Microsoft recently released an update for the Outlook app on iOS, and it delivered new support for the multitasking features in iPadOS 13. The features are a bit reminiscent of the experience showcased with the Surface Duo back in October of 2019. Users are able to leverage iPadOS’ Split View, Slide Over, and even run multiple instances of Outlook side by side.  Here’s a hands-on look at the experience.

Split View mode for multitasking with Outlook

If you’ve used Outlook on Windows, you’re likley familiar with the Windows 10 split-screen mode. You’re able to stack Outlook side-by-side with any other app you have open. Well, with Outlook’s support for Split View in iPadOS 13, you can now finally do the same on an iPad too.

In our example, we opened up the Outlook app while browsing through OnMSFT on Safari. This is done by swiping up to reveal the iPadOS dock, and then pulling the icon for Outlook up to the side of the screen you want to see it open on. It’s a pretty nifty experience, and when trying it out, it feels like your iPad has two screens, rather than one. You’re able to keep browsing through the web, text messages, or other content while still checking your messages or calendar on Outlook. This is definitely a nice way to boost your productivity and it feels a bit similar to how users would be able to stack apps side by side on Surface Duo’s two screens.

Slide Over mode for opening Outlook on top of another app

Another feature now available in Outlook on iPadOS is the support for Slide Over. With this element, you’re able to open Outlook on top of a full-screen app. Again, it’s done by pulling up on the dock in iPadOS and pulling the Outlook icon out and on top of whatever window you have open. It’s a pretty neat experience, as Outlook “pops” out in a similar size to an iPhone app, and will float over what window you have open. In our case, that’s Microsoft Edge. You’re able to peek at your email or calendar, while still browsing the web, or working inside a primary app. It feels similar to how users would be able to send apps from one screen to the next on a Surface Duo. Another boost for productivity.

Multiple Windows of Outlook simultaneously

Next up, there’s the ability to use multiple instances of Outlook simultaneously. We tried it out by opening up the Outlook Calendar alongside the emails in Outlook. It works just like the other features. Simply pull up on the iPadOS dock, and pull the icon for Outlook up to the side of the screen you want it on. This feature was pretty nifty too. We were able to use it to see two separate email accounts side by side. This can be plenty useful for those who have multiple accounts in Outlook and want to see them simultaneously.

Drag-and-drop support

Finally, there is support for drag and drop. With this feature, you’re able to highlight and drag text from another app and into the Outlook app. It’s a nice feature and really reminds us of the Surface Duo’s ability to drag stuff from one screen to the next. In our example, we opened up an article and dragged the text from an article in Microsoft Edge and into an email in Outlook. This also works for photos too, and its a great way to save time when looking to move stuff from one app to another.

A preview of Surface Duo?

Of course, all of these cool multitasking abilities are not designed by Microsoft. The features are all part of Apple’s iPadOS operating system, though credit goes to Microsoft for taking advantage of them. Apple’s own apps have supported these abilities for a while, and it’s great to see Microsoft now getting in with it too. Microsoft has its own dual-screen smartphone, the Surface Duo coming soon, and a lot of these features in iPadOS seem to have inspired Microsoft’s visions.

Microsoft has just announced three new games coming to Xbox Game Pass for console in February, starting tomorrow (February 6) with Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Final Fantasy XV. The first one is joining Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus in the catalog, while the latter is the first of many Final Fantasy RPG games coming to Xbox Game Pass over the course of 2020.

Bethesda and Square Enix are some of Microsoft’s biggest partners for Xbox Game Pass, and both publishers have apparently agreed to add their latest titles to the game subscription service pretty quickly. As you may know, Wolfenstein: Youngblood was released on Xbox One back in November, though this game didn’t get the same level of critical acclaim as its predecessors. As for Square Enix games, Life is Strange 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (the latter is leaving Xbox Game Pass this month) are two examples of high-profile games that joined Xbox Game Pass just a couple of months after their release.

A third new title will join Xbox Game Pass for console on February 11, the puzzle game Death Squared. This one may not be that new for some of you as it was actually one of the Games with Gold titles for July 2018. This isn’t the only game in the Xbox Game Pass catalog that was previously offered with the Games with Gold program, but with more than 200 games available for just $9.99/month, Xbox Game Pass definitely remains great value for Xbox One gamers.

Microsoft has now opened registrations for its Build 2020 developer conference, which will run between May 19-21, 2020 in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The full conference pass is $2,395 for the three days, a price that doesn’t include hotel, but Microsoft has negotiated discounted rates for hotels near the venue.

The countdown has begun!

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Save your spot at #MSBuild here: https://t.co/0pwWZ5NWva pic.twitter.com/zXCl6vzsa5

— Microsoft Developer (@msdev) February 4, 2020

You can now register with a MSA, Office 365, GitHub, or LinkedIn account on this page. Microsoft has yet to share the full Microsoft Build session list, but developers can expect lots of news about Microsoft platforms including Azure, Office 365, and Windows 10. The developer conference should also be a great opportunity for Microsoft to educate developers about Windows 10X, the new version of Windows 10 for dual-screen devices like the upcoming Surface Neo.

For once, Microsoft and Google won’t be competing for developers’ attention during the same week. Indeed, Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference will kick off a week earlier on May 12.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, officials in Washington are looking to circumvent a China-led push to 5G infrastructure by scrambling some of the best and biggest North American based tech companies to create alternative software and hardware 5G telecommunications technologies and networks.

As the Journal puts it, after speaking to White House Officials on the matter,

The plan would build on efforts by some U.S. telecom and technology companies to agree on common engineering standards that would allow 5G software developers to run code atop machines that come from nearly any hardware manufacturer. That would reduce, if not eliminate, reliance on Huawei equipment.

Companies including Microsoft Corp., Dell Inc. and AT&T Inc. are part of the effort, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said.

The big-picture concept is to have all of the U.S. 5G architecture and infrastructure done by American firms, principally,” Mr. Kudlow said in an interview. “That also could include Nokia and Ericsson because they have big U.S. presences.”

While most nations would like to own their 5G networks full stop, the reality is that in an interconnected global community, some nations have a headstart in development and often share their progress through partnerships, collaborations or sales, and current US trade foe, Huawei Technologies Co, happens to be part of a nation sitting atop the 5G hill.

More specifically, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow is depending on companies such as Dell and Microsoft to “rapidly develop software and cloud capabilities,” to not only replace Huawei licensed technologies, but also unseat the dominant place the China-based company currently retains.

In addition to positive mindshare, Huawei will remain a tough competitor to the US companies working on 5G networks as the Chinese giant has been heavily investing in the standard. If the US cannot find a way to workaround Huawei’s “intellectual property,” they may end up playing catch up for one to two years with Huawei and its partners.

The problem is you’re starting late in the game to fix this problem,” Mr. Triolo said of the U.S. effort. He added that the initiative could also threaten Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson by making their machines a commodity, Mr. Triolo said.

Moving into the second year of an ongoing trade war, the US continues to vilify Huawei by levying security concerns as a reason to halt business between North American companies and the China-based software and hardware provider. However, US partners such as the UK are no longer following suit in their banishment of Huawei technologies over concerns about the company having direct ties to the Chinese military. Instead, as of last week, the UK has agreed to allow Huawei to build part of the country’s 5G network.

The UK’s agreement to partner with Huawei on its new 5G infrastructure is now being met with a resolution formed by House Republicans condemning the nation’s acceptance of advance network help from Huawei. As with most partisan efforts as of late, the new resolution includes top Republican official sponsors including Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex), Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla), Rep Michael Turner (R-Ohio), Rep Mike Gallaher (R-Wash), and Rep Lix Chene, who all expressed how “extremely disappointed” they were in the UK’s decision to forgo the White House’s imposed trading ban with Huawei.

The US’ concerns over a potential Huawei dominance in the subsequent IoT markets 5G enables isn’t limited to one political party in North America: A bipartisan gathering of senators are looking to recirculating funds from the Federal Trade Communications Commissions spectrum license auctions to stimulate 5G open standards research and development through a series of grants. Other options that were up for consideration include the White House subsidizing hardware efforts from would-be Huawei competitors while Dell, Microsoft and the rest attempt to build out a 5G infrastructure.

As it stands, shifting proceeds from the FTC auctions is only a proposition and the White House is only reviewing the options with no clear indication of acting on it anytime soon, instead opting to apply continued pressure to allies and remaining partners to ban Huawei technologies. There has been no official word from Dell or Microsoft on the matter and the White House has yet to unveil its final plan going forward for a Huawei-free 5G network.

Microsoft announced today that it’s revamping Xbox Game Pass quests on Xbox One to give gamers even more opportunities to earn Microsoft Rewards points. With the new system, there will be daily, weekly, and monthly quests, with some quests also being exclusive for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members.

“We heard your feedback about improving Quests and making this a better experience while gaming, so you can now play any Xbox Game Pass console game to earn points. We’ll still have Quests around specific games, so Quests will continue to be a great way for you to discover games you may not have tried yet. You will also get notified in real time when you complete a Quest,” the Xbox team explained today.

Until now, Xbox Game Pass quests required you to unlock a specific number of achievements in select games to unlock some Microsoft Rewards points. Following today’s update, quests are becoming more complex and some of them will require completing specific tasks in games. Here is the list of daily, weekly, and monthly Xbox Game Pass quests that will be available until March 2:

Daily:

• All Xbox Game Pass console games: Earn 15 points by playing any Xbox Game Pass console Game
• Mobile app: Earn 15 points by logging in to the Xbox Game Pass mobile app

Weekly:

• All Xbox Game Pass games: Earn 50 points by earning an achievement in any Xbox Game Pass console game this week
• (For Ultimate members only) Payday 2: Complete 3 heists in Payday 2: Crimewave Edition to earn 75 points

Monthly:

• Earn 1,000 points by completing 45 daily Quests and 15 weekly Quests this month
• Grand Theft Auto V: Earn 100 points by stealing 35 cars in GTA: V

You can still find Xbox Game Quests on your console or the Xbox Game Pass app for iOS and Android. Microsoft says that you can expect around 90 quests every month, so if you’re looking to earn more Microsoft Rewards points to spend on digital gifts cards or other things, that should be a great incentive to play more games on your Xbox.

Less than a couple weeks ago, a peek at the ports on the upcoming Xbox Series X were leaked online. The photo showed most of the same ports as on the Xbox One series of consoles—two USB-A, only one HDMI, an ethernet, an audio, and power.

Besides these ports, the photo also showed a long rectangular one that sits in the middle between the HDMI and audio ports. As it turns out, the port seems to be a storage expansion slot, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans (via Thurrott).

Providing easy access to storage expansion makes a lot of sense, especially as the Series X’s 4K ultra HD capable hardware will likely equate to much larger game sizes. The technology behind the expandable storage is still unknown—the hope is that it can provide a balance of high storage capacity as well as speedy read access.

Microsoft has also included options to expand storage in its latest Surface Devices—the Laptop 3 and Pro X. Although unlike that of the Xbox Series X, expanding the storage in these Surface devices requires a total replacement of the included SSD, as opposed to inserting an additional drive.

It’s important to keep in mind that, as can be seen in the photo, that the device is only a prototype at this point. Until its release in the holiday season later this year, Microsoft can continue to tweak the device as it sees fit, including adding/removing any of the ports shown above.

What do you think about a storage expansion slot of the Xbox Series X? Let us know in the comments area below.

Sony announced its FY2019 Q3 results yesterday for the three months period ending on December 31, 2019, and unlike Microsoft, the company isn’t shying away from revealing hard data about its PlayStation business. Even though Sony only sold 6.1M PlayStation 4 units during the holiday season (down 2M YoY), PS4 cumulative sales have reached 108.9M units, and PS Plus subscribers also reached a record 38.8M subscribers.

“We aim to leverage this large community and network services revenue stream to affect a smooth transition from the current console generation to the next, unlike in the past when profitability deteriorated significantly due to development and marketing costs,” Sony’s CFO Hiroki Totoki explained during its earning calls. When asked to share more about Sony’s plans for a “smooth transition” to next-gen consoles, Totoki said that PlayStation 5 pricing is still up in the air, and hinted that Microsoft’s Xbox Series X should be the main factor of adjustment.

Here’s Tokoti full statement translated by Video Games Chronicle (via IGN):

“First, we must absolutely control the labour cost, the personnel cost, it must be controlled,” Totoki said. “And the initial ramp up, how much can we prepare initially, we will work on the production and the sales and we will have to prepare the right volume as we launch this.

“What is not very clear or visible is because we are competing in the space, so it’s very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point of time, and depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much costs we are prepared to pay.

“So it’s a question of balance,” Totoki continued, “and because it’s a balancing act it’s very difficult to say anything concrete at this point of time, but when I said smooth transition, we mean that we will definitely choose the optimal approach and that we will try to have the best balance so that we will be profitable in the life, during the life of this product.”

If Microsoft was first to reveal the design of the next-gen Xbox, the company has yet to reveal the full specs and pricing details for Xbox Series X. The software giant is also rumored to be working on a cheaper “Lockhart” SKU, but the existence of this second device is still unconfirmed.

Back in 2013, Sony’s PlayStation 4 easily took the advantage over Microsoft’s Xbox One which was $100 more expensive with its bundled Kinect, and also slightly less powerful than the PS4. Things apparently got so bad that Microsoft quickly stopped sharing Xbox One sales numbers.

Thanks to its 100+ million PS4 install base and ecosystem lock-in, Sony may still be able to become the market leader during the next console generation, even if Microsoft is able to match the pricing of the PS5. Even though the console wars are still very much a thing, Microsoft is now looking beyond pure console sales and working to bring the Xbox ecosystem to more devices with Project xCloud. “The business isn’t how many consoles you sell. The business is how many players are playing the games that they buy, how they play,” Xbox head Phil Spencer explained in an interview with The Verge last year.

Do you remember Clippy? The anthropomorphic paperclip-shaped assistant once was a key feature in Microsoft’s Office suite of products and often helped users with suggestions about writing letters, and more.

While Clippy has long been dead, Microsoft in most recent times replaced him with a feature in Office 2016 known as “Tell Me.” Or, if you’re up and running with the latest version of Office 365 and Office 2019, a feature known as the Microsoft Search Box. In this Office 365 guide, we’ll be taking a look at what the Microsoft Search Box can do for you.

A quick explanation about the Microsoft Search box

The Microsoft Search Box is universal across Office 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It lives at the top of the ribbon and is out of your way. That’s much different from Clippy, who was known to show up in the most inconvenient times.  Anyway, there are more than a few things that the Microsoft Search box can help you do. It’s designed so you can enter words or phrases about what you want to do next, and will help you get to those features. You can even save time summon it with the Alt+Q buttons on your keyboard.

Features of the Microsoft Search box in Office 365

When you click the Microsoft Search box, search will remember what you last asked it to do. It also might suggest actions that you might want to take based on what you’re working on. Additionally, if you’re up and running with a business version of Office 365, you’ll also see a list of people that you collaborate with, and files that you’ve recently worked on in this search box as well. Lastly, if you’re lost and you’re not sure where to find a specific functionality of the Office 365 app you’re in, the search box can help you find what you’re looking for.

The Microsoft Search box is also smart enough to help you find a definition of a word. Simply type the word into the Microsoft Search box, and Bing will tell you what it means. But, if you’re looking for expanded results, you also can always click the definition and open the search pane to see more details on Bing.

This pane will have tabs for Knowledge, Files, Web, and Pictures. Knowledge will give you a definition or more information about a topic. Files will search through the files in your organization for the word you searched for. Web will show you a list of web results. Pictures, meanwhile, will run a Bing image search for your query.

Just the start of what Office 365 can do for you

The Microsoft Search box is just one of the many features of how Office 365 can help you out. So far, in our coverage, we’ve highlighted how you can use it in your small business, stay healthy at work, and even improve your workflow. Keep it tuned to OnMSFT for all your Office 365 news and information, and feel free to let us know if you’ve ever used Microsoft Search in Office 365 by dropping us a comment below.

Since Microsoft’s Edge browser made the switch to the Chromium open source project, the company has been making various contributions that should eventually benefit all Chromium-based web browsers. Recently, we wrote about Microsoft proposing a change to bring Title Bar customization options for Progressive Web Apps, but Windows Latest has since noticed another interesting proposition from Microsoft aiming to make PWAs behave more like native apps.

In an explainer document on GitHub, the Microsoft Edge team revealed its plan to allow PWAs to be registered as handlers for URL protocols, so that clicking on links such as mailto:// , ms-word:// or web+music:// from the web or an app would open registered PWAs that have been installed on a PC.Here are three use cases detailed by the Edge team:

• Cross app integration. A user opens a document using a PWA. The document contains a link to a presentation (ms-powerpoint://deck2378465). When the user clicks on it, the presentation PWA automatically opens in the correct scope and shows the slide deck.
• In a native chat app, the user receives a link to some magnet:// URL. When she clicks the link, an installed torrent PWA is launched.
• A user has installed a PWA for a music app. When a friend shares a link to a song and she clicks on it (web+music://songid=1234&time=0:13) the PWA will automatically launch instead of opening a new tab in the browser.

Replacing websites or desktop apps by PWAs is definitely something only power users would do, but as the Edge team explained, this proposition is all about making PWAs a “more engaging native-like experience.” It certainly could have its merits, especially since the new Chromium-based Edge now makes it pretty easy to install PWAs from the web. And truth be told, some PWAs like Outlook.com or Spotify are now just as good or better than their desktop counterparts.

It remains to be seen if this proposition from the Microsoft Edge team ends up in Chromium, but after Microsoft abandoned its plan to bring PWAs to the Windows 10 Microsoft Store, the new Edge seems to be an interesting new gateway to bring more “apps” to Windows.

Microsoft is starting the week on a bad note this morning as Microsoft Teams, the company’s communication hub for Office 365 went down earlier today. We’ve been unable to access the app for 30 minutes now, and Microsoft has just acknowledged the issue on Twitter. The good news is that the rest of the Office 365 apps seem to be working as usual, for now at least.

We're investigating an issue where users may be unable to access Microsoft Teams. We're reviewing systems data to determine the cause of the issue. More information can be found in the Admin center under TM202916

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) February 3, 2020

“We’re reviewing systems data to determine the cause of the issue,” the company explained. The company should share more details soon on the Office 365 portal (restricted to Office 365 admins), but we also invite you to follow the Microsoft 365 Status Twitter account for upcoming public announcements.

It’s been quite some time since Microsoft Teams was affected by an outage, but Microsoft will hopefully be quick to fix the issue. The app crossed 20 million daily active users back in November, and it’s already being used by many Fortune 500 companies. Obviously, Microsoft employees also use Teams to communicate internally, so that’s another reason to get it back up and running asap.

Update 7:36AM PDT: As Teams is still now, the company has now explained that the issue is due to an authentication certificate that has expired. “We’re developing a fix to apply a new certificate to the service which will remediate impact,” Microsoft said.

We've determined that an authentication certificate has expired causing, users to have issues using the service. We're developing a fix to apply a new certificate to the service which will remediate impact. Further updates can be found under TM202916 in the admin center.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) February 3, 2020

Update 8:25 AM PDT: After 2 hours of service interruption, Microsoft Teams is now getting back up after Microsoft deployed the updated certificate. “Affected users should start to see recovering in the next hour,” the company noted on the Microsoft 365 portal.

We've initiated the deployment of the updated certificate and are monitoring service health as the fix progresses. Additional information can be found under TM202916 in the admin center.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) February 3, 2020

Welcome back to our Windows 10 news recap, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Windows 10X might borrow the dynamic wallpaper feature from macOS

Rumors suggest that Microsoft’s Windows 10X operating system may have a dynamic wallpaper feature, like macOS, whereby the desktop background can change depending on the user’s time and location.

The Windows Insider team highlights 5 years worth of feedback-driven improvements to Windows 10

With the Windows Insider Program celebrating its 5th-anniversary last year, the team is now highlighting some of the improvements made to Windows 10 as a result of the feedback received.

Windows 7 will continue to be supported by most popular antivirus solutions

Despite Windows 7 no longer being supported, users who are sticking to their guns will be pleased to know that most popular antivirus solutions will continue to support Windows 7 for now, including BitDefender and NortonLifeLock.

Phone call functionality is finally rolling out to more Windows 10 users with the Your Phone app

More users of the Your Phone app are receiving phone call functionality on Windows 10, as the feature begins rolling out to a larger number of users.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Windows 10 news.

I recently sat down with CD PROJEKT Red’s John Mamais to talk about the studio’s highly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 video game which is due out later this year on Xbox One, PC, and PS4.

We talked about the creation of the futuristic world in which the game is set, cyberpunk inspirations, possible third-person perspectives, immersive sound design, censorship issues in Australia, and the potential (or lack thereof) for a Cyberpunk 2077 release on Nintendo Switch and a VR version.

When did development on Cyberpunk 2077 start exactly? It’s been planned for a while now.

We had a team going when we were working on The Witcher 3 actually. We built two teams to do the two games in parallel then we cannibalised the second team to come back and work on Witcher 3 before putting everyone on this project.

So Cyberpunk 2077 has been in development for a while then?

Yeah, for a little while. In pre-production. We had about 75 guys working on it at that time.

Was it always planned to come out this year? Because the original roleplaying game, which it’s based on, is called Cyberpunk 2020 and now the video game is coming out in 2020… Is that a coincidence?

No, I think we wanted to get the game out earlier in 2019 actually. But it kind of makes sense that it’s 2020, right? [laughs]

Yeah. [laughs]

But, yeah. The original intention was to get it out earlier.

It’s funny because I’ve seen people saying on Twitter and elsewhere that the release date was very carefully planned because of the year 2020.

Speaking of the source material, is there much from the original roleplaying game that fans can expect to find in the Cyberpunk 2077 video game?

Yeah, a lot of the lore is going into it. Johnny Silverman comes from that. And Night City. And the factions, districts, the names of items, and the corporation names. Also the skill system, in a way, and the class system. All that stuff.

Has the interpretation of the technology changed in this world since the creation of the roleplaying game?

We had to bring it forward, you know? The way I think about it is that you go back to 1990 and think of what the technology would be like in 2077. It’s kind of like a splinter reality from 1990.

Kind of like The Jetsons I guess. How that was a vision of the future as seen from that time.

The Jetsons got it wrong I suppose. [laughs] Or maybe we’re still going to look like The Jetsons one day.

I hope so. I want those houses on the stilts. [laughs]

Rosie and the robotic dog… That stuffs kind of coming true isn’t it?

And treadmills? [laughs]

[laughs]

The original video that you guys released had this very attractive woman with knives coming out of her forearms.

Yeah that was more like a teaser to show what we think this game should look like but we hadn’t locked in everything yet.

I remember thinking that, after watching that video, that Cyberpunk 2077 would then be a kind of Tomb Raider game but with a hot woman with cybernetic implants taking out baddies but it’s actually pretty different.

But those mantis blades are still in it, right? So some things have carried over.

Was that the original vision for what the game was going to be or more of a proof of concept?

I think that was actually the original vision at that point but it has evolved from that a lot. It’s changed a lot from that.

Interesting. How would you say Cyberpunk 2077 is going to differ from The Witcher? Obviously, it’s cyberpunk and not fantasy but, for those that are coming into this who have played The Witcher video games…

It kind of feels similar I think because, at its heart, it’s still a RPG, right? But the main difference will be the combat element.

Which looks really cool from the footage I’ve seen.

Yeah, it looks good in that demo that we showed. Also the camera perspective changes, which is controversial, having the first-person instead of the third-person camera.

I was wondering about that because I’m one of those people who rarely plays first-person video games because, within minutes, I’ll get violent motion sickness.

There’s stuff planned so you’ll be able to change your depth of field, reduce the head-bobbing effect, and some other stuff that we want to do to make sure that people don’t get sick.

I noticed in the demo that there’s a shot where the main protagonist is riding a motorcycle and then he stops and the camera shifts to a third-person perspective. Any chance of this meaning a third-person option might be available?

Yeah, in the vehicles you can but just in the vehicles.

The character customization is something that also sets Cyberpunk 2077 apart from The Witcher video games as you can fully create a character from scratch. What I find interesting about the approach that you’ve taken is that the game won’t have a gender option but players will be able to craft a body using male and female attributes.

Yeah, you choose a body type, not necessarily a boy or girl.

Yeah, it’s really cyberpunk. Actually building a person. How wild can the customization get? Can you make hilariously disfigured characters?

No, there are limits to it because it needs to fit the skeletal rig.

How do the cutscenes work with the custom characters? I’m guessing with them all being in first-person, there’s not too many challenges.

Yeah, I don’t think there are any third-person cutscenes in the game as far as I know. There might be some at the beginning and at the end but I’m not sure on that.

The cutscene system is a very ground-breaking RMD thing for us to get it very seamless. So that you stay in the game.

Right.

For example, narrative sequences are happening in front of you and you have some control over the character so you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie.

Tell me about the non-fatal gameplay option that’s been showcased recently. Players can truly explore the entire Cyberpunk 2077 world and storyline without killing anyone?

Yeah but you have to hurt them though, right? You can knock them out.

I was wondering about that in the boss fight I saw where there was definitely a lot of shooting but still the option to leave the opponents breathing.

We’re balancing it specifically so that you can get through it without killing anyone. There’s a non-lethal route.

Is it harder if you’re not killing anyone?

Yeah. It takes a lot longer to play too.

It’s like real life, I guess, in that regard.

The easiest way [to play the game] is to just gun right through it.

How open is Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of gameplay and experience? It looks so immersive. I just want to set up a coffee shop or something in it.

We don’t have any simulator stuff or gameplay. In Witcher 3, we did the open-world elements very late in the development process when we only had two or three people working on it or something. Now there’s, like, 15 people doing these open-world quests.

There’s a couple of layers. There’s a passive layer, which is the vendors, then there’s the STSs, which are the street stories. I think there’s around 75 street stories. Then there’s minor activities as well.

The street stories are like little quests. There’s story but there’s not, like, advanced cinematic storytelling sequences so much. They’re a way to explore the world and level-up your character.

Are these randomly generated or is it possible to work through and complete them all?

They’re all custom done. There’s nothing like that that’s automatically generated. There are set templates that the guys can use but each one is customized to make them feel unique. The world’s going to be filled with that stuff. It should feel really good.

Do you know what the estimated gameplay length is to complete the whole game?

We’re not sure… yet. We’re still finishing the game now and there are different ways to play through it. There’s different character builds and it’s very non-linear. Because you can play through it in so many different ways, it’s a little but risky to state the length of time. How do you figure that out? Especially when there’s open-world and all of the other content.

When you finish the campaign, is that Game Over or do you still get access to the open-world?

Oh, I don’t know the answer to that. That’s a good question.

So, cyberspace.

We’re not talking too much about cyberspace just yet.

I guess that’s something we’ll hear more about closer to release?

That’s something you’ll hear more about on release. [laughs]

Have you had any issues with Australian censorship at all?

That was the big question for me when I came here. We have a big list of things that could be bad for us in Australia. The two big things are sexualized violence and drugs with rewards but you can’t really do cyberpunk without drugs, right?

Yeah and the steroids, I think they were called Juice in the demo, are pretty prominent in the game too.

It’s to do with how you interpret that I think.

Just call them vitamins. [laughs]

We’re not going to water it down but I don’t think there are any situations where you can take any real street-named drug and get a reward from it. And there definitely aren’t going to be any tasteless sexualized violence either.

In the real-world, there’s lots of sexualized violence, right? It happens. So it might exist in this world but the player will never be involved with something like that.

The restrictions are pretty controversial but I guess these were bound to happen with video games becoming more realistic and movie-like. Movies cover these sort of themes and it makes sense that video games would also cover them.

Yeah, we’re trying to make it more mature, right? It’s an art form, or we want it to be an art form, and we want to talk about difficult subjects like that but, yeah, we won’t. We’re not going to make a game where the player can do those kinds of things. It would be awful and tasteless.

I think everyone has faith in you guys to be tasteful, we just don’t want the game to be banned.

I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think we’re going to be okay here.

A Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer mode has been teased recently. Is it still planned to be its own release well after the launch of the main game?

We’re not mixing the two things. Totally focusing on single-player.

Any chance you can tell us what kind of multiplayer mode it will be?

No.

No?

No. That’s going to be talked about a year from now or something. I wish I could say more.

Are you guys planning much in the way of additional content post-launch?

We are. Yeah. There’ll be stuff that comes out after. The Witcher model kind of worked for us.

Kind of like the DLC story packs?

I’m not allowed to say what it will be but it’ll probably be something like The Witcher. I wish I could talk about it more because, for us, it’s very interesting. But we can’t.

Any plans for Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch?

Not as far as I know. Not yet. I don’t know if Cyberpunk 2077 would work on the Nintendo Switch. It might be too heavy for it. But then, we did put Witcher 3 on it and we thought that would be too heavy too but somehow we pulled it off.

One of the first thoughts I had after seeing the initial E3 presentation was how much Cyberpunk 2077 looks like it would be suited for VR. Have you guys thought about bringing the game to VR platforms in the future?

We tried. We were thinking about VR but, yeah, we’re not doing anything with VR. We got the VR dev kits but…

Wasn’t a good fit?

Some things would work in VR but, I think, it’s not really viable yet. You’re not making a lot of money in VR yet. It’s very experimental and niche, yeah. I would like to. I like VR but we’re not doing anything with it yet.

Cyberpunk 2077 will run in 4K Ultra HD when played on an Xbox One X console. Has there been any discussion about improvements for when the game’s played on the upcoming Xbox Series X?

Most AAA developers have that stuff [Xbox Series X dev tools] but we’re not focusing on that yet. We’re focusing on current gen.

Cyberpunk 2077 has had a heavy association with Microsoft and Xbox since its proper reveal at E3. How has it been for CD PROJEKT Red collaborating with Microsoft?

We’ve had a long relationship with Microsoft. We had the Witcher 3 announcement at E3 at the Microsoft conference, so I think, given that existing relationship, it’s been easier for us to move forward with those guys.

After Witcher 3, we got more famous in a way. More reputable as a game developer. People knew who we were so it was easier for us to work with Microsoft who helped us establish certain conditions for how we would present the game at these conferences.

Any cool merchandise you’re planning to release to tie-into the game?

You know, we have a shop! Have you seen it?

Yeah, it looks awesome. Some of the stuff you guys are putting out is fantastic. I have to say, I love the look of the samurai jackets with the lights in the collar. If you guys were planning to actually make those and sell them for real, I’d buy one immediately.

I don’t know if they’re going to do the jackets or not but there’s a lot of stuff they’re planning to do.

What’s your favorite bit of Cyberpunk 2077 merch that you’ve seen?

I like the collector’s edition with the [statue of] the guy on the bike. I love that sort of thing.

Most people are aware that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a roleplaying game but cyberpunk in general is also an incredibly popular film genre. What cyberpunk movies do you think fans should check out to get them hyped for the launch of the Cyberpunk 2077 game?

That’s a really good question. I’ve watched all of the Ghost in the Shell stuff. I wouldn’t say the latest Ghost in the Shell is a good representation of cyberpunk but it’s still cool. Akira is interesting to watch but it’s more psionics.

True. It’s more supernatural almost.

We don’t get into supernatural too much but with the motorcycle in Tokyo, the feeling’s there. Blade Runner is kind of a reference but that’s dark and gloomy and wet and doesn’t really fit so much. I think Ghost in the Shell is the best reference as it’s that kind of technology. All of those cybernetics and all that.

Anything you want gamers to know about Cyberpunk 2077 that’s being overlooked?

There is some stuff that hasn’t been talked about such as the way that it’s been lit. Our director keeps talking about the real-time global illumination system which we haven’t really seen in its full beauty yet. No one in the public has seen how it’s finally going to look. It’s going to look more breathtaking than we’ve seen so far.

Also, the sound. The acoustic system that one of our sound programmers came up with is going to sound really realistic because of the way they’re using the geometry. It creates this reverb effect so that changes as the space changes. If I were a rich gamer, I’d definitely go out and buy a Dolby Atmos system to listen to this game. It’s going to be very immersive, deep, and beautiful-sounding.

And with the 4K and the lighting, better get a good TV as well, right? It’s going to look and sound great.

It definitely looks impressive so far.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to talk about Cyberpunk 2077. It’s been a pleasure.

Cyberpunk 2077 is due out on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles on September 17th later this year. Digital pre-orders are already live in the Microsoft Store and the physical release and the limited Collector’s Edition are up on Amazon.

A Cyberpunk 2077 hardcover artbook featuring designs from the video game has also been announced as have several official Cyberpunk 2077 Funko Pop models. Want to find out more about the Cyberpunk 2077 presentation with Keanu Reeves at E3? Check out our interview with Microsoft’s Chris Charla.

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Cyberpunk 2077

Developer:
CD PROJEKT RED

Price:
$29.99