Later this week, Microsoft will launch a series of monthly streams called Xbox 20/20 that will take a look at the future of its gaming projects throughout the rest of the year.
July’s Xbox 20/20 presentation will give the first glimpse into what many of its first-party Xbox Series X games will look like. Microsoft is promising new game reveals, gameplay footage, and its development teams discussing the new console. Other months will focus on Xbox Game Pass, its game streaming platform Project xCloud, and looks into Microsoft’s 15 internal development studios.
The new initiative will kick off with May 7’s Inside Xbox stream, which will air live across all major streaming platforms starting at 11 a.m. ET. The first Xbox 20/20 update will focus solely on third-party titles and will include a first look at the Xbox Series X version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Microsoft will confirm several games that will take advantage of its Smart Delivery feature, which will give players access to games they own on both Xbox One and its next-generation console.
Every game shown during the May Xbox 20/20 stream is running on Xbox Series X and optimized for the system. Developers are set to detail what work on the new console that will take advantage of its features such as hardware-accelerated DirectX raytracing to improve graphical performance and near non-existent load times.
The Xbox 20/20 streams are a major part of Microsoft’s rollout for Xbox Series X. The console maker still expects both the system and Halo Infinite to release later this year during the holiday season.
Microsoft says the coronavirus pandemic caused it to rethink how it will present its upcoming console. Xbox hopes its streams will help players come together and become excited for the future of gaming, even though they won’t physically be in the same place.
Xbox is also looking at expanding its current services by expanding Project xCloud and Game Pass. Later this year, Project xCloud will launch in unspecified new countries and on additional devices, while Xbox Game Pass will continue to have a cycling library of titles. Microsoft is also promising that its subscription and streaming services will come together later in 2020 to allow friends to “play together in more ways.” An Xbox 20/20 stream later this year will give additional details on the collaboration.
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.