Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry Hyrb, known to many as Major Nelson, has posted a countdown to E3 on his blog, posted only with the words “And it’s on…” Following a quiet E3 2012 for Microsoft, it looks as though Hyrb’s tease points to something bigger.
The blog post could, of course, be a particularly evil attempt at trolling the Internet, but it’s much more likely that Hyrb (and Microsoft), want to raise the hype levels before a huge announcement at the Los Angeles expo, which runs from June 11 to June 13.
Previous rumours placed the new Xbox’s launch in October or November of this year, which would fit perfectly with a reveal at E3 in June.
Regardless of whether Hyrb’s countdown is related to the next Xbox, the post clearly aims to build up the hype for a huge announcement from Microsoft at E3.
Microsoft have made the first move, but we’d expect Sony to start teasing us about an E3 announcement, likely for the PlayStation 4, during the next couple of months.
In other Xbox news, Daniel Kaplan of Mojang announced today that sales of the XBLA version of Minecraft have reached five million.
On the last day of 2012, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition hit 5 million copies sold! Crazy! Amazing! Great way to end the year :) Thanks!
— Daniel Kaplan (@Kappische) January 3, 2013
With mobile sales of Minecraft also having recently passed the same mark, plus the 8.73 million PC sales, Minecraft is quickly approaching 20 million sales.
Other Microsoft news
Today Microsoft also acquired R2 studios, a home-entertainment startup company, the Wall Street Journal reports, in a move that looks to confirm Microsoft’s intention to continue to transform its gaming consoles into entertainment hubs.
It’s a busy start to 2013 for Microsoft, but if you missed what the hottest trends were in gaming in 2012, or if you want to have a look at the most anticipated games of this year, we’ve got you covered.