Spring!!! It’s been a long winter but we’ve had our new consoles to keep us warm. Now it’s spring and we’re finally getting that second stage of games for next-gen. “Titanfall” is out. “inFamous: Second Son” is imminent. “Watch Dogs,” long awaited, will be coming soon. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. News:
XBox’s Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten has left Microsoft. He’s now taken the same job title at Sonos, an audio company. Whitten had been with XBox since 2000. The staffing change is, to all appearances, quite amicable. Much of his team remains intact and no major changes to service should b expected as a result.
Minor changes on the other hand, those are always in the works. Several improvements are coming to XBox One as part of the April update. Among the expected improvements are game and saves updates, friends improvements, 50Hz video output for Blu-ray, voice and motion improvements for Kinect, better GameDVR video quality, device management update, and new audio settings. Previews for the improved services are are being rolled out now and more widely implemented next month.
An update, number 1.62, for PS4 also came out this week. It’s less glamorous, “Operation quality during use of some PlayStation 4 format software has been improved.”
Sony’s PS Vita is also updating, in the form of new entertainment apps. Crunchyroll, NHL GameCenter LIVE, and Qello Concerts launched earlier this week. Coming soon will be Gaiam TV, Hulu Plus, and Redbox Instant.
Of course the big news this week is Wal-Mart digging in to the used games market. This caused an immediate slump in GameStop’s stock, but I’d be shocked if that lasted long. Wal-Mart’s edge is that the credit you receive for trading in your games will be good for anything in the store, not just games as you’ll see at most retailers in the market. I’m curious to see how this pans out, but it’s not enough to get me into a Wal-Mart.
The music game fad has seemingly passed on like an aging rock star, and the final blow to that chubby and overdrugged lead guitarist could be the imminent shut down of all “Guitar Hero,” “Band Hero,” and “DJ Hero” DLC. Activision is pulling all of these add-ons at the end of March. All content is currently 50% off in preparation for the end. The servers for “Guitar Hero” online play are not being pulled and all previously purchased content will still be available for play.
“Titanfall” has been a massive retail succes, as expected. Shouldn’t come as any surprise then that “Titanfall 2” is rumored to have been secured by EA and will not be Microsoft-exclusive like the first game. If true, this is great news for Respawn but not for Microsoft. Early reports show the XBox One has received 96% sales boost in the UK alone since the game’s release.
That’s all for this week. Enjoy your weekend. Get some rest, you’ll need it once “inFamous: Second Son” hits Tuesday.