Earlier today at the annual Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany, Microsoft held a briefing that included some high-profile gaming announcements and news. Here are all the major bullet points from the press conference.
- Rise of the Tomb Raider, the follow-up to Crystal Dynamics' stellar 2013 game, will launch as an Xbox One exclusive in late 2015 -- though there does seem be language that leaves the door open for a release on other platforms down the road. As of now it's only an Xbox One game.
- Xbox One will be getting new features including DLNA, USB playback, boot-to-TV, an updated friends section among others according to Xbox Wire.
- Two new Xbox One bundles will hit later this year. An all-white console packed with Sunset Overdrive will go for $400 (without Kinect) on October 28, and a Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare-skinned Xbox One with a 1TB hard drive and the game for $500 on November 3 (also without Kinect).
- Microsoft debuted an impressive gameplay demo of Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break which is set to hit exclusively on Xbox One in 2015.
- The Halo 5: Guardians beta will begin on December 29.
- Moon Studios' charmingly dark platformer Ori and the Blind Forest will launch on Xbox One and PC this holiday season.
- The Fable Legends multiplayer beta will start on October 16.
- "Evolve," the recently delayed shooter from the team that brought us the Left for Dead series will offer an Xbox One beta in January 2015.
- Xbox One digital pre-order and pre-loading begins with Forza Horizon 2 and FIFA 15.
We'll have more from Gamescom in Germany as it breaks.