Industry Intel: It’s Microsoft’s Turn

Industry intel its microsofts turn
The Xbox Series X (Image credit: Microsoft)

No Friday is complete without an Industry Intel, EarlyGame’s lightning-fast report on everything video game business from the past week. Today we’ll be looking at some announcements and tell you how to get a free AAA game!

The console wars rage on. Sony has been making lots of announcements recently, so it was about time for Microsoft to speak up.

Microsoft News

Microsoft has confirmed an Xbox first-party game showcase. The show is scheduled for July 23 and will be opened with a one-hour segment hosted by Geoff Keeley. We will see some Halo Infinite gameplay, as well as announcements for new titles and IPs.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft plans to support developers with Project xCloud, allowing game makers to access their Xbox devkit remotely and continue building games during the lockdown.

Lastly, there’s been some talk in the industry about Microsoft showing interest in purchasing WB Games, something we told you about in a previous Industry Intel.

More Console News

Following the massive success of The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog is hiring again as they are busy building more content.

God of War director Cory Barlog has stated that games need to cost more upfront, as to avoid the perpetual microtransaction loop forced on players so the studios making the experiences ca thrive.

Nintendo Direct is rumored to happen this month - July 20th. We haven’t heard an official confirmation yet, but the rumors seem to have some merit to them.

Epic Games CTO Kim Limberi says a “lifelong dream” of his has been fulfilled and that the new console generation will have a movie-like graphics for the first time. Recently, Epic have really been raving about the capabilities of their Unreal Engine V and the graphical wonders it will do for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

PC News

Horizon Zero Dawn has a PC release date - August 7th. It comes for both Steam and Epic Store, so all PC gamers should be happy this time around.

Valorant has announced a cosmetic set turning the weapons in the game into dragons. The rather luxurious Elderflame set will cost a whopping $95.

Ubisoft Forward, another E3-style show is set for June 12. Gamers watching at home will be eligible to log to Uplay during the show is running a claim a free copy of Watch Dogs 2 on PC. Not bad!

Lastly, World of Warcraft Shadowlands will be entering beta this week. The full release of the expansion is set for Fall 2020, but as we all know, Blizzard time flows differently than normal time.

For more console, PC, and general gaming news, stay tuned to EarlyGame!

Nikola Petrov

Writer, game designer, and real-life bard who likes to talk about games. GAMES!...