Microsoft has brought another veteran of video game publisher Electronic Arts on board to helm Microsoft live software and services, including Xbox Live, Games for Windows, and Microsoft Casual Games. Shappert will step into a newly created position as corporate vice president, reporting to another former EA executive, Don Mattrick, who recently took over Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business from Peter Moore. And Moore? He left Microsoft to head up EA Sports. Confused yet?
At Microsoft, Shappert will oversee Microsoft’s 7 million-strong Xbox Live business, along with Games for Windows, XNA, and Microsoft Casual Games (which mostly pumps casual titles out via MSN Games, Windows Live Messenger, and Xbox Live Arcade. At Electronic Arts, Shappert most recently oversaw technology development and operations for EA’s online efforts, and served as the company’s chief creative officer; before that, he worked as a programmer on EA’s Madden NFL franchise. Shappert founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994, which was acquired by EA in 1998.
"I am thrilled to have John join the deep bench of proven talent already on Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business," Don Mattrick said in a statement. "John’s expertise will help us focus on expanding and enriching our market leadership with LIVE in areas like online services while broadening our audience."
Shappert’s transition to Microsoft is being interpreted by some as a sign of Microsoft’s confidence in Mattrick: by letting Mattrick bring in his own people from outside the Microsoft organization, Microsoft clearly hopes to accelerate its Xbox, online gaming, and online video businesses. Xbox Live has been one of the highlights of Microsoft’s Xbox business, bringing in more subscribers—and more revenue—than the company anticipated.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.