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CultureOver 70 More Games Just Got FPS Boost On Xbox Series X/S
Microsoft added its FPS Boost to over 70 additional games today, letting players on Xbox Series X or S enjoy dramatically better performance in older Xbox One titles like Yakuza 6, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Alien Isolation, Far Cry 5, and Mad Max. FPS Boost is a feature found on Xbox Series X and S consoles…
By Zack Zwiezen Published May 3, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Looked Into Reducing Its Xbox Store Cut From 30% To 12% [Update]
According to internal documents filed in the ongoing Epic Games vs Apple case, Microsoft has plans to reduce its cut on digital downloads on the Xbox console store from 30% to 12%. Found in court documents, first spotted by The Verge, Microsoft shares various information and data about its digital storefronts on Windows 10 and…
By Zack Zwiezen Published May 2, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Will Give More Of The Revenue To PC Developers
Game developers on the Microsoft store will soon get a greater cut of the profits, Microsoft announced today. The change comes at a time when many developers and storefronts are rethinking the way profits are split. “As part of our commitment to empower every PC game creator to achieve more, starting on August 1 the…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Fixes Windows 10 Updates That Hit Game Performance
Last week, the Windows 10 updates KB5000842 and KB5001330 made a bit more of a fuss than usual, because they were found to be at the heart of several gaming-related performance issues across various games and graphics cards. Originally rolling out in late-March, it took a few weeks for folks to track down the culprit,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 26, 2021 -
CultureCD Projekt Refunded Only 30,000 Copies Of Cyberpunk 2077
Only a tiny fraction of the overall Cyberpunk 2077 sales resulted in refunds, CFO Piotr Nielubowicz told investors during an earnings call earlier today. Out of the 13.7 million copies sold, the Polish developer apparently issued just 30,000 refunds. As for the monetary impact, the “Help Me Refund” program CD Projekt set up to handle…
By Ian Walker Published April 22, 2021 -
CultureHades Wins Game Of The Year At The 2021 DICE Awards
Beloved indie game Hades scored the most wins at this year’s DICE Awards. Supergiant’s excellent roguelike action game ultimately won five awards, including “Game of the Year.” While Hades had a great showing, it was Sony’s stable of PlayStation exclusives that swept the awards, winning nine awards across five games. Ghost of Tsushima grabbed four…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 22, 2021 -
CultureGearbox Threatens To ‘Expand Outside’ Texas Over Anti-Trans Bill
During a committee hearing held yesterday in the Texas House of Representatives, Gearbox exec David Najjab testified against Texas House Bill 4042, which would force transgender athletes in public schools to compete in sports according to the gender they were assigned at birth. “I’m a Texan,” said Najjab, who has worked as Borderlands developer Gearbox’s…
By Ian Walker Published April 22, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Adds FPS Boost To 13 More Xbox Games
Microsoft announced today that 13 EA Play games now support FPS Boost on Xbox Series X/S consoles. A bunch of these FPS-boosted titles support 120Hz including Star Wars: Battlefront, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, Titanfall 2, Battlefield V, and more. The vast majority of these newly boosted games originally ran at 60fps on Xbox One…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 22, 2021 -
CultureReport: Microsoft No Longer In Talks To Buy Discord
Last month, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was in exclusive talks to acquire Discord. Today, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, those talks are off. Microsoft initially considered buying the popular chat and community platform for a figure north of $10 billion, but it wasn’t the only interested buyer. Per the Journal’s sources,…
By Ari Notis Published April 20, 2021 -
Xbox Cloud Gaming For Windows 10 And iOS Launches Limited Beta Tomorrow
As promised back in December, a browser-based version of the Xbox Cloud Gaming service for Windows 10, iPhones, and iPads is kicking off tomorrow, with a limited number of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers invited to stream and play games directly through Edge, Google Chrome, or the Safari browser. The streaming action will take place…
By Mike Fahey Published April 19, 2021 -
CultureMuslim Civil Rights Group Calls For Microsoft, Sony, And Valve To Deplatform Six Days In Fallujah
Calling the controversial first-person shooter that aims to recreate the events of the Second Battle of Fallujah an “Arab murder simulator,” Muslim civil rights and advocacy group CAIR, the Council on American–Islamic Relations, is requesting that Microsoft, Sony, and Valve avoid hosting or distributing Six Days in Fallujah No matter how developer Highwire Games and…
By Mike Fahey Published April 8, 2021 -
OpinionWhile Xbox Game Pass Gets Better, PS Now Gets…Avengers
Outriders came out last week on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It also immediately came to Microsoft’s Game Pass, adding yet another big new game to the subscription service’s already-impressive library. Meanwhile, PS Now users can get excited to play last year’s mediocre Avengers game, and just for a few months.…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 6, 2021 -
CultureDiscord Deleted Thousands Of Violent Extremist And Criminal Servers In 2020
Thanks to the endlessly depressing extent to which covid has kept everybody trapped inside, Discord is more relevant than ever. But as the company revealed in its latest transparency report, that has led to new challenges—and improved efforts to confront other challenges it probably should have put more effort into sooner. Discord, which is reportedly…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 5, 2021 -
CultureMorning CheckpointMLB The Show Coming To Game Pass, LEGO Star Wars Delayed Again, Sony Closing PS3 Store In July, And More
This week on Morning Checkpoint we watch a very rich person forget to pay their bills, learn how valuable your old Pokemon cards might be, find out which games will be free on PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold next month, and learn about more delays. Great Kotaku Stories From The Past Week Oh no,…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 3, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Sells Three Bethesdas Worth Of Minecraft Goggles To The U.S. Military
In 2015, Microsoft showed off its fancy new HoloLens augmented reality goggles with a very impressive Minecraft demo. In 2021, the company has just agreed to sell “up to 22 billion” worth of headsets based on that original tech to the U.S. military. As TechCrunch reports, while the military and Microsoft originally agreed to some…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureXbox Cloud Gaming Adds A Bunch Of Older Xbox Games
Starting today, you’ll be able to play more than a dozen Xbox and Xbox 360 games via cloud streaming, Microsoft announced in a blog post. As with other game streaming, the perk is only available to members of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Cloud streaming first became available last September with an initial launch slate of…
By Ari Notis Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsThankfully, The Boat Is Still Stuck In Microsoft Flight Simulator
Ever Given, the massive container ship that captivated the world after blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal for more than a week, is free as of 3:05 p.m. local time, but the ridiculous incident will live on forever in Microsoft Flight Simulator Over the last few days, the dedicated Microsoft Flight Simulator community has released several third-party…
By Ian Walker Published March 29, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsHalo: Infinite Devs Destroyed A Piano To Create Some In-Game Sounds
As my great uncle often said, “To create art, sometimes you must destroy an old, unwanted upright piano.” He was a strange man. In the latest Inside Infinite blog, 343 Industries shared a bunch of details and information about how it’s creating the sounds in the upcoming Halo Infinite. There’s a surprisingly large amount of…
By Zack Zwiezen Published March 27, 2021 -
CultureMorning CheckpointGhost Of Tsushima Film Announced, Back 4 Blood Delayed, Xbox Live Name Change, And More
This week on Morning Checkpoint we talk about how great SonicFox is, dunk on Shinra, find out what games are now delayed, fondly remember demo discs, and say goodbye to Xbox Live and hello to Xbox Network. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week SonicFox is the best and I’m so happy to see them…
By Zack Zwiezen Published March 27, 2021
