E3 2014: The Coins in Microsoft’s Couch Cushions

Phil Spencer

UPDATE: I found a huge listing of all of the ID@Xbox games if you want to read a little more about some of the indie games. It’s not hard to find the big headlines from Microsoft’s E3 2014 press conference today but a few little coins always sink down into the couch cushions. Here’s what bubbled up from the ensuing press release explosion.

The Xbox 360 didn’t get mentioned out loud at the conference but Microsoft isn’t quite ready to put their past-gen console out to pasture. Coming, presumably through 2015, to the console are:

  • Forza Horizon 2
  • Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
  • Ori and the Blind Forest
  • Project Spark
  • Magic 2015 – Duels of the Planeswalkers

D4, the Kinect-centric game from Deadly Premonition creator, SWERY, is now touted as having Kinect and controller support. The four D’s also stand for: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. I’m not sure if I ever heard that last year. D4 is out in 2014.

While Xbox One games like Ori are falling back onto Xbox 360, Microsoft announced that the 360’s free-to-play “online multiplayer action game”, Happy Wars, will make the jump to Xbox One. To be released before the end of 2014, the Xbox One version will include a story-driven campaign mode and support for up to 30 players. I have no idea if those are just the same features from the 360 version.

Somewhere towards the end of the show Microsoft shot off a rapid fire reel of indie games coming by way of their ID@Xbox initiative. The first few listed below are worth pointing out because they appeared on Microsoft’s press site but not in the footage at the show. The rest are coming to other platforms or are already available on PC so I won’t go into detail but here’s a handy list for anyone looking.

  • Wulverblade
  • Another World/Out of this World
  • Q.U.B.E.
  • There Came an Echo
  • Cuphead
  • Fenix Rage
  • Earthlock
  • Knight Squad
  • #IDARB
  • Aztez
  • Plague Inc. Evolved
  • White Night
  • Hyper Light Drifter
  • Lifeless Planet
  • Slash Dash
  • Fru
  • Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
  • Might No. 9
  • Grave
  • Threes
  • Woolve
  • Hellraid
  • Below

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