All of Xbox’s mobile features will soon be under just one app. Microsoft announced Wednesday that it’ll be moving Game Pass features into the regular Xbox app for beta users starting this week.
This signals the end of Xbox Game Pass app as a separate entity. Game Pass functionality, like searching the catalog or grabbing perks for Game Pass Ultimate members, will be in the main Xbox app. The move also means the Game Pass app will no longer be available for new download beginning in November.
This is a welcome move for players who don’t want to deal with two apps in order to access everything PC and console players get in one place. It also makes it less confusing if you want to see what’s on Game Pass catalogs versus available in the regular Xbox Store. The app still won’t have native Xbox Cloud Gaming functionality, but Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can still stream games through a browser.
To join the beta program on mobile, you can download the Xbox beta app on the Google Play Store for Android or via TestFlight on iOS.
The Xbox blog post also reveals other updates for PC and console players. First up, Game Bar Compact Mode, a smaller version of the Game Bar on PC optimized for smaller screens like on Windows handheld consoles that was previously only available for Xbox Insiders, is now available for all PC players. Now instead of having a number of widgets taking over your screen, you’ll just have one widget on the left-hand side that can also be navigated via a controller.
If you already have the Game Bar installed, just open it up and you’ll be prompted to turn on Compact Mode.
PC players are also getting more management tools to help save download space and view games at a glance.
Finally, console players will get a new feature to make it easier to play games with updates and pre-downloads. It’s not available in all games, but it’s supported in some Xbox titles already like Sea of Thieves and Minecraft. Consoles will also now get notifications when a game on a player’s wishlist has received an update, is available to purchase, is available with a promotion, or is added to the Game Pass library.
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.