Developer_Direct returns this Thursday, January 23 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK, and will bring you a deep-dive into some of the incredible games on the way for Xbox players this year. The show will include new, extended gameplay and developer insights for DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and a mystery fourth game, from inside the studios working on them. We're sure you want to know more, so here are all the details on how to tune in and what to expect.

The show will also be streamed simultaneously on regional Xbox and Bethesda channels around the globe, as well as on Steam. It will also air on China's Bilibili platform. The YouTube stream will be broadcast in 4K/60, and as with any live broadcast, there may be dips in streaming quality based on your bandwidth.

On Tuesday, the newly inaugurated United States president, Donald Trump, announced a massive AI infrastructure expansion in the US called Stargate Project. Stargate is an idea that brings private investments across the US land, with up to 500 billion US dollars committed to the project over the next four years. This is single-handedly one of the most significant infrastructure projects ever planned, and this time it is all about AI and data centers. The initial phase involves deploying 100 billion US Dollars immediately, while the remaining 400 billion will be deployed periodically over the next four years. OpenAI and SoftBank are leading this project, with Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son being the project's chairman. Major equity partners include SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. Major technology partners who will supply the know-how, planning, software, and hardware are Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI.

Leading the entire operation will be up to OpenAI, who is gaining operational lead in the project, while Softbank oversees financial planning. Interestingly, the buildout has already begun. OpenAI is currently exploring a few sites in Abilene, Texas, which includes ten 500,000 sq. ft. data centers with 20 planned for the future. Interestingly, the infrastructure expansion will most likely be present in every US state that can provide ample land and power capacity. OpenAI is looking for partners to help with the massive data centers' power, land, and construction. The most significant impact of this project will be on the power grid, which will require additional buildout and implementation of small nuclear reactors running locally nearby to satisfy the power draw from hundreds of thousands and even millions of GPUs. OpenAI is praising NVIDIA for its almost decade-long partnership, meaning that most GPUs will likely be NVIDIA-sourced.

Introducing the newest iteration of the Cipher series, Xbox Wireless Controller—Pulse Cipher Special Edition! Like its predecessors, Sky Cipher and Ghost Cipher, Pulse Cipher provides players with a nostalgic transparent look infused with a futuristic twist. Despite being third in the series, this controller is special in its own right. Players can catch a glimpse of the silver midframe through the red transparent top case to reveal the mysteries found within. This vibrant design and colorway make a bold statement where modern gaming meets enduring nostalgia.

Energize your play with the Pulse Cipher controller and all its features, including red, diamond-shaped rubberized grips, dark red accents across the bumpers, buttons, and two-toned thumbsticks, a metallic hybrid D-pad, and matching metallic triggers. You can easily swap button input profiles through the Xbox Accessory Hub, where you can also preview any of the screenshots or videos you take using the dedicated Share button found in the middle of the controller.

We're back with the next wave of Game Pass reveals for January—and I hope you've cleared your schedule! If you're looking for day one releases, some fan favorites, or ready to discover your next favorite game, I come prepared. And while we're making room on schedules, I hope to see you all on January 23 for our Developer Direct for an inside look at a few upcoming games (not to mention those coming day one with Game Pass!). Now let's get to the news!

Available Today:
Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)—Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one! Crash over and over until you master the mountain in the snowy follow up to Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Now supporting up to 8 players via cross platform multiplayer - work your way down the slopes as a group sharing a small number of checkpoints, or risk it all in a breakneck race to the base!

Microsoft's gaming division faced an uncertain future back in 2021, according to an article published by The Information mid-week. The long-form piece mainly focuses on Xbox's current predicaments, but the wider gaming press picked up on surprising allegations from days past. The story goes that Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO's, presided over two paths: either keep Xbox Game Studios going, or mothball the whole operation. History shows us that he kept his company's gaming department alive—a series of acquisitions (during and since 2021) have expanded development and publishing operations—but Xbox's journey has been rocky in the ensuing years. Investors and industry analysts believe that Microsoft's $68.7 billion takeover of Activision/Blizzard/King—back in 2023—has not boosted overall revenues to expected levels.

Insider Gaming has managed to make contact with a Microsoft spokesperson—extracted comments have been published in an "exclusive" report. The brand ambassador insisted that Nadella remains resolute about his company being "all in on gaming"—the CEO never entertained the notion of Microsoft winding down "its games business entirely." Industry experts have also criticized Xbox's Game Pass business model—many believe that the service's reach has faltered. The spokesperson commented on these opinions—proposing that engagement on Xbox platforms is "at an all-time high," helped in part by the recent launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Additionally, Microsoft believes that its audience count is in a healthy spot, with: "well over 500 million monthly players and over the last year, we've seen consistent growth in monthly users on cloud".

ASUS today announced the refreshed Marshmallow Keyboard KW100—now featuring a new Copilot key for one-press access to the Microsoft Copilot app for enhanced Windows experiences, along with Iridescent White and Rose Clay color options. This compact and versatile wireless keyboard is ideal for everyday computing, boasting durable 10-million-keystroke switches, scissor keys, and two-level adjustable kickstands. A pair of system-switch keys enable effortless switching between Windows and ChromeOS, and between macOS, iOS, and iPadOS modes.

Distinct colors
ASUS Marshmallow Keyboard KW100 is now available in eye-catching Iridescent White and Rose Clay finishes, as well as the original Oat Milk and Green Tea Latte options. The four color schemes provide an eye-catching look that stands out against the black, beige, or gray keyboards typically seen in the market. In addition, essential keys such as Enter, Esc and the space bar are in a contrasting shade for better visibility. These unique colors give ASUS Marshmallow Keyboard KW100 a smart, youthful look that perfectly complements ASUS Fragrance Mouse MD101, as well as modern laptops, PCs, and tablets.

At Xbox, we're continuing to improve how we design, build, distribute, and use our products to reduce our environmental impact and help us reach Microsoft's goal of being a zero waste, carbon negative, and water positive company by 2030. Finding ways to reduce the environmental footprint of gaming not only helps the environment but also creates benefits for our collective community of players.

We've heard from players that they want more options for support when their Xbox consoles need repair. Today, we're expanding our repairability program, giving players even more options to get their Xbox Series X|S console options—the Xbox Series S—1 TB in Robot White, Xbox Series X—1 TB Digital Edition in Robot White, and Xbox Series X—2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition—fixed should they ever need to, while also reducing and preventing waste.

ASUS today announced the ExpertBook B3 series, an all-new lineup of AI-powered laptops that offers extensive customization to empower daily business needs. Equipped with up to the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 processor (Series 2) with Intel vPro, Intel AI Boost NPU and Intel Arc graphics, ExpertBook B3 delivers solid performance to tackle a wide range of tasks seamlessly. These new laptops also feature powerful AI tools such as ASUS AI ExpertMeet], Microsoft Copilot and AI noise-canceling technology, delivering unmatched productivity experiences.

With a build that's as lightweight as 1.4 kg, a 180° lay-flat hinge, military-grade durability, comprehensive connectivity, and advanced security features, the latest ExpertBook B3-series AI PCs ensure flexibility and efficiency on the go. In addition, with long battery life, exceptional visuals and audio, and an eco-friendly design, ExpertBook B3 series supports streamlined workflows - keeping employees productive, wherever they work.

NVIDIA's new GB200 "Blackwell" racks are running into trouble (again). Big cloud companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta Platforms are cutting back their orders because of heat problems, Reuters reports, quoting The Information. The first shipments of racks with Blackwell chips are getting too hot and have connection issues between chips, the report says. These tech hiccups have made some customers who ordered $10 billion or more worth of racks think twice about buying.

Some are putting off their orders until NVIDIA has better versions of the racks. Others are looking at buying older NVIDIA AI chips instead. For example, Microsoft planned to set up GB200 racks with no less than 50,000 Blackwell chips at one of its Phoenix sites. However, The Information reports that OpenAI has asked Microsoft to provide NVIDIA's older "Hopper" chips instead pointing to delays linked to the Blackwell racks. NVIDIA's problems with its Blackwell GPUs housed in high-density racks are not something new; in November 2024, Reuters, also referencing The Information, uncovered overheating issues in servers that housed 72 processors. NVIDIA has made several changes to its server rack designs to tackle these problems, however, it seems that the problem was not entirely solved.

Microsoft announced updates to the DirectX API that would pave the way for neural rendering. Neural rendering is a concept where portions of a frame in real-time 3D graphics are drawn using a generative AI model that works in tandem with classic raster 3D graphics pipeline, along with other advancements, such as real-time ray tracing. This is different from AI-based super resolution technologies. The generative AI here is involved in rendering the input frames for a super resolution technology. One of the nuts and bolts of neural rendering is cooperative vectors, enable an information pathway between the conventional graphics pipeline and the generative AI, telling it what it's doing, what needs to be done by the AI model, and what the ground truth for the model is.

Microsoft says that its HLSL team is working with AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm to bring cross-vendor support for cooperative vectors in the DirectX ecosystem. The very first dividends of this effort will be seen in the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" GPUs, which will use cooperative vectors to drive neural shading. "Neural shaders can be used to visualize game assets with AI, better organize geometry for improved path tracing performance and tools to create game characters with photo-realistic visuals," Microsoft says.

ASUS at the 2025 International CES showed off some of the first NUC desktops that meet Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC logo requirements. The new ASUS NUC 14 Pro AI measures 130 mm x 130 mm x 34 mm. It runs an Intel Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processor. Depending on the processor model, you get 16 GB or 32 GB of hardwired LPDDR5X memory. You also get the processor's Xe2 "Battlemage" iGPU. Its NPU provides up to 45 AI TOPS of performance, meeting Copilot+ requirements. Storage is care of an M.2-2280 slot with NVMe Gen 4 x4 wiring. I/O options include two 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports including DisplayPort passthrough, and networking that includes Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7.

ASUS won't (or probably can't use the "NUC" moniker with AMD processors), and so there's the ExpertCenter PN54 for those who want essentially the same device, but with an AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processor. This mini PC has the same exact dimensions as the NUC 14 Pro AI, and is powered by a Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" processor, with options going all the way up to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This chip includes the XDNA 2 NPU with 50 AI TOPS on tap, which means it meets Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC logo requirements. It also features the Radeon 870M RDNA 3.5 graphics with 16 CU. The chip uses standard dual-channel DDR5-5600 using SODIMMs. Storage includes an M.2-2280 slot with Gen 4 x4 wiring. In place of Thunderbolt 4, you get a couple of USB4 ports with 40 Gbps bandwidth and DP passthrough. Comms include Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7, just like on its Intel-powered sibling.

Expanding its AI PC leadership, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the Snapdragon X Platform, the 4th platform to join the Snapdragon X Series compute portfolio, designed to deliver performance, multi-day battery life, and Copilot+ PC experiences for even more users globally.

Redefining the PC Category for Mainstream Devices at $600
Utilizing the power of an 8-core Qualcomm Oryon CPU, Snapdragon X is delivering essential performance to the next-generation of PCs. This platform delivers up to 163% faster performance at ISO-power than our competitors who also require 168% more power at ISO-performance, the Snapdragon X processor balances performance and built-in intelligence with a 45 TOPS NPU that runs Copilot+ PC experiences more efficiently. With an integrated power efficient GPU, Snapdragon X supports dynamic graphics ideal for creating presentations, web browsing, or streaming content. Snapdragon X is an ideal solution for students, freelance workers, and budget-conscious consumers who need a reliable and powerful laptop that can keep up with their busy lives. Devices powered by Snapdragon X are expected to be available from leading OEMs including Acer, ASUS, Dell Technologies, HP and Lenovo in early 2025 enabling Copilot+ PCs in the $600 range.

GIGABYTE Technology, internationally renowned for its R&D capabilities and a leading innovator in server and data center solutions, continues to lead technological innovation during this critical period of AI and computing advancement. With its comprehensive AI product portfolio, GIGABYTE will showcase its complete range of AI computing solutions at CES 2025, from data center infrastructure to IoT applications and personal computing, demonstrating how its extensive product line enables digital transformation across all sectors in this AI-driven era.

Powering AI from the Cloud
With AI Large Language Models (LLMs) now routinely featuring parameters in the hundreds of billions to trillions, robust training environments (data centers) have become a critical requirement in the AI race. GIGABYTE offers three distinctive solutions for AI infrastructure.
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NVIDIA today announced generative AI models and blueprints that expand NVIDIA Omniverse integration further into physical AI applications such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and vision AI. Global leaders in software development and professional services are using Omniverse to develop new products and services that will accelerate the next era of industrial AI.

Accenture, Altair, Ansys, Cadence, Foretellix, Microsoft and Neural Concept are among the first to integrate Omniverse into their next-generation software products and professional services. Siemens, a leader in industrial automation, announced today at the CES trade show the availability of Teamcenter Digital Reality Viewer—the first Siemens Xcelerator application powered by NVIDIA Omniverse libraries.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced the global launch of the Galaxy Book5 Pro and Galaxy Book5 360, expanding the Galaxy Book5 lineup to meet a wider range of AI needs for all users. Powered by Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) featuring NPUs up to 47 TOPs, these latest PCs come directly integrated with Galaxy AI capabilities like the innovative AI Select as well as cutting-edge features that deliver personalized experiences across the Galaxy ecosystem. With the addition of AI Select, PC users can easily search anything, anytime with a simple click, just like on their phone except on a much larger, immersive display.

"We are thrilled to make Galaxy AI and cutting-edge innovation accessible to more people than ever before, addressing their unique productivity needs on PC and other Galaxy devices," said Changtae Kim, EVP & Head of New Computing R&D Team, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Alongside our trusted industry partners, we are delivering an AI experience on Galaxy Book that empowers users to work, create and connect in more intelligent ways through our growing ecosystem."

Incase, a leading carry and protection brand, today announced the all-new Compact Ergonomic Keyboard. Designed by Microsoft and grounded in more than 25 years of ergonomics research, the Incase Compact Ergonomic Keyboard is optimized for comfort and delivers a premium, natural typing experience. The keyboard also features a dedicated Copilot key to activate Microsoft's AI-powered assistant, and multi-device connectivity for increased productivity and efficiency.

"The Compact Ergonomic Keyboard was designed to take up the smallest possible amount of space while maintaining typing accuracy, comfort and a high-level of performance," said Marshall Clark, Onward General Manager. "We are extremely proud to debut the most innovative and comfortable keyboard for work, play and learning."

Update Jan 13th: Corrections for Bluetooth specs, Windows compatibility and availability

LG Electronics (LG) is set to unveil its 2025 LG gram lineup, the company's first on-device AI-powered laptops, at CES 2025 in January. The new lineup includes innovative models such as the gram Pro, gram Pro 2-in-1, gram and gram Book. Leveraging LG's gram AI technology, the latest grams deliver state-of-the-art capabilities and stellar performance, harnessing large language models and personalized AI features to elevate the user experience - all while preserving the series' iconic slim and lightweight design.

Enhancing Productivity and Personalization with LG gram AI
The 2025 gram laptops present a smarter, more secure and highly-personalized user experience through LG's innovative gram AI. With gram chat On-Device, these laptops utilize AI algorithms to process and analyze data locally without requiring a network connection. At the same time, they provide convenient access to cloud-based AI services via gram chat Cloud, powered by GPT-4o. This subscription-based service, which uses GPT-4o, is offered free of charge for the first year. The integration of on-device and cloud-based AI creates a hybrid AI solution that enhances productivity by delivering personalized insights, a comprehensive knowledge base and an intuitive, ever-evolving experience that adapts to users' needs.

It is no surprise that Lenovo is cooking up the next-generation of Legion Go consoles for launch next month. We have reported on a plethora of leaks surrounding both the affordable Legion Go S, and the Legion Go 2 handheld gaming consoles. Finally, it appears that there is some concrete information regarding their launch - Lenovo, in an email to The Verge, has confirmed new Legion handhelds are dropping next month. But that's not all - according to The Verge, the launch event will have a surprise guest.

Our readers who have been keeping tabs on the Legion Go 2 rumor cycle will recall that we recently reported on a leaked image of the upcoming Legion Go S which had an interesting detail - the handheld features a dedicated button for Steam. Now, of course, we're completely in the dark regarding what that button's presence entails. It is entirely possible that the button is simply for opening the Steam app, or, it could indicate that the Legion Go 2 might run SteamOS - we simply don't know yet.

Despite having a rather successful launch, Hi-Fi Rush was slated to be cancelled when Tango Gameworks, the studio behind the unorthodox rhythm game, was to be shut down by Microsoft in mid 2024. Shortly after that unfortunate turn of events, Tango was acquired by Krafton, the publisher behind PUBG, and Hi-Fi Rush was given a second wind. That acquisition also got fans hopeful for a sequel, and there were even rumors floating around that a sequel was in the works. Now, in a recent interview with IGN, a few Tango Gameworks and Hi-Fi Rush higher-ups—Hi-Fi Rush director, John Johanas, studio head and creative director, Colin Mack, and Hi-Fi Rush project manager, Kazuaki Egashira—confirmed that this is not necessarily the case.

While a sequel had been in development when Krafton acquired the studio, Mack says that they "are not yet at the stage where we can say specifically." That said, the studio is apparently strongly leaning towards a sequel. The justification for not yet committing to Hi-Fi Rush 2 is that the team has a fondness for the game, its characters, and its world, so they want to make a sequel that is respectful and cherishes the IP. The team also acknowledges that "it is important to try new things," and Johanas admits that Tango is considering multiple opportunities. Throughout the interview, there's an emphasis on keeping things fresh, with the team seemingly under the impression that revisiting Hi-Fi Rush in a sequel without changing it, it would become outdated. Whatever comes out of the Hi-Fi Rush universe, it's apparent that the developers working on it don't see a sequel as a cash cow. For fans of the game, there is at least hope, since Mack says that the studio hopes to hire around 50 new employees in January 2025, doubling its workforce and supposedly allowing for more freedom for creativity and experimentation.

Microsoft is heavily investing in enabling its company and cloud infrastructure to support the massive AI expansion. The Redmond giant has acquired nearly half a million of the NVIDIA "Hopper" family of GPUs to support this effort. According to market research company Omdia, Microsoft was the biggest hyperscaler, with data center CapEx and GPU expenditure reaching a record high. The company acquired precisely 485,000 NVIDIA "Hopper" GPUs, including H100, H200, and H20, resulting in more than $30 billion spent on servers alone. To put things into perspective, this is about double that of the next-biggest GPU purchaser, Chinese ByteDance, who acquired about 230,000 sanction-abiding H800 GPUs and regular H100s sources from third parties.

Regarding US-based companies, the only ones that have come close to the GPU acquisition rate are Meta, Tesla/xAI, Amazon, and Google. They have acquired around 200,000 GPUs on average while significantly boosting their in-house chip design efforts. "NVIDIA GPUs claimed a tremendously high share of the server capex," Vlad Galabov, director of cloud and data center research at Omdia, noted, adding, "We're close to the peak." Hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, and Meta have been working on their custom solutions for AI training and inference. For example, Google has its TPU, Amazon has its Trainium and Inferentia chips, and Meta has its MTIA. Hyperscalers are eager to develop their in-house solutions, but NVIDIA's grip on the software stack paired with timely product updates seems hard to break. The latest "Blackwell" chips are projected to get even bigger orders, so only the sky (and the local power plant) is the limit.

Microsoft has confirmed a bug in the Windows 11 24H2 update that is causing widespread gaming issues, specifically affecting systems with Auto HDR enabled. The bug primarily manifests through incorrect color display in games and sometimes causes applications to crash entirely. Some users have reported issues with popular titles, including Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Need for Speed Unbound, where games either fail to launch or become stuck on loading screens. Auto HDR, a flagship feature of Windows 11, is designed to enhance gaming visuals by automatically converting standard dynamic range (SDR) content to high dynamic range (HDR). However, this latest 24H2 update has broken the feature's functionality, leading to unexpected behavior and stability issues.

Microsoft has implemented safeguards to prevent affected systems from receiving the 24H2 update. The company has also advised users against manual 24H2 installation through some Media Creation tools or Windows 11 ISOs while Auto HDR is enabled. For users who have already installed the update and are experiencing issues, Microsoft recommends disabling Auto HDR either system-wide or for individual games through the Windows Settings menu. To do this, users can navigate to Settings > System > Display > Graphics and turn off the Auto HDR option. Microsoft has acknowledged the severity of the issue for Windows Latest and is currently developing a fix, though no specific timeline has been announced. In the meantime, users can postpone the 24H2 update or disable Auto HDR functionality to maintain stable gaming performance.

The Xbox gaming handheld is reportedly in the early stages of development at Microsoft, but in the meantime, the PC giant is apparently working on unifying its gaming experience across the various platforms where its games are available. According to a Windows Central report, Microsoft is working on something called Project Rainway, which is "a set of in-game APIs and user interface features," that will take shape as a cross-platform Xbox user interface. This news comes after Microsoft's recent "This is an Xbox" ad campaign and some pretty notable changes to its Xbox Game Bar to make that more compatible with gaming handhelds. How this new API and UI will take shape is yet to be seen, but it will likely further blur the line between gaming consoles and PCs—something that the Valve Steam Deck has also done in the years since its launch.

This seems to align with Microsoft's current strategy around gaming, which has seen Microsoft Gaming head, Phil Spencer, confirm that the company is both working on its own gaming handheld and that, in the meantime, it is focussed on making the Xbox gaming experience as seamless and enjoyable as possible on current gaming hardware. Xbox is also seemingly moving away from console exclusives as a concept, as we reported earlier this month, and, according to Windows Central's sources at least, this is partly because Microsoft has noticed no measurable impact on Xbox performance as a result of moving Xbox exclusives over to other consoles.

Intel today, in a letter to the press, presented an overview of the lower than expected performance of its latest Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors, which the company released this October, to less than enthusiastic reviews. The top Core Ultra 9 285K ended up barely faster than the previous Core i9-14900K in gaming performance, and moderately faster in applications. AMD's November release of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D extended the green team's lead over Intel, prompting Intel to get to work on identifying why "Arrow Lake-S" isn't as fast as the company hoped, and if there was something the company could do about it.

Last month, Intel announced that it had identified probable reasons why "Arrow Lake-S" underperforms and that it is working on a combination of fixes that include OS-level updates from Microsoft, some motherboard-vendor level fixes to their UEFI setup programs, and a microcode update for its processors. Intel's microcode updates have been in the news throughout 2024, as one such update proved crucial in fixing the faulty voltage regulation behavior of its Core "Raptor Lake" processors, which was causing irreversible damage to the chips. Today, the company released documentation that highlights all issues the company identified by Intel, their technical root cause, and what's been done about it. Long story short—most of these issues are already addressed, but the Microcode update should be in circulation by January 2025, when the company expands its Core Ultra 200-series desktop processors with 65 W models.

Update Dec 19th: We tested the new OS patches, and unfortunately we have to report that this not a general fix for Arrow Lake, but just a fix for performance problems specific to 24H2. More in our article.

Update Dec 20th: Last night, ASUS released a non-Beta BIOS with microcode 0x114, we tested it and the findings are included in the Dec 19 article linked above.

It looks like the end of the console-exclusive era is marching ever forward. On the one hand, more game studios are embracing simultaneous launch strategies, as was recently emphasized by both Square Enix and Ubisoft adopting multi-platform simultaneous launches for Fantasian Neo Dimension and Assassin's Creed Shadows, respectively. The latest game to join this trend is Outer Worlds 2, which will launch on all platforms—Xbox Series S|X, Windows, PlayStation 5, and even Game Pass—simultaneously in late 2025. The surprising bit about the multi-platform launch of The Outer Worlds 2 is that Microsoft purchased Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds, leading many to believe that future games in the franchise would be Xbox/Windows-first. While the original Outer Worlds was released after Microsoft bought Obsidian, the launch contract predates the acquisition, so it also had a simultaneous launch, regardless of Microsoft's ownership.

In addition to the swathe of new games embracing multiple simultaneous platform launches, Jez Cordon, executive editor at Windows Central and well-regarded source for gaming rumors, recently also sparked rumors with a post on X suggesting that no future games developed by Microsoft or its subsidiary studios will be permanent console exclusives. In a reply to a comment criticizing Microsoft for seemingly keeping some games on Xbox and others not, Cordon said "They don't. They're all coming to PlayStation over time."

Microsoft has finally opened the iron gate guarding the Windows 11 upgrade for systems running incompatible hardware, including systems lacking TPM 2.0. This is excellent news for users who are rocking older systems or have been without the TPM 2.0 module in their system but want to upgrade to the newer OS release. Microsoft opened an official support page, noting that "Installing Windows 11 on a device that doesn't meet Windows 11 minimum system requirements isn't recommended. If Windows 11 is installed on ineligible hardware, you should be comfortable assuming the risk of running into compatibility issues. A device might malfunction due to these compatibility or other issues. Devices that don't meet these system requirements aren't guaranteed to receive updates, including but not limited to security updates."

However, an interesting disclaimer appears once a user tries to install Windows 11 on a PC that doesn't meet minimum requirements:

MicrosoftThis PC doesn't meet the minimum system requirements for running Windows 11 - these requirements help ensure a more reliable and higher quality experience. Installing Windows 11 on this PC is not recommended and may result in compatibility issues. If you proceed with installing Windows 11, your PC will no longer be supported and won't be entitled to receive updates. Damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren't covered under the manufacturer warranty. By selecting Accept, you are acknowledging that you read and understand this statement.