XBOX GAME PASS: Coming to Xbox Game Pass Early August 2023

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NEW RELEASES: New Xbox Games for July 31 2023 to August 4 2023

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FREEBIES: Xbox Live Games With Gold August 2023

Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will receive two FREE games next month. The games will be playable on Xbox Series X, Series S and Xbox One.

Xbox Live Gold members and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will have exclusive access to these games for a limited time as part of the Games with Gold program. 

An active subscription to Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate is required to access your Games with Gold titles. However, if you decide to renew your subscription at any time, you’ll be able to access and play your previously redeemed Games with Gold titles again.

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UPDATE: A new Home experience is rolling out to all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles

Starting today, a new Home experience is rolling out to all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. This update is designed from player feedback and makes it easier to discover new games, rediscover games you already love, connect with communities, and create a more personalized experience.

Xbox is excited to share more about the journey that led us here, and what you can expect with this new update.

Your new Xbox Home

1: Makes it easy to go to your Library, the Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass, Search, and Settings at the very top of your Home by introducing a quick access menu.

2: Creates more space for your personalized background by simplifying the layout and putting the games you recently played and other content and apps towards the bottom of the screen.

3: Adds an option to change your background to match the game you are highlighting in the recently played list.

4: Improves game discovery by introducing lists of games curated and personalized for you.

5: Allows you to customize your experience by pinning your favorite games, curated groups, and system groups like Quick Resume to Home.

6: Helps you find what’s going on in your community through the updated Friends & Community Updates row.

7: Shows you what media apps and content are available to you via a Watch & Listen spotlight and list of entertainment apps

The journey to update Home

Improving the Home Experience has been truly a Team Xbox effort —from engineers to designers to researchers and many more. we started by investing in infrastructure that would allow us to try different layouts of the page with different content for different situations and customers. We then evaluated many different elements of the design process including what people interact with in the experience, how easy it is for people to complete the action they want to take, and how satisfied they are with the overall experience. Once we had a version that was ready to share, we started to roll it out to our Xbox Insiders.

When we first showed Xbox Insiders what we were working on we heard your feedback clearly – you wanted more room to show off custom backgrounds or game art, quicker navigation options, and more personalization. Over the last 8 months since initial release, we’ve implemented changes to meet those requests and have a new Home that feels fresh, puts the focus on your games and apps, and creates space for beautiful backgrounds.

How to try the new Home UI on your Xbox

We’re currently rolling the new Home experience out to a subset of all Xbox consoles. This means that some customers will need to wait a few weeks to get their hands on it. Rest assured over the next few weeks, it’s coming to a console near you! If you’re seeing the new Home on your console and you want to customize it to your liking, our guide has you covered.

Thank you for all your feedback, and your patience as we built your new Xbox Home. We look forward to hearing what you think!

SOURCE

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NEW RELEASES: New Xbox Games for July 24th to July 28th 2023

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XBOX GAME PASS: Coming to Xbox Game Pass Late July 2023

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NEWS: Xbox Games With Gold is No More, Introducing Game Pass Core

Today, Microsoft is  continuing their commitment to give players more choice and value by introducing Xbox Game Pass Core, launching on September 14. Game Pass Core is the evolution of Xbox live Gold. Game Pass Core will give players access to the advanced multiplayer network, a select collection of over 25 games to play with friends around the world, and exclusive member deals, all for $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year.

For over twenty years, Xbox players have been connecting via xbox live to compete, cooperate, and experience the world’s biggest online multiplayer games. In 2017, Microsoft introduced Xbox Game Pass which provided a curated library of games. Game Pass Core brings online play together with Game Pass in a new offering for gamers around the world.

With this evolution, Microsoft is saying farewell to Games with Gold. They  wanted to use this opportunity to re-imagine how to include content with this subscription. They found that the answer to the most compelling catalog was to leverage select titles from the Xbox Game Pass catalog.

The launch collection of more than 25 titles from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and content partners will offer something for everyone to play on their Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. Today Microsoft is  confirming the following titles for launch*, with more to be announced in advance of September 14. New titles will be added 2-3 times a year.

• Among Us
• Descenders
• Dishonored 2
• Doom Eternal
• Fable Anniversary
• Fallout 4
• Fallout 76
• Forza Horizon 4
• Gears 5
• Grounded
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Halo Wars 2
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Human Fall Flat
• Inside
• Ori & The Will of the Wisps
• Psychonauts 2
• State of Decay 2
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

*Game library may vary over time and by country.  

For current Xbox Live Gold members:

On September 14, Xbox Live Gold members will automatically become Game Pass Core members, with no change in pricing, and have immediate access to a new library of over 25 high-quality games.

Member deals & discounts will also be part of Xbox Game Pass Core.

Games with Gold will come to an end on September 1.

Players can continue to access any Xbox One games they previously redeemed through Games with Gold if they remain a Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate member.

Regardless of subscription status, any Xbox 360 titles redeemed via Games with Gold in the past will be kept in a player’s library.

Thank you to everyone who has been with us since the early days, joined along the way with friends, and now with us in Xbox Game Pass. I’m proud and humbled by the stories we hear about online teammates becoming real-life friends after years playing, or even marriages whose initial spark was ignited in a pre-match lobby. We can’t wait to hear more from the community when it launches on September 14, and we’ll see you online!

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NEW RELEASES: New Xbox Games for July 17th to July 21st 2023

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NEWS: Xbox Launches New Voice Reporting Feature, with The Option to Capture and Report Inappropriate In-Game Voice Chats

Players come to Xbox to build friendships, be competitive, and to experience incredible games – and they expect to be treated fairly, for interactions to be free of hate or harassment. Our investments in safety have helped players feel safer across text, video, and image – and our new voice reporting experience is the latest addition to our robust suite of family and online safety features.   

Starting this week, we are releasing a new platform-wide voice reporting feature to Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insiders, that gives players the option to capture and report inappropriate in-game voice chats. More specifically, this feature equips Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One players with the ability to capture a 60-second video clip of an in-game voice incident that they believe violates our Community Standards and submit it as evidence to our Xbox Safety Team for review. This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles.  

Summary

• Xbox’s latest safety feature allows players to capture and report inappropriate voice activity on any multiplayer game with in-game voice chat on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
• Players who experience or witness inappropriate verbal behavior can “capture now, report later” minimizing impact to their gameplay.
• Xbox’s player reporting and evidence capabilities now cover all content including text, image, video, and voice, further supporting player safety.
• The voice reporting feature will be available first to Xbox Insiders to gather feedback from the community

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NEWS: Microsoft wins fight against FTC to buy Activision Blizzard

A judge in California has allowed Microsoft to proceed with its purchase of Activision Blizzard, a video game company, after several days of arguments. However, Microsoft still faces a separate legal case by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding antitrust concerns. The judge, Jacqueline Scott Corley, listened to both the FTC and Microsoft and decided not to grant the FTC's request to stop the merger for now.

Judge Corley stated that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision deserves careful examination due to its size. However, Microsoft made commitments to keep the popular game "Call of Duty" available on PlayStation consoles for ten years, as well as to bring the game to Nintendo Switch. Microsoft also agreed to make Activision's content available on various cloud gaming services. The judge found that the FTC did not provide enough evidence to prove that the merger would harm competition, and therefore denied their request to stop it.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard reacted positively to the ruling, while the FTC expressed disappointment and stated that they would plan their next steps. The decision allows Microsoft to proceed with the acquisition before a deadline, but only if certain conditions are met, including negotiations with the UK regulator and appealing their decision to block the deal.

European regulators have already approved the merger, so Microsoft could proceed without the UK's involvement and without an injunction in the US. The FTC has the opportunity to appeal the judge's decision, but they may choose not to pursue the case further.

This ruling is a setback for the FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, who has been actively pursuing legal actions against large technology companies since taking office in 2021.

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