Microsoft revives Inside Xbox as monthly streaming show

Inside Xbox is making a surprise return later this week, with a new livestreaming format to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Detailed via the Xbox Wire, the revived show will be a "premier live news broadcast" that offers behind-the-scenes looks at upcoming titles, community feedback and messages, and announcements for new additions to services like Xbox Game Pass.

The first episode will air on March 10th at 12pm PST and will be streamed via Microsoft's own Mixer platform as well as YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. Microsoft notes it will also be streamed in 4K and Ultra HD where services support this.

While the statement announcing this refers to this as a debut, plenty of GamesIndustry.biz readers will remember the long-running Inside Xbox show broadcast to the Xbox 360's home menu. This previous iteration of the show also offered game previews and community feedback, but was closed in 2012 - although this was not communicated clearly to the Xbox 360's global audience.

One of the show's co-hosts, Andy Farrant, helped set up the hugely popular Outside Xbox channel as part of GamesIndustry.biz parent Gamer Network later that year.

The new Inside Xbox will start with a focus on upcoming pirate adventure Sea of Thieves, as well as spots on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Far Cry 5. The show will be hosted by Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, Graeme 'AceyBongos' Boyd and other "Xbox luminaries" such as Jeff Rubenstein, Alex Hebert, Lydia Ellery.

Microsoft says it hopes to make Inside Xbox a monthly event. The platform holder will no doubt use it in a similar fashion to Nintendo's much less regular Direct presentations.

It's also likely to use the show as a vehicle to further push Mixer. While Inside Xbox will be available via Twitch et al, Microsoft is promising MixPot prizes and giveaways in much the same way it did during E3 2017, urging Xbox One owners to ensure they have a Mixer account set up.