remnants of the tendency to muddy the waters – their refusal to share sales numbers for their consoles or games, for example, opting instead for more nebulous indicators of success, such as Average Monthly Users (though this is at least somewhat justifiable in context of Microsoft’s broader company-wide pivot to services). Or take the confusing implication that the Xbox One S is a 4K console in early marketing (it can play 4K movies and videos, yes, but it cannot play games in 4K) – though, once again, that seems to have stopped of late (and especially since the One X started being marketed).

There has been an element of mistrust towards the company by a lot of users this generation, then, in part because of Microsoft’s early failures with the Xbox One, and in part because even under the otherwise impeccable stewardship of Phil Spencer, there have been times when Xbox has felt frustratingly opaque. And while attributing the console’s struggles this generation to just that would be extremely simplistic – we have already discussed so many other reasons for that in just this piece alone – it is still a reason for why the brand saw a relative decline compared to the Xbox 360 heyday.

So, back to Spencer’s statement, then: he promises more authenticity and transparency going forward. And assuming this isn’t just lip service – which we have no reason to think it is, judging by Spencer’s excellent track record on following through on his promises so far – this is yet another promising indication that the company is willing to reflect, introspect, and learn from its mistakes. This is yet another sign that Xbox is willing to not repeat its own failings, and to actively work on improving itself.

That kind of underlying attitude is what Microsoft needs as it heads into the next generation, if it hopes to match Sony on a more even footing this time around. Addressing every individual mistake from the Xbox One era, as Microsoft has done so far, is extremely important, of course – but that’s a bit like patching up holes in a boat after it’s begun to sunk. It’s good you’re doing it, but you should never have let it sink in the first place.

This attitude of wanting to be better overall, however, is a lot like steering the ship so well it never got those holes in the first place – and right now, that’s what Microsoft seems to be doing. And that’s a good thing. That means they won’t have to spend as much time on reacting to their failures next generation, as they have had to this generation. It means they will be spending more time with a better output of games, and better overall value offerings for players. And that only adds value to video games as a medium, as a whole.

That is, of course, good news for anyone that likes games – you get more great ones in the bargain. It’s also, obviously, good news for Xbox fans, since they can look forward to a far better generation than the one they just had. And even hardlined PlayStation fans stand to benefit from this, because Sony is at its best when it is trying to combat and quench the Xbox – such as through the late PS3 era, or the entirety of the Xbox One generation. Microsoft being good only pushes Sony to be even better (and so it goes back and forth).

Literally everyone benefits. Just look at how much healthier the industry is when Nintendo is not flailing like with the Wii U, but thriving with the Switch. As it is there, so it is with Xbox too.

So yes, with this recent statement, Spencer has only given us all more reason to be optimistic for the future of Xbox. And in the process, hopefully, he has given everyone – even those who might swear by PlayStation or PC or Nintendo – a reason to look forward to what the next generation brings. Bring it on.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It seems like Microsoft may be letting The Coalition, whom they had repurposed into exclusively working on the Gears of War franchise, create a brand new IP. Posting on its website. Storylab Productions, a multi-media house, and one that has previously worked with The Coalition on Gears of War Ultimate and Gears of War 4, has declared that it is now working with The Coalition on a brand new IP.

Literally all we know is that this IP is in production as of 2017- we have no idea of what it is, or when it might be announced. But if there actually is a new IP in the works, that’s a major step towards righting their first party situation taken by Microsoft- I can only hope this is true, and we’ll learn more about it come E3.

Gears of War Ultimate and Gears of War 4 are both currently available on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.

Rare’s Sea of Thieves looks to be one of the most charming and promising looking games on the horizon, so each time I get to see more of it, I am happy. And this new trailer for the game, which shows off its charming and gorgeous islands, and how Rare came up with them, makes me very happy indeed.

The video, presented by Level Art Lead Darren Nourishand Environment Artist Joachim Coppens, shows off how the studio comes up with the islands in the game, as well as the graphics for all the assets needed to render the islands in game. The end result is what will probably become the most frequented locations in the final game, once it releases.

Sea of Thieves is due out on Windows 10 and Xbox One (presumably as part of Xbox Anywhere) in 2017. You can check out the new trailer for the game for yourself below.

Microsoft are currently working on the Xbox Scorpio, their next console, which is due to launch in Holiday 2017. Unlike the relatively disappointing PS4 Pro, the Scorpio seems to be a beast of a machine- it was unveiled at E3 as ‘the most powerful console ever made,’ and with a 6TFLOP GPU, it looks like Microsoft will deliver on that vision.

And now, Windows Central seems to have more information on exactly how they will do it. Citing insider sources, Windows Central claims that the Scorpio will become the centre for first party game development, for all Microsoft games on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One (the same tools will also be extended to third parties, of course). Any game that is created for the UWP PC platform will run on Scorpio in 4K natively, including older games that are already out- which means that titles like Gears 4 and Forza Horizon 3 will run in 4K on the device, as well as any new titles that are released in UWP format.

The Scorpio can mimic a standard Xbox One at a hardware level, so essentially, developers can now simply target a Scorpio for development, make games for it, and then test them across multiple configurations (the Scorpio configuration and the Xbox One configuration) on the Scorpio itself- essentially, on the development end, the Scorpio will become the nexus of Xbox Play Anywhere.

With that said, the Scorpio will have exclusive VR games that will simply not be compatible with existing Xbox One systems, which are too weak to run it. Scorpio is also slated to run on the Xbox One OS, though again, with some alterations and additions for VR.

All of this sounds incredibly exciting to me- and if this is what Microsoft are pushing with the Scorpio, then I’m all for it. I cannot wait for the details to be confirmed as we near Scorpio’s launch a year from now.

The Coalition have confirmed today that the upcoming Gears of War 4, the fourth numbered entry in the Gears of War saga, as well as the first in five years, will have in game microtransactions in the form of purchasable cosmetic items. Players will be able to purchase crates filled with cards that have different levels of rarity, a bit like Halo 5′s REQ system, and offer cosmetic changes in-game- but only cosmetic changes. It looks like non-cosmetic items will not be on sale.

“I feel like that paradigm of cards is really clear to understand for collectibles, like the ability to collect things,” The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson said in an interview with Gamespot, during which he revealed how the microtransactions would work. “We had weapon skins and character skins, so that idea of collecting cards is just easily understood. It felt like it added some engagement in terms of its not the, ‘Oh, I like Tiger Stripe. I bought Tiger Stripe. I’m done. I don’t need to engage with that system anymore. There’s no need for me to hang around.'”

“I like the idea of why you buy Magic: The Gathering booster pack,” he added. “If I could just buy the one card I want then I’m out, then you lose it, right?”

Fergusson was adamant that cards, while purchasable with real money, would also all be realistically obtainable in game, without needing to spent cash at all.

“That’s I think what we owe the player, is that feeling you get, much like … I think Hearthstone is brilliant at, that idea of the glow, and the voice, and the excitement about like, ‘I want to open packs, and I want to be a part of that engagement. I can’t wait to complete today’s quest so I can go to the paramedic with pack of cards.’ I think that feeds into that engagement.

“I think that’s the same thing we’re trying to do here. The notion that everything is earnable just through play means the only reason you would ever use real money is when you want to accelerate it. We’re going to be balanced where you’re going to be constantly getting crates, or enough credits to get crates through the game, so it really is just about your choice,” Fergusson said.

If you do have to offer microtransactions in your game, you could do far worse than having them be cosmetic items, so I can’t say I’m too mad at this.

Gears of War 4 launches this October exclusively for the Xbox One.

Remedy’s upcoming third person action shooter, Quantum Break, looks gorgeous on the Xbox One as is- and one can only begin to imagine just how drop dead beautiful it will probably look on the PC, with maxed out settings and everything. Apparently, that is sort of the effect that Remedy and Microsoft are going for, and the PC version of Quantum Break is set to have an even greater emphasis on image quality than the Xbox One version.

“The Windows 10 version is trying to use all the power from the PC machines,” saidRemedy’s Production Director Miloš Jeřábek in an interview with GamerTag Radio. “It will focus on the image quality even more than Xbox One, we’re implementing 4K resolution, 60FPS, we are working on really cool graphical settings that will bump up the VFX, the shadow quality and the quality of volumetric lighting.

That all sounds wonderful- although, of course, as most fans probably already know, the PC port of Quantum Break will be significantly lacking compared to other PC games, because Microsoft is choosing to launch it under the Universal Windows Application platform, which brings with it a lot of restrictions.

Still, I suppose those who aren’t completely turned off by that idea will at least find this push towards maximizing the performance of a PC version of their game by a major publisher encouraging.

Quantum Break really looks pretty good. It looks like it will be a high end, well made third person shooter, with some legitimately new ideas and hooks to progress third person shooter gameplay beyond where it has been stuck at for the last few years. It looks, really, like a truly next generation third person shooter.

Remedy is probably hard at work getting the finishing touches on the game, so that it can be out on April 5; today, Remedy’s Sam Lake, the visionary who brought us Max Payne and Alan Wake before, posted a new image of Quantum Break. Really, it’s nothing special, just an off screen shot caught in the midst of what looks to be an explosion in the game. Still, to fans eagerly awaiting the new game, I suppose this is more than enough to go on for now.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information on the game.

Playing #QuantumBreak. pic.twitter.com/QOFgScduG4

— Sam Lake (@SamLakeRMD) January 4, 2016