Posts with tag xbox

Diablo 3's streamlined gameplay makes it a natural fit for consoles -- which would be why you can already pick up the game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. However, with the last generation of consoles looking a bit dusty, Blizzard has planned an "Ultimate Evil Edition" for PlayStation 4 -- and now we know that it's headed to the Xbox One, as well. The only thing we don't know about this next-gen console version is when, so if you're holding out for some Diablo-style action on your new console, we can't recommend holding your breath.

In the meanwhile, PC gamers can enjoy Diablo 3's first expansion, Reaper of Souls, launching tonight.

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With Blizzard taking Diablo 3 to the PlayStation, we kind of have to wonder... is World of Warcraft ever going to make a console debut? And before you say it's impossible, that World of Warcraft is too complicated to play on a console, once we would have all said that about Diablo, too. And if Diablo makes the jump successfully -- there's no release date yet, so it's hard to say when we'll be able to judge its success -- maybe WoW will follow. At any rate, seeing WoW come to a console is probably a lot more likely than ever getting that pony Ghostcrawler promised us.

So, fellow gamers, if WoW did come to consoles... would you be playing it? Would it encourage you to buy one of those next gen consoles we've heard so many rumors about? Or would you stick to your PC gaming rig?

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Felicia Day tweeted today that The Guild has been picked up by Microsoft for Season 4. She says that she loves working with Xbox/Microsoft and is already beginning preparation. This has been a week of good news for Day and The Guild, as they also won two Streamy awards on Sunday. Sean Becker won Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series and Day won Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series.

If you need your fix right now, you can always watch Seasons 1 through 3 online or on DVD, and Felicia Day also writes The Guild comic. After the jump, you can catch an interview with Felicia at this month's Streamy awards where she talks to former WoW.com producer Barb Dybwad about the upcoming season.

This is interesting -- we at WoW Insider are big fans of Felicia Day's "The Guild" webseries, which will now be shown exclusively via Microsoft apparently. They've announced that the second season of the popular series will premiere exclusively on Xbox Marketplace, MSN, and the Zune marketplace, and will apparently be released for free (with Sprint as an ad sponsor).

Very interesting. Formerly, The Guild posted their episodes on YouTube, which not only let browsers there find them easily, but let sites like this one embed and spread the word about the series. But while MSN has a video site, it's not immediately clear that they'll allow embedding -- it may not be so easy to spread around/watch episodes if The Guild is no longer uploading to YouTube and other video sharers. The Guild will have an embedded MSN player on their currently-being-redesigned site (complete with ads), but we're not sure whether we'll be able to embed it any more or not.

We will, however, find out the whole story on the new season (which will apparently include a holiday special) this week when we talk to Felicia Day herself on a special episode of our podcast, the WoW Insider Show. Look for that by next weekend, and keep an eye on the site on Tuesday -- even if we can't embed the new episode, we'll be sure to let you know where you can see it.

Blizzard's COO Paul Sams spoke with Gamasutra the other day, and he called out Microsoft, of all companies, for not supporting innovation in PC gaming. He says that Microsoft's loyalties are split with their console business, and that if they put as much work into developing gaming on the PC as they did on the Xbox 360, everyone would benefit.

An interesting idea, to be sure. It's not like Blizzard necessarily needs help from Microsoft to promote and develop their games -- if anything, it's Microsoft that could probably take a lesson from Blizzard on how to release software. But it's true that console innovations like achievement points and Xbox Live social networking accounts aren't really finding a solid place in the PC gaming world, and it could be that Blizzard wants to see those types of things on the platform.

Blizzard has always had a rocky relationship with consoles anyway, and the recent announcement of a non-console Diablo 3 definitely shows they're interested in the PC (including Mac) platform only. Can't really blame them for wanting a little more love from an OS developer like Microsoft.

[via BigDownload]

We've seen WoW played with a Wii controller before, but this looks like a really serious effort to get the Xbox 360 controller compatible with our favorite MMO. A company called Blue Orb Software has released an app called Switchblade, a free download that lets you use your PC-enabled Xbox 360 controller specifically to play World of Warcraft.

Why would you want to do this? Their press release cites gamers "hooked on the console experience," and so their controller will let you play WoW console style. You can see the basic settings on their site-- it looks like the left and right triggers are used as toggles, turning the four action buttons into 12, and allowing you to use any icon on one of the action bars in WoW. Probably not quite versatile enough for running PvP, but for running daily quests and grinding, it looks just crazy enough to work.

The download is available through Xfire (and it looks like you need to download Xfire to get Switchblade), and the program should work with any wired Xbox 360 controller (if you have a wireless only, you'll have to buy an extra receiver from Microsoft). I think I've got a wired controller sitting around here somewhere, so I'll give it a try and get back to you on how it works. In the meantime, someone download it, and let us know in the comments-- is it worth installing this thing to play WoW with buttons and joysticks?

While the there's still nothing solid on visiting Azeroth via your Xbox 360, intrepid fan David Nikdel has created a mod that allows you to use a PC compatible Xbox 360 controller to navigate the game world from your old-fashioned desktop.  I still have trouble seeing how I could fit all of the keybindings on my keyboard on to a controller, Nikdel has certainly proven that it's possible to make it work. 

[Via Joystiq]