Microsoft Corp on Sunday unveiled a batch of new titles for Xbox at the world’s premier video game trade show, including award-winning sensation Hades and long-time hit Halo.
The Xbox maker showed off 30 new games coming to its console, which in November will celebrate two decades on the market.
“Our team strives to make Xbox a place where you’ll find the greatest games, the most dedicated developers, and the most passionate community,” unit chief Phil Spencer said during a streamed event on the second day of a virtual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Photo: AFP
Microsoft revealed a coming take of beloved Halo, along with new creations such as science-fiction action title Starfield and a vampire-battling adventure called Redfall from Bethesda Softworks.
Microsoft recently acquired Bethesda Softworks LLC, the maker of hits including Fallout and Elder Scrolls.
As trailers depicted tense battles and the games’ rich graphics, Microsoft said that all but a few would be available for play at its subscription Xbox Game Pass service.
The company also highlighted titles that would be exclusive to Xbox, which competes with rival consoles such as Sony Corp’s PlayStation and Nintendo Co’s Switch.
Award-winning Hades from San Francisco-based Supergiant Games LLC is coming to Xbox as well as PlayStation, the independent studio said on Sunday.
Hades has so far only been available for play on PCs and Switch.
Hades, which snagged five honors this year at the UK’s prestigious BAFTA Games Awards, is a “dungeon crawler” that challenges players to fight their way through the underworld.
The lineup of new titles comes as Microsoft works on software and a plug-in device to let people play Xbox video games on Internet-linked televisions without need of consoles.
“As a company, Microsoft is all-in on gaming,” chief executive Satya Nadella said in introducing the plan last week.
Microsoft has been playing on the strength of its Xbox unit as it vies with Luna and Stadia cloud gaming services run by Amazon.com Inc and Google respectively.
In coming weeks, cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions would be possible through Internet browsers Chrome, Edge and Safari, Microsoft has said.
Many are expected to tune in on the closing day of E3 today for a Nintendo streamed event at which it might reveal a new version of its coveted Switch consoles, along with showing off new games.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last