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As per a new report from Bloomberg, Xbox is planning more layoffs at their ZeniMax studios, which they purchased for $7.5 billion in 2020. Moreover, Xbox president Matt Booty claimed that the reason for the shutdown of three studios was them being understaffed, thus, prompting a restructuring. The Xbox team is of the opinion that the resources should be allocated to other prominent projects.
Xbox Closes Bethesda Studios, Including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks
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It seems the cutting off developers from video games studios is becoming a fashion in the industry. Microsoft seems to be taking a step further to shut down some of the most popular developers from Bethesda Studios. These includes teams like Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within maker Tango Gameworks, and many more. In a mail, head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty has confirmed these actions taking place.
Microsoft Announces Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Business Customers
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Microsoft has announced two new Surface devices for business customers including the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6. Both devices come with Intel's new Core Ultra processors with built-in NPU. And the new Surface devices have received notable upgrades in display and webcam. You also get 5G and NFC connectivity on the Surface Pro 10.
Microsoft Appoints Google Deepmind Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to Lead Its AI Efforts
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In another reshuffle, Microsoft has hired Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Inflection to lead AI innovations at Microsoft. Suleyman will oversee the development of Copilot, Edge, and Bing and how AI can be leveraged to make meaningful product improvements.
Microsoft DirectSR Will Make It Easier to Implement AI Super Resolution in PC Games
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Microsoft is about to unveil DirectSR next month at the GDC 2024 conference. Nvidia, AMD and Intel are working together with Microsoft on this new API. It will make the work of game developers easier so they can integrate Super Resolution universally with DirectSR. The DirectX State of the Union event starts at 12:45 PM (PST) on March 21st, at the GDC 2024 conference which is being held in San Francisco.
Microsoft is looking to expand its AI investment beyond OpenAI. The software giant has partnered with a French AI startup called Mistral AI and invested close to $2 billion to accelerate their new LLMs on Azure's infrastructure. Mistral AI's new model, Mistral Large, is already available on Azure AI Studio for customers and developers. The Mistral Large model supports advanced reasoning, understands several international languages, and comes with native function calling support.
Microsoft introduced Windows Copilot with much pomp and hype, but is it really an intelligent AI assistant to help you with everyday Windows tasks? Turns out, it's just another AI chatbot like Edge Copilot with few system integrations. Microsoft decided to replace Cortana with Windows Copilot, but there is close to zero feature parity and feels like a downgrade. Windows Copilot should embrace vision models to perform system actions locally like composing emails, interacting with various files, setting alarms, tweaking system settings, and more.
Xbox has just teased that its next-gen console will feature the largest technical leap that we have ever witnessed. Plus, the Xbox President Sarah Bond has confirmed that during the holidays this year, we will see updates from the company regarding new Xbox hardware. This is speculated to be the Xbox Series X/S refresh consoles - both or either one of them could come.
Xbox Will Reveal Big News on Thursday In a ‘Special Edition’ Podcast
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Microsoft is planning a business related podcast and has finally announced its dates. After addressing the leaks of Xbox games ports, Xbox will host its 'Special Edition' podcast on Thursday 15th February. This podcast will feature Microsoft Games CEO, Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, the recently appointed President of Xbox, and Matt Booty, the Head of Xbox Game Studios.
Microsoft Calls Apple’s New App Store Policies ‘a Step in the Wrong Direction’
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After Epic Games and Spotify, Microsoft now calls Apple's revised App Store guidelines in the EU "a step in the wrong direction." First spotted in December 2023, Microsoft is quietly developing an alternative Xbox app store for iPhones. It seems Microsoft isn't happy with Apple's fees and commissions on app installs and third-party payment mechanisms. At the moment, Microsoft, Nvidia, and other big cloud gaming providers haven't reacted to Apple's plans to open up the App Store to game streaming apps.
Microsoft has become the second company to join the $3 trillion club, after Apple. On Wednesday, MSFT's market cap reached $3.02 trillion with a record-high share price of $405.63. Microsoft has been growing tremendously after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November, 2022. OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft has been instrumental in pushing the market cap from $1.8 trillion to over $3 trillion. Market analysts say that Satya Nadella's push on AI has largely paid off and the company is expected to outpace even Apple in 2024.
Microsoft Sets 16GB RAM & 40 TOPS of AI Computing Speed as Standard for New ‘AI PCs’
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Microsoft is said to put new hardware requirements in place, for future PCs. Here, 40 TOPS has been mentioned as the minimum AI computing speed a PC should have, in order to be branded as an AI PC. In addition to this, Microsoft is also setting 16GB RAM capacity as a minimum for AI PCs. The newly released Intel Core Ultra processors do not meet this requirement.
Sam Altman’s Most Used App Is NOT ChatGPT; Here’s What He Uses All Day!
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Sam Altman sat down with Bill Gates in a recent podcast. It was revealed here that it is not ChatGPT which is the most used app by OpenAI's CEO. In fact, it is not any other OpenAI tool either - Sam Altman has revealed he uses Slack the most on his phone. This reveals how busy the CEO is in managing the OpenAI team and its efforts towards artificial general intelligence.
This Xbox Series S Toaster Is the Perfect Gaming Breakfast Companion!
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Microsoft has unveiled an Xbox Series S Toaster. By adding this to your kitchen setup, you could eat Xbox-branded toast everyday. The best part is, it actually looks like a Xbox Series S console! It has launched for $39.99 at Walmart in the US.
Microsoft is reportedly working AI-centric laptops and we may seem them in action with Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 next year. They will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chipset and Intel's 14th-gen processor. With the dedicated NPU, Microsoft would be able to bring new AI features and experiences, hopefully with Windows 12's release. It's also being reported that Surface laptops will sport a Copilot button on the keyboard.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick steps down from his role and will leave the company on December 29, 2023, according to a memo released by the Activision Newsroom. Bobby was with Activision as a leader for 32 years and delivered some popular game like Call of Duty, Diablo, and World of Warcraft to the fans. Activision was criticized for toxic work culture under his leadership. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard earlier this year for $68.7 million. Xbox head Phil Spencer sends a heartwarming farewell to Kotick but claims the daily work will be as usual.
Microsoft ‘Hudson Valley’ Windows to Be AI-Focused with 2024 Release
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The next Windows update, codenamed Hudson Valley, is expected to bring an assortment of improvements to the operating system. It has been touted as a groundbreaking update which will introduce next-generation AI experiences. New features include Super Resolution for image quality enhancement, AI wallpapers, an advanced Copilot, and more. A new roadmap for Windows updates which will change when new updates arrive is also reportedly in the works.
Windows 10 will retire in October 2025. To keep using it, Microsoft wants you to pay an annual fee for the ESU program. With ESU enabled, you can keep using Windows 10 and Microsoft will provide you with all the required security updates for stable & reliable functionality of the operating system. It will be an annual subscription, and Microsoft is yet to provide pricing details for it.
After OpenAI's decision to hire a second interim CEO, Microsoft announced it will hire Sam Altman (and other AI employees) for a new research team at its company. Altman will reportedly lead the company's new advanced AI research team.
Microsoft’s $69Bn Activision Acquisition Approved by the UK
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 Leaked Ahead of Launch Next Week
Microsoft Patents a Foldable Phone with 360-degree Hinge
Microsoft Bing AI Available For Third-Party Browsers; Check out the Details!
Microsoft Is Making Bing AI Available For Chrome And Safari: Report
Xbox Game Pass Core Is Here To Replace Xbox Live Gold; Check out the Details!
Microsoft Is Killing Cortana Later This Year!
Microsoft Limits ChatGPT-Powered Bing so That It Doesn’t Go Rogue
Microsoft Has Ended Support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Laptop 5 Now Available in India