Doom is upon us. The closed alpha for id Software's Doom launches tomorrow, October 23rd (at midnight ET) and runs through October 25th. The alpha is available to those who pre-ordered the game online before May 24th and people who redeemed beta codes found in some physical copies of Wolfenstein: The New Order. But even if you aren't one of the destined few, fear not -- you can get a taste of Doom's multiplayer in the gameplay video below. Doom is due out in spring 2016 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Source: Bethesda on YouTube

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It was a pretty good first quarter for Microsoft on the gaming front. The company revealed today that monthly active Xbox Live users increased by 28 percent over the last three months, a huge jump that now puts the active user base at 39 million. To be clear: These aren't the total amount of people on Xbox Live (which sits around 49 million), just those who are playing at least once a month. The summer break probably accounted for much of that growth, together with high-profile releases like Metal Gear Solid V and Destiny: The Taken King. Still, the gaming success wasn't enough to help Microsoft's More Personal Computing group -- which includes all of its devices -- still saw revenue fall 17 percent in Q1, mostly due to the 54 percent revenue drop in phones. And that figure isn't too surprising: Microsoft didn't really have many fresh phone offerings over the summer.

Source: Microsoft

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Halo 5: Guardians launches next week on Xbox One and we're celebrating the only way we know how on Playdate -- by giving stuff away and playing video games on Twitch. What's the giveaway? A special Xbox One console packing 1TB of storage, Halo 5 stylings and the game itself. And for runners up, a pair of Astro A40 headphones decked out in the sci-fi shooter's livery. Oh, right, we're playing a game too. You can probably guess by now what that'll be, but if not it's Halo 5. Join Sean Buckley, myself and our special guest Richard Lawler as we form a Blue Team of our own and fight through Covenant and Prometheans for two hours starting at 4 PM Eastern / 1PM Pacific. You'll be able to find us in the usual places, too: Here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage and Twitch.tv/joystiq if you'd like to join us in chat.

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Pinball FX creator Zen Studios released a bundle this week featuring tables from Archer, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and American Dad. The pack, called Balls of Glory, is available now across PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows 10, Steam, Android and iOS (whew). And all of this exists because of a tweet, as Zen Studios VP of Publishing Mel Kirk explains.

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When is it a good idea for employees to post reviews of their own company's game? Most people would probably say "never," but that didn't stop Harmonix employees working on Rock Band 4 from doing it. A suspicious Reddit user found at least seven 5-star reviews by Harmonix employees, including from one user who said she was a "new fan," but is actually the company's "legal and music coordinator." Others including a project manager, consultant and senior designer also gave it top marks. Amazon ratings are crucial for such a family-oriented game, given that the online retailer may be the only place casual buyers will look for them.

Via: Destructoid

Source: Reddit

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The combination of the electronic band Neon Indian and Microsoft's Kinect makes so much sense it seems practically inevitable. During Neon Indian's performance at the CMJ Music Marathon in NYC this month, it used five Kinect sensors to capture the movement of band members, the results of which were projected in a trippy light performance behind them. You can see the Xbox One Kinect sensors set up throughout the stage for its performance of "The Glitzy Hive" from its latest album, VEGA INTL. Night School, in the video below. We've seen plenty of other intriguing uses of Kinect for music performances -- even the Seattle Symphony has experimented with it -- but it's still interesting to see how different artists approach Microsoft's motion-sensing camera. Neon Indian will be using the Kinect setup in select locations throughout its upcoming tour, and you can get a better sense of how it works after the break.

Via: Wired

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If you lived in the '90s and tried to run multiplayer Quake across a 56K modem, you may have fond memories (or not) of MPlayer. The '90s PC gaming service is coming back after being defunct for 15 years, thanks to a company called MPlayer Entertainment. To refresh your memory, MPlayer was a free, ad-supported online community that hosted up to 20 million visitors a month. It ran between 1996 and 2001, and offered over 100 free games, including Quake, Mech Commander and Rogue Spear. It also popularized the idea of VoIP chat between gamers. The ad-supported service was never profitable, however, and was eventually sold to GameSpy, which took it offline in 2001.

Source: MPlayer Entertainment

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Is a gamepad worth $150? That's the question Microsoft is asking with the Xbox One Elite controller, a revamp of its almost two-year-old paddle that shipped with the Xbox One. The company isn't targeting this as a device for the mainstream, though. Rather, the Elite is instead for highly competitive gamers -- the type that'd mod their controllers with third-party accessories for greater precision. The customization it offers comes at a steep price, costing over twice as much as the standard $60 controller.

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Beware, for the night is dark and full of terrors folks: Telltale Games is wrapping the first season of its Game of Thrones series, Iron from Ice soon. When the season finale, dubbed "The Ice Dragon," releases next month on the 17th, Telltale says it'll be the first time that an episode hits each platform simultaneously (Android, iOS, Mac, PC, Playstation and Xbox). What's more, the story-focused developer says that the finale will provide "a uniquely harrowing conclusion" for every player based on the decisions you've made thus far. If I know anything about Telltale and Game of Thrones that means a number of characters are going to die. Probably viciously. Need a place to start? Telltale's using a classic pusher move and is offering the first episode for free. Try not getting attached to anyone.

Source: Telltale Games

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