The 10 Biggest Announcements from the Xbox Gamescom Conference

Today, Microsoft held its press conference at the other big annual gaming event, Gamescom. In case you missed the buckets of news that came out of it, the full media briefing is embedded below.

We've also wrapped up the most important bits. Over roughly an hour and a half, we learned...

Halo Wars is Getting a Sequel

The Halo universe's real-time strategy game was a modest success, and 343 Industries announced today it will finally get a real sequel. Halo Wars 2 is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs in fall of 2016. The announcement trailer can be seen below. [Read the Full Story]

Halo 5 is Really Accenting the eSports

We could have guessed as much given prior presentations, but Microsoft made a point to show off Halo 5: Guardians as an eSport today. Aside from a new Coliseum map and some multiplayer details, it gave several minutes to professional casters talking over footage of a replay between two high-level teams. [Read the Full Story]

Play Your Old Games in November

Those eager to dust off their digital Xbox 360 collection won't have much longer to wait. The backwards compatibility that set the world ablaze at E3 will launch in November with more than 100 games, and more coming. Plus, for Gold members, all future Games with Gold 360 games will be backwards compatible at launch. [Read the Full Story]

FIFA Gets Legendary on Xbox

The Ultimate Team feature that has found its way into several EA Sports games is getting a little bonus on Xbox One. Legends like Baia, Gattuso, Litmanen, and others will only be available on Xbox platforms, and the Xbox exclusive EA Access means it will start kicking on September 17. [Read the Full Story] 

Killer Instinct Gets a Rash

Microsoft may be playing coy with a new Battletoads game, but it's still paying homage to the 90s icons with its other properties. The latest is Killer Instinct, which has gotten Rash the Battletoad on its roster starting today. Killer Instinct Season 3 will launch in March of 2016. No word if Pimple and Zitz will be there. [Read the Full Story]

Crackdown Takes Lessons from Mordor

After the teasiest of teases, we finally saw Crackdown 3 footage today. It has all the leaping and gun-toting action you might expect, but the new trailer made a point of its interconnected crime syndicates. The trails from one criminal enterprise to another looked a lot like Shadow of Mordor, so we can hope for a similarly complex and fun domino effect. [Read the Full Story]

Scalebound Rolls with Dragons

Similarly teased but not previously detailed, we got our first look at Scalebound today. The lengthy gameplay demo showed the hero Drew wrecking enemies with the help of his dragon companion. Platinum also announced 4-player co-op, so you can have a gaggle of dragons at your command. Or would it be a pack of dragons? Or a murder? [Read the Full Story] 

Xbox One and Windows 10 Cross-Buy

Sony popularized cross-buy on PlayStation, and now Microsoft is answering with its two most popular platforms: Xbox and Windows PCs. On top of the built-in Xbox app in Windows 10, games like Fable Legends and Gigantic will support cross-buy across both platforms, along with cloud saves so you can start on one platform and then switch to another.

Dark Souls 3 is Predictably Intimidating

We all know we're going to die in Dark Souls 3. A lot. The debut gameplay trailer showed us how, with a few moments of cinematics followed by monster after monster ready to murder us. [Read the Full Story]

Quantum Break Timed for April

Quantum Break was the headliner for Microsoft's push into original TV programming alongside video games. When that division shut down, we wondered what it meant for the game. As it turns out, the show is still on-track, featuring the story from the villains' perspective. We also got word of its stars, Shawn Ashmore (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones), and saw a fair bit of time-manipulating gameplay. It will release on April 5, 2016.