The first Inside Xbox of 2019 debuted yesterday afternoon and with it, some interesting announcements and notable dates for Xbox players. Here’s the quick recap:
- Microsoft Game Studios has been rebranded Xbox Game Studios. With the studio acquisitions and renewed focus on first party development, Matt Booty joined the show to speak briefly about the methodology in the “Xbox focus” going forward.
- February Game Pass titles were revealed and surprisingly include Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Here is the list for now with “surprises” likely to be spread throughout the month. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is available now.
- A new controller model was revealed, the “Sport Red” edition.
- Kiki Wolfkill from 343 Industries joined the show to talk about Halo Outpost Discovery; a new interactive Halo Experience coming to a few major cities this year. You can learn more by visiting the main site and here is the trailer:
- Terry Crews did a short interview to promote Crackdown 3 and told a heartwarming story about simply being a positive force in the world. You can find that via the full show, and the Crackdown 3 launch trailer is below. Additionally, Xbox Insiders will be able to test the Wrecking Zone multiplayer this weekend starting February 7th!
- Sea of Thieves is doing a special promotion where between February 6th and 13th, you can invite up to three friends to play Sea of Thieves for free.
- There was a lot of discussion on Metro Exodus (which was confirmed native 4K with HDR on the Xbox One X) including a 4 minute CGI short video titled Artyom’s Nightmare.
- Lastly you can find the full show below!
Our Take
Inside Xbox has been a fun show with some notable announcements. While there was nothing earth shattering, it’s great to see Shadow of the Tomb Raider being added to Game Pass and as we’ve discussed at length, it’s clear that the direction of “Xbox Game Studios” is far broader than what we’ve seen from Xbox over the course of this generation. We’re also really excited for Metro Exodus and The Division 2!