New Game Teased

Microsoft keeps the Battletoads buzz alive at GDC.

by Chris Pereira on March 4, 2015

During Xbox boss Phil Spencer's Game Developers Conference panel today, it was announced that the Battletoads will be making an appearance in the Xbox One version of Shovel Knight--and it was teased that that is not all that awaits the long-dormant franchise.

At the end of a Shovel Knight trailer showing off universal app support, the Battletoads made a brief appearance, teasing their inclusion in a future update to the platforming game. This was followed by ID@Xbox head Chris Carla making a quip about where we might see the Battletoads next.

This is just the latest tease of a new Battletoads game from Microsoft. The company renewed a Battletoads trademark last year, sparking speculation that a new game could be in the works. Most recently, Spencerwore a Battletoads t-shirt during a presentation he made in January. Later, when asked about its significance, he responded, "I don't think I've ever worn a t-shirt that's been a complete head-fake. I wouldn't do that."

The Battletoads series was developed by Rare, the same company responsible for Donkey Kong Country,GoldenEye, and (these days) Kinect Sports. It's been more than two decades since the last Battletoads game was released, but the franchise still has a fervent fanbase.

Well, X1 will become useless for those who have a PC, Phil Spencer jsut confirmed it, X1 exclusive will be rare

This may turn out true. I am still happy as I will have access to more PC titles. 1080p 120 frames for me!

Is Elite Dangerous good?

Putting games at the forefront of Windows ten? LOL Google Play and Apple must really be kicking Microsofts ass.

Maybe but at least MS is doing stuff that actually seems to be beneficial to gamers. Bravo, keep it up

The cross buy with windows is the biggest news here, just hope they allow them to work across steam and not a godawful GFWL style platform.

Cross-buy sounds nice for consumers but I don't see how it would provide much incentive for developers. Why kill off a potential revenue stream? I doubt many people buy a game twice but, still, what does a studio get out of it? Extra work without any extra profit? Microsoft would be smart to pay developers to make the effort to start with (and I bet they will). It would be a nice reason to buy from the Microsoft Store rather than Steam--provided the other features in the Store are up to par with Steam.

I feel kinda bad for XO owners who believed the hype about DX12. The people who made it seem like it would going to have a huge impact on the XO did them no favors. The Xbox One is a dedicated system, not a fragmented array of components from a plethora of companies, as with gaming PCs. I think it was safe to assume that a lot of high level optimization had already been done.

I don't know. It seems backward seeing that their OS is standard to so many people. I mean, its awesome that they have games on it (For us), but truthfully MS has an almost uninterrupted market of people that they can market their store to if they could centralize everything properly for the common man. 

Outside of that now that we know what DX12 can really be used for we can have more realistic expectations. 

IMO this could be good. Microsoft needs to leverage windows PC as their primary gaming source before it begins to focus on a Multi-Microsoft platform presence. Basically, hey these wide range of games can be played either on the PC, on the XBOX, or on your tablet/phone, whichever you prefer. Sure super high end might focus on the PC/XBOX but there are plenty if not more games that could be played on all devices. This is also perhaps one the pillars that _might_ actually make their windows phones viable.

Nintendo can't certainly do this, and SONY can only partialy do this.