Articles tagged Microsoft
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Xbox Disc to Digital Is Live for Insiders, and Your Series S Can’t Play Along
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games,
There is a shelf in a lot of living rooms that has turned into a problem. Fifty Xbox games, maybe two hundred, and a growing suspicion that the next console you buy won't have anywhere to put them. Microsoft's answer started reaching Xbox Insiders on Monday, and the pitch is refreshingly boring. Put the disc in, launch the game, keep the digital copy.
Xbox announced the feature on its blog on August 26 and filled in details during a Gamescom livestream with Jason Ronald. Insert a supported disc into an Xbox One or Xbox Series X, start the game, and you claim a digital entitlement tied to that disc. The disc keeps working exactly as it always has. You just stop needing it in the tray.
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Xbox Says Project Helix Is a ‘Family of Devices.’ The Rest Is Still a Guess.
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Microsoft, Video Games,
Every console generation starts with a word you're supposed to read a lot into. This time the word is "family."
Speaking to the BBC at gamescom, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the company has "been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, and we'll share more soon." Project Helix is the code name for whatever follows the Series X and Series S. Sharma didn't say how many devices are in that family, what any of them are, or when you could buy one.
The Translucent Green Xbox Series X25 Is $899, and Pre-Orders Open Thursday Morning
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games,
If you were a kid in 2001 and you ever saw one of the see-through green Xbox consoles, you know why this thing exists. Microsoft confirmed the details for the Xbox Series X25 during its gamescom broadcast on Wednesday: translucent OG green shell, guts visible through the case, every unit individually numbered with its own engraving.
It costs $899.99 in the US (£759.99 in the UK) and launches November 13, 2026, right up against the 25th anniversary of the original Xbox. Pre-orders open Thursday, August 27 at 7 a.m. Pacific / 10 a.m. Eastern on the Xbox site and at participating retailers, limited to one per customer. Some longtime Xbox customers got emailed early access on Wednesday.
The Translucent Green Xbox Series X25 Will Be the Most Expensive Console Microsoft Has Ever Sold
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Rumors, Video Games,
The Xbox Series X25 is the best-looking console Microsoft has made in years. Translucent OG Green shell, green-lit power button, a straight callback to the 2001 Xbox that started all of this. When it was revealed at June's Xbox Games Showcase, the reaction was close to universally warm.
Then the price leaked. If the numbers hold, the 25th anniversary Xbox will be the most expensive home console Microsoft has ever sold, and it is not faster than the one below it.
The Budget Xbox Series S Now Costs 499 Euros, and That’s the Good News
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games,
The Xbox Series S was supposed to be the console you bought without thinking about it. Cheap, small, good enough, the thing you got your kid or picked up as a second machine for the bedroom. In Europe it now costs €499.99. That's a 43 percent increase on a console that launched as the budget option, and it's the smallest number in this story.
Microsoft told everyone back in June that Xbox prices were going up on August 1st, but it only shared US figures at the time. The European and UK numbers landed when the increase actually took effect, and they're considerably worse than the American ones.
Click to continue reading The Budget Xbox Series S Now Costs 499 Euros, and That’s the Good News
How Xbox Destroyed Game Pass - The Best Deal in Gaming (Video)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games, Videos,
Microsoft spent more than $80 billion buying video game studios, and the Xbox division now runs at roughly a 3% profit margin. Park that money in a high yield savings account and you would have done better. That is the punchline everybody reaches for, and the conclusion they draw from it is that Game Pass was the mistake. I think they have it backwards.
Click to continue reading How Xbox Destroyed Game Pass - The Best Deal in Gaming (Video)
Bethesda Just Dropped Big News on Fallout, Elder Scrolls 6, and Starfield All at Once
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Microsoft, Video Games,
For years, getting Bethesda to say anything concrete about its games has felt like pulling teeth. Today the studio opened up all at once, with a sprawling note about the future of Fallout, Starfield, and The Elder Scrolls, and there is genuinely a lot in here worth caring about.
Start with the headline that will get Fallout fans out of their chairs: Obsidian, the studio behind the beloved Fallout: New Vegas, is officially returning to the series with its own spin-off game!
That isn't the only Fallout news, either. Bethesda confirmed Fallout 5 is now in pre-production, and that full remakes of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are on the way, though nobody is putting dates on any of it yet.
Asha Sharma Just Hit Reset on Xbox (Video)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games, Videos,
Microsoft spent $69 billion buying Activision Blizzard, but Xbox still found itself in one of the strangest positions in gaming. Hardware revenue was falling, the brand identity was getting blurrier, and longtime fans were starting to wonder whether Microsoft even wanted to be in the console business anymore.
Click to continue reading Asha Sharma Just Hit Reset on Xbox (Video)
I Played Halo: Campaign Evolved at Halo World Championship: Halo Studios is Trying to Solve a 25-year-old Problem
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Video Games,
The room already had that Halo World Championship energy. Loud, slightly chaotic, half sports arena and half family reunion. People were still talking about clutches and brackets, still wearing team jerseys like they were uniforms, and then the whole weekend abruptly pivoted into something else. A nostalgia bomb with a release window.
Halo Studios walked out and said the quiet part out loud: they’re remaking Halo: Combat Evolved. Not a texture pass. Not “Anniversary, but shinier.” A ground-up campaign remake built in Unreal Engine 5, coming in 2026, and yes, it’s headed to PlayStation 5 along with Xbox Series X|S and PC.
And then they did the smart thing. They didn’t just announce it. They showed it.
The first long look was The Silent Cartographer, the mission every Halo fan can replay in their head like muscle memory. There’s a reason they picked it. It’s beach landing and wide-open chaos and that specific Halo magic where it’s always your choice whether to be careful or stupid.
Then I got in line and played it.
Bing’s New Chatbot Isn’t Conscious, Despite What You May Have Heard
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Internet, Microsoft,
We're living in a time where AI anxiety is at an all-time high. Predictions about the AI singularity are being thrown around like confetti, and recent reports about Microsoft's new Bing search AI have some folks convinced that we're already living in a world of self-aware machines.
Now, don't get me wrong, I can see why people might think this. When most people hear the term "AI," they imagine Skynet or HAL 9000 – machines with human-like self-awareness, powered by complex processors that rival the human brain.
But the reality of AI is far different from the Hollywood versions we see on the big screen. AI tools like Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Google and Microsoft's search assistants are a far cry from the sentient machines we imagine. In fact, calling chatbots, art generators, or automated programming tools "AI" might be a misnomer – or more likely, a simple marketing tactic.
So, how do these "AI" tools actually work?
Click to continue reading Bing’s New Chatbot Isn’t Conscious, Despite What You May Have Heard