Unlocked

As E3 2021 looms, it's time for our annual E3 predictions episode! We make a dozen total predictions about what we think we're going to see at Xbox's E3 press conference. And then make sure to join us live for our Xbox E3 press conference pre-show, starting at 9:30am PT/12:30pm ET on Sunday, June 13! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As E3 2021 looms, the big games are starting to show their hand. We discuss the recent gameplay reveals for Far Cry 6 and Dying Light 2 – both of which also got firm Fall release dates. Plus: Bungie's next project, Microsoft Flight Simulator does some housekeeping to maybe get ready for its Xbox Series X release, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft takes full control over Obsidian's Outer Worlds franchise from Private Division, so we discuss what that means for the future. Plus: Starfield's release window becomes clearer, No Man's Sky gets a thematically appropriate Mass Effect Easter egg, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is out and we spend most of the show discussing it, from whether or not it was worth the wait (hint: it was), to what we think of Mass Effect 1's quality-of-life upgrades, to how it holds up in 2021, and more! Plus: impressions of the upcoming Xbox exclusive The Ascent, new Xbox Game Pass games for the month of May, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Fable and Gears of War's next-gen tech is revealed, we discuss what their new engines mean for the future of those franchises - and the franchises around them. Plus: our impressions of Resident Evil Village, 12 Minutes, what we want from the new list of publishers who've confirmed they'll attend E3 2021, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Halo Infinite details its impressive PC features and options, leading some of the Unlocked crew to ponder whether to stick with it on Xbox or move to PC. Plus: the Xbox Compatibility Team drops another batch of FPS Boost games, a trademark gets filed for Sunset Overdrive by...Sony?!, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Xbox compatibility team delivers again by boosting a ton of fairly recent EA games -- including Battlefield V and Titanfall 2 -- up to 120fps on Xbox Series X. Plus: Respawn incubates a new game, It Takes Two gets off to a well-deserved great start, we debate the effect of Sony delisting Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store on the game's Xbox sales, and more! (Note: this episode was recorded prior to Microsoft's Q3 earnings call.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another big week for Xbox! We talk about why we think xCloud's long-awaited Apple/iOS rollout is key for the future of the Xbox platform, Discord turning down Microsoft's $10 billion offer, Psychonauts 2 and Xbox's underrated 2021 lineup, Resident Evil Village's next-gen specs, and more! Spawn on Me host Kahlief Adams joins us to discuss the DICE Awards he's hosting this week as well. Tune in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The gaming community is buzzing about a hot rumor that Microsoft is in talks with legendary game developer Hideo Kojima to develop his next game for Xbox. We humor the rumor and discuss what it would mean for Xbox, as well as what kind of game we'd like to see Kojima make for Microsoft. Plus: how you can have a chance to play Forza Motosport this year, the tragedy of Ninja Gaiden Black's lost source code, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Xbox Game Pass is on such a roll that it's landing first-party Sony games now! MLB The Show 21 is a huge get for Game Pass. We discuss MLB's smart, forward-thinking move as well as the incredibly momentum of the Game Pass service in general. Plus: E3 is back...sort of...we discuss Xbox's new $500 wireless headphones, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Sledgehammer reportedly back in the Call of Duty business and prepping a World War II-set video game for this year's entry in the series, we discuss whether we even want another WWII-set CoD. Plus: It Takes Two is excellent, the ID@Xbox stream was a fantastic show of a ton of great new games (many of which are going straight to Xbox Game Pass), CD Projekt Red changes its plans as they continue to try and rebound from Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of 2021's big releases, Gotham Knights, just got pushed to 2022. We discuss what it means not just for that game, but for Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as well. Plus: Xbox Live gets rebranded, Microsoft might be buying Discord, we've got an ID@Xbox showcase to look forward to this week, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bethesda held a fantastic roundtable discussion with Phil Spencer and some of the Xbox leadership team, and we discussed our impressions of the first big post-acquisition event, from Phil's comments on exclusivity to his admiration of the id Tech engine to the avalanche of Bethesda games that are now on Xbox Game Pass. Plus: our impressions of the excellent new Xbox Wireless Headset, Halo Infinite's fun new gameplay trick, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Xbox news this week as European and American regulators sign off on Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda, making the acquisition official. What will Microsoft do next? Which games will be exclusive? We discuss that and much more on this topic. Plus: what other new Xbox surprises await in 2021, WTF do Pringles' Halo Infinite "Moa Burger"-flavored potato chips taste like, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of BioWare news to discuss this week, from Anthem's cancellation to Henry Cavill (aka Superman aka Geralt)'s Mass Effect project to Dragon Age 4 no longer being a live-service game. Plus: Xbox's Aaron Greenberg downplays recent Elden Ring rumors, Battlefield for next-gen gets more help within EA, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Xbox backwards compatibility team flexes their muscles again with FPS Boost, an unexpected and awesome new improvement to back-catalog games. We celebrate the new feature. Plus: Diablo 2's long-rumored remaster has us super excited, we wonder what's next for Bungie as the studio expands, March's Games With Gold revealed, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the return of Six Days in Fallujah, a resurrection of a canceled 2009 game based on real-world events, including its A-list team of ex-Bungie developers and what they've said about the controversial project so far. Plus: we're excited about the just-announced Xbox Wireless Headset, Microsoft creates a new Fallout-themed company to oversee the Bethesda acquisition, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a job posting suggesting that 343 Industries is spinning up a new Halo game besides Halo Infinite, we speculate on what it might be – and decide we want a Halo horror game. Plus: our impressions of Xbox exclusive The Medium, Grand Theft Auto 5's unstoppable run and what we want from GTA 6, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To quote a line from Halo 2 in describing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: "There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?" Yes, we're talking about the long-awaited remaster of BioWare's beloved sci-fi RPG trilogy. We've seen it, and we want to tell you all about it. Plus: Xbox's baseball-game curse is finally lifted – a year earlier than expected too! – and EA surprised everyone with the return of a college football game. Please welcome special guests Kat Bailey and Cam Hawkins this week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a week! There's so much to discuss on this episode, from Microsoft shockingly doubling the price of Xbox Live Gold only to just-as-shockingly walk it back later that same day, to the insane new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic rumor, to Vicarious Visions merging into Blizzard to work on...Diablo 2 (!), and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Lucasfilm Games publishing umbrella once again dominates our conversation this week, as the first new non-EA Star Wars game in a decade gets announced. We discuss Ubisoft and Massive's upcoming open-world Star Wars adventure, including what it might be, what we hope it is and isn't, what it means for The Division, and more. Plus: Ninja Gaiden's creator would be "honored" to work with Microsoft again, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will the just-announced Indiana Jones game from Bethesda, Machinegames, and Todd Howard be an Xbox exclusive? We discuss this fascinating announcement. Plus: is Star Wars gearing up for life after EA? And we sort through the revelation that Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo (!) in the early Xbox days, a rumored Mass Effect: Legendary Edition release date, and more. It's a busy week of Xbox on Podcast Unlocked! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year! On our first Unlocked episode of 2021, we look ahead to the (long) list of Xbox exclusives coming this year. Plus: Gears 5: Hivebusters rocks, Fortnite's developer moves into...a mall(?), Games With Gold for January includes an OG Xbox cult classic, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our final episode of 2020 is a special one! Ryan welcomes Tim Schafer, the head of Double Fine (aka one of the newest Xbox Game Studios), for a 40-minute conversation about life since being acquired by Microsoft. But don't fret – that very much includes an update on Psychonauts 2 as well! P.S. We're off next week but we'll be back with new episodes of Unlocked starting January 5. Happy holidays and Happy New Year! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our penultimate show in 2020 is a big one! We spend the first half of the show discussing the nightmare scenario that is Cyberpunk 2077 on the current-gen consoles. After that, we dig into the big Xbox news from The Game Awards, including the long-anticipated reveal of the Perfect Dark reboot from The Initiative, the awards that Xbox games won, and Mass Effect's surprising continuity. Plus: Halo Infinite's release window and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital Foundry's John Linneman and Gamertag Radio's Danny Peña join us to talk about all sorts of Xbox stuff this week! Topics include: the future of BioWare after their big studio leadership shakeup, next-gen sports games on Xbox Series X, what's going on with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on Series X, our Game Awards announcement predictions for Xbox, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What will Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer be like? Special guests Ray Apollo from Twitch and Cam Hawkins from DualShockers join Ryan and Brandin for an extra-fun episode that also discusses Microsoft's underrated next-gen efforts, more awesome stuff coming to Xbox Game Pass, MechWarrior's long-awaited Xbox return, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The developer of Hitman has a new James Bond game in the works. We discuss why it could be the best Bond ever. Plus: Phil Spencer says an Xbox smart TV app is closer than we think, some of us would totally play the leaked retail Cyberpunk 2077 disc that hasn't been patched yet if we could, a bunch of big games get delayed, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next-gen is now officially current-gen! The Xbox Series X and S are out, and we talk about our first week of living with them. Plus: we analyze Microsoft's big first-week numbers, address shortages expected well into 2021, talk about another Xbox executive's recent comments on Bethesda game exclusivity, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the week you've been waiting for: the next-generation of Xbox has officially arrived with the Series X and Series S. We discuss the launches of Microsoft's two new consoles. Plus: EA and BioWare finally confirm Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the 4K remaster of the classic sci-fi trilogy. We discuss that as well as the future of the fan-favorite RPG franchise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a special two-hour episode of Unlocked that was recorded live with all of you, along with special guest panelist Parris Lilly from Gamertag Radio! We played the Series X for two hours now that the review embargo has lifted, and answered a lot of your questions along the way. We also talked through our final impressions of Microsoft's new consoles. If you normally listen to the podcast feed of Unlocked, we'd encourage you to watch the video version on this one! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cyberpunk 2077's last-minute delay affects everyone, from developers to gamers to media outlets alike. We sort through the fallout of this major news. Plus: a surprise Gears 5 update, Phil Spencer teases a possible 1 vs. 100-like replacement on Xbox Series, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another busy week of Xbox news to discuss, from the Xbox Series X's launch lineup (to the best Xbox launch lineup in history) to what Phil Spencer said about Bethesda game exclusivity in a recent interview to what The Initiative is working on, and more! Cam Hawkins from DualShockers stops by as our special guest this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We finally got to play a couple of proper Xbox Series X games. We give our impressions of those titles on the Series X, plus discuss The Medium's release date, Microsoft's new plan to get xCloud game streaming onto iOS devices, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As inXile announces yet another Xbox Series RPG, we run down the Xbox's exclusive RPG and discuss how Xbox Series is going to be THE home for Western RPGs. Plus: the games we've been hyped-beyond-hype for in our gaming lives as Cyberpunk 2077 goes gold, some critically acclaimed Bethesda games that appear to be headed to Xbox Series in a couple of collections, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fantastic Pikachulita joins our Xbox crew this week to discuss yet another big week of Xbox news! Topics include Ryan's life with the Xbox Series X in his house so far, Phil Spencer saying that there will be future generations of Xbox consoles, the Series S/X's pricey 1TB expansion card, Bethesda's first big Xbox move following the acquisition, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Unlocked crew discusses the massive news of Microsoft buying ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks, id Software, Arkane, and more!) the day before Xbox Series X and Series S consoles pre-orders go live plus the growth of Game Pass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the rumors of Microsoft trying to buy Bungie again (which Bungie quickly and sternly refuted), the leaked Xbox Series S presentation that never got to air, the backwards compatibility capabilities of the Xbox Series S, our disappointment about the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gamertag Radio's Parris Lilly rejoins Unlocked to talk through the long-awaited Xbox Series S reveal, price, and release date – plus the alleged price for the Series X as well. Plus: The Witcher 3 returns for Series X, September's Games With Gold and Game Pass additions, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MC Fixer from the My Xbox and Me podcast joins us to discuss another big week of Xbox news, from longtime Bungie veteran Joseph Staten being brought in to help lead Halo Infinite's campaign to Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War's confusing generational price and upgrade differences to Microsoft's uphill battle in providing reasons to buying the Xbox Series X this holiday and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special guest "Lord Cognito" from the Iron Lords Podcast joins us to discuss our reactions to the DC FanDome reveals of Gotham Knights and Rocksteady's Suicide Squad. Plus: our Battletoads impressions, Black Myth: Wukong's amazing debut, 343's track record with Halo, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft's first 10/10-rated game from IGN in quite some time comes from the most unexpected place: Microsoft Flight Simulator! Reviewer Seth Macy joins us to discuss the next-gen brilliance of the first-party masterpiece. Plus: taking stock of Xbox Game Studios' impressive 2020 output, the teaser campaign for the Batman Court of Owls game, Gotham Knights, has us exhausted and annoyed, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Major Xbox news this week! Halo Infinite gets delayed, so what does it mean for the franchise and for the Xbox Series X launch? Plus: Apple blocks Microsoft on Project xCloud, the Xbox Series S gets confirmed via the strangest of leaks, Rocksteady finally announces their next game, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Project xCloud takes the next big step towards becoming a major part of the Xbox ecosystem, and we discuss how it's kind of like the "Xboy" handheld Xbox that we never got. Plus: the ramifications of Halo Infinite's multiplayer being free-to-play, how Xbox fans feel about PlayStation's exclusive Spider-Man deal in Marvel's Avengers, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that we've had time to sit with big Xbox Games Showcase, we reflect back on the big event and discuss how we thought Microsoft did and whether or not Microsoft has a "Halo problem" after how the Halo Infinite campaign demo was received. Plus: a mysterious white Xbox Series X controller appears, Call of Duty 2020's title seemingly leaks via Doritos (yes, seriously), and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

IGN's Xbox crew (with special guest Parris Lilly) recaps and analyzes Microsoft's long-awaited Xbox Games Showcase. We talk Halo Infinite, Fable, and much, much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Xbox crew reacts to the Ubisoft Forward event, including the Far Cry 6 reveal, Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla contributing to an open-world bonanza this Fall, and what Valhalla's release date might say about the Xbox Series X launch date. Plus: Phil Spencer rejects your "holding Series X games back" meme, small updates on a lot of the new Xbox studios, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft finally sets a date for their long-awaited Xbox Games Showcase, and we've got predictions for what we think we'll see. Plus: Microsoft is reportedly one of the companies interested in buying Warner Bros.'s game studios, and we discuss the potentially industry-shifting ramifications the move could have. And with NBA 2K21 set to increase its price to $70 for Xbox Series X, we debate the merits of paying more for video games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots to discuss in the world of Xbox this week, from the rumored timing of the Xbox Series S/Lockhart announcement (plus what else we think will happen when that does), Halo Infinite returns a familiar but long-dormant foe, Fable and Perfect Dark Twitter accounts registered to Microsoft email addresses raise suspicions, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special guest panelist and known Kinect superfan Cicero Holmes joins the show this week to discuss a busy stretch of Xbox news. We react to EA's not-very-next-gen-y EA Play press conference last week, what the Cyberpunk 2077 delay means for Xbox Series X's launch, Rocksteady's rumored Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League game, and more! Check out Cicero's Star Trek podcast at @DSCDebrief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices