Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, announced that Xbox will hold a “business update event” sometime next week in response to a flurry of discourse online about Xbox exclusives going multiplatform.
Leaks and rumors about games that were previously Xbox-exclusives, like Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves, going multiplatform have been circulating for a couple of weeks, but they hit a fever pitch over the weekend. An XboxEra report claimed that a PlayStation 5 version of Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield is in the works, and that was followed by other Xbox insiders claiming that they heard everything from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to Gears of War was going multiplatform. Because Microsoft is one of gaming’s three major console manufacturers that have garnered a loyal fan base through a variety of exclusive games, these rumors proved quite divisive.
Although Xbox doesn’t typically comment on rumors, Spencer broke his silence regarding this discourse on X on Monday afternoon. “We’re listening and we hear you. We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned,” his post said.
Microsoft has not gotten any more specific than that, so we don’t know exactly when this “business update event” will take place or in what format it will be presented and delivered to Xbox fans. You can expect us to report on and let you know what Xbox’s future holds after this event takes place sometime next week.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.