Last month, I got a chance to sit down with Microsoft’s director of ID@Xbox, Chris Charla, who was in town for PAX AUS and Melbourne International Games Week.

We talked about Microsoft’s independent developer self-publishing program, what benefits the Xbox Game Pass subscription service offers both devs and gamers, his experience with working with studios in different regions, and how video game consumption habits have changed in recent years with the shift to digital downloads and online services.

With Xbox 360, you had Xbox Live Arcade, which you were a big part of, and with Xbox One, Microsoft changed it with the “Games are games” approach.

Yeah, exactly.

So all the games are in one catalogue. And for me, coming into the Xbox ecosystem for the first time with Xbox One, I remember thinking “Oh that’s such a natural thing. I don’t know why they didn’t do that before” but ID@Xbox is now a similar, very distinctive, brand both on the console and the online storefront. Can you explain how it’s different from Xbox Live Arcade?

Yeah, so Xbox Live Arcade, at the time, you couldn’t really buy full Xbox games when we launched Xbox Live Arcade. If you wanted to buy a full game, you had to buy a disk. And then on 360, you could buy full games but they sold them in a different store, Games On Demand. All of these decisions made tons of sense at the time.

And the platform was evolving.

Yeah, so rapidly during the 360 generation so that by the time we got to Xbox One, it’s always an opportunity with a new console cycle to take a step back and say, “Is this the way everything should be going?” We knew on Xbox One that games were going to be sold digitally as well as physically and that there would be digital-first games with ID@Xbox games so it just made sense to put them all in the same store. Consumers are pretty sophisticated and in 2004 and 2005, just purchasing digital content was kind of new. The iPhone hadn’t even come out yet.

Oh for sure.

And by 2013/2014, everyone was kind of okay buying digital content. It was easy for the consumers to understand.

And ID@Xbox is more than just a category for indie titles. It’s an actual program.

Yeah, it’s kind of interesting because it is a program and then the brand is kind of developer-facing, because it’s the name of the program, but also a little bit consumer-facing because we want to highlight these great games that developers are making. So, for developers, the core of the program is that we provide platform access to Xbox One for independent publishers who want to self-publish. They tell us the game they want to make, we send them two dev kits at no charge. We provide dev support for getting certification or if they run into trouble during development.

And then we also provide, and this is where the consumer-facing comes in, we try to provide promotional amplification for the promotion that the developers are doing. You know, a developer might be here at PAX showing in the PAX Rising area and, meanwhile on the ID@Xbox Twitter, we’re tweeting about all of those games. On the store now, there’s even a category sometimes for ID@Xbox games that you should check out, that sort of thing.

But it’s important to us that the games are the heroes. There’s no ID@Xbox splash screen. We’re not the publisher or the developers. And, even at things like E3 which is the biggest tradeshow of the year where we do our big media briefing, we use to put the games that were coming through the ID@Xbox program all together in one section to kind of contextualise all of the cool indie games that are coming to Xbox and, in the last few years, we haven’t done that at all.

Yeah, they’ve been sprinkled throughout.

The reason is because the evolution of these games has been on such a rocket ship that we don’t need to contextualize them for anyone anymore. They just stand really well on their own. We still do a montage of ID@Xbox games because that’s a great way to show quick hits of a lot of games and you can then go online and watch the full trailer for all of those games.

But for games that have their 60, 90, or 120 seconds in the briefing, we just put them where they feel right and this year, in the most delightful contrast ever, we have Cyberpunk 2077 which is this major, AAA, huge, amazing RPG and then we had Keanu Reeves come out on stage to talk about his involvement in it.

It was breathtaking.

Yeah it was the most breathtaking and amazing thing and how do you follow that? And we followed that by totally changing the tempo of the show and going to Spiritfarer, which is this cosy management sim about death.

Yeah, that was quite funny because you guys were like, “Hey, Keanu Reeves!” and then “Now let’s pull it back.”

I thought it was brilliant. They work on scheduling the show and pacing the show really carefully and I thought that was such a brilliant decision to do that. And Spiritfarer could do it. Spiritfarer could follow Keanu Reeves and that’s amazing and speaks to the power of independent games where people can be all in on Keanu and then all of a sudden it’s like, “Oh, what’s this?”

Is there a limitation on what devs can join the ID@Xbox program?

No. Not at all. We have over 3,500 developers who are in the program. More than 1,400 games have shipped and we invite everybody to join. We have everybody from Anthony Tan, who may have joined ID@Xbox back when he was still in high school, he’s a Melbourne-based developer doing Way to the Woods which we showed on stage at E3 last year.

The only thing we look at is the games. We look at every game whether it’s from a third-party publisher or an ID@Xbox developer just to make sure that it hits this minimum bar of console quality. No so much “Is it good or is it bad?” more just if it hits this console bar and, if it does, then we invite you into the program and send you the dev kits and off you go.

So, if like, CD Project Red was all “Hey, can Cyberpunk join ID@Xbox?” you’d say yes? (Laughs)

Actually, yeah. (Laughs) It’s kinda interesting. If they wanted to come through ID, they could. We do have different programs but we try not to get stressed out about it as our goal is for every developer, whether it’s a hobbyist who’s shipping through the Xbox Live Creators program, through to the ID@Xbox program and through to our AAA developers… We just want them all on Xbox and we won’t get stressed about what program they’re in.

Is there any type of exclusivity agreement if someone’s in ID@Xbox?

No. We do ask that games ship at the same time that they ship on other consoles just to make sure that Xbox players are getting the same content as everyone else but we also understand that sometimes a small developer can’t ship on three consoles at once. We’re not uptight about that.

Have many ID@Xbox developers decided to make their games Xbox Exclusive?

Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got many games on Xbox from independent developers and it’s super cool.

How has it been working with the indie scene in Australia?

Amazing.

We’re pretty big. A lot of people don’t seem to know this.

I think the Goose Game is changing this. I think it’s interesting. After the economic downturn of 2008, just over 10 years ago, the AAA industry in Australia collapsed. There were a lot of US companies with Australian subsidiaries when the economy turned and it was awful.

I remember. It felt like every week a studio was closing.

It was really bad in one respect but, in another, it kind of kickstarted Australia into the independent development scene and now, you know, we’ve seen the flowers of it for a while but now we’re really starting to see the flowers of it with studios such as League of Geeks, House House, and Witch Beam. There’s this spirit of independent development now in Australia that’s amazing. We’ve brought to Game Pass and shown at E3 a bunch of games from Australian developers. Games like Totem Teller, Dead Static Drive, and Way to the Woods most recently.

And also games from New Zealand like Ashen and Room 44. For us, it’s been great to come down here and see how much talent there is. Melbourne especially with the arcade culture, there’s tons and tons of talent. I might have a slightly biased view coming from Melbourne Games Week where every single developer in Australia is here. Probably a lot of them work in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth but I just see them in Melbourne and there’s a lot of great developers in Melbourne.

Have you noticed any differences within the different regions?

Absolutely. Something that I love about the independent development scene all up is that you start to see scenes develop. You know, the games aren’t all the same but they start to have… You can see that this is an LA game or this an Australian game or a Stockholm game.

Really?

Yeah. It’s really cool.

What kind of aspects?

It’s hard to explain. It’s easier if you see them all next to each other. A lot of it’s visual versus gameplay. A lot of the games in Australia, they don’t look the same but they’ve been influenced by the visual stylings of other games they’ve seen in development. It’s kind of like a music scene.

Interesting. Have you noticed any similar themes being covered in the Australian games at all?

It’s hard to say. I don’t think it’s as hard as a genre thing. It’s more like a little bit of a style thing.

With Xbox One video games right now, there’s been a lot of focus on titles being Xbox One X Enhanced with HDR and 4K resolution. Is that something that you actively encourage developers to add to their games?

Absolutely. The consoles that we send developers today are Xbox One X consoles and we always encourage them to try HDR or 4K or one of the other enhanced features of Xbox One X and lots and lots of devs take advantage of it. It’s really easy to do, especially if you’re using an engine like Unreal or Unity. It’s straightforward to take advantage of that power.

Xbox Play Anywhere is another feature and there are some ID@Xbox games on Windows 10. Is this functionality also something that you’re trying to push?

Yeah, it’s totally up to them. In fact, one of the things that we’ve seen when we expanded our Xbox Game Pass program to PC is that we have a lot of ID@Xbox developers now also bringing their games to PC.

Do you think you’d ever encourage developers to develop games specifically for PC and then after the fact come to Xbox One?

Well that’s what most of our developers already do to be honest. Most developers ship their games to Steam first and then try to bring it to consoles. Slightly larger devs will try to do all platforms at once so that they can get the marketing benefit and then you’ll see some devs do one console and PC at a time.

Right.

Our view is that we want to get the games to Xbox as that’s what makes our players happy but we also want our developers to be successful because that’s central for the game industry to keep going. Our first order of business is developer success and things like Game Pass have really been able to help developers be successful and it just makes the world great for our players.

What does Xbox Game Pass offer developers besides more exposure? Would you say it’s a financially smart decision for developers to make?

We can’t go into the business side of things but, yeah, we make sure that it’s a smart decision for them and we make sure that we have all sorts of games on Xbox Game Pass such as big multiplayer games that you can play for a long time, shorter single-player experiences that are more narrative. We make sure that the business deals that we do with developers are really fair.

We need both types of games and we don’t want a financial model that only rewards one type. We’ve spent a lot of time on it and worked out a great financial situation for developers. The fact that we see so many devs signing second, third, fourth, fifth games with us, to me, tells me that they’re very happy. And also what they tell the media tells me that they’re very happy.

Do you find that those gamers who play titles on Xbox Game Pass are those that wouldn’t have played the games otherwise?

Yeah, we see a lot of that. What we see is that people are using Xbox Game Pass as a way to discover lots of games that they never would have tried otherwise. With Human Fall Flat, which is an action-puzzle game, something like 40% of people who downloaded that game in Game Pass had never downloaded a puzzle game before on Xbox. And of that cohort, like 40% of them went on to buy a puzzle game within the next 60 days.

One that was outside of Xbox Game Pass?

Yeah, outside of Game Pass. So it’s interesting that we turn these people onto a whole new type of game that they have never tried before.

That’s amazing.

We see that happen over and over again in Game Pass where people are trying games that they probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise. For players, it’s great because they can sample a lot of games without taking a lot of risk, just the time to download. And they get to find all sorts of new interesting things to play for themselves or their family.

For developers, they get to find an audience because there’s so many more people just downloading the game. And, if the game’s good, and we work really hard to curate the games in Game Pass to make sure that they are good, these games suddenly have fans and the developer suddenly has fans waiting for their next game. In Game Pass you can buy the game in Game Pass at a pretty good discount and, if the game’s good, it’s amazing. You just see people buying the game even if it’s going to be available to them within the membership program for another year. They just want to make sure that they have it.

On the financial side of Xbox Game Pass, do the developers get reimbursed per game download, for the amount of time played, or via some other metric?

I can’t say but I can tell you this. We make sure that it’s really fair regardless of the games played.

And you clearly have developers returning to the program so the system seems to be working.

Yeah, exactly.

Do you find that games get a different reaction if they jump to Game Pass on launch day or come several months afterwards?

That’s a good question but it’s a hard one to answer, right? Because we can’t AB test but we haven’t seen any negative effects from games coming on Day One and I think what it’s done, having heard what some of the devs have said after having done it, is that it really just increases awareness of the game everywhere. Even on other platforms.

I guess it’s also changing the way a game’s popularity is calculated too. Up until a few years ago, popularity was gauged on where a game ranked on sales charts but now you can’t really use that ranking method because we have subscription programs like Xbox Game Pass.

Yeah and I think people play games in a different way than they used to. In the olden days, which I guess is only three or five years ago, if people were going to buy a game, they would buy it Week One and play it right away. And we used to see, now this is maybe more like 10 years ago on Xbox 360, sometimes 50% of a game’s lifetime sales would be within the first month digitally. Sometimes in the first two weeks. And now that is not the trend we see anymore.

We see that people buy games and play games much later after the release than they used to on a percentage basis. And it’s really interesting and I think it mirrors what we’re seeing in linear media where, in the days before DVRs, if you wanted to watch a show you’d have to watch every week when it happened or you were just out of luck.

That’s true.

Now there are people who don’t even start whole series until they’re already over. There’s somebody now who’s going to watch the first episode of The Sopranos tonight and that’s totally okay. You know, that’s not weird. It’s like, “Oh, hey. You’re finally getting to The Sopranos.” And I think we’re seeing a little bit of the same with games where being late to the party for a game is no longer weird or a big deal. You know, I play on Switch and I’ve got Octopath Traveler. I think I got it months and months after release and, like, nobody cares.

And with Xbox Backwards Compatibility too, you’ve got Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, which is great for me because I didn’t get an Xbox until the Xbox One so it’s my first time playing 360 and OG Xbox games.

Oh, awesome.

What can we expect from ID@Xbox this year and going on next year?

I think for this year, there’s still going to be a bunch of games coming out. After Party is one which we’re excited about. Next year, there’s going to be tons and tons of games.

Do you expect the ID@Xbox program to transition into the next Xbox console?

Absolutely.

So it should be a very smooth transition with no major revamping at all?

No. Not at all.

Is there anything you’d like to tell everyone about ID@Xbox that they don’t already know?

Just check out the games. We have amazing creators. Like I said, there’s more than 3,000 studios, more than 1,400 games that have already come out. Check them out on Game Pass and find some amazing games on there.

Explore and have fun.

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With the separation of Cortana from the taskbar on Windows 10, and it coming as a new app for Windows Insiders, it has been known and rumored for some time that Microsoft would be changing up its digital assistant. Well, late Wednesday evening, the company finally detailed this, and all the major changes coming to Cortana in the Windows 10 20H1 update.

First of all, it is important to note that all these Cortana changes will be rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring first. It also comes as part of what Microsoft is calling a shift to make Cortana from a “general digital assistant to a personal productivity assistant that helps you in the Microsoft 365 apps you use to get things done every day.”

As previously announced, one of the key changes is undocking the Cortana app from the taskbar, allowing you to resize or move it around. You’ll also be able to more easily configure your default input to Cortana. Other key changes include improved email skills, Calendar skills, and Windows skills. This means you’ll be able to use Cortana to open Windows apps and adjust settings, and even join Microsoft Teams meetings. According to Microsoft:

• The improved email skill lets you use Cortana to create and query emails:
  “Send an email to <name> letting them know I’m running late”
  “Show me emails from <name>”
• The improved calendar skill lets you create and query meetings:
  “Set up a 1:1 with <name> at <time>”
  “What’s my next meeting?”
  “Join my meeting” (Note: This only works for Teams meetings at this time.)”

Importantly, Microsoft has also removed some functionality of Cortana accordingly. The company has removed Cortana support for connected accounts, which means work and personal accounts are now two separate experiences based on which account you’ve signed in with. Cortana Chat history will also remain on the device locally. Other features removed include the following, but be aware that they will be coming back soon.

• Bing Instant Answers
• Jokes and other assistant conversations.
• Timers

Once beta testing with Windows Insiders is complete, you can expect these Cortana features to roll out to a wider audience with the Windows 10 20H1 update. There’s still no timing for that as of yet, but rumor has it that the update could RTM by the end of December.

It’s now been three years since Microsoft announced Xbox Play Anywhere, a gamer-friendly initiative allowing consumers to pay once for a title on the Microsoft Store, and play it on both Xbox One and Windows 10 at no additional cost. Xbox Play Anywhere is a great incentive for gamers to stay in the Xbox/Windows 10 ecosystem to keep, though it’s still up to game developers to support it.

As of today, pretty much all of Microsoft’s new first-party games now support Xbox Play Anywhere, though there are some exceptions: As an example, the upcoming PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection will have to be purchased separately from the Xbox One game, and it won’t support cross-play with Xbox One at launch. However, both the PC and Xbox One versions of the Halo anthology will share cloud saves and achievements, which is better than nothing.

This kind of exception to the rule makes Xbox Play Anywhere a bit confusing, but Microsoft plans to keep supporting the program once the next-gen Xbox console, Project Scarlett, starts shipping in holiday 2020. In a recent interview with Stevivor, Xbox head Phil Spencer explained that a game like Halo: Infinite, which will be released on Xbox One, Project Scarlett, and Windows 10, will support Xbox Play Anywhere.

“Our goal for our first-party games is that your entitlements will be cross-generation and your Achievements will move effectively with your save game because that’s where they stand,” explained Spencer. The Xbox head added that he would like third-party developers support cross-gen experiences in the future, but that will really be up to them. “I think for all of us the more a game can be the game and your players can play that game in the different places they want to play it and remain that their [save] state and everything is with them is a good thing,” Spencer said.

Along with Microsoft, Ubisoft was one of the first game publishers to confirm that they’re working on cross-gen games, with Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods & Monsters, and Rainbow Six: Quarantine to be released on both Xbox One and Project Scarlett. However, we don’t know yet if these games will support cross-play, cross-save and cross-buy scenarios, as Microsoft aims to do with Xbox Play Anywhere.

Microsoft recently released the numbers behind its active daily user count for its relatively new office communication tool, Teams, and in a turn of events, its closest competitor is using a page from the company’s Xbox media strategy to counter by pointing to engagement numbers versus active daily users.

Pivoting away from a head to head in active daily user numbers that has Slack coming up short in its 12 million count versus Microsoft’s newly minted 20 million stats, Slack is now moving towards highlighting its “unmatched engagement” metric.

Speaking with journalist Paul Thurrott, a Slack spokesperson points to over 5 billion weekly actions as a measure to counter Microsoft’s growing presence in the enterprise short-response communications arena.

As we’ve said before, you can’t transform a workplace if people aren’t actually using your product. Slack continues to see unmatched engagement on our platform with 5+ billion weekly actions, including 1+ billion mobile actions. Among our paid customers, users spend more than 9 hours per workday connected to our service, including spending about 90 minutes per workday actively using Slack.

Slack’s numbers are impressive and indicative of its three-year lead over Microsoft Teams and bodes well for a company that lacks the benefit of synergistic upsell from a corporate staple in Microsoft Office but rather presents a “stand-alone” product with great adoption.

Unfortunately, some Slack investors aren’t sold as much on the metric of engagement as much as they are of future adoption and revenue. Shortly after Microsoft made its active daily user numbers public, Slack’s stock took a 10% hit and was down 8.4% by the close of day.

While Slack VP Brian Elliot has championed before the idea that “you cant transform a workplace if people aren’t actually using the product,” it may also be true that some workplaces are looking less into fundamental transformations as much as they are into efficiencies.

Slack may be trying to highlight the seemingly buffered adoption numbers of Microsoft Teams by its native integration in Office 365, the reality is that Microsoft is filling more seats and perhaps going down this rabbit hole could bring up more questions than answers for Slack and its investors.

Alicia Liu wrote last year in a Medium post last year,

By lowering the barrier to initiate communication, the hidden side effect is that Slack has the quiet capacity to exponentially increase communication overhead. Resulting in much more voluminous, lower quality communication.

Piggybacking on that narrative author Rani Molla over at Vox surmises,

There are more Slack channels than there are employees at each of the 10 large companies — 500 workers and up — with which Time Is Ltd. is currently working. The firm estimates that it would be physically impossible for any employee at these companies to read all their Slack messages and channels.

And every wasted minute of an employee’s time is wasted money.

Slack’s engagement response is warranted and necessary to assuage investors at the moment, but according to Wedbush analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Bake, “our checks in the field indicates Slack will have significant difficulty further penetrating the enterprise given the significant competitive offering from Microsoft’s [Teams] product that could slow growth going forward quicker than the Street is anticipating.”

While Slack’s engagement number is impressive, the reality is that the company still needs to keep pace with Teams adoption in the enterprise and as Microsoft continues to sign large contracts with the likes of the DoD and Salesforce, it may get harder for Slack to maintain the same engagement margins over Teams.

Epic Games announced that they added Microsoft DirectX 12 for better performance when playing Fortnite on Windows PC. As noted in a blog post, Fortnite will get DirectX 12 support to allow PC players with higher-end GPUs to possibly experience a higher and more consistent frame rate.

At the moment, playing Fortnite on Windows PC requires a GPU capable of running Microsoft DirectX 11. Fortnite Battle Royale update v11.20 will add the capability to run DirectX 12 on Windows PC.

“By using DX12, PC players with high-end GPUs may experience a higher and steadier frame rate. This is because DX12 delivers better CPU performance and allows for the distribution of rendering jobs across multiple cores.

In the future, we plan on adding features to Fortnite that are made possible by DX12. Allowing players to opt into DX12 before these features are added will give us valuable information in our development efforts and help us shake out any bugs.”

In order to use DirectX 12, you need to change your Advanced Graphics settings, which can be found in the Video settings.

Here’s what else is new in the Fortnite Battle Royale v11.20 update:

• Daily Challenges are back and can be completed for XP!
• Up to three at a time are available, and once a day you can replace a Challenge for another.
• In the Locker, you can now filter your items by the Season they were introduced in. To filter your items by Season, enter the Season name in the search bar. Use terms like “season 5,” “season x,” “chapter 2 season 1,” etc.
• You can now adjust the UI contrast, by using the User Interface Contrast setting in the Graphics section of the Video settings.
• Added a Tutorial playlist for the mobile version of Fortnite.
• Adjusted the headshot multiplier of the Tactical Shotgun so it’s now in line with the headshot multiplier of the Pump Shotgun.
• Increased the Effective Health (sum of Health + Shield) given from Slurp Tankers.

The new Fortnite update v11.20 also includes bug fixes and performance updates. Are you a Fortnite player on Windows? Let us know how your experience is in the comments below.

Those who have signed up to try beta versions of Microsoft Launcher have another update to try. The company has released the 5.11 to beta testers on the Google Play Store, improving upon both its functionality as well as its overall aesthetics.

First off, Microsoft has made slight polishes to the user interface. The company has made changes to the folders and app drawer to better help it match the rest of the launcher theme. Additionally, the app drawer now has a setting to allow users to hide the new apps row for a much cleaner look. Here’s the changelog, for those interested:

• Folder and app drawer are more consistent with Launcher theme
• You can now hide new apps in app drawer
• General bug fixes and performance improvements

In case you missed it, version 5.10 made it out to non-beta testers adding the ability to have the Launcher match the system theme on Android. On the flip side, Microsoft has also announced that it will be removing Cortana from the app in certain markets.

What do you think of these improvements? What additional features or changes would you like to see? Feel free to drop a comment down below.

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Something interesting is currently happening on Microsoft’s Outlook.com webmail. The company has apparently started rolling out new integrations with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive, allowing users to access these Google services right from their Outlook.com inbox.

Outlook.com user Florian B noticed the new Google integration on the webmail this morning. We’re not seeing this on our Outlook.com emails accounts yet, so this could be a gradual rollout. Microsoft also appears to have redesigned the webmail again to add an account picker on the left sidebar, similar to what we currently have on Outlook for iOS and Android. However, moving between accounts isn’t exactly seamless as the page will reload every time you switch.

You can now add your gmail account on https://t.co/qrV9WCmJyQ ! pic.twitter.com/KYvZe6wx7q

— Florian B (@flobo09) November 20, 2019

The Gmail-Outlook integration is a good start but it still feels early. You cna't easily move from one to the other, it reload the WHOLE page from scratch each time. pic.twitter.com/H3lWrZdh6S

— Florian B (@flobo09) November 20, 2019

This is still an exciting development for Outlook.com, which could be about to lose its Microsoft focus to become to true web version of Outlook. Gmail is one of the most popular email services out there, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft could add integrations with other email and cloud storage services going forward.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to learn more about this Gmail integration, and we’ll update this post if we learn anything new. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if you’re also seeing this new Gmail integration in your Outlook.com inbox.

Update 11/21 8:10AM PT: We’ve just received the following message from a Microsoft spokesperson confirming the experiment: “We are always looking for new ways to extend the best email experience to our customers and can confirm that we’re experimenting with a small set of Outlook.com users to learn and gather feedback.”

Xbox’s Major Nelson has just announced a new feature coming to the Xbox Guide on Xbox One. When you open your Friends List from the Guide and select one of your friends currently playing a game, you’ll soon be able to either launch the same game if you already have it installed on your console, or go the Microsoft Store to install it (or buy it).

Look for it soon when you are in the Guide and you click on a friends profile.

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) November 19, 2019

According to Major Nelson, this new feature is currently rolling out to all Xbox One users, so you may want to check out the Xbox Guide the next time you turn on your console to see if you already have it. This looks to be a neat time-saving feature, especially when you want to join a friend playing a multiplayer game.

In other Xbox-related news, Microsoft also released the November 2019 Update for the Xbox One last week, which brought the support for the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant, new text filters for preventing harassment, and more. You can get more details about this update in our previous post.

Norway is the latest market to gain the availability of new Azure datacenters, allowing businesses and organizations the full advantage of data residency for their home country. The company has been rapidly expanding its Azure datacenter footprint, having recently expanded in Switzerland in August.

Giving customers data residency allows businesses and organizations more control over the security of their information and allows them to take advantage of Microsoft’s services while still maintaining data compliance. The company knows this well, with its president Brad Smith explaining during a trip to Norway:

Our customers have entrusted us to protect, operate, and develop our platform in a way that keeps their data private and secure. This is an immense responsibility that we can’t just claim, but a responsibility that we must earn every single day.

With the launch of the new Norwegian datacenter, multiple organizations have already signed on to power their infrastructure thought Azure. These include DNB Group, Equinor, Lånekassen, and Posten Norge AS.

Microsoft says it will eventually expand its cloud regions in Norway with Office 365 sometime in next year along with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.

Can your organization benefit from data residency? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments area below.

Microsoft’s Xbox All Access initiative is now live in the United States for gamers looking to get into the Xbox One generation of gaming without paying a large payment all at once.

Xbox All Access was recently announced by Microsoft and is essentially a payment plan that gives customers an Xbox One console, a subscription to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service (which unlocks full access to around 100 games), and an Xbox Wireless Controller.

Customers get to choose between an Xbox One S or Xbox One X console and some select bundles allow for a free upgrade to the next Xbox console (currently going by the temporary codename of Xbox Project Scarlett) after 12 months of payments.

Several of the available bundles are also packaged with a new Xbox One video game title such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order which just came out a few days ago.

All of the various plans can be viewed and compared on the Amazon Xbox All Access web page here.

Xbox All Access also launched in Australia recently but, unfortunately, did not provide local gamers with the free Scarlett upgrade options.

Are you going to sign up for an Xbox All Access plan? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook for more Xbox gaming content.

Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, launched in Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico last night and its official apps are now available on iOS, Android, and Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles in those regions.

There is no Disney+ app for Windows 10 devices in the Microsoft Store app store but subscribers can still watch content from the service by logging into the DisneyPlus.com website from any web browser such as Microsoft Edge.

Disney+ works in much the same way as other streaming services, such as Netflix, but differentiates itself from its rivals by offering a large amount of content from the Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic brands. Almost all of the seasons of The Simpsons are also viewable on Disney+ due to Disney’s recent purchase of 20th Century Fox movies and TV series.

The available content on Disney+ (in Australia anyway) does seem to be slightly different than in the USA though most of the major products, such as the Star Wars and Marvel movies, are still present. One example of differing content is the critically acclaimed Marvel TV series, Runaways, whose first season is available on Disney+ in the USA but doesn’t even show up in search results Down Under.

Disney+ is relatively cheap and costs just AU$8.99 a month or AU$89.99 a year for full access. The streaming service launched in the USA, Canada, and Netherlands last week. The next rollout of Disney+ is expected to happen several months from now on March 31st 2020 when it will finally be made available in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Ireland.

Have you tried Disney+ yet or are you still waiting for it to launch in your region? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook for more tech news.

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Disney+

Developer:
Disney

Price:
Free⁺

This holiday season, there’s not one new Surface device to choose from, but three. You can either buy a Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro X, or a Surface Pro 7. While I already reviewed the Surface Pro X, the second hottest device in Microsoft’s Surface lineup this year is the Surface Laptop 3.

The new Surface Laptop 3 is unlike any other Surface Laptop released before. Now coming in a 15-inch size, as well as in a “business” flavor with Intel 10th-gen processors inside, this device packs almost everything needed to be the ultimate productivity machine. Today we’ll be giving you a quick look at the new device, and sharing some initial impressions ahead of a full review in the coming weeks.

Build & design

A highlight feature of the Surface Laptop 3 is its all-aluminum casing. This is new for the lineup this year, as previously, the Surface Laptop only came in with options where the keyboard deck would have an Alcantara fabric finish. While you could still buy a 13-inch version with the Alcantara, the 15-inch model (and some of the 13-inch models too) which I purchased for review is only available in this new aluminum finish.

Anyway, thanks to that aluminum casing, the Surface Laptop 3 feels almost similar to a MacBook. It is stunning to look at, and there’s no bending in the chassis when typing, or when pressing on the areas above the vent under the display. Simply put, this thing is built like a brick.

It’s also important to note that unlike a MacBook, there’s no notch on the front section of the Surface Laptop 3. This not only makes the finish on the device look clean and complete but also helps make it easier to open with just one hand. Unlike the previous Surface Laptops, lifting the lid open doesn’t cause the device to rattle or move. It’s a small touch that I really love.

Specs & Processors

Another point of note here worth mentioning is that I’m reviewing the Surface Laptop 3 for Business. Unlike the consumer version, this model comes with options for Intel’s 10th generation processors inside and not AMD’s Ryzen processors. Many other reviewers have pointed out potential performance flaws with this consumer version of the Surface Laptop 3, and this is the main reason I opted for the Intel version. I didn’t want to deal with things like the poor battery life or bad gaming performance.

Anyway, I have a unit with the quad-core 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G7 Processor, and 8GB of RAM with a 128GB SSD. While I haven’t quite run any advanced testing software as of yet, the Surface Laptop 3 feels good enough for productivity. It’s buttery smooth for transferring photos, web browsing, and even some light gaming. I was even able to download Steam to play and enjoy Counterstrike: Global Offensive on low settings. Battery life is decent for a device of this size, lasting me around 7 or 8 hours so far.

Ports & Connectivity

Ports and connectivity are one of the most important aspects of any device, and the Surface Laptop 3 doesn’t fail in this department. It’s got a USB-A port, USB-C port, as well as a headphone jack and Surface Connect port. A change from last year, the Surface Connect port actually now supports fast-charging. You’ll now be able to get an 80% charge with just an hour.

The inclusion of USB-C is a first for the Surface Laptop family. However, it’s nice to see USB-A as well, as you won’t really need to use dongles with the Surface Laptop 3, unlike the all USB-C Surface Pro X. There’s still no Thunderbolt 3 support, though.

Also, there’s no MicroSD card slot on this device, but the SSD is upgradeable. You can do this by unscrewing some screws on the bottom of the device, and removing the keyboard deck. This isn’t exactly something that is user-friendly. Microsoft recommends that you do it through authorized service centers only, so, be sure to settle on a storage amount that you know will last.

Display

Another big feature on the Surface Laptop 3 is the new 15-inch display. It comes in with Microsoft’s signature 3:2 aspect ratio, and with a resolution of 2,256 x 1,504. The display also gets up to around 400 nits of brightness, and it’s especially vibrant when used in dim rooms. Oh, and, like all Surface devices, it’s touch screen too. This is pretty cool, as it’s really nice to just reach up and touch the screen when navigating the web.

For productivity, the display on the Surface Laptop 3 is great for multi-tasking. I could stack windows side by side, and get a lot of work done when compared to my Surface Pro. The display is very tall, and it allows you to pull up a lot of things on your screen when working.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Finally, there’s the need to address the keyboard and touchpad. This has always been an area where Microsoft excels at, and I’m glad. The keyboard on the Surface laptop is very comfortable, with lots of key spacing and nice feedback. I was easily able to jam my way through articles when working here at OnMSFT.

The glass trackpad too is great. It’s very large and has a nice smooth finish. It’s especially solid when clicked, unlike the hollow-felling trackpad on the Surface Pro X Type Cover. It’s something I found myself using all-day-long, without the need for an external mouse.

A Surface device that I’m definitely keeping

Unlike with the Surface Pro X, the Surface Laptop 3 is something I’m quite impressed with so far. I love the overall design quality, as well as its super-efficient display. The Intel processors inside the device are also great for me so far, and I’m looking forward to testing it more. This is a Surface that I think I’ll keep, and I look forward to finishing my full review in the coming weeks.

Microsoft news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!

Xbox One consoles get Google Assistant support, text filters and more with November 2019 system update

The November 2019 update for Xbox One consoles is bringing a host of new features. Of particular note is the addition of Google Assistant.

Yet another Twitch streamer makes the jump to Microsoft’s Mixer streaming service

Mixer continues to see streamers jump away from Twitch. Ewok, a 14-year-old Fortnite streamer, has moved over to Mixer.

pic.twitter.com/pGpElRpRj6

— FaZe Ewok (@Ewok) November 14, 2019

GitHub mobile app launches on iOS and Android in beta

Microsoft has begun work on a mobile app for GitHub. The app, for iOS and Android, is now in beta.

Introducing GitHub for mobile.

Review lines of code, chime in on a design discussion, merge changes, and more. GitHub for mobile gives you the flexibility to keep work moving and stay in touch with your team from wherever you are. https://t.co/vQBkyYXm39#GitHubUniverse pic.twitter.com/HsBKOpeKPr

— GitHub (@github) November 13, 2019

Minecraft Earth is now available in early access in the US

Microsoft’s AR version of MInecraft for mobile, Minecraft Earth, is now available for early access in the United States.

Hey ????????United States, we found your Minecraft Earth invite, it was behind the couch this whole time! Welcome to early access!

More information at:
↣ https://t.co/8qME5ZSuAE ↢ pic.twitter.com/KffqyP0Pv6

— Minecraft Earth (@minecraftearth) November 12, 2019

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

Microsoft has just announced the release of the 20H1 build 19025 for Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring, which is the second 20H1 build to be released this week. This build 19025 is another minor update with various bug fixes, though the Windows Insider team highlighted today their ongoing work on the Windows Search indexer.

As it turns out, Microsoft heard from Windows Insiders that they were not happy about the performance and efficiency of Windows Search when search Enhanced Search is turned on. For those unfamiliar, Enhanced search is a new 19H1 feature that will make Windows Search search your entire PC, including your libraries and desktop.

Microsoft wants to address these complaints in the 20H1 update, and that’s why the company introducing a new algorithm in the 20H1 build 18945 that should make Windows Search more solid. This is still a work in progress, as the Windows Insider team explained in a blog post (https://insider.windows.com/en-us/community-news/desktop-search/) earlier this week.

In addition to these Windows Search Updates, the 20H1 build 19025 addresses various issues related to fingerprint readers, VPN settings, the touch keyboard, and the Microsoft Store. You can learn more details below:

Improving Windows Search

As Insiders know, over the releases, we’ve been continuing to work on improving search results based on your feedback. Including adding Enhanced search mode (adding an easy option to expand search across all folders and drivers) in 19H1, as well integrating Windows Search into File Explorer, to ensure more consistent results regardless of where you start your search.

In 19H1, we asked Insiders why they were turning off the search indexer. Your feedback helped us make improvements then and helped us focus on three key areas of improvement in 20H1: excessive disk and CPU usage, general performance issues, and low perceived value of the indexer.

Based on this, we’re introducing an algorithm that detects high disk usage and activity, so it can better identify peak usage times and manage the indexer accordingly. We’re also making changes for developers to prevent searches of certain repositories and project folders to improve disk usage.

Learn more about these features that we’ve been working on throughout 20H1 and get helpful tips and troubleshooting info to help you make the most of Windows Search in our Supercharging Windows Search article.

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• We fixed an issue from the previous flight preventing Sandbox and WDAG from working.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain fingerprint readers no longer working as of Build 19013.
• We fixed an issue that could result in VPN Settings hanging after upgrade.
• We’ve done some work to help address an issue that could result in certain modern UI components (including notifications and the network flyout), scaling either too large or too small after attaching an external monitor or remoting into the machine from a monitor with a different DPI.
• We fixed an issue impacted login performance for some users in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Windows Hello authentication not working with certain apps in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the mouse pointer not displaying when logging in to a PC locally after remoting in.
• We fixed an issue where, when using the touch keyboard docked on a large screen, the keys would stretch out to span the width of the monitor, rather than staying an optimal width for touch interaction.
• We fixed an issue that could result in ctfmon.exe crashing when using reconversion with the Japanese IME in certain text fields.
• We fixed an issue that could result in web activities in Timeline not opening if you had new Edge installed.
• We fixed an issue where a high number of app deployment failures in a short period of time could result in an unexpectedly large volume of disk space being used by evtx files saved under %windir%\temp.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some apps failing to update with error 0x8007000A.
• We fixed an issue resulting in jitters when using Magnifier in certain multi-monitor configurations.
• We fixed an issue where the mouse pointer did not start from where the Magnifier viewport was if it had moved from typing.
• We fixed an issue impacting Narrator performance reading aloud in Outlook after switching focus from an email back to the list of emails in your inbox.
• We fixed a memory leak in EoAExperiences.exe after using the text cursor indicator for prolonged periods of time.

Knowns issues

• BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details.
• We’ve heard that Settings still isn’t available outside of launching via the URI (ms-settings:) for some Insiders and are investigating.
• Some Insiders are reporting that after successfully installing printer drivers from the Optional Updates section, the same driver is still showing as available for install. We’re looking into the issue.
• We’re looking into reports where, when certain external USB 3.0 drives are attached, they stop responding with Start Code 10 or 38.

According to a recent report, the Windows 10 20H1 update may go RTM as soon as next month, though Microsoft could continue to test it with Insiders for a couple of months before making it generally available. Slow Ring Insiders also received their first 20H1 build on Monday, and we don’t expect future flights to introduce major changes.

The original Xbox debuted 18 years ago today on November 15, 2001. Going up against the Sony Playstation 2, no one could have predicted that we would be on the 3rd/4th iteration of Xbox with Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X. Looking forward to Project Scarlett, we will have to wait and see if Xbox can once again be the king of consoles.

A Look Back…

Major Nelson celebrated the 18th birthday of Xbox, by tweeting out a video of that famous original Xbox One start screen on Twitter.

18! The original @Xbox turns eighteen years old today. ???????? Happy birthday you big black beautiful box. pic.twitter.com/X0faEGEjxq

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) November 15, 2019

Xbox

Back then, Xbox gave you four menu options; Memory, Music, Xbox Live, and Settings. The one thing I remember being excited about with the original Xbox was the ability to play online and playing Halo. I also managed to copy 200+ CDs to my Xbox with no low memory warning. Before the days of streaming everything, the 8GB storage capacity of the original Xbox was the best way for me to store music.

On the original Xbox, the game lineup of Panzer Dragoon Orta and Ninja Gaiden really solidified my loyalty to the Xbox console and brand. In the beginning, it appeared that Microsoft had a way to compete with the sometimes dull Sony Playstation consoles.

Xbox 360

I thought the Xbox 360 was the turning point for Microsoft. The Xbox 360 beat out the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox exploded into the place to play online with Xbox Live. Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 provided more than enough reasons to play online with Xbox Live. More people communicated online than ever before. Microsoft started pushing unnecessary accessories with the Kinect, instead of focusing on the most important thing about Xbox; gaming. Microsoft tried to make Xbox 360 as a 360-degree experience for your home, handling all your multimedia, but Microsoft was trying to do too much, too soon.

Xbox One

The Xbox One was a highly-anticipated console. I thought Microsoft was going to really nail the delivery this time and outperform Sony and its Playstation consoles. Unfortunately, Microsoft blew it. The original Xbox One was a huge departure from what fans and people wanted and the Xbox One launch suffered as a result. Kinect was a mandatory accessory that you needed to buy with the Xbox One console. By the time Microsoft fixed the requirement of the Kinect, it was too late, Xbox fans went back to Sony and the more game-centric Playstation 4.

Xbox One S and Xbox One X

Microsoft fixed some of the mistakes of the original Xbox One with a more compact and improved version, introducing the Xbox One S and the “most powerful console on the planet,” Xbox One X. Both consoles are enticing, but with the next generation of consoles likely coming in 2020, There is no point for me to upgrade to a newer Xbox One if my OG Xbox One is still functioning.

A Look Ahead…

Project Scarlett may be the next generation for Xbox and may claim to be the best console experience ever, but there is plenty of competition. Google, Apple, Sony, and Nintendo all have their pros and cons, but Nintendo has been the one console maker that has continued to evolve with their console offerings with the Wii and Switch. Sony has stayed the course with just producing Playstation gaming consoles without much need to think “outside the box.” However, I am confident that Microsoft is finally making Xbox a better brand to compete in an increasingly saturated gaming market.

You can now play games using an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription on your Windows 10 PC and Xbox One console. Game streaming is currently only available on Android phones and tablets by using the Xbox Game Streaming app. Of course, you still need to be connected directly to your console via a local Wi-Fi connection. However, I imagine that Microsoft will continue to refine and improve game streaming on any device moving forward.

What’s your fondest Xbox memory? Where is Xbox lacking? Let us know in the comments!

One of the most highly-anticipated video games of 2019, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, is now live on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the first major single-player story-focused Star Wars title released in a long time and is also the first single-player video game set within the new Star Wars canon established by Disney.

The game takes place between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope and follows the journey of a young Jedi who survived Order 66 which wiped out the majority of the Jedi around the galaxy. Players will get to explore new and classic locations within the Star Wars universe in addition to experimenting with a number of Force powers.

To celebrate the launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a rather special launch trailer was released that shows a young girl connecting with her father (and his co-workers) by imaging herself as a Jedi. It’s really well done and is worth checking out below.

It’s a good time to be a Star Wars fan. In addition to the launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on Xbox One, earlier this week saw the debut of the new Star Wars live-action TV series, The Mandalorian, on the new Disney+ streaming service.

While the official Disney+ app did launch on Xbox One consoles, there is yet to be one made for Windows 10 devices. Fortunately, there is a way to make a Disney+ PWA on Windows 10 which we explored here.

Have you been enjoying Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and The Mandalorian? Let us know in the comments below (no spoilers!) and then follow us on Pinterest for more geek content.

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STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™ Deluxe Edition

Developer:
Electronic Arts

Price:
$12.49

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STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™

Developer:
Electronic Arts

Price:
Free

AVICII Invector, a rhythm-action title that originally launched on Sony’s PS4 console back in 2017, will finally arrive on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles next month on December 10th. Gamers and music fans can pre-order it and pre-download it from today.

This Xbox One release won’t be just a copy-and-paste of the original PS4 version, though, and will have new music, new worlds, and a variety of unannounced UI and gameplay improvements. AVICII Invector was conceived and worked on by the late DJ himself before his passing and a portion of its profits will go to the Tim Bergling Foundation.

The Tim Bergling Foundation was established by Bergling’s family after his death and is dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues and suicide prevention. You can read more about the foundation on its official website here.

Here’s the official game description and announcement trailer for AVICII Invector:

AVICII Then | AVICII Now | AVICII Forever

Belt up and blast into the rhythmic regions of unexplored space in AVICII Invector. Created in collaboration with the late superstar DJ, AVICII Invector is a pulse-pounding, frenetic rhythm-action experience. Soar through vocal melodies, sweep each fade and attack every beat in 25 of AVICII’s biggest hits, including global chart toppers: Without You, Wake Me Up and Lay Me Down. Fly solo or recreate the party feeling of an AVICII concert with heart-thumping, competitive gameplay. Each track is built to perfectly match the on-screen visuals taking you through a musical odyssey of serene exploration. Find your rhythm, feel the beat and keep the musical journey flowing.

• Master 25 hit anthems from the phenomenal talent of late superstar AVICII.
• Flow-through SIX mesmerising worlds wrapped in a magnificent musical experience.
• Turn up the volume and set yourself a challenge across THREE complexity levels.
• Play solo or with up to 4 friends in split-screen multiplayer action.
• Lay down your high score and rise up the Global Leaderboards.
• Explore a pure-hearted narrative journey set against the globally celebrated works of AVICII.

Are you a fan of AVICII and will you be picking up this game? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest for more Xbox gaming news.

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AVICII Invector

Developer:
Wired Productions

Price:
$19.99

Microsoft’s latest value adds to its Xbox Game Pass may be some of the best digital deals coming out ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Announced on the heels of its fan appreciation showcase X019, Microsoft seeded the news of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate getting some new perks that will now include 1 month of EA Access, 3 months of Discord Nitro and 6 months of Spotify.

The new additions help bring some 50 new games to the Game Pass vault thanks in part to access to EA’s library of titles.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is available for $1 for 3 months. Ultimate subscribers get 1 month of EA Access, 3 months Discord Nitro, and 6 months of Spotify.

Obviously Microsoft trying to make Game Pass the ideal digital gift. https://t.co/wnBDjZiBhS

— Jeff Grubb (@JeffGrubb) November 14, 2019

Game Pass Ultimate is normally $14.99 per month and traditionally includes access to Xbox Live Gold, exclusive member discounts, and Xbox Game Studio titles across PCs and consoles.

However, Microsoft is seemingly using today’s announcement to help push the subscription further by bundling all of the extra goodies for the low price of $1 for a 3 month trial period.

While much of the offering is spelled out on xbox.com in the bold text of plans section, it’s the fine print underneath users will need to reread to get the full benefit of the new deal which includes trial end dates, Russian exclusions, and redemption codes.

*Not valid for existing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members, other exclusions apply. Offer available in all Xbox markets excluding Russia. A credit card required. After the promotional period, subscription continues to be charged at the then-current regular price (subject to change), unless canceled. Plus applicable taxes. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Limit 1 offer per account. Game catalog varies over time and by country.

EA Access Disclaimer: $4.99/month or $29.99 per year after the trial, unless canceled. Conditions, limitations, and exclusions apply. See ea.com/eaaccess/terms and ea.com/eaaccess for details. Sign up for trial by Jan 6th, 2020. Not available for existing EA Access members. Not available in Russia.

Discord Nitro Disclaimer: Available in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, United Kingdom, and the United States $9.99/month USD or $99.99/year USD after trial unless canceled. Codes available while supplies last. Offer open to new Discord Nitro subscribers only. Offer ends Jan 6th, 2020 and must be redeemed by March 31st, 2020. Terms and conditions apply. Please visit https://discord.com/discord-xbox-offer-2019 for more details. Available platforms: PC, Mobile.

Spotify disclaimer: $9.99/month USD after trial. Codes available while supplies last. Open only to users in the United States and the United Kingdom who haven’t already tried Premium. Offer ends 4/1/2020, codes must be redeemed by 10/1/2020. Terms and conditions apply. Please visit https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/Spotify-6m-Xbox-offer for more details.

If you’re up and running with Microsoft’s new Edge Browser and are in the Dev channel, it’s time for an update. Microsoft just pushed out build 80.0.328.4 to you. This build doesn’t come with any new features, but there are lots of new reliability improvements.

Microsoft has fixed issues where the browser might crash on launch, and resolved is an issue where closing a tab might cause the browser to crash. Other issues fixed include an issue where installing extensions sometimes leads to a browser crash. The full list can be seen below.

• Fixed an issue where navigating to certain websites crashes the browser.
• Fixed an issue where Edge crashes on close, causing the Restore Tabs prompt to unexpectedly appear at startup.
• Fixed an issue where only the first Edge window opened in a session is all white with no UI.
• Fixed a hang on launch.
• Fixed an issue where Edge on Mac hangs when a user clicks the Restart button on the Settings page to install an update.
• Fixed an issue where favorites aren’t syncing properly between machines.
• Fixed some issues where videos protected by DRM, such as on Netflix, don’t play.
• Fixed an issue where the Share dialog doesn’t appear.
• Fixed an issue where pinning a website to the Taskbar fails.
• Reduced the number of times sync errors result in a prompt for user interaction.
• Improved the reliability of screenshots so they stop appearing all black when submitting feedback.

Now, there’s the changed behavior. Fixed is an issue where extensions that are installed from the Chrome Web Store are not getting automatically updated. Also resolved is an issue where the Taskbar icon for Edge isn’t updated to the new icon for some users. Have a look at the other changed behavior below, and check out the full list here.

• Fixed an issue where Application Guard windows re-open when the browser is started even when the startup settings aren’t set to restore the previous session.
• Fixed an issue where two Edge icons sometimes appear on the Taskbar after an Edge update.
• Fixed an issue where some UI images on Mac have black backgrounds.
• Fixed an issue where the first run experience appears on every new tab for some users.
• Fixed an issue where users in certain countries who are not signed into Windows with a work or school account still are not able to remove “Work” profiles that were automatically added to Edge even after a previous fix for this issue was shipped.
• Fixed an issue where the password save prompt unexpectedly appears when filling out credit card info on certain websites.
• Fixed an issue where the … menu appears truncated.
• Fixed an issue where Edge doesn’t interact properly with other applications that try to show dialogs in the foreground.
• Fixed an issue where using the Mac Touch Bar to switch tabs sometimes doesn’t work properly if the tabs are playing video.
• Fixed an issue where zoom is triggering in Reading View on Mac when it shouldn’t be.

There are still a few known issues still persisting from the last Dev release. This includes where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. We invite you to check out the full details here.

Microsoft showed today the first trailer for Age of Empires IV, the latest installment in the popular RTS franchise. The game was first announced back at E3 2017, and it’s being developed Relic Entertainment with some additional work from World’s Edge, a new internal studio at Microsoft taking care of the Age of Empires franchise.

The game’s first trailer isn’t a gameplay trailer, but we can see some nice 3D graphics, with beautiful landscapes giving enough room for a massive amount of units. Microsoft promises that the game will let us “experience the epic, historical battles that shaped the modern world,” and we hope Age of Empires IV will truly push the decades-old franchise to the next level.

The game still doesn’t have a release date yet, but we hope to learn more details about it soon. Sound off in the comments if you’re excited about Age of Empires IV.

If you’re looking to buy an Xbox this holiday, Microsoft has you covered. During its X02019 show in London, the company announced some great deals on Xbox and Xbox gear and games which will start November 24th through December 2 at participating retailers while supplies last.

First of all, you can get up to $150 off select Xbox One Consoles, including bundles with Gears 5, NBA 2K20 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. That brings the price of the Xbox One S All Digital Edition down to only $150. This console comes with all digital editions of Minecraft, and Fortnite.

Other console deals are below.

• $150 off the world’s most powerful console, Xbox One X, available at $349.99.
• Xbox One S starts at $199.99

Microsoft will also discount some controllers. You’ll be able to get $20 off some controllers, including some special limited edition controllers. You’ll even be able to save $10 on Xbox Design Lab controllers.

Now, for the games. You can get 67% off games like Gears 5, NBA 2K20 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. You also can save up to 70% right now too with the X019 Xbox Flash Sale, which ends midnight tonight. Titles included in this range from Gears 5 Ultimate, Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint Gold Edition and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Deluxe. A full list is available here.  Finally, you’ll also be able to grab three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for only $1.

While not themed towards Xbox, PC gamers also will be covered in these deals. Microsoft is cutting $400 off the price of gaming machines like the Lenovo Legion Y540 15, Asus ROG Strix G GL531GT, and Acer Predator Triton 500.

Today is a big day for Halo fans: The much-anticipated remaster of Halo: Reach, Bungie’s latest Halo game for the Xbox 360 is coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and PC on December 3. The Xbox team announced the big news during the special Inside Xbox episode live from Microsoft’s X019 event in London.

Let’s take it back to 2552. Halo: Reach is coming this holiday. pic.twitter.com/XFpylxSQyO

— Xbox Game Pass For PC (@XboxGamePassPC) November 14, 2019

Halo: Reach will be the first Halo game coming to Halo: MCC on PC, and it should be the best way to play the game with support for 4K graphics and mouse and keyboard input. The PC version of Halo Reach will be available on the Microsoft Store and Steam, and both versions will support crossplay through Xbox Live. Microsoft’s isn’t supporting crossplay with the Xbox One yet, but the PC version will share cloud saves with the Xbox One version.

Halo: Reach in MCC will be available with Xbox Game Pass for PC and console, but the game will also be available for purchase separately for $9.99. You can already pre-order it for Xbox One and Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store, as well as Steam.

Today during X019 in London, Microsoft revealed two new IPs from Xbox Game Studios, Everwild and Grounded. The first one is from Rare, the UK-based developer of the popular pirate game Sea of Thieves. According to Rare, this is a new experience that will allow players to experience new ways to play in a natural and magical world. The game is still in early development, but a trailer for the game makes it look truly beautiful. “Everwild will give you memorable, engaging, and meaningful experiences for players everywhere to share,” explained Craig Duncan, Studio Head at Rare.

Next up, there is Grounded. This game is from Obsidian Entertainment, a studio that Microsoft purchased last year and which recently released the critically-acclaimed RPG The Outer Worlds. It’s a new first-person survival game, where the player is shrunk down to the size of an ant. It will be coming in Spring 2020, and will be an Xbox Game Preview title build with community feedback. Just like other first-party games, Everwild will also be premiering on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC.

Inside Xbox is still ongoing on mixer.com/xbox, so stay tuned to OnMSFT as we’ll be covering the rest of news as it happens.

The biggest Inside Xbox episode of the year will be streamed live from Microsoft’s X019 event in London today, and as usual you’ll be able to watch it live on your platform of choice. The event will kick off at 12PM PT / 3PM ET, and we’ve embedded the Mixer livestream below:

If you want to earn some free “Mixpot” goodies while watching the show, we invite you to watch this episode on mixer.com while being logged in with your Microsoft account. Today’s MixPot includes an Obsidian Wheel for Sea of Thieves, a $5 X019 promotional pack for the Gears Pop! Mobile game, as well as a chance to win one year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Microsoft has cooked up an exciting program today with news about Halo: Reach in Halo: MCC, the new Flight Simulator game, Project xCloud, new Xbox Game Pass games, and much more. We’ll be covering the event live, so stay tuned to OnMSFT for more gaming news!

In a surprising turn of events today, bitter Customer Relationship Management software rivals Microsoft and Salesforce have teamed up recently to combine strengths and provide better cloud scalability to customers.

More specifically, the Salesforce CEO and outspoken Microsoft critic wants the two companies to deliver new cloud experiences by integrating its noteworthy CRM technologies with Microsoft’s expansive Azure software and communications tool, Teams.

The plan is for Salesforce to build a new integration layer that gives “sales and service users the ability to search, view, and share Salesforce records directly” within Microsoft Teams.

“At Salesforce, we’re relentlessly focused on driving trust and success for our customers,” said Marc Benioff and Keith Block, co-CEOs, Salesforce. “We’re excited to expand our partnership with Microsoft and bring together the leading CRM with Azure and Teams to deliver incredible customer experiences.”

Furthermore, the partnership will see Salesforce move its Marketing Cloud to Azure allowing the company to focus on performance optimizations rather than trying to scale while also reducing onboarding times for their customers.

More importantly, Salesforce’s integration benefits from Azure’s global footprint and helps the CRM giant “address local data security, privacy and compliance requirements,” Microsoft’s cloud has already met in various international regions.

The move obviously was driven more by demand than an altruistic intent as a well-known customer of both companies responded to the integration news with the overwhelming approval of the merging.

“Marriott has more than 7,200 properties spanning 134 countries and territories, so driving efficiency and collaboration is critical,” said Brian King, global officer, Digital, Distribution, Revenue Strategy, and Global Sales, Marriott International. “The combination of Salesforce and Microsoft enables our teams to work better together to enhance the guest experience at every touchpoint.”

Much of this proposed integration is road mapped for 2020 with specific Microsoft Teams integration slated for late 2020.