Gamers will soon have an extra bit of power in their Xbox One’s, but at the cost of a much beloved feature.
Xbox’s Mike Ybarra has confirmed via Twitter that Snap, the multitasking feature that allowed for games and apps to run simultaneously, will be removed for increased performance.
We replaced Snap to improve multitasking, reduce memory use, improve overall speed, and free up resources going forward for bigger things.
— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) January 24, 2017
The change will come with the next dashboard update. It won’t completely rid itself of Snap features — for example, background music payback will remain — but it will make room for “bigger things,” whatever that is.
The Xbox One has changed dramatically since it was first announced back in 2013. Before, it had a strong focus on Kinect, Microsoft’s motion tracking peripheral, and a multimedia user experience. But the bad press due to rumors that game purchases would be locked to the console, coupled with Sony’s more gamer-focused messaging, forced Microsoft to quickly about-face.
Microsoft made Phil Spencer the new head of Xbox in 2014, and focus shifted. All of a sudden, gamers got E3 press conferences that didn’t contain cute Tamagotchi-like animal pets, but callbacks to fan-favorite franchises.
While the new shift has helped Microsoft, Xbox sales still lag significantly behind Sony’s PlayStation 4. Currently, worldwide Xbox One sales amount to 26 million, with the PS4 at roughly 54 million.
While Sony got the upper hand early this console generation, Microsoft is hoping that it’s new mid-generation Xbox One refresh, currently code-named Scorpio, will attract consumers and prevent them from purchasing the new PS4 Pro. Rumors suggest that Scorpio will be more powerful than the PS4 Pro, but that power will come with an increased price. Microsoft is pushing native 4K and better VR performance as its major selling point.
Xbox One preview participants should be getting the update next Monday, January 30, with a full release coming sometime in April along with the Windows 10 Creators Update.
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.