Microsoft's gaming division has historically had a hard time with the expansion of its Xbox console userbase in Japan, due to the continued dominance of rival Sony PlayStation and Nintendo systems. The Series X and Series S have bucked past trends to some degree (maybe not all that impressive)—the higher-ups at Microsoft probably consider Japan to be an emerging/growth market, so Phil Spencer & Co. were recently dispatched to 2023 Tokyo Game Show. Xbox's Chief and Sarah Bond (Corporate Vice President) participated in an IGN-organized Q&A panel, where they were asked about reviving dormant first or third party franchises.

Bond was nudged into answering first—her choice was Blizzard Entertainment's sci-fi RTS series; StarCraft. She based this selection on fan feedback—apparently Japanese gamers have expressed plenty of interest in a potential threequel. Microsoft could have a major say in goings-on at the Californian development studio, once their acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes ahead. Spencer had more time to mull over his pick—in his opinion, MechAssault deserves a revival—with emphasis on it being a personal preference rather than any indication of an official announcement. The more action-oriented spin-off of FASA's MechWarrior series (set in the BattleTech universe) debuted exclusively on the original Xbox console back in 2002—Spencer was working as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios at the time. A sequel, Lone Wolf, was released in 2004.

The Xbox Digital Broadcast will be returning to Tokyo Game Show on September 21 at 6 pm JST / 9 am UTC / 2 am PDT. Tokyo Game Show represents a special time each year where we share news and updates on games that we hope will delight Xbox fans in Japan and across Asia. Players can expect to hear progress updates from Xbox and Bethesda Softworks and see a creatively diverse collection of games from creators predominantly located in Japan and across Asia. We'll also share exciting new games coming to Xbox Game Pass, which continues to grow with great content from teams all around Asia.

This year's broadcast will be available on Tokyo Game Show's official YouTube channel, as well as on select Xbox social channels in Japanese, English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, French, German and Castilian Spanish. It will also be broadcast with Japanese Sign Language (JSL), Australian Sign Language (AusLan), and audio descriptions in both Japanese and English. A full list of where you can watch the broadcast will be available the week of the show.

Check out the first Aliens: Dark Descent gameplay trailer, announcing that the real-time tactical action game will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on June 20, 2023. Here's your first look at the upcoming strategy game, which will feature an original story set in the Alien universe. In this gameplay trailer we learn that our ship has crashed onto Planet Lethe, and you'll be investigating a Xenomorph outbreak.

Aliens: Dark Descent challenges us to recruit and level up a squad of Colonial Marines as we explore the dangerous planet. Deploy your team strategically to safely make your way through the zone, but tread carefully as death is permanent.

According to IGN, the first physical in-person E3 2023 show in four years will not be accompanied by the biggest names in the gaming industry—Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo. Historically, gaming shows like E3 have been the primary source of news and hype machines that allowed gaming publishers to showcase their latest work and partnerships with other companies/brands alike. However, as IGN's sources note, this year's E3 will lack the presence of the biggest names in the industry, like Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo. With the first physical E3 event in four years, it is only logical that companies look forward to participating and showing their upcoming work to generate interest. But, the leading console makers will not do so.

It means that the latest E3 show will be a bit different and that the rest of the gaming industry has to adapt. IGN has contacted Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, and Entertainment Software Association (ESA) representatives, with no response at the time of writing. ReedPop, E3's parent company, has issued a statement that notes that there have been some changes to E3's format, which we are yet to see in June once the Los Angeles event starts. You can read the statement for IGN below.

Valve has recently stated in a recent interview with IGN that they haven't encountered a single Steam game that could not run on the Steam Deck at their performance target. The performance target set by Valve is 30 FPS at the device's native resolution of 1,280 x 800 and according to Valve developers, this was achieved with new and old titles. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom AMD quad-core Zen2 SoC with RDNA2 graphics which is paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

ValveAll the games we wanted to be playable, it's really the whole Steam library there. We haven't really found something that this device couldn't handle yet,

Co-Founder and CEO of Humble Bundle, Jeffrey Rosen, announced earlier today the company's "biggest bundle ever", the merging of his company with media giant IGN. "We chose IGN because they really understand our vision, share our passion for games, and believe in our mission to promote awesome digital content while helping charity. I can't think of a better partner than IGN to help Humble Bundle continue our quest", said Rosen. One consequence of the companies joining forces will be a new publishing initiative, but Humble Bundle will, it was claimed, maintain its independence going forward. A point reiterated by IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith, in a conversation with Gamasutra today. But IGN, which reviews and critiques games, now owns a platform- albeit at arm's length- for selling them; a development that might strike some as creating the potential for future conflicts of interest.

ORIGIN PC announced today its full support for the IGN Pro League (IPL), the competitive video game league presented by IGN Entertainment. ORIGIN PC will power the league's next highly-anticipated event, IPL 5, with "The Official IPL PC." Taking place November 29th to December 2nd at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, IPL 5 will bring together the best professional gamers from around the world compete to for $300,000 in prizes playing three popular titles: League of Legends, Starcraft II and Shoot Mania Storm.

"Like with any sport, we want to enable the best possible playing experience, and to do that we want to outfit our pros with the best possible equipment," sible equipment," said David Ting, founder of the IGN Pro League. "ORIGIN PC's state-of-the-art machines will help players perform at the top of their game. We're thrilled to have them on board as a partner that will help raise the bar on the level of play at IPL 5."

The next title in the smash hit game franchise Grand Theft Auto, GTA V is coming in Spring 2013 after all, according to a leaked European pre-order poster for stores. The poster shows some concept art of the game, and a pre-order notice. The fact that the poster is leaked, in Europe no less, shows that pre-orders should open shortly. An unsettling development is that the posters only feature Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 logos, with no "PC DVD-ROM" logos. This indicates that the game's console versions could launch ahead of the PC version, perhaps even months ahead - just like its predecessor.

The past week has been chocked full of intense competition as Europe's best League Of Legends team's have been battling it out to earn their spot at the grand finals of MSI NVIDIA Trophy. A number of teams qualified through alternative factors; however, many of Europe's top teams still needed to qualify for the grand finals, which will take place at Gamers Assembly in France at the beginning of April. Four qualifiers was just the ticket those teams needed - and one week later, we have six new teams qualified for the grand finals.

That leaves us with one more qualifier to go. Teams will have to step up their game if they want to earn one of the last two spots earning them a seat at Gamers Assembly in April.

That Dodgy Intel Ivy Bridge DX11 'demo' at CES 2012 (UPDATED)

Word has been flying round the internet about Intel's dodgy Ivy Bridge DX11 'demo'. Intel's Mooly Eden, VP, PC Client Group was attempting to demonstrate a racing game on a prototype laptop - 'ultrabook' - fitted with an upcoming 22 nm Ivy Bridge processor with a racing wheel attached and allegedly rendering DX11 graphics. However, as is very apparent at the start, it's actually a video, because the control panel for the free VLC video player pops up for a few seconds. Eden then 'drives' a car and after a few seconds puts up one hand and then the other, because as he says "they are driving it from backstage". However, there was no one driving the game "backstage", as it was just a video and Eden doesn't say anything about this at any point in the presentation.

This gives conspiracy theorists lots of ammunition, as perhaps the game was actually played on a high powered desktop PC with NVIDIA or AMD discrete graphics cards? What game was it? Eden doesn't say. "IB can't really do these graphics!" they cry and so on. Sure, man 'didn't' go to the moon, either... However, we believe that while yes, there was a bit of deception going on, it was nothing more than a white(ish) lie. Why? Because Ivy Bridge comes out in April and people aren't going to forget this demo. They will immediately put IBs DX11 graphics to the test with similar games and if it doesn't deliver, Intel will have a lot of egg on its face. Here's what Intel had to say about this demo in an official statement:

We already posted a press release which talked all about how there really was going to be a Guitar Hero 3, and how it was going to be for the PS2 and Xbox360. The press release went on about how sweet Guitar Hero was going to be.

While Guitar Hero 3 looks good on paper, IGN actually went through the trouble of reviewing a pre-release version of the game.

Guitar Hero 3 is much different from either of the two previous versions of the game. The first thing dedicated fans of the game will notice is Neversoft's interest in tweaking the difficulty. At this point, they aren't doing a good job...Guitar Hero "experts" were constantly failing songs in the pre-release version of GH3. Neversoft claims that when they actually release the game, the difficulty will be "just right", between the first and second game's level of difficulty.