Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break has suffered a delay on PC. It will now be out for Steam and through retail on September 29th.

The developer explained that, “Due to additional time required for mastering and manufacturing the Quantum Break – Timeless Collector’s Edition for retail, the decision has been made to move the release to September 29th. This concerns both the Steam version as well as the retail edition.”

The Timeless Collector’s Edition is more than just a retail version of the game – it includes the game’s original soundtrack, a Making Of Blu-ray, A3 poster and premium packaging for just $40. Both the Steam version and Timeless Collector’s Edition include the latest updates for the game thus far.

Quantum Break is currently available for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC systems. If you haven’t yet played it for Windows 7/8, will you buy it on September 29th? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more information.

Looks like Microsoft’s aggressive moves to drive adoption of Windows 10 – including making their newest OS free to upgrade to, as well as some questionable methods to passively update people’s computers – have paid off, because less than a year after it launched, Windows 10 is now already being used by almost half of Steam’s massive userbase.

According to the latest statistics revealed by the company, almost 45% of all PC gamers are now using Windows 10- this makes it the most used OS on Valve’s service by any metric, and it also indicates that by and large, PC gamers are upgrading to Microsoft’s new offering en masse. Windows as a whole has 96% of all PC gamers, while the remaining 4% of them are divided between Mac OS X and Linux.

On the whole, this should be great news for Microsoft, especially since their own UWP, Windows Store, Xbox Anywhere, and PC gaming efforts are all tied intrinsically to Windows 10- more people on Windows 10 means more of a base to market these efforts to.

Achievements and Trophies are now commonplace, but it is easy to forget how new and fresh the concept of a universal and persistent progress tracker for games tied to your online presence was back in 2005, when the Xbox 360 first launched. That gave Xbox a hell of a head start on the concept- universal Trophies weren’t a thing on PSN until 2008, and are still not a thing on Steam or Nintendo.

So it should come as no surprise that there are now over 100,000 Achievements on Xbox Live- these are spread across Xbox 360 and Xbox One games (as well as Games for Windows Live, Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Windows 10), both retail and Xbox Live. 3100 titles have now launched with achievements, with a total of 2,300,227 Gamerscore spread between them. That’s a lot of Gamerscore points, guys.

Achievements are still a thing on Xbox One, though they have evolved far past their initial conception on Xbox One- the 1000G limit for games no longer seems to apply, and Achievements, as well as their associated rewards, are more sophisticated now.

It was a genius, progressive move by Microsoft- which is the reason it became an industry standard like it did.

Source

Halo: Spartan Strike, developed by 343 Industries and Vanguard Games, is now available for Windows 8, Windows Phones and iOS. If you’ll recall, this is the twin-stick, top-down successor to Halo: Spartan Assault that was subsequently delayed following issues with The Master Chief Collection.

Spartan Strike will take place during the events of New Mombasa in Halo 2. As a Spartan IV unit, you’ll be fighting alongside the UNSC to repel the Covenant and Prometheans. Costing $5.99, there aren’t any micro-transactions on this release so don’t worry. Windows 8 players will be able to earn an exclusive emblem, avatar and nameplay by topping the leaderboard and earning achievements. These can then be used in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Note that there’s also a Halo: Spartan bundle available for $9.99 which includes Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike. It’s available for iPad, iPhone and Steam. Will you be picking up Spartan Strike at all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Blizzard Entertainment’s wildly addictive free to play collectible card battling game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will be receiving a new expansion with Blackrock Mountain. The expansion now has a release date – it will be out on April 2nd in North America and April 3rd in Europe, Korea, China and Taiwan.

It should be noted that like previous expansions, Blackrock Mountain is broken into different wings with each wing becoming available with each subsequent week. Blackrock Depths will be the first wing to be released when the expansion launches on April 2nd.

What will Blackrock Mountain add? Besides 31 new cards, new music and two new class cards for each of the classes, there will be a new board and new legendary encounters as well. Needless to say, you might want to take off for a bit next week (i.e. the entirety of next week).

Blackrock Mountain can be pre-purchased for $24.99/£17.49/€21.99. Stay tuned for more information when it releases.

The holiday season is here, and in case you are an Xbox family, Microsoft has made shopping and gifting for you a whole lot easier. The concept of gift cards themselves is nothing new, of course. Everything does it, and not just digital stores like Apple’s iTunes, Google’s Google Play, Xbox Live, PSN Store, or Nintendo eShop- everything. It’s a fairly well known concept worldwide.

But Microsoft has now gone ahead and made gift cards themselves even more streamlined by making them entirely digital. Via a new gift app (exclusive to Windows Phone for now, though Microsoft usually makes it a habit to release its apps on other platforms too), you can now create a personalized digital gift:

• Select a gift by occasion and interests.
• Include a personal note.
• Easily select friends and family from your contact list.
• Send your gift today or select a future delivery date – no shipping deadlines or last minute trips to the store.
• The perfect “add-on” for family and friends receiving an Xbox or Windows device.
• Track and manage your gifts using the History feature.
• Recipients can choose great content from the Xbox and Windows stores to be enjoyed on their Windows 8 phone, PC, tablet, or Xbox.

I have to say, while this is nifty, it sort of takes away from the thrill of unwrapping a present on Christmas morning…

Microsoft have announced that Halo Spartan Strike is inbound and set to release on Windows 8 devices and Steams digital games service. It’s a follow up title to the extremely ok-ish twin stick shooter, Halo Spartan Assault.

As you have probably come to expect, new items and weapons are being retroactively introduced to the game for the sake of gameplay, once again casting series canon aside in favour of the “we only thought of this recently and we think its cool” mindset. Oh and the Prometheans appear. Fairly sure we would have heard about them somewhere in Halo 3 had they shown up during Halo 2, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how they include this little bit of information.

Given that the game takes place during the events of Halo 2 and that it will only cost you in the region $5.99, I can’t really be to harsh on them for releasing this. But c’mon folks, we all know this isn’t the game we want.

Project Spark, Microsoft’s own take on user generated content (think of it as a cross between LittleBigPlanet and Minecraft… which Microsoft now also owns), was announced at E3 last year, and is now finally out as a free to play download on the Xbox One Xbox Live Store, and on the Windows Marketplace on Windows 8. The game’s launch follows a six month long beta, which saw more than 1 milion Project Spark creators log 4 million hours making 70,000 game levels that fans can dive into on day one.

If you don’t want to get the game digitally, Microsoft will also sell a retail version of the game for $40, which will have over $85 worth of content. If you do get it digitally, you can unlock bonus content and enhancements either by using in game credits that Microsoft promises are easy to earn, or by spending money and bypassing the process of actually earning the credits.

Project Spark looks great and it has the potential to blow up. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news on it.

Another classic PC franchise is going to be bastardized via a free to play, made for mobiles installment, as a new Zoo Tycoon game, called Zoo Tycoon Friends, has been announced by Microsoft to be hitting Windows 8 PCs and tablets, and Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

The game looks rather similar to the Zoo Tycoon game that Microsoft released last year for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, although the introduction of free to play mechanics, along side the associated paring back of traditional gameplay mechanics, probably means the game won’t be half as fun as last year’s game (which, in turn wasn’t quite as good as the classic PC installments) was.

Zoo Tycoon Friends will be developed by Doritos Crash Course studio Behaviour Interactive (yes, apparently that is a studio name), and will encourage players to actually interact with the animals, rather than the more sim like focus of the original PC games.

Microsoft has finally revealed its initiative for original programming on Xbox platforms – Xbox One Originals is slated to begin this June and will feature documentaries, drama shows, animation, live events and much more for the Xbox 360, Xbox One and Microsoft devices.

Nancy Tellem, President of Xbox Entertainment Studios, stated that, “We are developing premium, original content for the Xbox community which is an audience we are incredibly respectful of. We believe Xbox Originals should embrace the way our fans think about traditional TV.

“I know full well from my years spent at traditional TV networks that creating a lineup of hit shows isn’t easy. It’s the beginning of a long journey, but we’re incredibly excited to be on our way.”

Said content involves Halo: The Television Series from Stephen Spielberg; Humans, co-produced in association with Channel 4 and based on the critically acclaimed Swedish drama; a Halo digital feature; “Signal to Noise”, a six film documentary on how technology has changed our world; and much more.

Future content will include Deadlands, based on the pen and paper RPG series; Fearless and Winterworld among other shows. Check out the full Xbox News Wire release for more information.