More news from Gamescom 2014, where Microsoft had a near 2-hour press briefing. Microsoft has announced that new media streaming capabilities are going to be added to the Xbox One in the near future. The Xbox One has only been able to stream via a Windows 7 or Windows 8 machine thus far and with only moderate success. The digital formats supported via Xbox Video are decent but a bit limited in comparison to what you could stream or play via an application like VLC, a media player that is extremely popular on Windows machines. To combat the limited streaming capabilities, Microsoft will allow video and audio play via USB devices as well as network streaming, similar to what was available via Windows Media Center on Xbox 360, natively on the Xbox One. If you’re a media guru who enjoys a wealth of digital content, you are going to enjoy the coming updates to Xbox One the most. DLNA content is said to be the focus of this media streaming movement, but formats like MKV are also said to be coming to Xbox One which has been very popular recently for video encoding/compression.
But wait, there’s more! Not only will streaming content become easier and more capable, but TV is going to expand. Like a Comcast streaming application, you’ll soon be able to use Xbox Smartglass applications to stream live broadcasts currently being broadcast on your Xbox One console, meaning you can take your tablet or smartphone across your home and still be keyed in on a sporting event currently happening live, which is nice if you’re entertaining several people and don’t want to hit the pause button just because you want to grab some snacks from the kitchen. This will be a first for any home gaming console and, if Smartglass ever breaks away from home network-only restrictions, could be a huge benefit and selling point for Xbox in the future.
This seems waaaay overdue, but in an attempt to promote the site and help get news bits out faster through social media outlets, we’ve launched our official Twitter account/feed. Follow us (XOGameSource) and we’ll do our best to constantly update the feed with new stories on the site as well as RT any small announcements we think our readers might want to hear about!
Earlier in the week we touched on some topics covered during Microsoft’s BUILD conference, one of them being the Xbox One platform’s Windows core and how Microsoft intend to make the Windows Store and Xbox One app marketplace more unified for greater app sharing. While that crossover will still take some time and app tuning on the Xbox One before we see the app marketplace grow exponentially, Microsoft have confirmed a new app on the way: Plex.
Plex is a media streaming application that has you install a server-side application on your PC/Mac that gives other mobile or desktop devices the ability to connect and see your hosted content wherever you are as long as you have an internet connection. You’ll be able to host ALL of your movies, TV shows, music, etc. with the app. Plex can even see your playlists on iTunes. In the next couple months we can expect Plex to launch on the Xbox One which will be an important moment as there currently is no Windows Media Center application available and Plex is multiplatform, allowing those of you with multiple platforms under one roof to continue using Plex instead of being forced to Windows Media Center and the PC platforms. No official release date has been set, but the word from the Plex group is that they’re starting their first round of testing. It could be a few weeks or a few months depending on how quickly they get a functioning app ready to roll out.
Microsoft is betting bigger than ever on games with its new Xbox One console as the delivery system. We’ve gotten a little taste of the exclusives via Forza, Ryse and Dead Rising 3 at launch. Soon, we’ll have TitanFall, Halo, Project Spark and eventually Gears of War. Other games have yet to be announced as new franchise opportunities under Microsoft Studios, but there is one we have been teased on and it stands to deliver perhaps the most unique gaming experience to date. Quantum Break is a sci-fi thriller that will bend the laws of entertainment, crossing the boundaries of game and television to deliver one cohesive entertainment experience. Behind the new title is Remedy Entertainment, who is best known for their previous work on Max Payne, Max Payne 2, and the Xbox 360-exclusive Alan Wake. Though the actual effort of blending TV and gaming together has been tried before with the game Defiance, the outcome was nothing close to sung praises but merely applause for the “idea”. Now Remedy Entertainment stands to properly bridge the two mediums of entertainment in what could be the dark horse of next-gen gaming.
The premise for Quantum Break almost sounds like a season of Fringe, where certain characters gain the ability to control or manipulate time after a time-traveling experiment conducted at a Riverport University goes wrong. The result fragments time and seems to potentially play with alternate universe themes, likely parallel realities that would exist had certain decisions been made different throughout pivotal points of history (very much a part of what Fringe played off of), and it seems only a few main characters have any ability to work in or around these time “skips” that are so beginning to destroy time as we know it. Not a whole lot is really known about the characters and plot outside of this and a seemingly-bad corporate entity known as Monarch, but time is now broken and you are going to perhaps play an important role in mankind’s survival in what we’d assume is putting time back together. This is where the TV aspect comes into play – in an interview with Oskari Hakkinen, Head of Franchise Development:
“You’ll unlock the live-action episode at the end of the gameplay episode, but you can choose when you jump into that. The best experience would be to play the game, watch the live action, then play the game some more, but if you’ve chosen to dedicate your two-hour slot to gaming and you don’t want to watch live action straight away, you can continue on with the game and pick up on the live action from your iPad or phone at a later date”.
It’s interesting to see Remedy and Microsoft Studios working to find seamless ways to integrate these two forms of entertainment consumption without forcing the television aspect on the player. For the gaming-only crowd, you’ll be somewhat free to progress without having to constantly stop to watch an episode of Quantum Break, the TV show. It’s important to note that, while the details of the story are entirely custom to your experience and decisions in-game, the overall plot and ending doesn’t seem to be totally changeable. All roads will eventually lead to the same, or at least similar, outcomes. But just as interesting as the protagonist’s side of the story is the villain’s side.
“At the end of the episode, you get to play the bad guy, who has the most powerful time-manipulation powers of all. So he gets to choose which future comes to pass. You play that bad guy – you choose the moment. Then, once you’ve made your choice, you can enjoy a high-quality TV episode where you’ll see how your choices impacted certain things”.
Phil Spencer of Microsoft Studios made a short comment on Quantum Break’s progress, saying Remedy Entertainment is doing a “great job” with the game, the story and its characters. Spencer seems to think that the time control mechanic you’ll have access to within Quantum Break will be something special and iconic, like Bullet Time was within the Max Payne series. With any luck, we’ll have some more information to comb through come E3 2014 which is set for June 10-12, 2014. Until then it stands to reason that this is perhaps the most interesting game on anyone’s radar when considering the question “will it, or will it not?” Remedy have an outstanding story and plot history. Quantum Break looks to stand on that pillar, but this third person shooter has a lot going for it that no other game has. There will be other franchises launching in 2014 and early 2015 that are sure to be excellent titles, but Quantum Break quite remains a mystery that will intrigue adventurous gamers heavily. It’s possible that Quantum Break will drop late 2014, but don’t be too surprised if this game is staggered back to early 2015. Microsoft have a road map for games and there’s no real gains to be had in releasing a game like this when the holiday season will likely face a new iterations of Battlefield and Call of Duty on top of several other multiplatform titles like Metal Gear Solid 5 and The Division.
The big game streaming service knows as Twitch is finally ready to be released to the masses on the Xbox One platform. Back at E3 2013, Microsoft made the big announcement that the Xbox One would have deep ties with Twitch and could let gamers present their game sessions live. If you’re not familiar with this type of entertainment, many gamers that get deep into certain titles may want to learn from the best the game has to offer in terms of competition and strategy. It’s also fun to simply watch others play from their perspective simply for general entertainment purposes. The ability to also host a channel and provide commentary for viewers is great, allowing for a somewhat sporty spectating experience during competitive matches.
There’s a lot for Twitch to offer on the Xbox One console. Even though the PS4 does have some Twitch capabilities, it will be an inferior experience to the PS4 as Emmett Shear, co-founder and CEO of Twitch, went on record saying “it’s complete integration. It’s exciting because we’ve never had the ability to broadcast from a console like this with such a deep level of integration. The concept of being able to join a broadcasters’ party is pretty cool, and it’s another step in the direction of interacting more closely with broadcasters”. The PS4 version of Twitch — which Shear noted was crafted by Sony instead of the Twitch team — only allows PS4 users to spectate other PS4 consoles/players and doesn’t allow them to easily connect. On March 11, the same day as the nearing TitanFall game release, Twitch is said to go live in its full form.
Microsoft and its Xbox Live team have made it known that there is a closed early access release of its early March update that some users will be invited to take part in. The update is critical for the nearing TitanFall release as it will improve various social and matchmaking aspects of Xbox Live. There is no signing up for this pre-release. If you own an Xbox One and have a Live Gamertag, you could be receiving an email inviting you to test out the new update. There will also be access to a private forum to express thoughts and ideas about the update. Keep an eye on your inbox if you’re willing to try out the update as it could take a day or two for Microsoft to get the invitations out.
Neill Blomkamp. That name should sound very familiar to both movie-goers and Halo fans that wished a Halo movie would have been made back when Halo 3 was just getting launched. Neill Blomkamp is responsible for both District 9 and the Matt Damon-starred Elysium. Both were good films, but they aren’t where Neill got his start in the US. Originally from South Africa, Neill was tapped to help direct the Halo movie that was in talks back then, which also carried famed producer Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit). The Halo movie fell through, but not before Neill put together a little snippet to show what he could do with a Halo movie. Halo “Landfall” was the project (http://youtu.be/e5dqltyVoQE) and it dropped right before Halo 3 came out. The short film was a little skirmish between Covenant and humans on Earth just before Master Chief returns home after the events in Halo 2.
Neill Blomkamp is now rumored to be in the process of signing on for the coming Halo TV series pilot episode. No word on whether Neill will continue to work with the show or not. Typically, a pilot episode it put together and then the studio responsible for the project determines if they have “it”. Since the Halo TV series is going to be a real thing and will be put together, it stands to reason that if Microsoft likes what they see, perhaps they’ll try to nab Neill for the TV series long term. This also means that the Halo TV series could air as soon as this fall, though that might be a little ambitious. If most of the other pre-production steps have already been taken, filming the episodes can be done in just a couple of months (depending on the length of the series).
It should also be mentioned that Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List) is also signed on for the project, and Spielberg is known for his directing chops too. Will this be a co-directed deal? Not likely. Perhaps Microsoft wanted Neill to be around given some of his background. No additional information is available at this time, but it’s exciting to finally hear a little bit more about this project.
More news from Gamescom 2014, where Microsoft had a near 2-hour press briefing. Microsoft has announced that new media streaming capabilities are going to be added to the Xbox One in the near future. The Xbox One has only been able to stream via a Windows 7 or Windows 8 machine thus far and with only moderate success. The digital formats supported via Xbox Video are decent but a bit limited in comparison to what you could stream or play via an application like VLC, a media player that is extremely popular on Windows machines. To combat the limited streaming capabilities, Microsoft will allow video and audio play via USB devices as well as network streaming, similar to what was available via Windows Media Center on Xbox 360, natively on the Xbox One. If you’re a media guru who enjoys a wealth of digital content, you are going to enjoy the coming updates to Xbox One the most. DLNA content is said to be the focus of this media streaming movement, but formats like MKV are also said to be coming to Xbox One which has been very popular recently for video encoding/compression.
Xbox One Game Source 