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Microsoft wants to improve its PC gaming focus, but that doesn't mean big marquee blockbusters like Halo 6, Gears of War 5 and the next Fable will show up on competing storefronts.

Xbox gaming head Phil Spencer has been talking up PC gaming recently, and promises some surprises for E3 2019. Some speculate that huge franchises like Halo could show up on Steam. This is very unlikely to happen and is counter-intuitive to Microsoft's business strategy. The company is committed to PC, and all of its future first-party games will have PC releases, including Halo 6, Gears of War 5, and all the projects its newly acquired studios are working on.

The biggest reason why Microsoft won't bring huge franchises to Steam or the Epic Store is because of money. It keeps all the cash from every sale on wholly-owned platform like the Xbox or Windows Stores, and doesn't have to give anyone a cut. But it also keeps every bit of microtransaction revenue from live service games which is more important, especially since all big Xbox games are now monetized. For all the big talk about Microsoft being a proponent of cross-play and sharing, it behooves them to still retain a tight control over their ecosystem (and they will).

To no one's surprise, Activision's main goal in the games industry is to make money. But how it goes about raking in those billions has caused lots of scrutiny from gamers and critics alike. Tactics like lootboxes, free-to-play monetization, and other microtransaction schemes are hallmarks of its business, and this trend isn't about to change any time soon.

While scouting Activision's latest SEC Filing I found something quite interesting. In one section the company outlines its overall vision and the pillars of its business, and none of them are too exciting. Making big new games is only a small part of Activision-Blizzard's plans--the bulk of it revolves around monetizing them.

Blizzard is indeed working on a bunch of new projects but these games are basically built around live service earnings via microtransactions and monetization rather than the other way around.

The first movie in the Pokemon movie franchise has been recreated in gorgeous CGI. The movie which is planned to release quite soon has received a new teaser trailer.

Two brand new teaser trailers have been released onto the official Pokemon YouTube Channel. The first is a 30 second teaser trailer showing Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu and a bunch of other Pokemon in glorious CGI. It is quite strange to see originally anime characters rendered in cartoony 3D, I'm not quite sure if I like it or not.

At the moment 'Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution' is planned for release in theaters in Japan on July 12th, 2019. Unfortunately there has been no mention of a release in the West, but judging by the popularity Pokemon has over in the West we should see a re-release of the movie dubbed for Western theatres. Well, hopefully we will as I'm sure many Western Pokemon fans would be disappointed if we didn't. Check out the first trailer for 'Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution' here.

Guerrilla Games are celebrating their two year anniversary of Horizon Zero Dawn, in celebration of the anniversary the developer reveals the total amount of sales for the PS4 exclusive title.

Guerrilla Games' managing director, Hermen Hulst came out with a full statement celebrating the anniversary. Hulst recounts when the game launched back on February 28th, 2017. Hulst says that he "attending GDC and counting down the minutes with a group of fellow Guerrillas and Shuhei Yoshida. Early feedback suggested that we had something special on our hands, but we never suspected that we'd still be receiving daily messages of appreciation from our players in 2019."

Hulst continues to express his gratitude to his audience by saying; "And yet, here we are, already well over 10 million copies sold worldwide; the idea that we were able to bring Aloy's journey to so many players is astounding. We've been deeply moved by the enormous amount of fan creations you've posted online, as well as the heartfelt letters you've sent sharing your favorite moments from Aloy's journey."

Being apart of the long line of deaths throughout Game of Thrones is simply being apart of television history. While Game of Thrones' writer, George R.R Martin sees absolutely no problem in ending the lives of our favorite characters abruptly, he doesn't want the same treatment for himself.

The Game of Thrones writer, George R.R Martin has revealed to Entertainment Weekly that despite his massive hand in how HBO's hit show is played out he would not want to appear in the shows final season. The writer actually said that he has already declined a cameo role that would somewhere in one of the final six episodes.

Here is what Martin said; "David and Dan invited me to a cameo in one of the final episodes, which I was tempted to do, but I didn't think just for the sake of a cameo I could take the time to return to Belfast." Instead of returning to the shooting grounds of North Ireland's Belfast, Martin has decided to throw his concentration onto the next book in the Game of Thrones series, The Winds of Winter. Funnily enough, Martin has appeared in a cameo role in Game of Thrones before, it was the original pilot that was eventually cut from the show.

Capcom have come out in full swing today as the company has released the pre-launch trailer for the upcoming Devil May Cry 5. The trailer teases fans with a new character that some might find familiar...

It should be noted that this pre-launch trailer does contain a considerable amount of story scenes, while they may not be played in chronological order I would still consider the contents "spoiler" worthy. We see glimpses at what seems like key storyline moments as well as what appears to be pivotal boss fight.

Moving onto what the trailer showcases now. We see an awesome combination of gameplay, fighting and cut scenes. Thrown in closer to the end of the trailer is the big reveal of Dante's brother, Vergil. While the initial reveal of Vergil isn't that surprising, considering he is a character in the other Devil May Cry games. The main question raised is will be playable or just another character influence the games storyline? It would be very awesome if Vergil joined sides with Nero, Danta and V and became a playable character with a unique set of abilities. Devil May Cry 5 will be launching on the PC, Xbox One and PS4 on March 8th.

There is many games franchises I would love to see come to Nintendo Switch, and I'd say Capcom's Devil May Cry series is definitely one of them. Why wouldn't you want one of the most classic hack-and-slash series available everywhere?

It seems both the producer and director of Devil May Cry, Hideaki Itsuno and Matt Walker agree as well. In a statement to Express Online, the director and the producer said that they would "love" to be able to play a Devil May Cry game on the Nintendo Switch. Walker further explained that he is one of those guys that want to see "everything on Switch", saying that he is "always asking for ports".

I would certainly agree with both Hideaki Itsuno and Matt Walker, having Devil May Cry on the Nintendo Switch would truly be awesome. Would they start off with Devil May Cry 5 though? My guess would be perhaps not first, I would assume Capcom would more likely start off with the earlier releases in the series as kind of an ice breaker. Being an owner of a Nintendo Switch, I would imagine that having a great hack-and-slash franchise such as Devil May Cry completely portable and available anywhere wouldn't result in negative fan feedback. Switch owners would simply eat this game up.

Intel is wanting to boost the development of quantum computing technology, with the chipmaker unveiling its new Cryogenic Wafer Prober which allows researchers to test qubits on 300mm silicon wafers at super-low temperatures. Intel says this is the first quantum computing testing tool ever made, making it a very big deal.

Intel partnered up with Bluefors and Afore for the new cryoprober, with the new quantum computer testing tool made because during the development of Intel's own quantum computer, they worked out they needed a cryoprober to make it easier to test qubits in silicon before they're finalized and put into quantum chips and then sent off to customers. The company added that the cryoprober would allow the company to scale up manufacturing of silicon quantum computers, with less issues.

Quantum computers and their respective chips are normally tested for months and months in a super-low temperature dilution refrigerator where it would work out what works, and what doesn't. Normal transistors can be tested within an hour, versus months and months for quantum chips. The feedback from testing can be used to make tweaks that can be sent to manufacturing before the chips are made.

The Division 2 open beta kicks off tomorrow, with Ubisoft now pre-loading the game across the Xbox One, PS4, and the PC. The upcoming open beta takes place over the weekend between March 1-4.

Ubisoft will be offering up 3 main missions that can be played on both Normal and Hard difficulties, where you'll get to check out the Grand Washington Hotel, Jefferson Trade Center, and the Viewpoint Museum. The first two were available to play in the private betas of The Division 2, but now everyone will get to check it out courtesy of the open beta.

There are some new things in the open beta where once you're over and done with the Jefferson Trade Center, you'll have 3 level 30 characters that you can play in endgame content. The Division 2 open beta will also include Skirmish PvP made dubbed Capitol Ruins, as well as two more Settlement Projects.

Epic Games is gearing up for the launch of Season 8 of Fortnite with a huge tease of Weezer World, with their upcoming self-titled album known as 'The Black Album' dropping songs in the Weezer-themed island on Fortnite.

Weezer World is an island that is available in creative mode, and acts as a gigantic Weezer-themed amusement park that is playing tracks from the unreleased album. Rivers Cuomo, the frontman for Weezer, is a huge Fortnite fan and plays the game with his daughter. Weezer even posted to its own Twitter account that 'Fortnite Weezon 8 live now' which is a very cool way to get Fortnite players to know about your new album.

Fortnite isn't shy to in-game concerts as this isn't a first time, with artist Marshmello entering the game in a one-off event. With the likes of Weezer debuting unreleased songs in Fortnite, we could see more and more of this - using games as a marketing platform for music, TV and movie teasers and trailers, and more. What do you think?

The Division is right around the corner with developer Massive Entertainment talking more about the game and the fact the studio expanded its staff after the first game, as well as its sibling studio in Stockholm beefed up with more staff.

During an interview in the latest EDGE magazine, Managing Director of Massive Entertainment, David Polfeldt said: "If you look at the learnings we made from The Division, we know that people play the game in quite different ways. And people fall in love with different aspects of the game. The Division is expected to cater to quite a lot of tastes, which is never an easy thing".

He continued: "How do you create a game that caters to all that? The answer is that you have to create a monster game. I think this is a challenge for some other games that are in the same genre: you're expected to deliver on a lot of different tastes and preferences. It's really fun to do, but it's not easy. And yet you also have to remember that Massive is a studio that is 20 years old, and we don't want the easiest challenge. We want to win the Champions League. And yes, that's really difficult, but that's why it's exciting to us".

AMD is gearing up towards its next-gen Navi GPU architecture later this year, which will not only power the next-gen Next Xbox and PlayStation 5 consoles, but a bunch of new Radeon graphics cards for PC gamers.

A new patent application turned up on Twitter today teasing variable rate shading, or VRS, which will see certain parts of the scene in a game that will render at lower resolutions so that it increases the overall performance of the game being played. For example, if you were playing a first-person shooter like Apex Legends and zoomed into a sniper scope, it's not worth your graphics card rendering everything around the scope in full detail or full resolution, so performance can be increased.

VRS will handle particular frames and then decide which frames being rendered need to be at full detail, or not. This means you could be rendering in native 4K but certain parts of the scene could be rendered in lower resolutions, increasing performance across the board while not affecting the graphics that you're looking at.

Anthem is getting a much-needed loot system overhaul as BioWare listens closely to player feedback.

There's a right way to do randomized loot. Games like Diablo nearly perfected this model by assigning stats that actually make sense and match the gear they're attached to. Diablo 2 had prefixes and suffixes that determined the effects of weapons, armor, and jewelry, complete with unique items that had set stats with different values (or rolls, as they're called). But Anthem's launch is a pure example of how to completely ruin randomized loot, and showed the game needed more time in the oven.

Anthem basically tried to over-randomize the stats, or "inscriptions," that are applied to the weapons and components. Any inscription could be applied to any weapon, regardless if it didn't make sense. This resulted in Masterwork items that negated any real beneficial effect, like flamethrowers that added physical damage by 0% for 0 seconds. Now BioWare is changing things up and trying to limit which stats can appear on which items.

To celebrate its long history with PAX East, Gearbox should unveil its big new Borderlands FPS looter at the event.

Borderlands 3 has been in development for years now, and after a big delay Gearbox should finally be ready to unveil their chaotic FPS at PAX East. Gearbox is holding a one-hour showcase at the event on Thursday, March 28 at 2PM EST where it will have "never-before-seen reveals, exclusives, and surprises."

Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive reiterated that Borderlands 3 will launch sometime in its current fiscal year, which means a possible 2019 or Spring 2020 release.

Horizon: Zero Dawn turns two today, and Guerrilla shares some lesser-known tidbits about its open world baby.

If you own a PS4 then there's games you simply must own, and Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of them. The world is so exotic and unique, the visuals so pristine and impressive, the combat so fluid and chaotic, and the facial animations put most new games to shame. Thanks to its stalwart quality, Horizon: Zero Dawn has now sold well over 10 million copies worldwide and is a big new IP for Sony's first-party brand.

Now Guerrilla Games' Herman Hulst gives us a peek behind the curtain to see how this ambitious project was made. In a PlayStation Blog post, Hulst says original prototyping of Horizon: Zero Dawn began way, way back in 2010 when it was finishing up Killzone 3. Aloy's character and models weren't ready yet so the team used a character from its Killzone games.

Microsoft makes advancements in new technologies that could allow native Game Pass support on Windows 10 PCs.

We've long reported that Xbox is no longer a console, but a service that bridges both consoles and PCs. That's exactly how Microsoft wants it. The company makes billions from its big service-first business model, with subscriptions like Game Pass, Xbox LIVE Gold, and even its Mixer broadcasting platform all contributing strongly. Game Pass in particular has done quite well, sparking full game sales and boosting Gold subscribers and engagement (even Microsoft's own games are now additive to Game Pass).

Now Microsoft is making foundational steps to bring Game Passes' full arsenal of games on PC--which was always in the cards. The company is testing native Xbox game support on PCs. Starting with a preview test build of State of Decay 2, Microsoft now delivers assets and files from the Xbox version of the game rather than the PC ported version. This has lots of far-reaching implications that could see Xbox making a big splash on PC.

CD Projekt RED's hugely ambitious RPG shooter will take over E3 again this year, and we might get an actual release date too.

Today CDPR confirmed Cyberpunk 2077, the studio's absolutely massive and dynamic sci-punk FPS, will make an appearance at E3 2019. It's likely we'll get new gameplay footage, fresh details about the world of Night City and game mechanics, and possibly even a launch window for current platforms. The developer blew the doors off of last year's show with a huge 48-minute gameplay demo that exposed thrilling shooter action in an incredibly layered high-tech metropolis.

Just like at E3 2018, Cyberpunk 2077 should be shown during the Xbox showcase and it's likely CDPR has signed a deal with Microsoft to promote the game. The studio has been busily crafting Cyberpunk 2077 for about 5 years now and built a new next-gen engine and powerful tech to power the game.

The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short is an annual esports event that focusses on fighting games. This years EVO will not feature Super Smash Bros. Melee, but instead the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The line-up for the fighting games that are going to be featured at this years EVO have been announced. Fans that are apart of 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee community received a stab in the heart as they skimmed over the game line-up as Melee was not featured, instead it has been replaced with the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This has come as quite a shock to some Melee fans, as Smash Melee was one of EVO's biggest attractions and has quite the dedicated fan base.

Many Melee fans have taken to Twitter to express their disgust in the decision to not include Melee at EVO 2019. Chiming in on the topic was top-ranked pro Melee player "Leffen", stating "No EVO for Melee is sad but definitely not a huge blow to the community honestly. They prioritized games that paid them to be there instead of viewership or community support and thats sad but its also reality. Melee will be fine. Let's celebrate no Bo3 Majors this year."

Capcom is proud of their efforts with Resident Evil 2's remake, and so they should be. The game was a fantastic success and now we have some official sales numbers to back that up.

Resident Evil 2 Remake was well received by the Resident Evil community, some fans even calling it the greatest remake of a game in gaming history. While the game has no doubt been a success for Capcom, how much of a success has it been exactly? According to an announcement on the Capcom website, Resident Evil 2 has managed to sell 4 million units worldwide.

Capcom also gave a sales comparison to the original Resident Evil 2 which was released back in 1998. The second instalment in the Resident Evil series went on to achieve sales of 4.9 million units, making it the fourth best-selling game in the franchise. The 2019 re-release of Resident Evil 2 almost met the sales of the original and could possibly go on to beat them once some time has passed. This is quite the achievement for a 1998 game that has been re-built from the ground up for modern day consoles and PC.

Johnny Cage has made a massive entry into Mortal Kombat 11, kicking, punching and even throwing his sunglasses at his opponents. Not to mention a fatality that will certainly be remembered.

Johnny Cage is one of the original first seven Mortal Kombat fighters and appeared in the first release of the Mortal Kombat series in 1992. Cage's character is narcissistic Hollywood movie star who has been mostly viewed by the audience as the character that applies some level of comic relief. What we see in today fighter reveal trailer released through the IGN YouTube Channel is exactly that. Cages large variety of moves are quite funny, such as taking photos of his opponent and even throwing his sunglasses at them. Not to mention the brutal combinations of punches and kicks.

Most note worthy though is definitely Cage's 'fatality', the actor takes the opponent to the set of movie theatre where a movie shot is being taken for a 'brutal uppercut'. We see the movie clapperboard with 'take 02' on it, as well as in the director category Mortal Kombat 11's director 'Ed Boon'. Cage attempts to hit the perfect uppercut on his opponent, eventually taking his/hers head off, he then proceeds to throw it at the camera. I would say this has been the most creative fatality we have seen from Mortal Kombat 11 so far.