Month: January 2021

What a week! There’s so much to discuss on this episode, from Microsoft shockingly doubling the price of Xbox Live Gold only to just-as-shockingly walk it back later that same day, to the insane new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic rumor, to Vicarious Visions merging into Blizzard to work on…Diablo 2 (!), and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with Brian Raffel, the cofounder of Raven Software – the studio behind Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast, Soldier of Fortune, Heretic, Hexen, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Origins Wolverine, and this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, among many others:

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It’s already been an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us! Oh, and feel free to leave us a video Loot Box question below using Yappa and you might be featured on an upcoming episode!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

The Respector mod lets you reset your attributes and perk points in CD Projekt Red’s latest RPG.

Microsoft has posted record profits this quarter, including a boom in its gaming sector which has revenues up 51%. The company as a whole posted a record-breaking $43.1 billion in revenue.

In the most recent financial earnings report for the period ending on December 31, 2020, Microsoft shared that revenue increased by 17% to reach $43.1 billion and $15 billion in profit.

As per the case for the last several quarters, profits were driven by Microsoft’s cloud platform, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t other successful ventures.

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Hardware saw the biggest growth thanks to the launch of the Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft says the gaming hardware segment grew 86% thanks to the new hardware, though the company hasn’t shared exact numbers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft reported that revenue has grown 51% overall in games, with Xbox content and services revenue up 40%. The growth has been attributed to third-party titles, Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and first-party titles.

News of Microsoft’s successful quarter has pushed up Microsoft stock. The success of the company is of course based on a broad array of product and offerings, not just gaming. Microsoft’s line encompasses software, apps, home computers, and more; while the R&D department dabbles in projects like putting servers underwater.

For more, check out IGN’s review of the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S review, and details on a new Halo Infinite info drop later this week.

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Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him @lawoftd on Twitter.