Microsoft News

Following approval from a number of regulators in both Europe and the United States, it’s official: Microsoft’s $7.5 million deal to buy ZeniMax is over and done with. Naturally, Microsoft had some things to say about the acquisition and what it means for the future of Bethesda, the well-known name behind immensely famous series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. The most important bit of information for gamers is the confirmation that Bethesda will indeed be making games that are exclusive to Xbox and PC in the future. Before PlayStation fans freak out, don’t worry: only some games from the studio will be exclusive, not all of them.

Halo Infinite is without a doubt one of the most anticipated games of 2020, even if it isn’t going to be available until the end of the year. That being said, it’s really no surprise that the Coronavirus has impacted its development just like it has every other major form of entertainment. It seems that every anticipated game, show and movie has been delayed or cancelled and Halo Infinite is not exempt from the viral crosshairs, as made clear by statements from the developers.

It is always a little difficult to imagine a company going on without the one who started it all, but Microsoft has announced that Bill Gates himself has stepped down from its board of directors in order to “dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health, development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change." Gates served as the chairman of the board since 2014.

Too good to be true! Right, gamers? A recent article from CBR has exposed a lucrative opportunity for eagle eyed gamers who want to earn money by pointing out bugs and other software related issues in Microsoft products. CBR reports “In recent years, as computer security has become more of a concern for everyone, trying to get ahead of the bugs and vulnerabilities that cause hacks and denial of service attacks is a higher and higher priority. Microsoft has been in on this game for a while, but they just recently launched the Xbox Bounty Program, taking what has become a relatively standard ‘bug bounty’ program and bringing it to another video game console. If you find a major bug in an Xbox Live service and report it to them, you could get paid for it.”

It came as a major surprise when Nintendo thanked Microsoft for allowing Cuphead, originally an Xbox Exclusive, to be made available on the Switch. As you may imagine, major companies usually don’t let their exclusive titles appear on their competitor’s platforms, but Microsoft even announced that they would even publish Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch as well. We’ve known for a while that Microsoft and Nintendo were aiming to promote cross-platform play together, but this was unexpected. Unfortunately, it seems that we won’t see any other Xbox exclusive titles coming to other platforms in the foreseeable future. We know this due to a statement made by a Microsoft spokesperson.

Xbox Game Pass regularly changes out which type of games are available, by both adding and taking away different games. We don’t have any news about which games will soon be leaving Game Pass, but we can tell you which new games will soon be added to the streaming service. New games are added every month, after all, and October’s games are worth a look.

Hype is pretty high for The Outer Worlds, which releases on Oct. 25th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, while a Nintendo Switch version is set to be released at a later date. But while the initial game is being released on various different platforms, you may not be able to play the sequel on anything other than Xbox. At least, that’s the statement from Xbox Studios Head Matt Booty.

Microsoft and its major gaming platform may be best known for multiplayer games, but it’s possible that they are looking to diversify their offerings in the near future. Allegedly, more single-player titles are in the works at both Microsoft and its umbrella studios.

With the video game streaming arena slowly growing into its own, many people have been throwing around the term ‘Netflix of Videogames,’ like some sort of moniker of triumphant success. After all, Netflix has become wildly successful since its inception, mostly by providing a huge array of streaming content for its viewers. With the likes of Google Stadia cropping up, many people have been wondering if these newfangled videogame streaming services will become the Netflix of their field.

Microsoft has often been at the vanguard of gamer accessibility designs, most recently with their Adaptive Controller, patented some time ago. But while the Adaptive Controller was a great step forward, Microsoft is still...