Motiga, the developer of the upcoming free-to-play MOBA game Gigantic kicked off a series of closed beta weekends over the last month for Xbox One and Windows users. Today, the company announced that the next closed beta weekend will start this Thursday, December 1 and everyone will be able to participate on their platform of choice:

This weekend, we’re not just opening the gates to everyone who played during a previous beta weekend; we’re inviting you and all your friends to grab an Arc or Xbox One beta key from one of our awesome partners, or to visit the Windows 10 Store and download the game right away– no key necessary! All you need is a valid Microsoft account, and you can download and play Gigantic as soon as the servers are online!

If you’re not familiar with the game, Gigantic’s gameplay pits teams of five heroes and their massive guardians against each other in intense battles across a variety of maps. The game is being developed for the Xbox One, Windows 10 as well as previous Windows versions through a recently announced partnership with Perfect World Entertainment. Last week, the team also published a first developer diary to share some details about the game’s development process:

If you’re interested in trying Gigantic, you can sign up over here and get ready to start playing from Thursday at 9AM PST through Sunday at 11:59 PST. The team will also hold a Gigantic Streaming Weekend on the official Gigantic Twitch channel which will feature various gaming sessions as well as discussions with game developers.

Last year, Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s Playstation were among the top selling electronics during Black Friday 2015 in the US, and this year was not very different. According to new data from Adobe Digital Insights, both consoles were once again among the top selling electronic products on Black Friday and the holiday weekend overall this year, with Microsoft’s Xbox One outselling its Japanese rival 4 on Black Friday. However, Sony’s Playstation 4 led console sales on Cyber Monday and is also the best-selling console for the whole month of November so far (via Venture Beat)

According to the report, the top selling electronic products during this holiday week-end were (in disorder) Samsung 4K TVs, LG TVs, Apple MacBook Air and iPads, Amazon Fire tablets, Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox. Adobe added that Cyber Monday beat Black Friday as the largest online sales day in history with $3.39 billion spent online, and mobile shopping did help to break records as $1.19 billion was spent from mobile devices

As for Microsoft, it’s worth reminding that the Xbox One was the best-selling console for four months in a row in October, though this month was expected to be more difficult as Sony just launched its Playstation 4 Pro on November 10. Ahead of Black Friday, Microsoft announced several discounts on Xbox One S bundles and the company is likely to reiterate in the coming weeks to not let its rival lead the gaming narrative during this lucrative holiday season.

Microsoft has revealed their weekly discounted video games for the Games With Gold and Spotlight Sale campaigns and there are some good bargains to be had with Xbox One games, Rugby World Cup 2015 selling for 80% off of its regular retail price and the Letter Quest/Paranautical Activity Bundle, Drawful 2, and Dead Island Retro Revenge having their prices reduced by half. One of the better bargains is the Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1 and 2 game collections which are listed with a 40-50% discount (50% for Xbox Gold Live members). Each of these collections contains 50 classic Atari games and provide excellent value for fans of classic arcade titles.

Also of note is the sale of Worms, Worms 2: Armageddon, Worms Revolution, and Worms Ultimate Mayhem on Xbox 360, which have been given a 50% discount.

Have you bought any discounted games this week? How about in the Black Friday sales? Let us know in the comments below.

As each day passes, more people, developers, and businesses seem to be getting acquainted with the flexibility and resource saving benefits of cloud computing.

However, despite the advances and growth in the cloud computing market, there are still many (a majority in its own right) that hold reservations about exploring the vast expanses of the cloud in part due to misinformation and myths about the sector.

As we near the end of 2016, Microsoft has gathered what it believes were some of the prevailing myths about the cloud.

In the easily digestible format of a listical, Microsoft’s Azure team posted The Top Cloud Myths of 2016 to their Azure blog today; the list comprises of:

We recently covered that share menu improvements are heading to Windows 10 and Mobile users in the coming weeks. If you can’t wait, it seems like there is now a way of enabling the yet-to-be-released UI on current Insider builds.

The new menu is supposed to bring a modern interface, and technology, to Windows 10 and Mobile. As registry edits aren’t fully possible and don’t work the same way on phones, this is PC-only for now, but expect the new UI to arrive for Insiders in the Fast Ring very soon.

Warning

These tweaks require Registry tweaking which could result in permanent damage to your software or even hardware. OnMSFT takes no responsibility for what happens to you, your PC, or your cat, and no matter if the result is a thermonuclear war, you are the one to blame.

So having that said, let’s enable the menu.

1. Access to the registry – you can do so using the combination of Win + R keys and then typing in regedit in the text box
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SharePlatform
3. Once you reach the directory, create a new DWORD (32-bit) by right-clicking the empty space in the right pane and naming the DWORD: EnableNewShareFlow.
4. After creating the new value, double-click on it and set the Value data to 1.
5. After completing the above steps, your registry should look like this:

If your registry doesn’t look like this, you may be better holding off for now.

The changes should hit regular insiders anytime, so you may not enjoy this exclusivity for long.

According to a news report, Rajiv Sodhi, Managing Director & Vice President at GoDaddy India & Australia, has quit the company to join Microsoft where he’s expected to lead the cloud and server business.

Rajiv is a Microsoft veteran having worked for the company for a decade before quitting in 2012 as Director – SMB, Cloud and Software Sales to joining GoDaddy.

He played a pivotal role in setting up GoDaddy’s India business with a strong focus on small businesses, becoming the first international domain registrar and web-hosting company to go local. Rajiv has already tendered his resignation and will be joining Microsoft in December.

Two months ago at its Ignite 2016 conference, Microsoft introduced the first preview of ArcGIS Maps for Power BI, a new feature created in collaboration with Esri to allow Power BI users to apply advanced styling properties to maps including map themes, detailed color preferences and more. Today, the company announced that the preview is finally available on PowerBI.com:

When creating reports in PowerBI.com, you can start using the ArcGIS Maps for Power BI visual, pin ArcGIS Maps for Power BI to dashboards and share those dashboards with your colleagues. You can also publish your Power BI Desktop files containing the ArcGIS Maps visual and share them within your organization through the Power BI service.

These enhanced mapping capabilities are expected to become available in the Power BI mobile apps soon, the company explained in today’s blog post. You can learn more about ArcGIS Maps for Power BI on Esri’s website.

Microsoft has announced today that it’s the first US technology company to be awarded the Gold Level of Zero Waste Certification for its Redmond campus by the US Zero Waste Business Council. Susan Wagner, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Real Estate & Facilities, Puget Sound explained that « The certification recognizes our work to divert at least 90% of our food, office, and construction waste away from landfills through employee-driven reuse, recycling, and composting programs and sustainable community partnerships. »

This is not the first time that Microsoft is being recognized for its recycling efforts, as the company’s sustainable dining practices have already been awarded the zero waste certification from the Green Restaurant Association for the last eight years. However, the Redmond giant has also set up waste stream management programs as well as several reuse programs to improve how its 500 acres Redmond campus operates.

While Microsoft is well known for its Redmond, Washington roots; the company also has other campuses in the US including one in the Silicon Valley which is expected to receive a green makeover in the coming years. Wagner didn’t explicitly mention it in its blog post; the exec said that “we look forward to expanding our waste diversion program in Redmond and at our facilities around the world, to make our operations even more sustainable in the years to come.”

Welcome to the second Windows 10 recap as OnMSFT. We are continuing the trend of our weekly “Windows 10 news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Project NEON

Microsoft has been struggling to satisfy the designers present in their communities, and it may finally change thanks to project NEON. People that used Windows Phone before the year 2015 should still remember how fluid, smooth and living the Metro design language was. It got replaced with a universal language called MDL2 (Microsoft Design Language 2) with the release of Windows 10 and it has yet to fill the gap that was left by its predecessor.

The Project NEON is a focus towards unifying the different takes at design Microsoft’s services use and reduce the fragmented mess that it is today. It also focuses on bringing a new kind of 3D UI to Microsoft’s Windows 10 Holographic system where the UI would have a new way of functioning.

Lenovo could be buying Samsung’s PC business

The PC OEM behemoth, Lenovo, seems to be looking into expanding their hardware business even more meanwhile Samsung is doing the opposite. Lenovo stepped in the hardware market a few years ago when they acquired IBM’s hardware division and they quickly gained one of the top spots among the different PC brands out there. Samsung has had it pretty rough in the extremely competitive market recently where their phone division has had it much better, with minor issues, and therefore they may be thinking about leaving experimental and unstable markets in favour of subjects the company is more familiar with.

This move would probably mean that the Samsung Ativ series and other Windows-powered products (aside from the Galaxy series) would stop existing or be continued under the Lenovo brand, similarly to what they did to IBM’s ThinkPad series.

Upcoming Windows 10 and Mobile builds will feature improved sharing

Both Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 desktop feature sharing menus that are just leftovers from their older siblings, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 and the system they are running on is very old with a lot of the app not working as intended. Thankfully a fix may be on its way.

On it! Share improvements coming to WIP builds soon.

— peter skillman (@peterskillman) November 25, 2016

A lot of small fixes and improvements have already surfaced with previous Insider Builds and seeing that smaller and less important parts of the system get updated is not all that surprising.

redBus is now available for Windows 10 PC’s

redBus is the largest online bus ticketing service in India, with a lot of users, and with the release of their Windows 10 app, tablet or desktop users can now access the service easily from their start menu with a native interface, specific features and a nice interface.

The app was released very recently and is available as a download on the Windows Store, with a catch, as there is no Xbox, mobile or HoloLens version. However, it’s hard to imagine people ordering bus tickets from a holographic unit or a gaming console so the only users that are really missing out are the ones used to waiting.

This is it for the news this week, but we will have more so make sure to check back here in seven days.

Welcome to our weekly Xbox news recap series, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Xbox. Let’s get started.

Mass Effect Andromeda gameplay coming at The Game Awards, coming after month of info drops

Mass Effect Andromeda is quite possibly the most anticipated game in years. The original trilogy revolutionized the way that we look at storytelling in video games and created one of the most beloved universes in all of science fiction. To prime gamers for Mass Effect’s (hopefully) triumphant return A tweet from the official Mass Effect Twitter told us this week that all of that news will culminate in a look at gameplay during the annual Game Awards on December 1st.

You can get a real wooden skin for your Xbox One

Have you ever wanted to encase your Xbox One in wood? No? Well, this Oregon based company might change your mind. The company is called Toast, and they’re offering Xbox One users the option to get a slick wooden skin for their console for just under $60. The skin comes in 4 different colors (walnut, ash, bamboo, and ebony) and covers up only the non-critical parts of your Xbox One, leaving the fans plenty of room to breathe and continue operating the way they ought to. The skin is easy to apply – you just need to lay it onto each side of the Xbox One and it’ll stick naturally.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer open to the possibility of more partnerships with Nintendo

People have been thinking about potential partnerships between Xbox and Nintendo since Minecraft came out on the Wii U. Nintendo hasn’t been doing very well recently with the Wii U struggling to keep up in sales, but the upcoming release of the Nintendo Switch has some people thinking that a revival is on its way. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, was quoted as saying that having characters like Mario on Xbox “would be great,” and he would lend Microsoft-owned characters like Banjo to Nintendo “in a second.” It’s hard to say whether or not any of this could see the light of day, but it’s nice to know that Phil Spencer would never be the one to get in the way of that partnership.

New Xbox One controller themed around Rogue One

Looking to get your Xbox One and happen to be excited for the newest Star Wars movie? There’s a themed controller for Rogue One that looks pretty great, and would be an amazing gift this holiday season for a gamer who wants to have their Star Wars scratch itched. The controller is up for pre-order at $40 and is going to be available on December 7th, just over a week before the movie comes out.

Black Friday deals galore

Deals usually don’t make the weekly recap, but Black Friday has been a little bit ridiculous this year. The Division was available for $10 and Recore was available for $20. Quantum Break got a $24 price reduction. One jewelry retailer is offering a free Xbox One S Minecraft bundle with a purchase of over $1000. It seems like Microsoft is making a push to use this Holiday season to drive home the recent dominance of Xbox over the console market.

Thanks for joining us. To keep up to date with all the latest Xbox news, keep a close eye on our Xbox One news hub.

Resident Evil fans can already get excited, as the next release of the game will support cross-saving on the Xbox One and Windows 10. “The Windows Store version can share play data with the Xbox One version,” said Dengeki from which Capcom confirmed it to IGN.

Cross-saving is one of the driving features behind Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere system, where games are bought once and playable on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. It is not yet clear if the game will use Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere or use a proprietary method of syncing saves across platforms.

Warning: The trailer below may feature content not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

If Capcom decided to release the title using Microsoft’s own method, it would be one of the first third-party titles to take advantage of the system and would likely generate some positive feedback from gamers who use both their console and their PC for entertainment.

It won’t be long before we will know for sure what the plans for the horror game are as the game is due for release on January 24, 2017, which is early next year.

A massive leak of Microsoft’s plans for the future of Windows 10 Design has surfaced a short while ago, but thanks to Windows Central’s podcast, more details have been revealed.

The Microsoft Design Language (MDL), also known as Metro was first used  back in 2002,  in the Windows XP Media Centre Edition. It has evolved a lot since that and its current implementation is called MDL2. It is used in Windows 10, Outlook, Xbox, Office and basically every piece of software that Microsoft still develops. The successor, or refinement, to this current language, is currently called NEON.

NEON will not be a huge UI/UX change, and will simply be a continuation of what the Microsoft Design Language 2 or MDL2 is right now which means that Redstone 3 will still look familiar but it will be much more polished and feature a more streamlined version of what we currently have.

The recently released Paint 3D preview is a sneak peek of what’s to come, as it isn’t really using NEON but some parts of it are definitely there. The app has been criticized for not following Microsoft’s already lacking guidelines, but it seems like it actually has a reason behind it.

Another thing that NEON will focus on is depth, but unlike Google that focused on shadows to mark depth, Microsoft is planning to give some UI elements real 3D depth, where they will be able to render outside the window. It’s still unknown how these UI’s would be handled in a 2D environment.

With NEON focusing on bringing Windows 10 Mobile/Desktop/Console and Windows 10 Holographic together, having these 3D elements will be highly handy in an augmented or virtual world you can see through a HoloLens or a VR headset, and if Microsoft’s handles this well, possibly on desktop too.

The Microsoft Design Language has changed a lot since its first release back in 2002, where it was used in the Windows XP Media Centre Edition, and comparing today’s Microsoft Design Language 2 or MDL2 with what was the most famous part of Windows Phone 7, Metro really shows how much the design has evolved. Microsoft seems to be planning on streamlining and unifying their design in the upcoming Redstone 3 update (Not to be confused with the Creators Update).

The new language seems to be currently called “NEON”, at least internally, based on what Windows Central has revealed. Its goal is to do exactly what Metro did; bring a strict but open, simple yet complex digital design language to Microsoft’s operating system. The project is also often referred to as “basically Metro 2.0“.

Metro was the “perfect design” as described by many Windows Phone and Zune users, and while it had flaws it definitely was unique. While MDL2 focuses on being open and letting developers make a lot of decisions themselves, Metro had strict guidelines and principles which, of course, wasn’t a requirement for developers to get their applications published on the Windows Store, but was something a lot of users welcomed.

But looking modern and simplistic is not all Metro has done. It also kicked off the design language evolution where different companies usually used 3D objects, skeuomorphism and other “Web 2.0” design elements and switched to the flat, minimalist design that different huge design languages like Googles Material Design and Apples Human Design now use.

Languages like Material Design and Human Design have all their own principles for how applications should look like, how they should behave, what animations should occur and much more. MDL2 lacks in that part. It has basically zero guidelines for animations, and the few ones that are there look dull and boring, no strict rules for where blur should be used and much, much more. This is where NEON steps in. NEON, which has been worked on for over a year, is based on what Microsoft already has in their Windows 10 operating system, and fills all the gaps that were left compared to Metro.

The few details we currently have about the big change, is that NEON will include a lot more animations, transitions and polish with a focus of begin “beautiful” and having a fluid UI, which sounds familiar if you ever used a Windows Phone before 2015, as the current implementation is almost static with barely any “movement” happening on screen. According to Windows Central, a source familiar with the matter has described NEON as “Very fluid, lots of motion and nice transitions.”

The new design language is expected to ship with a new name, around the early Fall of 2017, in time for the Surface Phone, but knowing the nature of the Windows Insider Program, fast ring users may see it as early as in early Summer with some versions targeted at Q&A testing surfacing for current Windows 10 Mobile device owners.

The development of the language will continue with Redstone 4 that is expected to arrive in 2018 and should transfer over to all of Microsoft’s devices, which means HoloLens, Mobile, Xbox, Desktop and even IoT with the help of 3rd party developers that may be on board until then.

I knew about the name for a long time but I really don't know much more than that … except holographic focus. I. Can't. Wait.

— T. Nigro (@ThomasNigro) November 25, 2016

Windows 10 as a platform is still in its early days, and the real changes are yet to show up.

If you’ve been taking advantage of the online shopping opportunities around Black Friday over the last few days, we hope that you’ve read our previous coverage about all the deals that Microsoft is currently offering on the US Microsoft Store, the Windows Store as well as the Xbox Store. But for those of you who live in Europe, Microsoft has published today a handy list of Black Friday deals that are currently available in local Microsoft Stores in 18 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and the UK).

Most of these deals are for Xbox One S bundles, Surface tablets and Lumia handsets and we’ve highlighted a few of them for you below:

France

• Surface Pro 4 + type cover – now €749 (deal starts: 25 November, deal ends: 28 November)
• Xbox One S 500GB/1TB – additional copy of Forza Horizon 3 or Gears of War 4 (deal ends: 28 November)
• Selected Xbox One controllers – now 25% off (deal starts: 25 November, deal ends: 28 November)

Germany

• Surface Pro 4 512GB i7 + black type cover – save €519.99 (deal starts: 27 November, deal ends: 28 November)
• Surface Book 128GB i5 – save 15% (deal starts: 25 November, deal ends: 26 November)
• Xbox One S Console – additional selected controller, headset, game, or 12 month Xbox Live subscription (deal starts: 25 November, deal ends: 1 December)

Ireland

• Surface Pro 4 128GB + type cover – now €799 for Core M and €899 for i5 (deal ends: 1 December)
• Xbox One S 500GB/1TB – additional copy of Gears of War or Forza Horizon 3 (deal ends: 28 November)

UK

• Surface Pro 4 128GB + type cover – now £599 for Core M and £699 for i5 (deal ends: 1 December)
• Xbox One S 500GB/1TB – additional selected game/controller and save £20 (deal ends: 2 December)
• Dell Inspiron 3050 Micro Desktop + Monitor – now £199 and save £100 (deal starts: 25 November, deal ends: 8 December

We invite you to check the full list of deals on Microsoft’s blog post and we hope that you’ll find something interesting to purchase on your local Microsoft Store. However, be aware that most deals will end on Monday, November 28.

An app developer has designed an app for Microsoft’s Xbox One video game console that lets users easily and quickly change the background image of their Xbox One dashboard. Changing the image is something everyone has been able to do for a long time but it requires the transferring of files via a USB drive and can take a while to set up.

This new app, Theme My Xbox, offers a growing library of images to choose from directly from within the app and anyone can upload more images to the service by visiting the app’s website and registering for an account. Here’s the official app description:

Theme My Xbox is an app that gathers user created themes for the xbox into one central location. Users can browse these images and, with the push of a button, make it their Xbox One Dashboard Background.

Have you tried this app yet? Share your thoughts with the OnMSFT community in the comments below.

Download
QR-Code

TMX

Developer:
Theme My Xbox

Price:
Free⁺

Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 has had its price slashed and is now selling for $59.99 down from its usual $99.99 in the Windows Store. The $40 discount will be valid for the next week, after which, the popular image editing app will return to its near-$100 regular price.

Photoshop Elements 15 is a premium graphics app and is mostly used by media professionals. It is updated often. Here are some of its latest new features:

• NEW Find photos faster with Smart Tags — Photoshop Elements suggests tags for your photos based on subjects like sunsets, birthdays, cats, dogs, and more.
• NEW Touch your way to great pics — The Organizer and Quick Edit mode are now touch-friendly, so you can tap and swipe to do all your finding, sorting, and quick photo enhancements.
• NEW Turn frowns upside down — Transform frowns into smiles, adjust squinting eyes, and make other quick tweaks.
• NEW Picture incredible text — Turn a photo into cool visual text and then add an embossed look and drop shadows to really make it pop. Great for collages, scrapbook pages, cards, signs, and more.
• NEW Create a collage of effects — Get artistic by adding multiple effects to a single photo.

Are you a fan of Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 or do you prefer another image editing app? Have you taken advantage of any other app discounts this week? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below.

Download
QR-Code

Adobe Photoshop Elements 15

Developer:
Adobe Inc.

Price:
Free

Over the last few years, major US tech companies have struggled to enter the Chinese market and its tightly-controlled version of the Internet. Indeed, Google, Facebook and Twitter are all blocked in China, which is why Microsoft has made an effort to comply with the country’s restrictive laws to continue to operate some of its online services in the country.

The Redmond giant may well have received some criticism for that, but the company also used China as a test market for some of its most forward-thinking technologies such as XiaoIce, an intelligent chat bot that is currently available on popular Chinese social media apps like WeChat, Weibo and more. According to a new report from CNN, Microsoft may well have tweaked the popular chat bot to make it avoid certain sensitive topics such as the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square protests and even USA’s President-elect Donald Trump.

Refusing to talk about sensitive topics suggests XiaoIce has been programmed to avoid prohibited words when asked about them. Microsoft declined to comment.

China pours incredible resources into patrolling the internet, tracking down prohibited content and unwanted posts with an army of more than two million censors.

CNN explained that some Chinese dissidents tried some creative workarounds such as asking XiaoIce about China’s President using his popular nickname, or using the date of the Tiananmen Massacre instead of writing the explicit name, to no avail. “Censors eventually figure out new phrases and nicknames and restrict them online,” explained CNN. Our colleagues also tried to ask XiaoIce some question about politics, and you can see the results below:

While Microsoft did not confirm that it did program XiaoIce to give evasive answers about sensitive topics, Amnesty researcher Patrick Poon explained to CNN that this may well be the price to pay for US tech companies to operate in China. “They are legitimizing what the Chinese government is doing, which is convincing foreign tech companies to suppress freedom of speech,” said the researcher.

Microsoft and Square Enix are joining the massive CW DC super hero crossover next week… kind of. In a rather random promotional campaign on the CW website and on their numerous Twitter accounts, fans of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are being invited to enter the draw to win a one-of-a-kind Xbox One console inspired by the new video game, Final Fantasy XV.

#Arrow fans! #FFXV & @TheCW team up for #DCWeek to give you a chance to win a special edition @Xbox. Enter here: https://t.co/2hhdoCZSET pic.twitter.com/BY0IW6RwwO

— Arrow (@CW_Arrow) November 23, 2016

To enter the competition, entrants don’t even have to actually watch any of the four CW shows but they do have to be a resident of the U.S.A. and be over the age of 13. Eligible parties can fill out the form on the campaign webpage any time before November 30th.

Are you going to enter the competition? Are you excited for the CW crossover next week? Let us know in the comments below.

Office 365 continues to gain traction across the globe and has now found a new home among users in the Vatican City among other new markets according to an update from the folks on the Office team.

As of today, Office 365  is available in 150 markets and in 44 languages that now include 10 new markets such as Bhutan, Cambodia, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Laos, Maldives, Martinique, Myanmar, Mozambique and now Vatican City.

Collectively, Office usage across the world tops out around 1.2 billion people interacting with the software suite at schools, work, personal and government capacities.

Encouraged by the growth of Office 365, the Office team plans to break new ground in 97 more markets in 2017, meaning new innovative cultural and technical engineering should be coming to the productivity suite soon making it that much more inclusive.

While Nintendo’s Wii U gaming console has struggled to compete against Sony’s Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One over the last three years, the Japanese company definitely remains a force to be reckoned with in the gaming industry thanks to its portfolio of very popular IPs. As you may know, Nintendo went back to the drawing board to design its upcoming Switch modular gaming console, and a recent partnership with Apple will finally bring the world’s best known plumber to iOS devices next month.

For now, it’s still not clear if Nintendo plans to continue opening up its popular gaming franchises to other gaming platforms (including non-mobile ones), though Xbox head Phil Spencer recently expressed his thoughts about it in an interview with AusGamers. And as you can expect, the exec would love to see Nintendo games being released on the Xbox one day:

I’d love to see Mario on Xbox. As someone who’s been in this industry and played games forever, I’ll still say it: Nintendo has the strongest first-party of anybody. They’re just fantastic and the memories that they have instilled in so many of us, who’ve played their games and had those delightful experiences, having those on Xbox would be great.

Spencer also recalled that Microsoft and Nintendo already partnered in the past, bringing MineCraft to the Wii U last year as well as Super Mario themed content to the Wii U version of the game back in May. This has been a “great partnership” according to Spencer, who added that he’s completely open to the idea of bringing popular characters from first-party Xbox titles to Nintendo games:

I know I get questions all the time on would I ever like to see Banjo in Super Smash Bros. and I’m, like, “yes, I would do that in a second.” And certain people think I’m saying that as some sort of PR answer and I’m, like, why wouldn’t you?

While such enthusiasm for Nintendo games could seem quite surprising from the head of Xbox, Spencer fully admitted it, he’s a real fan of the company’s games. “I’m a big Nintendo fan and I think they’ve been incredibly important for the games industry, they do a great job with younger audiences, and if we ever had a chance to work with them in the future, I would absolutely do it,” he explained.

Throughout the last few months, we have closely followed Microsoft’s acquisition of the business and employment-oriented social networking service LinkedIn. Last week we reported on the service being banned in Russia, and just a few days ago, amidst growing antitrust concerns,  Microsoft promised the EU that LinkedIn APIs will remain available to all. Today there is more LinkedIn news to report, and this time, it is in regards to the EU clearing Microsoft’s EU LinkedIn acquisition (Via Reuters.)

According to a Reuters report, which cites three people familiar with the matter, European Union antitrust regulators have given the all clear to Microsoft’s $26 billion takeover of LinkedIn.  Microsoft, however, reportedly has to make minor changes to the concessions (commitments) which were originally submitted to the Union last week.

This is a developing story, so be sure to stay tuned to OnMSFT.com, as we will update this story and publish follow-up reports as more details emerge.