ARK: Survival Evolved and We Happy Few Coming to Xbox Preview Program
During its Gamescom 2015 press conference, Microsoft announced that ARK: Survival Evolved and We Happy Few will be coming to the Xbox Preview Program in the near future.
ARK: Survival Evolved will be available to members of the Xbox Preview Program this winter (or summer if you live in the southern hemisphere). The game drops players onto a tropical island and asks them to fend for themselves against a Jurassic Park's worth of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.
Meanwhile, We Happy Few will be available to Preview Program members this holiday season, before it's made available to all in 2016. We Happy Few is a Kickstarter funded game from Compulsion Games, the makers of Contrast and is dubbed as being "a game of paranoia and survival".
New Character Revealed for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
During the Xbox press conference at Gamescom 2015, a brand new character was revealed for upcoming adventure game, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Revealed during a presentation from the game's whip-toting (!?) creator, Koji Igarishi, the new character appears to be a demon hunter who dual-wields two swords and uses spells.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2.5D sidescrolling adventure game being helmed by Igarishi-san (also known as IGA), a former member of the development team behind several Castlevania games including the critically acclaimed Symphony of the Night. The game is being developed independently, having raised over $5.5 million USD on Kickstarter to date.
Minecraft Dev’s Cobalt Release Window Announced
The latest game from Minecraft developer Mojang has a release window at long last - Cobalt will be available on Xbox One and PC in October 2015.
Co-op, competitive, sidescrolling arcade shooter was first announced way back in 2011 before making an appearance at Microsoft's Gamescom press conference two years ago, where it was announced for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. From today's news, it sounds like the Xbox 360 version has been cancelled. We've reached out for clarification.
Additionally, for anyone who doesn't want to wait for their Mojang fix, lead developer Jens Bergensten revealed the Minecraft Windows 10 beta is available now for free for anyone with a Mojang account.
City Skylines, Train Simulator 2015 and Thimbleweed Park Coming to Xbox One
During the ID@Xbox segment of Xbox's Gamescom 2015 press conference, a raft of PC titles were confirmed as being on the way for Xbox One.
Town building game Cities: Skylines, will be making its console debut on the Xbox One. The Sim City-inspired game was released for PC earlier in 2015 and was received favourably by critics, awarded an 8.5 on IGN.
Thimbleweed Park is the new point and click adventure from Ron Gilbert, creator of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.
Meanwhile Train Simulator is pretty much what it says on the tin, an authentic simulation of a rail network developed by Dovetail Games.
Battletoads Coming to Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct Season 3 will begin in March 2016, Microsoft has confirmed.
During today's Microsoft Press Conference, the company announced that while the next season may not be starting for some time, a new guest character would be joining the roster from today - Rash from Battletoads.
Several other notable characters have made an appearance during Killer Instinct's second season, including the vengeful Japanese ghost Hisako, fiery being Cinder, and the war golem Aganos.
New Xbox One Chatpad Announced
During the Xbox briefing at Gamescom today, Microsoft announced a new chatpad compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.
The chatpad includes volume controls and a headset adapter, and allows users to send messages and search using a small keyboard.
The chatpad is available for pre-order today.
Chat, search, & message w/ the new #Xbox Chatpad for #XboxOne & #Windows10. Pre-order today #xboxgamescom pic.twitter.com/aLx5VpmG1Q
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility Free For Everyone in November 2015
During its Gamescom 2015 press conference, Xbox announced that its backwards compatibility service will become free for all Xbox One owners in November.
Up until now, the service has only been available to Xbox One users participating in the Xbox Preview Program. From this November, over 100 Xbox 360 and XBLA games will become available to all Xbox One owners, for free.
Microsoft also announced that Xbox Games with Gold games will be made with backwards compatibility in mind. Lastly, the first party publisher revealed that to date Xbox One owners have played 83 days of Xbox 360 games on Xbox One.
For more updates from Gamescom, keep IGN's Gamescom Hub bookmarked.
Subscription-Free DVR Coming to Xbox One
During its Xbox briefing at Gamescom today, Microsoft announced that "full-featured DVR recording" is coming to Xbox One.
The functionality will allow users to record shows in the background, even when you aren’t home. All shows recorded on Xbox One can be streamed to any Windows 10 device, or downloaded to it directly.
You'll also be able to schedule recordings remotely.
DVR functionality will be subscription-free and is coming in 2016.
Andrew is IGN's executive editor of news. You can find him rambling about Spelunky and animals on Twitter.
Scalebound Release Window, 4-Player Co-op Announced
Scalebound will launch exclusively on Xbox One in Holiday 2016.
The news was announced during today's Microsoft Press Conference at Gamescom 2015, along with the news the upcoming title will feature 4-player co-op gameplayer. It wasn't specified whether this would be online-only or if there would be any opportunity for split-screen gameplay.
Other news announced including the main character's name - it's Drew - and that the world in which you're adventuring will be called Draconis, with an opening area taking place somewhere called the Grasslands. With all this in mind, it's hardly surprisingly Platinum is branding it its biggest game to date.
Don't forget we're set to have an extended version of the demo available straight after the conference on IGN, and we'll be covering Scalebound all this month as part of IGN First, so be sure to bookmark our hub for all the latest news as it's announced.
New Crackdown Game is Officially Crackdown 3
During its Gamescom 2015 press conference, Xbox confirmed that the third Crackdown will indeed be titled Crackdown 3, despite prior information to the contrary.
In a new trailer, Crackdown 3 was dubbed "the ultimate sandbox" and it was revealed that the game will feature transforming vehicles and a "100% destructible" game world. Utilising Microsoft's cloud computing feature, the game will also apparently leverage processing power 20 times more than the capacity of an independent Xbox One console.
Lastly, a multiplayer beta for the game was announced and said to be on the way in 2016.