Microsoft is doubling down on the booming e-sports business, raising the prize pool of a competition among players of its Halo video game series to $1 million, from the $150,000 pool at a tournament held last month.
The company made the announcement on Tuesday at Gamescom, the video game trade show in Cologne, Germany, where Microsoft touted a range of coming titles like the next Halo iterations as well as bundles of games sold with the Xbox One console.
Meanwhile, backward compatibility for Xbox One – which will allow owners of the console to play some games designed for the earlier Xbox 360 – will arrive in November, Microsoft said.