Xbox One X Pre-Orders Go Live 

Microsoft finally revealed when and where we could pre-order the Xbox One X. The when is now and the where is anywhere it’s available. From Amazon to the Microsoft Store, pre-orders went live just about everywhere on Sunday, and they sold out fast. The consoles will ship with a 1 TB hard drive, a wireless controller, an HDMI cable, and the usual one-month free Xbox Game Pass subscription and 14-day free Xbox Live Gold membership, all for $499.

The other exciting news was Microsoft’s announcement of a limited “Project Scorpio” edition of the console. The differences are purely cosmetic, but the green “Project Scorpio” brandished across the console and controller are pretty cool. Unfortunately, if you haven’t pre-ordered yours already, you’ll have a pretty hard time getting a hold of one. The limited edition console was is available for pre-order only and it’s sold-out across the board.

You can see all the Xbox news that came out of Gamescon here.  

Madden And F1 Are Pushing Deeper Into The Esports Arena

The Madden NFL Club Championship kicked off this week and will run through October 16. With over $400,000 up for grabs, this is one you’ll want to keep an eye on. The thing that really sets this tournament apart from the rest is the locations. No official dates have been announced yet, but the best online players will eventually compete in qualifying tournaments in all 32 NFL stadiums. The competition culminates with the final 32 players competing at NFL experiences in Minneapolis and Orlando.

On the racing side of things, The Formula 1 Esports Series kicked off this week . Much like with the NFL and the Madden Club Challenge, this is Formula 1 doing everything it can to entice a new, younger audience. They’re even bringing esports to the racetracks, much in the same way Madden is being brought to the stadiums.

After the field of drivers is narrowed down to 40, via qualification events that will take place throughout September, the Formula 1 Esports Series hits the pavement. The live semi-finals will “be hosted at the Gfinity Arena in London on October 10th and 11th.” Following that, the finals will take place at the “Yas Marina as part of the 2017 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 24th and 25th. At the end of a three-race event, the first Formula 1 Esports World Champion will be crowned on the same weekend as the final 2017 Formula 1 Grand Prix.”  

Nintendo Breaks Big News at Gamescon

Four big pieces of news from Nintendo this week. First of all, A brand new area was unveiled for Super Mario Odyssey and it’s called Luncheon Kingdom. As you might expect, it has a heavy food theme. See the whole reveal video here.

Second, the SNES Classic pre-orders went up earlier this week and they’re already sold out. If didn’t get your orders in yet, you might not be totally out of luck. There’s expected to be another round of pre-orders going up sometime soon, but there’s no guarantee of it.  

Third on the list is Splatoon 2. Nintendo just announced two new maps for the game this week. You’ll be able to play both both Turf War and Ranked Battles in the new Manta Maria arena launching this weekend. The other new stage, Lost Outpost, became available as a Salmon Run stage just a few hours after being announced.

Lastly, we found out this week that the Switch version of Rocket League will feature new cars based on Mario, Luigi and Samus’ gunship from Metroid. All cars will also come with special rocket boosts as well. Plus there’ll be a series of different Mario and Luigi car toppers available. Best of all, all the cars will be available as free unlockables.