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The next major Windows 11 update could come next month

Microsoft plans to launch the next big Windows 11 update, version 22H2, on September 20th with several new features, including a Task Manager overhaul.

The Verge said sources “familiar with Microsoft’s plans” confirmed the September 20th date, which senior editor Tom Warren teased on Twitter last week. Windows Central also published details about the 22H2 update on August 16th.

Microsoft reportedly has been testing the update for months. It’s expected to ship with several improvements, including new Live Captions, app folders in the Start menu, drag and drop in the taskbar, new touch gestures and animations, a new Voice Access tool, and more.

File Explorer tabs | Image credit: The Verge

The Verge highlighted plans to add a refreshed Task Manager with dark mode and a new layout with a command bar. Plus, the new Task Manager will offer an ‘efficiency mode’ to limit apps from consuming resources. The company plans to further expand its ‘Snap Layouts’ feature — the ability to position and organize your windows with a click. Finally, several other features Microsoft previously shared will arrive, including the tabs interface for File Explorer — although The Verge notes that will come shortly after the 22H2 update.

Windows Central shared a few other details, including plans for another update later this year to build on 22H2. This would include the File Explorer tabs, as well as a new ‘Suggested Actions’ feature that will show a small menu of options whenever users copy certain information, like a date or phone number.

Moreover, The Verge reported that Microsoft plans to mark the 10-year anniversary of its Surface line with new products this fall. It expects these devices will ship with the new 22H2 update. Of course, Microsoft hasn’t officially announced 22H2 or plans for a Surface event yet. That said, the company typically unveils new Surface products in the fall, so this all tracks.

Finally, it’s worth noting that those curious to see what 22H2 has in store can enroll in Microsoft’s ‘Release Preview’ group and test out the 22H2 build early.

Source: The Verge, Windows Central

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Microsoft reveals Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4

Microsoft has confirmed that its last-gen Xbox One console sold less than half of what Sony’s rival PS4 did.

The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant noted the sales data in a broader filing to Brazil’s national competition regulator about its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox in the last generation,” Microsoft wrote in the documents, as translated from Portuguese by Game Luster.

This is particularly notable because Microsoft stopped sharing Xbox One sales data in 2016. Therefore, while it’s been clear that the PS4 had been performing better than the Xbox One, analysts have only had to estimate a more precise margin.

For context, the PS4 topped 117 million units sold as of March 2022, which would work out to Xbox One sales of fewer than 58.5 million. This is in line with Ampere Analysis’ report that the Xbox One reached 51 million units sold as of Q2 2020.

That said, Microsoft still doesn’t reveal Xbox hardware sales data, even in this new console generation. However, Ampere Analysis reported earlier this year that “Sony ended 2021 with PS5 cumulative sell-through reaching 17 million units, around 1.6 times the performance of Xbox Series sales,” suggesting that Xbox is closing the gap. In Microsoft’s most recent quarterly earnings call, company CEO Satya Nadella also claimed that Xbox has “been the market leader in North America for three quarters in a row among [current-gen] consoles.”

It should be noted, though, that Microsoft and Sony’s hardware strategies are somewhat different, as there are two different current-gen Xbox consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S. The former is a beefier, 4K-capable model, while the latter is a lower-cost, smaller hardware upgrade over the Xbox One. Naturally, the Series S’ price point of $379 positions it as an affordable entry point into the current generation, especially when the Xbox Series X and standard PS5 cost $599 and $629, respectively.

Of course, it’s still early in the consoles’ lifecycles, as both families of devices launched in late 2020. There’s also a global semiconductor shortage that has constrained the supply of all of the consoles, an issue that the PS4 and Xbox One generation didn’t have to deal with. Therefore, it remains to be seen how this generation will play out in the years to come, especially as Microsoft further dives into a more platform-agnostic approach which includes Xbox consoles, PC and streaming.

Microsoft’s long-awaited admission of the Xbox One’s sales comes as the company is working to get its Activision Blizzard buyout deal approved in Brazil and other markets. As part of that process, the company is arguing with Sony over various aspects of the gaming industry, particularly whether Microsoft owning Activision’sCall of Duty series would be anti-competitive and unfair to PlayStation.

Via: GameSpot

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Sony pays ‘blocking rights’ to keep titles off Xbox Game Pass: Microsoft

Microsoft has accused Sony of paying for “blocking rights” to keep games off services like its own Xbox Game Pass.

The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant made the claims in documents filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator as part of a review of its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” Microsoft claimed in an August 9th filing to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), as translated from Portuguese. “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.

Sony is arguing that Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard would be anti-competitive, specifically arguing that it could pull Call of Duty players — a large and lucrative audience — from PlayStation to Xbox. In particular, Sony says Microsoft would do this by making Call of Duty available on its popular Xbox Game Pass service. In response, Microsoft has brought up the purported Sony “blocking rights” while also reiterating plans to continue to release Call of Duty on PlayStation should the acquisition be approved.

It should be noted, though, that specifics regarding Sony’s alleged “blocking rights” deals were not provided, so it’s unclear whether they’re supposedly short-term (i.e. one year) or more long-lasting. We do know, however, that exclusivity deals for games have grown increasingly complicated amid the advent of streaming services. For example, during the major Epic Games v. Apple trial over the past two years, it was revealed that Microsoft was looking into lowering its PC games revenue split in exchange for securing streaming rights.

In any case, this is just another variation on the time-old business strategy of exclusivity, which PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo all take part in. To that point, VentureBeat‘s Jeff Grubb, a credible industry insider, responded to this “blocking rights” news by stating that “this is what exclusivity is” when it comes to games.

“Companies almost never pay to make a game truly exclusive, they instead pay to keep a game off of one console,” he said. “Or Epic pays to keep a game off of Steam, but you can get it everywhere else.”

Responding to a tweet from The Verge‘s Tom Warren that this “doesn’t feel like the ‘traditional’ concept of exclusivity,” Grubb added that “none of this is the traditional idea of ‘exclusivity.’” Instead, he says, “companies [are] just trading specific favors for cash in an attempt to position themselves as best as possible.”

Looking at what game companies have been doing in recent years, it’s easy to see what Grubb means. By and large, the platform holders have been paying to have titles debut first on their platforms before they can eventually release elsewhere. With Xbox, this has been the case with games like Cuphead, 12 Minutes, Below, Nobody Saves the World! and The Medium, which all came to PlayStation and/or Nintendo consoles at later dates. Similar situations have happened with PlayStation with the likes of Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Death Stranding, Nier Automata and Bugsnax.

Otherwise, “traditional” exclusives — games that permanently remain on a single console or family of consoles — tend to come from studios that these publishers own, like God of War (PlayStation’s Sony Santa Monica), Halo Infinite (Xbox’s 343 Industries) or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD). There are also special instances in which an once-multiplatform series becomes exclusive because a publisher stepped in to foot the bill, like Nintendo helping to fund Bayonetta 2 and 3 and Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance 3, which were then only released on Nintendo platforms.

The biggest question, then, is whether Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard — a company caught up in its fair share of controversies — will ultimately be approved and, if so, what the wider implications for the gaming industry will be.

Via: The Verge

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Microsoft has sped up the Xbox Series X and S boot up time

Those who own one of the current-gen Xbox consoles will now be able to start gaming just a bit quicker.

Microsoft has confirmed that it’s speeding up the boot time of the Xbox Series X and S by five seconds. The company has achieved this by creating a shorter bootup animation.

Gamers first noticed the change before Josh Munsee, Xbox’s director of integrated marketing, confirmed it on Twitter.

Quoting Munsee’s tweet, Jake Rosenberg, Xbox’s senior product manager lead, said the reduced times are rolling out to Xbox Insiders. He also said the Xbox One is also “booting noticeably faster,” although he didn’t specify how many seconds.

In other Xbox news, here’s what the company confirmed is next coming to Game Pass. One of the newest Game Pass titles is the console-exclusive interactive drama, As Dusk Falls — you can read more on it in our review and interview with the creators.

Via: The Verge

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Obsidian’s Grounded is getting a TV series adaptation

Obsidian’s Grounded, a video game that was inspired by A Bug’s Life and Honey I Shrunk The Kids is being adapted into a TV series by the Star Wars: Clone Wars writer, Brent Friedman.

The series will exist in the same universe as the game and follows four friends before high school that stumble upon shrinking technology that makes them two inches tall. Now, these four friends have to survive in their backyard with a variety of enormous predators and try to stop a corporate conspiracy threatening their entire town.

“We couldn’t be more excited about diving into the whimsical universe of Grounded. This partnership will be one of great collaboration, expanding on an already wonderful journey of exploration and adventure,” said Tina Chow, CEO, Bardel Entertainment, to Deadline.

The title was released via early access in July 2020 and has been played by more than 10 million players, and is to be fully launched in September.

Source: Deadline, Obsidian

Image Credit: Obsidian 

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Mid-range Surface Duo 2 photos emerge, showcasing a phone we never got

Images of a cancelled mid-range Surface Duo 2 have emerged online via an achieved eBay listing.

The listing shows iterative changes to the device’s exterior and camera array. Theoretically, this device may have been once developed as a mid-range alternative to the flagship Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2.

Based on the eBay pictures snagged by Windows Central, the unreleased Surface Duo features a dual camera array and a more rounded design. It also appears to be smaller with a matte finish which looks more comfortable to hold. The flat display also harkens back to the Surface Duo 1. However, there isn’t much else to glean from the device except that it’s missing the new Surface’s ‘Glance Bar.’

 

The eBay page labels the device as the “Microsoft Surface Duo 2 – 128GB -Glacier (Dev unit).” The listing is deleted now. Though reports have been able to confirm its authenticity and that the listing and device are likely real.

This plastic Surface Duo 2 model has been referred to under the codename “Cronos.” It may have run on an upper mid-range Qualcomm chipset and was made of plastic, reducing its price. It also only had two cameras instead of the flagship model’s three.

Apparently, Microsoft was developing this model with the expectation that it would be sold at a lower price. It’s not known what the price point may have been. The existing Duo 2 started at $1,800 in Canada.

Microsoft is said to have also been targeting a late 2022 launch date but cancelled Cronos in late 2021, pivoting to work on the next flagship Microsoft Duo for a late 2023 release.

As of now, there is no word on whether Microsoft will ever expand its Surface Duo line to include a mid-range device. The existence of Cronos appears to indicate that the day may come eventually. However, perhaps users will have to wait until the next generation of devices is released first.

Image source: Windows Central

Source: Windows Central

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Microsoft prepping Windows 12 for 2024 in return to three-year release cadence

Microsoft plans to change the way it rolls out new versions of Windows, which means we could see Windows 12 arrive in 2024.

According to Windows Central (via The Verge), Microsoft is shifting back to a three-year release cycle for Windows after ditching that cadence with Windows 10 in 2015. For those who may not remember, Microsoft positioned Windows 10 as a ‘service’ that would see steady updates. Big new features arrived every two years. Some at the company even went so far as to say Windows 10 was the last version of Windows.

That all changed again when Windows 11 arrived last year. At the time, Microsoft said it would move to an annual update cadence for both Windows 10 and 11. However, Microsoft has been moving away from that plan too, and now seems to ship major features when they’re ready. The Verge notes the next big update, 22H2, is expected to drop in September or October after Microsoft recently finalized the update.

The company reportedly scrapped plans for a similarly large 23H2 update in 2023 and will instead prioritize rolling out new features throughout the year. The shift matches up better with how Microsoft handles its Insider program — currently, the company tests experiments and prototype features more widely than in the past.

Naturally, Microsoft hasn’t officially commented on its Windows plans, and the ‘Windows 12’ name is an assumption (albeit a safe one). The company has used numbers for the last several Windows releases, and it hasn’t adopted a ‘Windows 11.1’ or ‘11.2’ naming system for major updates, so it seems like Windows 12 will be the branding of whatever major release ships in 2024.

Source: Windows Central, The Verge

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Rumoured GoldenEye remaster said to be in ‘limbo’ due to Ukraine war

The long-rumoured remaster of the classic 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007 has reportedly been put on hold.

Word comes from reliable VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb, who said on Twitter that “GoldenEye is still in limbo because of the war.” Grubb was referring to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has intensified following the former’s unlawful invasion of the latter in late February. Eurogamer corroborated Grubb’s claims in its own report.

Neither Grubb nor Eurogamer provided further details, but presumably, Microsoft — the company that co-owns the rights to GoldenEye 007 — is withholding the shooter due to its subject matter. The plot of the game, like the 1995 film on which it’s based, heavily features post-Cold War Russia and Russian military villains and settings.

Rumours of a remaster of GoldenEye have swirled for months. In fact, it appears that it’s essentially complete, as Xbox Achievements for the game leaked last month. This follows a finished Xbox 360 remaster that was ultimately never released due to licensing issues.

It’s unclear if and when Microsoft plans to release the new remaster.

Via: IGN

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Microsoft is working on a new ‘Outlook Lite’ app for Android

Microsoft is working on an ‘Outlook Lite’ app for Android. The app would be smaller and faster than the current Outlook for Android app, but will lack some features as a consequence.

The company mentions Outlook Lite on its Microsoft 365 roadmap, describing it as an “app that brings the main benefits of Outlook in a smaller app size with fast performance for low-end devices on any network.” Moreover, the roadmap mentions a general availability date of July 2022, suggesting Outlook Lite could arrive this month.

According to ZDNet, (via The Verge),  Microsoft already offers a version of Outlook Lite in some regions, so this appears to be a broader release of that app. The Verge also cites Microsoft documentation that Outlook Lite will only support Outlook, Hotmail, Live, and MSN accounts, and won’t support work or school accounts.

The Verge notes that Outlook is one of the more popular email options on Android, with over 500 million downloads on the Play Store. It makes a lot of sense that Microsoft would seek to expand that popularity by offering a lightweight version of the app that will work well on older phones or less powerful devices.

Of course, as with any ‘Lite’ app, I find myself wondering why companies don’t just shrink the main app.

Anyway, it’s worth noting Microsoft is also hard at work improving the Outlook desktop app. The company is testing a new ‘One Outlook’ app that would unify the Outlook experience across web, Windows and Mac.

Source: Microsoft Via: ZDNet, The Verge

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What’s new on Xbox Game Pass on console, PC and mobile in early July 2022

Every month, Xbox brings new titles to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Normally, these come in two waves and now, the company has revealed what’s hitting Game Pass in the first half of July. Notably, a few fan-favourite Yakuza games have returned to the Game Pass catalogue this month after leaving months ago.

See below for the full list:

  • Last Call BBS (PC) — July 5th
  • Yakuza 0 (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 5th
  • Yakuza Kiwami (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 5th
  • Yakuza Kiwami 2 (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 5th
  • DJMax Respect V (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 7th
  • Matchpoint: Tennis Championships (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 7th
  • Road 96 (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 7th
  • Escape Academy (Console and PC) — July 14th
  • My Friend Peppa Pig (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 14th
  • Overwhelm (PC) — July 14th
  • PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 14th
  • PowerWash Simulator (Cloud, Console and PC) — July 14th

Additionally, here’s what’s leaving Game Pass on July 15th:

  • Atomicrops (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Carrion (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Children of Morta (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Cris Tales (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Lethal League Blaze (Cloud, Console, and PC)

As always, Game Pass subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive 20 percent discount to purchase any game in the catalogue and keep playing even after it leaves Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Android and iOS in beta. Game Pass for Console and PC Game Pass each cost $11.99/month.

Find out what came to Game Pass in late June here.

Image credit: Sega

Source: Xbox