In a move that should surprise absolutely no one following the technology industry over the last week, Microsoft has announced it is officially killing off its HD DVD player for its Xbox 360 game console. Toshiba abandoned its HD DVD format last week after two years of battle with Sony’s Blu-ray over domination of the high-definiton disc market. Microsoft says it will continue to offer warranty service and support for HD DVD players it has already sold, but won’t be manufacturing any more.
Since Toshiba’s announcement, HD DVD’s remaining major supporters—including Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures—have announced they will produce Blu-ray content, and major retailers like Amazon.com have announced they will promote Blu-ray as their recommended high-definition format. Not so with Microsoft: the company has not revealed any plans to support Blu-ray on its Xbox 360 gaming platform. “HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.
The short term result of Microsoft’s decision might be that Xbox 360 HD DVD players already in retailers’ inventory might sell fast as gamer look for a quick, cheap way to convert their game consoles into upscaling DVD drives; longer term, Microsoft will have to decide whether to offer a Blu-ray drive so game publishers can deliver the mammoth amounts of data modern games require, or whether it will place its bets solely on delivering games via standard DVD and broadband Internet.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.