In December we introduced HypeZone on Mixer: An all-new, one-of-a-kind viewing experience dedicated to the most intense moments from Mixer streamers of all sizes. The response has been incredible. Not only did HypeZone see more than one million views in less than two months, but we heard loud and clear that you want to see more of this type of action on Mixer. We’ve been hard at work, and today are announcing that we’ve expanded HypeZone to include a Fortnite Battle Royale channel! Start watching now at Mixer.com/HypezoneFortnite.

With Fortnite‘s player base of more than 45 million gamers, HypeZone Fortnite will host the action you’re craving from Fortnite‘s free 100-player PvP mode: One giant map. A battle bus. Fortnite building skills and destructible environments combined with intense PvP combat. The last one standing wins.

At Mixer, we know that the “final 10” can create epic moments. The storm is closing in, you’re out of shield potion, and you’ve built your fortress to make your last stand… and now hundreds of Fortnite fans are cheering you on. The battle is building and HypeZone Fortnite will be a do-not-miss action-packed channel to satisfy those Battle Royale needs. We hope to see you streaming and cheering on your fellow Mixer broadcasters in their pursuit of Victory Royale!

If you have feedback or suggestions on HypeZone or other features, don’t hesitate to drop us a line on our official feedback site. Let us know over on @WatchMixer what you think of this latest addition to the HypeZone family and see you on Mixer!

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

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World of Tanks 4-Year Anniversary on Xbox One

Source: Xbox Blog
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This is a very exciting time of year for Wargaming, as we are celebrating World of Tanks’ 4-year Xbox Anniversary!

On February 12, 2014, World of Tanks launched exclusively to Xbox 360 bringing massive 15v15 tank battles to console for the first time. Over the years, the game has evolved to bring tank warfare to gamers across the Xbox One family of devices with hundreds of content and graphic enhancements over the years.

Originally, the game launched with 100 tanks from Germany, United States, and United Kingdom and has since grown to include over 660 tanks from nine different nations! One of the largest updates to date centered around creating the game for Xbox One X. We wanted to make sure the game took full advantage of what the new console offered. So, tankers can now get in on the action in full 4K with HDR support and enjoy the game at a steady 30fps with tanks looking and playing better than ever on Xbox One X.

To celebrate World of Tanks’ 4-year anniversary and to say thank you to our players, Wargaming is kicking off a series of in-game bonuses & events throughout February. First, players will be receiving a free Ashigaru Te-Ke from Wargaming for logging into the game and winning a match during the anniversary. Additional in-game bonuses will be awarded for playing over the anniversary weekend. This includes x5 experience for the first win and additional tiered-experience multipliers for completing the War Party chained bonus with each additional win along with discounts on Premium Time.

Wargaming will also work with the passionate World of Tanks community to compile personal testimonial videos of their experience with the game over the years. We’re excited to kick off this project with our players to share our combined passion for the game. If you’re a tanker who wishes to join in our collaboration video, please find more details on the project here on the official World of Tanks console forum to share your voice! If your video is selected, you will receive an additional gift tank for participating.

I want to extend a huge thank you to all our players who have joined us over the years across the Xbox One family of devices. It’s been a fun journey and we look forward to many more years of tanking with you. See you on the battlefield!

For more details on the game and anniversary events, visit the official World of Tanks console forum.

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

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Puzzle Game Samsara Available Now on Xbox One
How We Made Little Triangle Unique and Fun Among Other 2D Action Games
Announcing the HypeZone Fortnite Battle Royale Channel on Mixer

Source: Xbox Blog
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This is not a mission for the weak, only the best stand a chance. Choose your team of three to neutralize the threat.

Source: XBOX YouTube
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Coming February 20, 2018!
In collaboration with Universal Brand Development, Zen Studios celebrates the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park™ by releasing a three-pack of prehistoric pinball perfection for Pinball FX3. Jurassic World Pinball is comprised of thrilling tables themed around the history and lore of the iconic film franchise.

JURASSIC WORLD PINBALL
Join Owen, Claire and other movie characters as they attempt to escape Jurassic World™ and the deadly Indominus Rex. Play through thrilling action inspired by epic movie scenes!
Table Features:
• Train the Raptors, neutralize the Pteranodons and battle the Indominus Rex in exciting, yet challenging game modes
• Feed the Mosasaurus to make a massive splash
• Use customized Gyrosphere pinballs for a not-so-leisurely ride through the valley
• Hear the actual voices of your favorite movie characters, such as Claire and Owen
• Dinosaurs brought to life with authentic sound effects taken directly from the film
• Relive over 40 memorable scenes from the film on the dotmatrix screen

JURASSIC PARK PINBALL
Zen Studios is thrilled to bring you the finest video pinball adventure this side of Isla Nublar. Relive your favorite T. Rex chases, raptor hunts and more in a whole new way.
Table Features:
• Your favorite lines of dialogue taken straight from the film
• Fully operational Raptor Pen—you are the gatekeeper
• Collect amber and relive the T. Rex chase on the conveyer belt—“must go faster!”
• Nail enough funnel ramp shots to make it to the kitchen scene
• Knock on the iconic park gates to begin a new tour

JURASSIC PARK PINBALL MAYHEM
The events of Jurassic Park™ led to total mayhem! Stave off T. Rex and Velociraptor attacks along with many other threats to save the workers.
Table Features:
• Battle the T. Rex with the deadly swing of the Stegosaurus’ tail—you are the dinosaur
• Defend the Triceratops on a sunken mini-playfield against relentless Velociraptor attacks
• Visit the East Dock, North Dock, Hammond’s Lodge and Visitor’s Center to gain additional table perks, and rescue all the trapped workers
• Put out fires and prevent further destruction of the Visitor’s Center and iconic park gates

Source: XBOX YouTube
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Samsara is an addictive puzzle game where players guide a child safely to the exit by dropping blocks with different shapes and properties into a world of two dimensions split by a pool. Simple mechanics conceal complex interactions involving positioning, pathfinding, gravity, balance, redirection and teleportation, with a twist: everything added in the upside down world below reflects in the world above.

Source: XBOX YouTube
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Many of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console, and what that means for the future of gaming. Today, we’ll be chatting with Tomoko Hiroki, Game Producer at Bandai Namco Entertainment and Junya Motomura, Game Director at Arc System Works about enhancing Dragon Ball FighterZ for Xbox One X.

What specifically is your development team doing to enhance Dragon Ball FighterZ for Xbox One X?

The enhancements we worked on was the native 4K rendering, adding dynamic resolution to ensure the framerate remains stable even when the drawing load increases, and supersampling which improves the graphical quality drastically, even on 1080p screens.

How do these enhancements impact the gaming experience?

The dynamic resolution has a direct impact on the gameplay because it ensures a stable high framerate. It’s a key feature for a fighting game like Dragon Ball FighterZ where players will train to find the perfect frame to execute a counter or to connect their combos. The other improvements we introduced earlier enables a much better graphical quality for the game, so it doesn’t have a direct impact on the gameplay, but we believe these enhancements will bring forward the beauty of our game, and that serves a better gaming experience for sure!

Why did your development team choose to focus on these enhancement areas?

We worked on graphics enhancements like 4K resolution and high-quality anti-aliasing like supersampling because Dragon Ball FighterZ is using cell-shading rendering, and this rendering technique requires extra care to look beautiful at higher resolutions. As explained before, we needed to find a way to keep the highest framerate possible at any time. The dynamic resolution available on Xbox One X greatly helped us to acquire the balance we wanted.

How do you expect fans of Dragon Ball FighterZ will respond to seeing on Xbox One X with these enhancements?
We hope they will be satisfied with the graphics of the game because we believe we achieved a quality that makes it on par with the original anime. We also hope they will be proud to play with the first “Dragon Ball” game that uses 4K native resolution on console.

How has the process been to get the game up and running on Xbox One X?

Dragon Ball FighterZ uses the Unreal Engine, and it really helped us to get the game running smoothly on Xbox One X. We had to fine tune specifically this version because of the high resolutions support, but most of the enhancements were already available with the engine. The dynamic resolution system was created by our team to answer our technical requirements about framerate.

What enhancement were you most excited about to explore leveraging for Dragon Ball FighterZ on Xbox One X?

Probably the supersampling feature. We were surprised to see how this feature helps to keep the graphical quality super high when the game displays on a 1080p resolution screen. Further, I would say that adapting our game on a console with such a powerful GPU and memory bandwidth boosted our creativity to make Dragon Ball FighterZ look even better and enjoyable. Now we’re waiting for players’ feedback, hoping it will be good!

Thanks to Hiroki and Motomura for taking the time to chat with us about Xbox One X Enhanced. We’ll be bringing you more interviews with more developers in the future, so stay tuned to Xbox Wire!

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

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The Sea of Thieves Controller Has Some New Pirate Accessory Companions
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Innovative Platformer Dandara Available Now on Xbox One

Source: Xbox Blog
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In December, we announced the Xbox Wireless Controller – Sea of Thieves Limited Edition, featuring a deep purple translucent design adorned with laser-etched barnacles, one treasured golden trigger and haunted by a mesmerizing glowing skull. Today, we are excited to announce the line-up of Designed for Xbox Sea of Thieves companion gaming accessories from our partners at Seagate and Controller Gear. These accessories were designed in collaboration with Xbox and Rare to align with the look and feel of the Sea of Thieves Xbox Wireless Controller and to complete the full pirate gaming setup. The Designed for Xbox accessories include the Seagate Special Edition Sea of Thieves 2TB Game Drive for Xbox and two Controller Gear Limited Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox One Controller Stands.

Seagate Special Edition Sea of Thieves 2TB Game Drive for Xbox

Raise your sails and boost your console’s storage capacity with the Seagate Game Drive for Xbox One and Windows 10 devices. The game drive is bathed in deep purple and prominently features the Sea of Thieves glowing skull and a hint of gold to match the Xbox Wireless Controller – Sea of Thieves Limited Edition. This 2TB drive allows gaming fans to take more than 50 of their favorite games, including Sea of Thieves, and all the digital treasures you uncover on the go. The drive connects via USB 3.0 and includes one month of Xbox Game Pass and an exclusive jewel-studded in-game weapon, The Midnight Blunderbuss, for your Sea of Thieves character to make sure you are hitting the seas in style. The Seagate Game Drive will be available in the US, Canada, France, Germany and the UK starting March 20, 2018 for a mere $89.99.

Controller Gear Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand and Xbox One Controller Stand V2.0

Keep your treasures safe and your Xbox Wireless Controller fully charged with Controller Gear’s officially-licensed Xbox Pro Charging Stand. The Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand is a premium charger offering a sleek design and a seamless charging experience. Built with the same high-quality material as the Xbox Wireless Controller, it’s always an exact match and perfect fit. Each Xbox Pro Charging Stand comes with a premium charging stand, battery cover, rechargeable battery and a 6 foot power cord. The Controller Gear Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand will be available February 19, 2018 for $49.99 doubloons, er…dollars! Apologies mateys, once you go full pirate, it’s tough to go back.

Not enough treasure in your chest for the Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand? Controller Gear will also release a Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox One Controller Stand V2.0 available for $14.99, featuring the same pirate-y design! Keeping your Sea of Thieves controller charged and on display for all the other pirates to gaze at has never been so easy.

Pirates are nothing without the right tools, so don’t forget to pick up your Xbox Wireless Controller – Sea of Thieves Limited Edition so you can fight, sail and loot in style. The Xbox Wireless Controller – Sea of Thieves Limited Edition is shipping to retailers today and is available now for $74.99. The controller comes with the exclusive Ferryman Clothing Set* for your Sea of Thieves character, a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial and a 14-day Xbox Game Pass trial.

For the latest on Sea of Thieves and news, stay tuned to SeaOfThieves.com in the lead up to March 20, 2018. We can’t wait to share more soon!
*In-game Ferryman Clothing Set available for use in Sea of Thieves game starting on March 20, 2018.

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

Related:
Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: Dragon Ball FighterZ
Chaotic Party Game Marooners Available Now on Xbox One
Innovative Platformer Dandara Available Now on Xbox One

Source: Xbox Blog
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