Microsoft has formally announced plans to extend its successful Xbox Live game and entertainment service to Windows Vista beginning May 8th. Games for Windows—Live will enable Windows Vista games to interact with (and eventually compete with) with the over six million games already connected to the company’s Xbox Live service. Games for Windows will debut May 8th with a Windows Vista version of Microsoft’s first-person action game Halo 2; in June, Microsoft’s forthcoming Shadowrun game will be the first title to connect Windows Vista players to Xbox 360 gamers in cross-platform matches—although we don’t think that milestone is going to settle the debate between proponents of game controllers and keyboard-only fans. For the non-shoot-em-up crowd, Microsoft also plans to release a version of Uno later in 2007.
“Five years ago, we began building a service that now defines the bar for online gameplay,” said Peter Moore, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “The benefits of expanding Xbox Live to Games for Windows titles is twofold: We’re bringing together two communities that share a passion for playing online games, and we’re enhancing the online experience for PC gamers who have long desired seamless game and voice connectivity—it’s a win for everyone.”
Pricing for Xbox Live and Games for Windows services will be identical: Silver membership is free, Gold membership is $4995 a year. Current Xbox Live members will be able to tie into Games for Windows using the same gamertag and friends list at no extra charge.
The formal announcement of Games for Windows comes almost a year after Microsoft founder Bill Gates described the company’s gaming vision as an all-encompassing service which would span game consoles, computers, and movile devices; bringing Windows Vista into the live gaming family is a major step towards that goal. Xbox Live has been a surprisingly succesful venture for Microsoft, and has become a strong selling point for the Xbox 360 console as well as a significant sales and promotional channel for Xbox 360 games.
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.