Normally, these come in two waves and now, the company has revealed what’s hitting Game Pass in the second half of April.
F1 2021 (Cloud) — April 19th
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered (Cloud) — April 19th [EA Play]
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Cloud, Console and PC) — April 19th
7 Days to Die (Cloud, Console, and PC) — April 26th
Research and Destroy (Console and PC) — April 26th
Bugsnax (Cloud, Console and PC) — April 28th
Unsouled (Console and PC) — April 28th
As part of Xbox’s ongoing partnership with Ubisoft, Game Pass is also getting two more games: Assassin’s Creed Origins (Cloud, Console and PC via the Ubisoft Connect app) “in the next two months” and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition (PC via the Ubisoft Connect app, a free upgrade to the Marching Fire Edition on Console and Cloud).
On top of that, the following 12 Cloud games have received touch controls on mobile:
Finally, these four games are leaving Game Pass on April 30th:
Cricket 19 (Cloud, Console and PC)
Outlast 2 (Cloud, Console and PC)
Secret Neighbor (Cloud, Console and PC)
Streets of Rage 4 (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.
Further, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $16.99/month and is required for streaming (which Xbox refers to as ‘Cloud’) to mobile devices and browsers. On top of that, this tier includes Game Pass for both Console and PC, as well as subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold and EA Play.
Find out what came to Xbox Game Pass earlier this month here.
In what is perhaps the most random video game adaptation casting since Chris Pratt as Mario, Aquaman‘s Jason Momoa has been tapped to star in the live-action Minecraft movie.
If that wasn’t odd enough, Napoleon Dynamite filmmaker Jared Hess will direct. The film, which will draw from Microsoft’s massively popular Minecraft video game, is being produced by Warner Bros.
Interestingly, The Ankler reports that Momoa won’t star as Minecraft mascot Steve. Instead, he’ll voice Gabriel the Warrior, one of the antagonists from Telltale’s spin-off game, Minecraft: Story Mode. Gabriel was originally voiced by Dave Fennoy, best known for playing Lee Everett in Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
Otherwise, no details on the adaptation have been revealed. Given that the film is set to be live-action, it’s possible that it will feature human actors alongside CGI characters à la Pokémon: Detective Pikachu or Sonic the Hedgehog.
In any event, it makes sense that Microsoft would be interested in a Minecraft adaptation, as the sandbox building title is the best-selling game in history. The company has slowly been expanding into adaptations of its franchises, with Halo, a TV series starring Canada’s Pablo Schreiber, premiering on Paramount+ last month.
Microsoft is looking into ways to introduce ads within free-to-play Xbox titles. The program, according to sources from Business Insider, aims to fold advertisements into games in a non-disruptive way.
Apparently, Microsoft wishes to include ads to help provide revenue for both the game developer and ad company. As such, Microsoft is not taking a cut from the ad revenue and instead allows the two parties to share the ad funds.
As for what this program will end up looking like, a lot still remains. The report claims that Microsoft is working to give “select brands” the ability to purchase ad space. These ads will then appear in free-to-play Xbox games. However, the company appears to be very aware of how players may react. Thus Microsoft and Xbox are investigating ways to not “irritate” players.
Theoretically, these ads could appear as billboards in a racing game or in an open-world title. Though, the full extent of how this program will implement ads is still relatively unknown. Likewise, it’s not known if the ads will be static images and logos or if video ads will run in-game. However, Business Insider did confirm that Microsoft will not be using collected data from Bing or other services to create targeted ads.
Microsoft may be moving swiftly on this program. The company could introduce it as early as Q3 2022. Though, it’s not confirmed whether Xbox has begun pitching advertisers on the program yet.
Microsoft and the Xbox ecosystem are not exactly strangers to presenting ads. Any console player booting up their Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S is immediately met with ads on the dashboard. These typically promote games, new movies, services, etc. However, given that Microsoft is creating a more “private marketplace” for ads within games, it’ll be interesting to see how it targets the gaming audience specifically.
Fortunately, this initiative will solely be focused on free-to-play titles. Publishers who attempted to implement ads into full-priced games, like EA, have received backlash in the past. UFC 4 saw an outpour of player criticisms as unskippable ads were featured in a $70 game. Meta also added in-game ads to Blaston, which again, wasn’t received well by players.
Indie cult darling Bugsnax is making the leap from being a PlayStation exclusive to multiple platforms, including Xbox Game Pass.
On April 28th, the bizarre adventure game is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Nintendo Switch.
The Isle of BIGsnax update launches April 28th FREE for all Bugsnax players!
And that's not all…the newly updated Bugsnax is coming to Xbox One + Series X|S + PC Game Pass, Nintendo Switch eShop, and Steam the same day! pic.twitter.com/rnH6REwWG7
Bugsnax first launched on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC and macOS in the fall of 2020. The game quickly built a fanbase not only for its catchy soundtrack but also surrounding its world of kinda-bug and kinda-snack creatures.
Players take on the role of a journalist arriving on Snaktooth Island, looking for lost explorer Elizabert. Along the way, you’ll discover the strange Bugsnax and a group of settlers on the island. In many ways, the game functions similarly to Pokemon Snap, where players interact and research the Bugsnax in different ways. It blends humour and mystery throughout a bite-sized 10-hour narrative.
Although it was a PlayStation console exclusive, Bugsnax is finally being ported to Xbox and Switch. More than a year later, the game is accessible to a brand new audience. As confirmed by the Xbox Wire, the game will be playable via Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Young Horses has also been developing a new free content update for the game. Launching day and date on April 28th, The Isle of Bigsnax update brings roughly three hours of new content to the table. Players will discover new mysteries. “Find even more to do on the main island of the original game,” says the developer.
Yuri Lowenthal, Casey Mongillo, Debra Wilson, and Haviland Stillwell are all confirmed to be reprising their roles for the new story content.
On top of its arrival on Xbox platforms and Xbox Game Pass, Bugsnax will be available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for $24.99 USD (roughly $31.51 CAD).
Microsoft has placed over 750 games on sale with savings of up to 80-percent off select titles. Games on sale as a part of the Xbox Spring Sale include Xbox One titles as well as those on Xbox Series X/S. First-party titles like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 are both notably on sale.
The Xbox Spring Sale is already underway and will run until April 21st. All games listed are digital-only.
Microsoft is reportedly working on a new chip for its Xbox Series X console. The upgraded chip is said to be focused on helping increase power efficiency while cutting the costs of manufacturing.
During a Q&A video, Microsoft journalist Brad Sams said he believes the company is working on a newly refined chip. “I believe it is accurate that Microsoft is working on a smaller, more power-efficient chip. I’m very confident in that,” Sams said in the video.
The Xbox Series X is still powerful in its own right. Though, the console is built on technology first developed a year or so prior to its November 2020 launch. Sams goes on to explain that the Xbox Series X chip is “a dated design.”
As far as what the new chip will do to serve players, the scope is likely limited to performance. It’s still too early in the console’s lifecycle to consider plans for a ‘Pro’ model of the Xbox Series X. A new iteration on the current chip could help improve the console’s power consumption. Therefore, one could imagine the console being able to be quieter while running. Additionally, it may be able to run cooler.
Microsoft is also likely looking at ways to reduce the manufacturing cost of the console. “Now, are we going to see performance improvements, are we going to see anything else? I do not believe so. But Microsoft is always working on making cooler, more efficient chips because that lowers the cost of production.” Of course, there’s no guarantee whether or not that will reflect on the purchasing cost of the console.
Currently, it’s difficult for hardware manufacturers and their suppliers to keep up with demand. Therefore, it’s hard to pinpoint when a potential new chip would be integrated into the Xbox Series X. It’s entirely possible that consoles with the newly developed chip could hit retail and digital shelves this fall.
Microsoft held a Windows 11 event today where it unveiled several new things coming to the desktop operating system. While many of the announcements were centred on work, there are plenty of other little changes and tidbits worth paying attention to.
We’ve rounded up some of the best and most interesting new Windows 11 features below:
Next up, Windows 11’s File Explorer app is finally getting tabs. This feature has been a long time coming, and MobileSyrup recently reported Microsoft was testing it in a Windows Insider build.
The addition of tabs will allow Windows 11 users to navigate multiple folders in a single File Explorer window. It should help boost productivity, especially for people dealing with files spread across multiple folders.
Alongside the tabs, File Explorer will get a new homepage with the typical Quick Access folders, recent documents, and a new favourites option. There will be an updated sharing dialogue as well.
According to XDA Developers, Windows 11 will soon get a ‘Live Captions’ feature than can automatically generate captions for audio generated by any app or website. It sounds like this new system-wide capability will work similar to Google’s Live Caption feature for Android and Chrome.
This is purely a business feature, but I wanted to include it because I think it’s pretty neat. Microsoft added PCs to the cloud with Windows 365 last year — the feature allows businesses to access cloud PCs from anywhere to stream a version of Windows 10 or 11 inside a web browser.
Now, Microsoft is integrating the feature into Windows 11’s virtual desktop (dubbed Task View) feature. That will allow Windows 11 users to switch between their desktop and a cloud PC with ease.
Microsoft is calling it ‘Windows 365 Switch’ and it will come alongside some other improvements for 365, including ‘Boot’ to let users directly log into a cloud PC at startup, and a new offline feature to let people work locally when they don’t have connectivity to access a cloud PC.
You can learn more about these features via The Verge.
Focus feature, Start folders, and other small changes
Rounding things out are a few other smaller updates. That includes a new ‘Focus’ feature with a timer so users can focus for a period of time. Along with that, Microsoft detailed other small benefits coming to Windows 11, such as app folders in the Start menu.
Snap Layouts will gain touch support soon, making it easier for users on touch devices to snap windows into different configurations.
That looks like it for now, but we’ll add any other new features to this post as they arrive.
Microsoft unveiled its newest Surface device back in November – the Surface Laptop SE. Designed for students, the new laptop runs Windows 11 SE, boasts compact, portable hardware, and a relatively repairable design.
The announcement made the Laptop SE sound quite appealing, at least from an education standpoint. Repairability is great on any device and should be much more common, while things like Windows 11 SE sound helpful for educators and not much else.
Microsoft sent MobileSyrup a Laptop SE to try out and after playing with it for a few weeks, I think the best way to describe the device is ‘ChrEdgebook.’
You see, the Laptop SE is, for all intents and purposes, a Chromebook. Except, it runs Windows and the browser is Edge, instead of Chrome OS and Google Chrome. Hence, the ‘ChrEdge’ – a somewhat popular term referring to Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser.
At the same time, the Laptop SE is very much not a Chromebook. Windows 11 SE toes a precarious line between offering the full flexibility of Windows while also blocking access to it for the people using the computer. I’ll dig into it more later, but the short version is you can run third-party apps like Zoom or even Google Chrome on Windows 11 SE (I have both installed on my review unit). The only way to get these apps – or any apps, for that matter – is through an IT admin. There is no way for users to install apps directly on the Laptop SE.
Considering Microsoft positions the Laptop SE as a device for schools to deploy to students, that makes a lot of sense. If the Laptop SE were generally available to anyone to buy, I’d consider this a massive limitation. In the intended use case, however, it might actually be a great feature.
Basic hardware gets the job done
Here’s the thing with the Surface Laptop SE: it offers barebones hardware. It’s not a problem though, since the plastic chassis will likely hold up to abuse from kids much better than other materials. It’ll also be cheaper to replace or repair should that come about.
In fact, repairability is a big part of the Laptop SE pitch. Microsoft says it designed the Laptop SE to be repairable on-site by IT admins at schools, with accessible screws. The company even shared a video with me detailing the disassembly process.
Beyond the repairability factor, there isn’t a whole lot to get excited about with the Laptop SE. The keyboard is great, as per usual with Surface devices (but it’s not as good as Microsoft’s premium Surface options). The trackpad is good, although I’d love if it were larger. The speakers are fine, not the best but not terrible for watching the odd YouTube video. The 11.6-inch LCD TFT display, with its 1366 x 768 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio, is serviceable, but it doesn’t look great. But then, for a $319.99 laptop aimed at students, these things are all forgivable issues.
On the inside, educational institutions will have their choice of Intel Celeron N4020 or Celeron N4120 CPUs, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of eMMC storage. The unit I tested had the N4120, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, although about 13GB of that wasn’t available to me, leaving me with 115GB total storage, less the 36.3GB used by Windows and the pre-installed apps. Suffice to say that the 64GB option will likely be even tighter on storage.
Of course, Microsoft put a big emphasis on using its cloud storage system OneDrive with the Laptop SE. While that will help, I do think most students using the Laptop SE will need to be diligent about managing what’s stored on the device and what’s backed up to the cloud with so little onboard storage.
Performance was about what you’d expect from a Celeron, which is to say, not great. The Laptop SE is more than capable of handling web browsing and word processing, which honestly is all most students will need. Still, scrolling around websites can be janky and slow at times. Due to the restrictions on installing apps, I couldn’t run any of the benchmarking software I typically use to help evaluate performance.
My Laptop SE also came pre-loaded with Minecraft: Education Edition, which ran surprisingly well when I tried it out.
As for ports, the Laptop SE has one USB-C connector, one USB-A port, a proprietary barrel charging port (no Surface Connect here), and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Again, barebones, but it covers the fundamentals.
You can check out a full breakdown of available specifications for the Laptop SE here.
A vessel for Microsoft services
Ultimately, I think the Laptop SE is well-intentioned, if not perfect. It’s exactly what it needs to be – cheap, repairable, and chock-full of helpful tools for IT admins for mass deployment in schools.
For my part, I was a little bummed when I booted up the Laptop SE for the first time and discovered I couldn’t install apps on it from anywhere (not even the Microsoft Store, which isn’t even on the device!). But, again, that’s a choice that makes much more sense for a device you’re handing out to students – I am very much not the target demographic for this.
At the same time, I think the Laptop SE one-ups Google’s Chrome OS simply because it enables IT admins to deploy Windows apps as needed. That opens up a much wider library of software.
Still, it’s important to keep in mind that, like Chromebooks and Google services, the Laptop SE is, at its core, a vessel for Microsoft services.
I also worry the Laptop SE might be too little, too late. Chromebooks have a strong foothold in schools – most students I know already have school-provided Chromebook they use. I’m sure the Laptop SE will find a place, but it may not unseat Google in the education battle.
The Surface SE starts at $319.99 in Canada – you can learn more about it here.
Naturally, not long after the tweet went live, eagle-eyed Twitter users spotted the iMac and started making fun of Microsoft. The tweet reportedly remained up until April 1st, according to 9to5.
You can still view the tweet here on the Wayback Machine.
Doubly funny is that the iMac shown in the picture can’t even natively run Windows. Instead, Apple computers powered by the company’s M1 silicon need to use virtualization software like Parallels to run Windows.
It’s not clear how this all came to be, especially considering Microsoft has its own line of Windows PCs — Surface — it easily could have used to snag a picture for this tweet.
Microsoft is reportedly working towards introducing new family plan options for Xbox Game Pass.
According to Windows Central, multiple sources have confirmed the company is looking into options to launch an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan. The report claims that the new plan will arrive sometime later this year.
“According to trusted sources familiar with Microsoft‘s efforts, we can now confirm that Xbox is moving ahead with an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan, which should be set to launch sometime this year,” the report states.
The report claims that the highest tier of the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan will grant access to five players for games across the entire Xbox Game Pass library. Pricing and availability for the family plan has not been revealed. However, it’s likely that subscribing to the family plan will be cheaper than paying the subscription of five individual accounts.
It also still remains to be seen if Microsoft will launch the family plan globally or if it will receive a regional rollout. Additionally, it’s not yet known if the new plan covers access to both PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass. The other unknown is how it will integrate into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Xbox Game Pass currently grants access to a library of over 100 games in a Netflix-style subscription service. Additionally, the service also enables access to online services, cloud saves, and Xbox Games with Gold titles each month. Xbox Game Pass is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Android and iOS. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass cost $11.99/month, respectively.
Nintendo currently offers a family plan for its Switch Online subscription service. A 12-month subscription of the family membership costs $44.99 and supports eight Nintendo Accounts.
