Monthly Archives: February 2022

Xbox Reveals Black History Month Celebration Plans

Xbox will celebrate Black History Month by spotlighting Black and African American developers and creators for the entire month of February.

The company announced their plans in a blog post, where content developer and social lead Albert Dankwa said Xbox would be "celebrating gaming as a source of joy, connection, and self-care for many in the community."

The company has been celebrating Black History Since 2020, highlighting Black industry professionals and their contributions to the gaming industry.

Dankwa said he relates to finding joy through games: "I have fond memories of summer afternoons spent at a friend's home playing Halo and later enjoying Gears of War on my own first Xbox. was fascinated by the narratives, drawn to the worlds, and inspired by the heroes and the hope they represented. As a lifelong gamer, it's important to me to help inspire and uplift others to join the industry or to simply share their love of gaming."

Microsoft Reward members in the U.S. can earn and donate points to organizations supporting Black communities with Xbox, such as Cxmmunity, Black Girls Rock!, and Gameheads. Meanwhile, Halo will be adding a special emblem and nameplate, and Forza Horizon 5 will be hosting an in-game livery contest. Xbox itself is adding a new Gamerpic, profile theme, and avatar items for the occasion.

In an effort to build diversity within the games industry, Xbox Game Studios' Game Camp is returning to New Orleans from March 9 to April 7 with the goal of providing people from underrepresented communities with access to experts, tools, and industry connections to aid them through the game creation process.

Xbox is also partnering with Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU) Connect to present a panel featuring Xbox employees from HBCU Connect schools, sharing their journeys into the games industry.

A special feature called "The New Face of Gaming" will also be shown at the Games Developers Conference in March, highlighting a diverse group of Xbox developers. The panelists will share their experiences in gaming and explore how diverse voices are contributing to the industry's evolution.

Finally, Xbox will be spotlighting Xbox Ambassadors' stories and celebrating Black History Month on its Twitch channel with a number of stream takeovers.

Among game developers, Xbox has often been at the forefront of issues of accessibility and diversity. Back in 2020, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer called for more diverse leaders in games, reiterating Microsoft's commitment to the issue. As Black History Month gets underway, Xbox appears set on showing that these comments are more than just words.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

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Battlefield 2042 Season One Delayed, More Details Revealed

Battlefield 2042's Season One has been pushed back to early summer 2022 so developer DICE can focus on resolving current issues in the game. The decision was made "to bring the game up to the highest standards" according to senior producer Ryan McArthur, who published a blog post on the game's website.

Battlefield 2042 was released in November last year with a number of issues including server connectivity and UI problems. A seasonal Battle Pass will add new playable characters and maps, but DICE didn't confirm a timeline for when Season One will begin.

McArthur said, "We are heavily invested and committed to the future of Battlefield 2042 — working on taking action on multiple fronts to address feedback and implement extensive fixes to the game, key features that are important to you, and getting team play where it needs to be."

Pushing back Season One "gives us the time to focus on improving the Battlefield 2042 experience when finalizing the development for our seasonal content," he added.

The blog post gave an in-depth explanation as to how these improvements will be made, starting with features DICE wants to implement "as soon as possible".

The next update will include a refreshed in-round scoreboard that separates the player's and enemy's teams into two tables. Kill to death scoring and end-of-round reports will be coming in a later update.

Voice communication will also be added and "is just the start of the improvements we're bringing to enhance team play and communication," according to the post.

Player profiles will also be added to summarize players' career stats and indicate progress towards future unlocks.

Team play will receive a "tighter, clearer squad loop", a refined ping system, and an improved reward loop to encourage squads to play the objective. The Portal mode, which IGN called "the real treasure of Battlefield 2042", will also receive ongoing updates to expand its tools, modes, and to tweak player experience gains.

DICE has also committed to being explicitly clear in the future on what their updates are, why they're making those decisions, and to also listen to community reception and base their plans on that feedback.

Some players have already purchased the year's Battle Pass through the Gold and Ultimate versions of the game, but as a thanks for their patience, DICE will grant them an exclusive bundle featuring a Specialist skin, weapon and vehicle skins, a melee weapon and Player Card in the next update.

The developer didn't confirm when the new update will be coming but Battlefield 2042 received a major update in November and again in January, meaning it could be March before the outlined changes are made.