Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has spoken out on the subject of gender and racial diversity in the games industry. The topic came up in an
Asked how important it is to change that perception, Spencer said the industry is already making strides in the area of diversity--though he stressed that there is still much work to be done.
"I noticed just as we were doing the [E3 show] the number of characters of color that were playable in the games you saw," Spencer said. "We have a lot of work to do as an industry in this space."
On the subject of female leaders in the video game industry, Spencer said there is room to improve here, too. But for now, he pointed out that Microsoft already has strong, positive female leaders among its workforce, including Halo bosses Bonnie Ross and Kiki Wolfkill, as well as Lydia Winters of Mojang.
"We don't have to say, 'OK, let's find somebody in the Halo team that's a woman to put on stage.' You pick the leader of the Halo team!" he said. "I was incredibly proud of the way that diversity showed up, but I think as an industry we have more work to do, and we're committed to that."
If you’ve played an XCOM game in the past, then you know the chryssalid, the most frightening-looking alien the games depict. In
How will we be able to put these abilities to use in multiplayer?
It's pretty straightforward. We're pretty excited about giving the players the tools for everything they encounter in the game. Then you can make your dream team. They will have costs based on the units that you choose, and then you'll have some chances with soldiers who select different abilities and items at different costs. Things like the chryssalid, you'll be able to include that in your loadout, and then use burrow, and if you kill somebody with a chryssalid poison, you can then choose to multiply. You'll have more chryssalids. That sort of stuff is intact.
I'm curious, in a multiplayer scenario, about that burrow and how that ends up being used against other soldiers. What is it like to play as the chryssalid and use that particular ability? What are the kinds of surprises you would spring upon an enemy in that case?
You kind of think about it like the seeker, how if you go invisible with the seeker using Ghost Armor, it's just thematically now you're going underground, and you can't move while you're invisible. You want to set it up as an anticipatory tactic where you see your opponent potentially move towards, and then you'll get a free attack on them if they move within this radius. That's a way to use it. You can unburrow anytime you want, but it's a nice way to ambush the player with the enemy with that specific skill.
Come back to GameSpot tomorrow (5am PT, July 29 2015) for the next in our series of XCOM 2 exclusives, an interview with series creative director Jake Solomon.
The surge in popularity of both the overall). Meanwhile, developers and publishers face a steeper challenge than ever to yield profit on triple-A games.
Elsewhere in the interview, Spencer accepts that Microsoft needs to strengthen Xbox One's market position across Europe. According to Sony's most recent estimates, the PS4 enjoys a 70-90 percent market share across the continent.
"We need to do better in Europe. When I look globally, mainland Europe is definitely an area we want to focus on. I’m excited about going to Gamescom at the beginning of August, having another press show where we’re able to show games that we didn’t show here."
Fans of Psyonix's fiendishly fun car-based soccer game .
Looking forward, the developer has indicated it will support the game for "years" to come.
"We have BIG plans for Rocket League and our players, which is why you can expect to see plenty more from us over the next several weeks, months, and hopefully, even years," said community and marketing director Jeremy Dunham wrote.
Fear of killer robots isn't just a fear highlighted by sensationalist science fiction moves. Now, several famous scientists and businessmen have called for a ban on AI weapon systems.
In a
"Artificial Intelligence technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is--practically if not legally--feasible within years, not decades," the letter states. "We believe that AI has great potential to benefit humanity in many ways, and that the goal of the field should be to do so. Starting a military AI arms race is a bad idea, and should be prevented by a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control."
Although fully autonomous weapons aren't in active use yet, cruise missiles, artillery, and unmanned drones have been equipped with smart guidance systems for several years.
The Future of Life Institute's letter was presented at the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence taking place now in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We play through the entire first quest of the first chapter of King's Quest and brave the perils of a dragon-inhabited cavern.
Watch Mary get top of the leader board by beating her own top score in this gameplay clip from N++.
Developer 343 Industries explains why Halo 5: Guardians has done away with split-screen multiplayer.
