E3 2019: Smilegate's CrossFire X Coming To Xbox One

Directly following the big news that was seven years in the making was the announcement that Smilegate's hugely successful FPS CrossFire would also be heading to the Xbox One next year, in a form titled "CrossFire X."

Dubbed the "Korean Counter-Strike," Crossfire has player numbers that would put any Western game -- even the likes of Fortnite: Battle Royale -- to shame. Smilegate claims 650 million total players, with eight million concurrent, though it's struggled to break through outside of China and other Asian territories. Efforts to increase its presence in the West via a European office to boost the game's presence lasted barely a year. Smilegate is likely hoping that partnering with Microsoft will yield greater dividends.

While payment models weren't discussed, CrossFire has been free-to-play since its launch, and there's no reason to think that will be any different with CrossFire X -- Xbox's issues on that front notwithstanding, though a PC version could also be on the way. Even if it could just claim few percentage points of its audience in Asia, CrossFire X would be a big hit in North America.