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Xbox Is In Great Shape Ahead Of The Series X And Halo Infinite Launch
Microsoft’s Xbox division is enjoying very strong results lately, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic that’s keeping people at home playing games. Microsoft reported earnings on Wednesday, and the Xbox division saw its revenue rise by a massive 64 percent (up $1.3 billion).
The sales uptick was led by “growth in Xbox content and services.” Content and services revenue jumped by $1.2 billion (up 65 percent) due in part to “record engagement” as stay-at-home measures remain in place. Additionally, Microsoft said it enjoyed “strength” from third-party games, which pay Microsoft to be on their store.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said “it was simply a breakthrough quarter for gaming,” adding that Xbox Game Pass is seeing “record subscriber growth” on console and PC. However, he did not provide a new figure beyond the 10 million subscriber number that Microsoft announced earlier.
Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time Will Tell The Hero’s “Final Untold Adventure” In August
Adult Swim Games has announced a release date for Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, and it’s not far away. The game will launch on August 21 for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC through both Steam and the Epic Games Store. The game, which is developed by Soleil Games (Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker) will retail for $40.
The game, which is writen by Darrick Bachman (head writer of the series), follows Jack after he’s trapped in an alternate timeline during their final battle. Jack has to return to his own time, which means teaming up with his friends in this other timeline and defeating enemies that series fans will likely recognize.
The release date trailer, below, shows Jack battling using a variety of different weapons, including a gun. There will be over a dozen weapons in the game. It also looks like you’ll be able to play as both the traditional, clean-shaven Jack and the more ragged version of the character from the show’s final season.
US Army Has Reportedly Stopped Streaming On Twitch Amid Controversies
The US Army has reportedly stopped streaming on Twitch after backlash, according to esports consultant Rod Breslau. The US Army Twitch channel, which the military uses for recruitment purposes, has received backlash for banning users from its Twitch and Discord for discussing War Crimes. Twitch recently asked the US Army to stop promoting a seemingly fake giveaway that gave information to recruiters for its lack of transparency.
On Twitter Breslau said that the US Army has temporarily stopped its social activity, streaming on Twitch, and participation in events like Twitch Rivals. There is no set time frame for the US Army’s return to Twitch but it could wait until Spring 2021. The pause is on the US Army’s end; Twitch’s official partnership with it and the US Navy will continue.
new: sources tell me due to recent media coverage of fake giveaways and potentially unconstitutional bans, the US Army esports team has paused social activity, streaming on Twitch, and official activations with Twitch including participating in upcoming Twitch Rivals events
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 22, 2020
GameSpot has reached out to the US Army for comment.
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Check Out the Art of Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Ahead of the studio’s next release, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Toys for Bob has unleashed The Art of Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a thorough art book that also delves into the process of reimagining the classic trilogy of Spyro adventures.
Check out the gallery below for a selection of pages from the book, which features a look at the gorgeous character and world art from the Reignited Trilogy and is now available for purchase.
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“Making Spyro Reignited Trilogy was a leap of faith – full of exhilaration, hope, wonder, fear, and doubt,” art director Josh Nadelberg writes in the book’s introduction. “We had the most delightful source material to work from that anyone could possibly imagine, an amazingly talented team, and an organization who believed in us and supported us every step of the way. But more than anything, we knew that we were working on something that was going to mean so much to people whose memories of Spyro were formative and profound.”
The book is full of insights into character and world design choices, the process of creating Spyro himself, and explanation for many of the choices the artists made in adapting those PS One characters for a new life on modern consoles. Nadelberg, Nicholas Kole, Serina Mo, and more artists offer insight alongside the art, which spans across all three games in the Reignited Trilogy.
In our Spyro Reignited Trilogy review, I praised the artistry of the worlds, which in many ways brought characters and locations to life in unexpected ways. Every dragon Spyro rescues in the original Spyro the Dragon is now a unique character, while everything from the Summer Forest of Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage to the Evening Lake of Spyro: Year of the Dragon has been modernized with a host of new details.
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For more on Toys for Bob’s latest, be sure to check out all the reveal info we learned about Crash Bandicoot 4’s gameplay and story, take a look at an extended bit of gameplay, and know that the developers have confirmed Crash Bandicoot 4 won’t have microtransactions.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor and host of Podcast Beyond! Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
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Brand New Square Enix Studio Will Debut a Game Tomorrow
Balan Company, a new Square Enix studio focused on making action games, will reveal its first title tomorrow.
Announced on the studio’s website, the announcement will come on July 23 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 9pm UK (that’s July 24 at 5am AEST). A follow-up tweet from Square Enix adds that the announcement will be a “new title”.
That timing is suspiciously close to when we’d expect the Xbox Games Showcase to be wrapping up, so it feels like we may see the game as part of Microsoft’s event.
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There are precious few details about Balan Company right now, aside from the kinds of games it’s aiming to make, and that it will bring together both in-house and external developers.
This will be one of the ‘several’ games Square Enix said it would be announcing between July and August. Earlier this year, Square revealed Project Athia, a new game made exclusively for PS5 and co-written by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story co-writer Gary Whitta.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.