In a move to better emphasize the Xbox One’s support of over 200 backwards-compatible Xbox 360 games, Microsoft appears to have altered the older games’ packaging to match the new console.
Reddit user divangreedy8 spotted the new game boxes at a retailer yesterday. They appear to be the same size as the original Xbox 360 boxes — which are larger than PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One boxes — but they now sport the same darker green and a label designed to emulate the molded text of the Xbox One’s boxed. Alongside the “Xbox 360” logo is an “Xbox One” logo, as well.
The games’ covers now also state explicitly that they work on both Xbox One and Xbox 360, and the ugly gray “platinum hits” label seen in Fallout 3 has now been removed in favor of a small “greatest hits” emblem on the games’ front.
There continues to be demand for several fan-favorite Xbox 360 games, which are now cheap enough for any Xbox One owner to quickly build up a backward compatible collection. Back in 2014, Electronic Arts began reprinting copies of its acclaimed game Skate 3 after it saw newfound popularity on YouTube thanks to PewDiePie. The game was just made backward compatible on Xbox One last week, and as more games are added to the program, we expect to see these new boxes rising in prevalence.
While the new Xbox 360 boxes will certainly make your collection look more uniform on a shelf, a less-than-attentive customer could easily mistake the packaging for a standard Xbox One game. Microsoft might be the only company to have this problem, as the PlayStation 3’s box underwent a revision midway through the console’s lifespan and Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U boxes are two completely different colors.
Does the change in packaging matter to you, or are physical media just a means to an end? Be sure to let us know in the comments!
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.