Today, we’re announcing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks, a new exclusive member benefit starting March 18 that provides even more value for our Ultimate members. When we launched Xbox Game Pass in June 2017, we did so with the goal of creating a membership that provides the best value in gaming. Our members have told us they love discovering new games but they also want new in-game content. Through Perks, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will now regularly receive new benefits including DLC, in-game content and more – all free and included with membership.
To kick
things off, this month members can redeem these Perks for free:
Phantasy Star Online 2: Enter the world of one of Japan’s biggest online RPGs with a special content bundle, which includes unique emotes, in-game cosmetics including an Xbox jacket, a gold ticket Mission Pass and in-game currency with a Meseta Crystal. Available to members in the US and Canada only.
World of Tanks: Mercenaries: A global multiplayer free-to-play game dedicated to tank warfare in the mid-20th century. Start your journey with three powerful tanks and more!
Sea of Thieves: The essential pirate experience, from sailing and fighting to exploring and looting – everything you need to live the pirate life and become a legend in your own right. With Perks, you get a free Ori-inspired Ancestral Sails, Figurehead, Hull, and Flag to adorn your ship.
Smite: Become divine in the #1 MOBA on Xbox, with a bundle that unlocks five Gods, special character skins and voice packs so you can ride into the battle of the Gods in style. With Smite, join a community of 30 million players and defend your portal in showdowns in the Collesium.
We’ll announce new Perks in the future alongside updates to the
Xbox Game Pass catalog, so stay tuned. There’s no need to register or sign-up
for the Perks program; as long as you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, you
can find your Perks on
your console within the Xbox Game Pass tab, in the new Xbox (beta) app on
Windows 10 PC, or within the Xbox Game Pass mobile app. If you are not a member
of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can join today and get your first month
for just $1.
As always, when we try something new, we want your feedback; please
let us know what you think of the Perks program. Your feedback drives the
evolution of Xbox Game Pass, and we appreciate the time you take to help us improve.
And now, I’m excited to share the upcoming titles joining Xbox Game
Pass this month.
Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass for PC
Astrologaster A comedy game set in Shakespeare’s London, play as ‘Doctor’ Simon Forman and treat his patients using astrology and win him a medical license. Explore Simon’s life, relationships, and his work. Make story choices strategically or just for fun – but be warned your choices will have consequences (and unpredictable side effects) in this story-driven adventure game based on a truly ridiculous story.
Bleeding Edge – Xbox Play Anywhere Grab your team and tear it up in Bleeding Edge, an electrifying online brawler where every fighter comes mechanically enhanced for mayhem! Choose your fighter from a diverse cast of colorful characters from the edges of society: burn rubber as bold and beautiful Buttercup with her detachable saw blade arms, wreak havoc as Black-Metal rocker Niđhöggr with his electrifying guitar solos or slash up the streets as Daemon, New York’s most wanted assassin. Come join the cybernetic clash of the century!
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid It’s morphin time! Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid pits current and classic rangers and villains in 3 vs. 3 tag battles. Test your skills online against friends and players from around the world for endless replayability. Experience authentic but re-imagined Power Rangers battle sequences like never before.
The Surge 2 On the way to Jericho City, your plane is shot down by a mysterious storm and crash-lands in the outskirts. You wake up weeks later in a derelict detention facility inside the city. Robots are on a rampage and a dark, expanding nanostorm looms over the cityscape. In this hardcore, brutal melee combat game, The Surge 2 challenges you to unravel its hidden secrets.
Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass for Console
March 19
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Aerial combat has never looked or felt better than this. Soar through photorealistic skies with full 360-degree movement. Weather and environments affect your aircraft and HUD, making those dogfights just that more realistic. Take to the skies and become an ace pilot!
Kona Northern Canada, 1970. A strange blizzard ravages Atamipek Lake. Step into the shoes of private detective to investigate surreal events in an eerie village while battling the elements to survive.
The Surge 2 – Xbox One X Enhanced Your plane is shot down by a mysterious storm and crashes in the outskirts of Jericho City. Waking up weeks later in a derelict detention facility inside the city, you find that robots are on the rampage and a dark, expanding nanostorm looms over the city. The Surge 2 challenges you to unravel its hidden secrets in this hardcore, brutal melee combat game.
March 24
Bleeding Edge – Xbox One X Enhanced / Xbox Play Anywhere Join the cybernetic clash of the century! Choose your fighter from a diverse cast of colorful characters from the edges of society: burn rubber as bold and beautiful Buttercup with her detachable saw blade arms, wreak havoc as Black-Metal rocker Niđhöggr with his electrifying guitar solos or slash up the streets as Daemon, New York’s most wanted assassin. Then grab your team and tear it up in Bleeding Edge, an electrifying online brawler where every fighter comes mechanically enhanced for mayhem.
March 26
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Experience authentic but re-imagined Power Rangers battle sequences like never before. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid pits current and classic rangers and villains in 3 vs. 3 tag battles. You can also test your skills online against friends and players from around the world for endless replayability. It’s morphin time!
And we’re sorry to see them go, so get some game time in on these while they’re still in our library, these are the games leaving our libraries soon:
Console
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Cities: Skylines
The Golf Club 2
LEGO Worlds
Operencia: The Stolen Sun
Vampyr
PC
Battle Chef Brigade
Cities: Skylines
Kingsway
Operencia: The Stolen Sun
Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You
Vampyr
Thank you for all your feedback and your dedication to playing some amazing games. To keep up with the latest with Xbox Game Pass, you can download the mobile app and the new Xbox (Beta) app on your Windows 10 PC. Be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter and Instagram for more games to come.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Microsoft Corporation
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Get all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, plus over 100 high-quality console and PC games for one low monthly price. With games added all the time, there’s always something new to play. With a huge variety of games from every genre, there’s something for everyone. Enjoy exclusive member deals and discounts. Play together with friends on the most advanced multiplayer network and discover your next favorite game. Use your active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plan membership to play games on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass for PC (Xbox Game Pass for PC not available in South Korea), and Xbox Live Gold. Note: Purchase Xbox Game Pass Ultimate automatically upgrades your existing Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass membership(s) to Ultimate at a conversion ratio each based on days remaining. Learn how this works at www.xbox.com/gamepass. Future code redemptions are also subject to a conversion ratio. Conversion ratio subject to change. All conversions to Ultimate are final: Once converted, you cannot re-convert your Ultimate membership back to a previous membership. Maximum 36 months of redeemed Ultimate per account at a time, including any converted time from Xbox Live Gold and/or Xbox Game Pass (for PC or console). Game titles and number vary over time and by country. Membership continues to be charged at the then-current price (subject to change; plus applicable taxes) unless cancelled. Cancel any time to stop your next scheduled charge; see account.microsoft.com/services. Notice before purchase of add-ons, DLC, consumables, virtual currency, or subscriptions (sold separately): If your membership terminates or a game is removed from the catalog, you must reactivate your membership or buy the game separately to continue using these items. ISP fees may apply. Age restrictions apply. Xbox Game Pass discounts are based on Microsoft Store price and are not combinable with other offers and are not redeemable for cash. Discount offers exclude titles within 30 days of launch and are not available with select titles. Service, features, and requirements may change or be retired. Subject to the Microsoft Services Agreement (microsoft.com/msa). Sign in for your available offers. Promotional offers may not be valid for all members and are only available for a limited time. Offers not valid in Quebec and Russia; other geographic restrictions may apply. After promotional period, subscription continues to be charged at the then-current regular price (subject to change), unless cancelled. Plus applicable taxes.
We’re barely into 2020, and yet so much has happened in such a short time. We know many of you, like the Mixer team here in Redmond, are practicing “social distancing,” learning how to “flatten the curve,” and otherwise taking precautions amid the outbreak of COVID-19. We’re proud and heartened by the stories you’ve shared and the ways we’ve seen Mixer streamers and their communities using Mixer to stay in touch digitally and support each other during this challenging time. Thank you for continuing to make the Mixer community shine as a positive and welcoming place for new and existing members alike.
Over the past couple of months, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes on a set of new features and capabilities based on feedback we’ve heard from you. These are focused on improving discoverability, empowering communities of all sizes and making it easier to find your new favorite Mixer creators. We’re rolling them out starting today.
New Mixer homepage – We’ve refreshed the Mixer homepage across all platforms to give more focus to featured content as well as provide smart, AI-powered recommendations. The most immediate change you’ll notice on your homepage is that we’re introducing a new layout that displays all featured creators at the same time.
Below the “Featured,” “Top Category,” and “Partner Spotlight” sections, you’ll also find brand new content rows. These rows will highlight and recommend streams from community events, cultural moments, and more tailored content as time goes on. The rows will be a mix of AI-powered personalized recommendations and editorially programmed content, ensuring you can discover and join even more communities across Mixer.
Auto-Hosting for everyone – We’ve spent the last month testing Auto-Hosting with Mixer Partners and now we’re excited to share it with every streamer. With this feature, you’ll be able to create a list of specific streamers that you want to automatically host when you’re offline. We’ve added a host of customization options as well.
You’ll be able to set your Auto-Host list to host in a priority order or to pick at random. With showcase, you’ll be able to set custom Auto-Host time durations. This means Auto-Host could switch to a new streamer from your list every hour (you determine the time) instead of when that hosted streamer goes offline.
You can access your Auto-Hosting setting in the Broadcast dashboard.
Higher-Quality Emotes – This top community ask is no longer “Soon™”, it’s finally here! Starting today, we’re enhancing all emotes to 28 pixels across all platforms, introducing new prefixing requirements and completely refreshing our global emotes. New global emotes will be visible today and all partner emotes will be updated over the next few weeks.
Ad Break (Beta) – Our Mixer Partners have been testing advertising pre-roll for the last few months and now we’re expanding our advertising testing with an Ad-Break beta. With this, Partners can choose when they want to run ads during their stream. This was a request from the Mixer Partner community, and we’re excited to be testing it as part of the full package of monetization opportunities on Mixer.
Xbox Viewing Improvements – We’re continuing to add more features to the new Mixer viewing experience on Xbox. This new experience is built from the ground up to get you to your favorite streamers as fast as possible. With the April Xbox One system update that’s in some Insider rings now, you’ll see the additions of emotes and subscriber badging in chat.
Ember messages will also get the flair they deserve to help them stand out. We’ve also made it easier to access stream settings for selecting chat layout or video quality. Outside of this latest Xbox One system update, we also expect to have Gift Subs available in the new experience in the coming weeks.
Partner Badging on Homepage – To make it easier to find Mixer Partner channels, we’re adding the new badging to the homepage as well.
Notifications UX Improvements – We’ve added a new notification bell to the pages of channels you follow, so you have better control over which channels will trigger “go live” notifications.
Clips Creation Improvements – Clip creation is now available for more viewers of Mixer Partners and Verified channels in the Mixer app on iOS and Android. Clip creation on mobile respects the Rank, Subscriber, and Moderator permissions that the channel owner has set.
There’s much more coming, and we’re excited to share details soon. Going forward, we will be posting more frequent community updates on this blog. They’ll cover everything from events, to community news and features! Stay tuned for more updates and please keep sharing your feedback on Twitter with us at @WatchMixer.
Today, there are an estimated 50 million people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. With no known cure and a poor understanding of the mechanisms behind it, Alzheimer’s is an illness that can bring sorrow to both patients and caregivers, including their family and friends; with 60 percent of caregivers reporting high levels of emotional stress.
Motivated by the struggles of patients and caregivers alike, RedWalls, a team of students from Tunisia’s National Institute of Applied Science and Technology, have come together to work on a solution which can alleviate some of the burdens of the illness.
Submitted as a project to Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition, the team – Mohamed Said Fayache, Achraf Feydi, and Meriem Zhang – have progressed to the world finals. Inspired by the movie Still Alice, and the experiences of a family member with Alzheimer’s, they’re working on an app called I-Remember, to help both patients, and their caregivers.
“We’re happy that technology can help with this disease,” Meriem Zhang states. “One of us has a family member with Alzheimers, so we’re happy that we can help contribute something. This is an opportunity to make our country shine, and to accomplish a project like this is a dream.”
A familiar face
A key foundation of the I-Remember app is to help patients remember people and recall faces. One aspect of this functionality is an image gallery, which can have images of memorable events such as family birthdays, complete with a description of who is in the photo, details of the occasion, and when and where it was.
In addition, the team has also used a number of Microsoft tools to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) face recognition solution, which can be used to automatically provide information about a person to a patient, simply by holding a smartphone camera towards their face. Powered by Face, part of Azure’s cognitive services, users can also add new faces and label them accordingly, so that there’s a higher chance of newcomers being recognized in subsequent visits.
Other practical tools include cognitive games to help keep patients’ minds engaged, as well as a schedule to help them keep on top of the day’s events. People with Alzheimer’s can often become distressed when they can’t remember what they’re doing or who they’re with, so these memory-triggering features are designed to offer a source of comfort.
Another feature, powered by Azure Maps, is the Emergency capability, which provides easy access to emergency services, should a patient require them. This feature is mirrored in a caregiver-focused companion app, which shares the patient’s location in real-time, for peace of mind.
Given that people with dementia can become confused and lost, the ability to track their location is an important tool for caregivers, while increasing the safety of the patient. Caregivers can also be alerted if a patient leaves a pre-designated safe zone, providing an opportunity to ensure that an Alzheimer’s patient is safe before any serious problems arise.
The caregiver application also has additional resources to help explain various aspects of the disease, and how to cope with certain situations, such as advice on how to explain the disease to children, who may have relatives with the illness.
Team RedWalls plans to proceed with trials of their app, before modifying it based on feedback, ahead of a wider app release. “There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease or a way to slow its progression,” Feydi states.
The New Xbox One Roblox Bundle is available starting today at participating retailers worldwide for $299.99 USD.
Along with an Xbox One S console, the bundle comes with a free-to-play download of Roblox, three exclusive avatar bundles, three exclusive accessories, 2,500 Robux and a one-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate trial.
With this bundle and the upcoming Bloxy Awards, now is a great time to join the Roblox community.
Get
ready to explore millions of community-created experiences with the all-new
Xbox One S Roblox bundle, featuring exclusive content on Roblox. The
Xbox One S Roblox bundle is available now at Microsoft Store, near you
and online, and
participating retailers worldwide, for $299.99 USD.
With
the Xbox One S Roblox bundle you get a 1TB Xbox One S console,
an Xbox Wireless Controller and a free-to-play download of Roblox.
You’ll also get three exclusive Roblox
avatar bundles: defend your honor as Kijo the Vengeful Samurai, transform into
the mighty Metal Menace Mech or get ready to rumble as Brawk Tyson:
Featherweight Champ. You can even mix-and-match their parts to create your own
unique avatar.
Additionally,
with the Xbox One S Roblox bundle, you’ll get the exclusive Kidomaru the
Cursed Blade, Mecha Domino Crown and World Championship Belt accessories to
trick out your Roblox avatar even further, plus 2,500 Robux to spend on additional
avatar customization options or extra perks in some of your favorite Roblox
games.
The
bundle also comes with a one-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, so you
can get all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, including online multiplayer, and
access to over 100 great games on console and PC. Be sure to visit xbox.com or swing by your local retailer for more
information on the bundle.
Roblox is the ultimate virtual universe that lets you and your friends play,
create, and be anything you can imagine. Live out your greatest
cops-and-robbers fantasy in Jailbreak, a massively multiplayer open-world
action game created by Badimo. Construct epic roller coasters with friends in
the wildly popular simulation game Theme Park Tycoon 2 from Den_S. Or embark on
a magical adventure across an island brimming with cute and exotic pets in
DreamCraft’s massively popular social roleplay game, Adopt Me. With an
ever-expanding library of user-created experiences, there’s always something
new and exciting for everyone to play.
Xbox One is the only console system
that plays the best games of the past, present and future with thousands of
games available today. If you’re playing on Xbox One X or Xbox One S, you can
also enjoy the ultimate 4K entertainment experience with a built-in 4K UHD
Blu-ray player, premium audio with Dolby Atmos support and the fastest, most
reliable gaming network with Xbox Live.
Roblox’s
biggest awards show, the Bloxys, is premiering on March 21 at 12:00 pm PST, so
there couldn’t be a better time to pick up this new Xbox One S bundle. The
event will be streamed in-game for the first time ever, so you and your friends
can hang out, have fun, and celebrate the biggest Roblox games and creators of
2019 side-by-side in the same experience. Head to roblox.com/bloxyawards for more information. Hope to see you at the
show!
IT environments are becoming more complex as organizations are combining on-premises, cloud, and edge infrastructures. There are some major benefits to having a flexible, hybrid IT environment, such as the ability to create new business value while also meeting local and industry compliance requirements, but the headaches of managing and securing these environments are hard to ignore. But, with a solid strategy and the right tools, there’s enormous potential for innovation and growth with a hybrid environment.
This is why we’re sharing the upcoming one-hour Azure Hybrid Virtual Event on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 starting at 8:00 AM Pacific Time. At this free online event, you’ll get to watch demos, learn hybrid best practices, and find out which strategies work—and which don’t—from two real Azure hybrid customers: online retailer ASOS and professional services company KPMG. Julia White, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure Marketing, will kick off the event with a keynote on current and future hybrid cloud trends, followed by some great sessions:
Insights from Bain & Company—building a successful hybrid cloud: Hear from Bill Radzevych, a partner at Bain & Company, about market trends and customer insights with digital transformation and cloud adoption.
Seamlessly manage and govern resources: Learn how to seamlessly manage, govern, and secure resources across on-premises, multicloud, and the edge from a single control plane.
Bring cloud services to any infrastructure: Learn how to bring cloud services to your existing infrastructure to take advantage of cloud innovation everywhere and discuss real-world examples from companies like KPMG.
Modernize your datacenter: Learn how to modernize virtualized apps or bring cloud to your datacenter while meeting regulatory and data sovereignty requirements.
Bring AI to the edge: Learn about different ways to take advantage of edge computing to create new business opportunities.
Secure your organization: Hear from George Mudie, Chief Information Security Officer from ASOS, on how Azure Sentinel empowers their SecOps to improve organizational security and efficiency.
See you there
Azure Hybrid Virtual Event: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Tokyo/Redmond, Wash. – March 16, 2020 – Kubota Corporation and Microsoft today announced a multi-year strategic alliance aimed at accelerating Kubota’s digital transformation. Through the alliance, Kubota will migrate its IT infrastructure and SAP mission-critical systems onto Microsoft Azure’s trusted cloud platform.
By standardizing on Microsoft Azure, Kubota will streamline its business operations, accelerate innovation, and shift to a solution provision model. Additionally, the companies will develop new AI-based solutions for businesses in the areas of food, water and the environment.
Kubota is committed to addressing the increasing food demands around the world with agricultural machinery and services by working to problem-solve with customers in the agriculture industry to ensure they have what they need to manage their fields. Kubota will offer comprehensive solutions in water and environment-related fields with a wide range of products, from water pipes to water treatment facilities. To accelerate this vision, the companies will work together, harnessing the power of Microsoft technologies and each other’s industry expertise to foster a more sustainable future.
Modernize IT infrastructure
Through the alliance, Kubota will migrate its IT infrastructure and SAP mission-critical systems onto Microsoft Azure’s trusted cloud platform. By modernizing its operations on Microsoft’s cloud, Kubota will benefit from the scale and flexibility while taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies like AI. The integration of mission-critical systems in the cloud will also enable Kubota to streamline its operations and accelerate the utilization of integrated data globally.
Accelerate new innovations
Kubota will also work with Microsoft to launch a new AI Machine Learning Lab focused on accelerating innovations. The Lab will be used to train new developers building AI solutions, and Kubota will explore the application of AI in its business operations and for developing new services for customers in areas such as agriculture, water system infrastructure and the environment. Microsoft will leverage its extensive knowledge and advanced technologies available within Azure Machine Learning to support Kubota’s AI initiatives.
Furthermore, the companies will also explore innovative projects for a more sustainable future that utilize technology based on Kubota’s and Microsoft’s sustainability initiatives.
Comment from Kubota, President and Representative Director, Yuichi Kitao
“Under the slogan of ‘For Earth, For Life,’ Kubota is trying to dedicate to solve global issues on food, water, and environment. It is indispensable to promote digital transformation to meet such issues in worldwide. This alliance with Microsoft is an important step for the digital transformation. We accelerate to create innovations and provide the solutions and the social value.”
Comment from Microsoft, Executive Vice President, Judson Althoff
”Kubota is recognized as a leader in environmentally-compatible farming and agricultural equipment. Combining its deep industry experience with the power of Microsoft Azure and AI capabilities will enable delivery of new innovations that help feed a hungry planet, ensure access to clean water, and promote overall sustainability.”
About KubotaCorporation
In food, water, and the environment area, the Kubota Group promises to continue supporting the prosperous life of humans while protecting the environment of this beautiful earth.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Media contact
Kubota Corporate Communication Department +81-6-6648-2389 kbt_g.kubota-pr@kubota.com
Microsoft Media Relations WE Communications for Microsoft (425) 638-7777 rrt@we-worldwide.com
As we continue to see educators around the world transition to distance learning our team is here to help, listen, and support you and your students.
To make it easier to connect with each other, and to answer your questions, we’ve created a new remote learning community. It’s a great resource for best practices, tips & tricks, and sharing personal experiences about how to enable distance learning for schools. We are inspired by the way this community has come together to support each other and share ideas, during this challenging time.
To join this team, get help and share ideas with other educators and our experts, please fill out this form. We’ll add you to the Remote Learning Team after we’ve received your submission.
Building community
In addition, we are in awe of all the incredible resources and ideas our community is sharing, like the tweet and ideas for remote learning from the eTwinz here.
#RemoteLearning | We just want to use this last tweet to tell everyone who is transitioning to this new model due the #coronavirus that you are not alone. This community got your back!
We’ve also set up a new support site to help you get started launching remote learning that includes training resources, practical guides on how to get up and running on Teams, and tools and programs to keep your students engaged.
And, listed below, are additional Microsoft Education resources we have compiled so far to support remote learning.
Guidance on remote learning with Office 365 can be found here. This is a great source of information for using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Teams – all rich resources for successfully navigating remote learning.
Get ideas for using Flipgrid, a powerful video-based discussion tool, here. You’ll find webinars, resources for getting started with Flipgrid, and be able to connect with our team through Flipgrid here.
We’re making Minecraft: Education Edition available for free to teachers and students with O365 Education accounts to support remote learning during school closures. Please fill out this form to request access. And download a remote learning toolkit for Minecraft: Education Edition here. Minecraft: Education Edition is a great tool to explore coding, social emotional learning skills development, and more, so if you haven’t tried it yet, now might be the time.
The Microsoft Educator Center is home to a wealth of educator-created professional development resources, and we’ve made new remote learning materials available right on the MEC site, so be sure to check those out.
And we’ve put together a Wakelet that curates all of the current Microsoft Education resources and stories on Remote Learning here. We’ll have more resources there in the coming days too, so please keep an eye on that site.
We’re here to support you
Teaching is among the most challenging professions in ordinary times, and these are anything but ordinary times. Thank you for the work you do on behalf of students each day, and especially now.
You’re not alone in this. Our team is here to help. We’ll continue to share updates, resources and information as those become available here on the Microsoft Education blog. So, stay tuned and keep in touch. One way to send feedback is through Twitter by tagging @MicrosoftEDU.
Josh Landis lived and worked in Antarctica from 1999 to 2001 as an editor at The Antarctic Sun, the only newspaper on the continent at that time. And while he was hardly the only person on the continent, it could often feel like that in a peaceful sort of way.
“Being able to sit on the ice, with penguins walking by and seeing killer whales spyhopping in the water, rising and falling right in front of me, stuck with me forever,” he says. “It gave me a personal appreciation for the vulnerability of these places which at first seems so impervious” to climate change.
After leaving Antarctica, Landis returned to his hometown of New York City where he worked in high-profile jobs for several years, writing for ABC News anchors and eventually becoming a CBS News national correspondent. Though he had reached a pinnacle professionally, his thoughts always drifted back to the Earth’s southernmost continent. Four years ago, he helped found Nexus Media News, a nonprofit science, tech and environmental news service with a focus on climate change and supported by foundations.
Landis’ passion about climate change was among the reasons he was chosen by Microsoft News and the International Center for Journalists for an ICFJ Alumni Reporting Grant with a focus on data journalism, which included receiving data visualization training using Microsoft Power BI.
Landis and his team, in collaboration with the CityLab news organization, chose to investigate how climate change is influencing the U.S. real estate market. They drew upon research from the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research group, which calculated real estate losses due to persistent flooding from Texas to Maine.
While other news reports covered the data by focusing on where the highest dollar amounts were lost, Landis, his team and First Street incorporated census data for a unique analysis. Using Power BI, they determined which areas lost the most real estate value relative to the average home price in the affected area. After crunching the numbers across thousands of ZIP codes, one of the highest “loss ratio” places was Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
From the launch of Windows 10, our focus was on moving people from having, to choosing, to loving Windows. With the release of every new build of Windows 10, we have seen customer satisfaction improve as we have made fixes and added new capabilities and experiences. We are humbled that customers are choosing and loving Windows 10, and there has never been a more important time for a secure, reliable platform that can empower people to create, educate and communicate wherever they are.
Today we’re delighted to announce that over one billion people have chosen Windows 10 across 200 countries resulting in more than one billion active Windows 10 devices. We couldn’t be more grateful to our customers, partners and employees for helping us get here.
From one to one billion devices—one customer at a time
One in every seven people on the planet are planning, creating, ideating, executing, moving, shaking and doing great things with Windows 10.
Because no matter who or where in the world or life they are, Windows 10 provides them with the features and flexibility they need to achieve more. From the high-powered developer who needs the most advanced technology available, to the business professional who needs to be productive at work and home, to the student in a developing market who is looking for a low-cost device for learning and self-improvement—Windows 10 is the platform to meet all these needs.
With 100% of the Fortune 500 now using Windows 10 devices, it has become a critical platform for driving business transformation in the enterprise and beyond. As companies transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10, they are making a commitment to running their business more efficiently, more securely, and positioning themselves to offer better products, services and solutions to their customers.
New Windows 10 features and security updates are now delivered faster than ever before. We’ve evolved from releasing a version every three years, to releasing multiple versions per year. And with the recent decoupling of the new Chromium-based Edge browser from Windows 10 we can now deliver new builds to customers outside of the normal Windows 10 release cadence—and to more versions of Windows.
With Windows 10, our focus has always been to put the customer at the center, to listen to feedback, and to have that feedback shape the development process. One of the strongest examples of this customer focus is our Windows Insider Program which now has over 17.8 million Insiders, with members in every country of the world.
We have also strived to make Windows an open, inclusive and accessible platform that can empower everyone to achieve their goals. Our Windows Accessibility team focuses on human-centered design, a method where engineers and designers work to deeply understand peoples’ needs, and then co-design and continuously iterate on solutions directly with them.
It’s incredible to see the results of this work and the impact features like closed captions, narrator, magnifier and custom text size have made on people’s lives. Like Mitra Niknam’s son Andrew who was able to conquer his fear and learn to read. And Andre Louis who is his own one-man band thanks to Seeing AI.
From PCs, to Mixed Reality, to Xbox and more
Freedom of choice has always mattered to us—because we know it matters to you. Windows 10 is the only operating system at the heart of over 80,000 models and configurations of different laptops and 2-in-1s from over 1,000 different manufacturers. But that’s not all. Windows 10 also powers Mixed Reality and HoloLens—transforming the way people build, design, learn and experience the world around them.
And not only is Windows 10 the most popular PC gaming platform on the planet, but it also powers the entire Xbox family of consoles, including the fastest and most powerful Xbox Series X, which will be available later this year.
Windows 10 has enabled new category creation with devices like the Surface Pro, Surface Book and Surface Hub 2S. And we are committed to keep driving to innovate with devices like Surface Neo, a new dual-screen device which will run Windows 10X, which enables unique experiences on multi-posture dual-screen PCs.
Windows is a diverse and powerful canvas that gives our OEM partners the flexible tools they need to deliver innovation to the world which can be seen in their latest and greatest devices, all built on Windows 10:
The Acer ConceptD 700 workstation is also built to handle heavy content creator workflows with ease, thanks to an Intel Xeon E processor and up to NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 graphics to address the needs of film makers, animators and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) designers with powerful and stable performance for 3D computer-aided design (CAD).
The ASUSExpertBook B9 is built for professionals who do business on the go, weighing in at just 865 grams with a 14.9mm-thin profile. In addition, the B9450 integrates a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM) security chip to keeps business-critical data safe, while a built-in IR camera allows for biometric logins.
The latest version of the popular XPS 13 from Dell is aimed at helping you innovate, collaborate and accomplish more in the next decade with the new 25% brighter XPS InfinityEdge display that delivers more screen space to multitask throughout the day and a new design that delivers a 13.4-inch display in an 11-inch form factor—fitting neatly on an airplane tray.
In the Secured-Core PC family, the HP Elite Dragonfly has built-in Tile technology, which allows users to use an intuitive app to help you find your device near or far even when your PC is turned off. It also contains ocean-bound plastics in the speaker covers, and the outer box packaging is 100% sustainably sourced.
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 has up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 with Intel Iris Plus graphics. It also includes hands-free login and auto-logoff via IR camera and Windows Hello, plus an adjustable Smart Battery that transitions capability based on usage behavior, temperature and whether the device is plugged in.
Combining productivity with a premium experience, the SamsungGalaxy Book Flex α provides the experience of a laptop with the mobility and flexibility of a smartphone.The 2-in-1 PC delivers a super-bright display that allows you to enjoy the screen’s 100% color volume and vibrant picture in almost any lighting with up to5-hours of battery life.
From 1.0 to 10 and beyond
From pioneering seamless touch and pen experiences, to enabling biometric log-in with Windows Hello, and with experiences like the Your Phone app, enabling Android users to connect their phone to their PC—we strive to meet people where they are.
And this innovation continues, bringing Windows to the cloud to make Windows 10 through Azure and virtual machines available on nearly every platform, from Mac to iOS or even Chromebooks. We will strive to make Windows the most accessible operating system on the planet regardless of where our users are, or what device they are on.
Reaching a billion people with Windows 10 is just the beginning. We will invest in Windows not only within Windows 10 for PCs but also across many other Windows editions, serving diverse customer needs including Windows IoT, Windows 10 Teams edition for Surface Hub, Windows Server, Windows Mixed Reality on HoloLens, Windows 10 in S mode, Windows 10X and more.
We are inspired by the ways you use Windows 10, and we look forward to seeing how you continue to use these billion devices in new and exciting ways to power the world.
A few months ago, we
revealed Xbox Series X, our fastest, most powerful console ever, designed
for a console generation that has you, the player, at its center. When it is released
this holiday season, Xbox Series X will set a new bar for performance, speed
and compatibility, all while allowing you to bring your gaming legacy forward
with you and play thousands of games from four generations.
Recently, along with the tech experts Austin Evans
and Digital Foundry, we
had the chance to take a closer look at some of the technologies that are powering
Xbox Series X and talk to the team about the choices they made when defining
the next generation of gaming. We spent an entire day discussing everything
from the console’s custom processor and latency solutions to backward
compatibility and visual enhancements.
The next generation of Xbox is defined by three primary
characteristics: Power, Speed and Compatibility. Let’s take a look at the
features and technologies of Xbox Series X delivering those three hallmarks.
The Most Powerful Xbox Ever
Early on in the design of Xbox Series X, the team was determined
to deliver the most powerful Xbox ever, which opened a series of discussions about
how to define “power” in the next generation of consoles. In past generations,
power has been defined primarily by graphics innovation: from the transition
from 8 bit to 16 bit graphics, 2D to 3D, SD to HD and finally to 4K.
Today, gamers are demanding more and more games run at 60
frames per second (fps) with high visual fidelity and precise, responsive
input. Developers have come up with creative solutions, such as dynamic
resolution scaling, to maintain high image quality while not compromising on
frame rate, but this is often done to work around the limitations and
constraints of current generation hardware. That’s all about to change with
Xbox Series X. It’s not just about making games look better, though. It’s about
making games play better too.
“While
the Xbox Series X will deliver a massive increase in GPU performance and
continue to redefine and advance the state of art in graphics with new
capabilities such as hardware accelerated raytracing,” said Jason Ronald, Director
of Product Management on Xbox Series X, “we don’t believe this generation will
be defined by graphics or resolution alone.”
The team knew they needed to build a next generation console
that could run games in 4K at 60 fps with no compromises for developers. They
also challenged themselves to deliver a level of performance once thought
impossible on console, including support for up to 120 fps for the most
demanding and competitive games. While they believe resolution and frame rate
are creative decisions best left in the hands of title developers, the team
wanted to ensure the system was able to support the needs of the largest
blockbusters, competitive esports, and innovative independent creators.
In order to support those needs, the team strengthened their
long-term partnership with chipmaker AMD, which began working with the Xbox
team over 15 years ago on the Xbox 360. Sebastien Nussbaum, Corporate Vice
President & Senior Fellow, Semi-Custom Products and Technologies at AMD,
spoke a bit about what the team created to help power Xbox Series X.
Thanks to a focus on transformational design and generational performance uplift, Nussbaum said that, for developers, “the console ends up being a playground for technical innovation.” This is due in large part to the raw power of the custom designed processor, powered by an 8 core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2-class GPU.
These next generation architectures deliver a new level of
performance that lets developers create realistic and immersive experiences
like we’ve never seen before, while also allowing the team at AMD to seed a
next generation DirectX ecosystem that will continue to push the industry
forward.
“Xbox
Series X is the biggest generational leap of SOC [System on a Chip] and API
design that we’ve done with Microsoft, and it’s really an honor for AMD to be a
trusted Microsoft partner for this endeavor,” said Nussbaum. “The Xbox Series X
is going to be a beacon of technical innovation leadership for this console
generation and will propagate the innovation throughout the DirectX ecosystem
this year and into next year.”
Following the AMD presentation, Technical Fellow Andrew Goossen
took the reins to dive deep into the technological bells and whistles that will
be powering Xbox Series X. We’ve listed the full system specs below, with handy
links out to our glossary for definitions on what many of these terms mean:
CPU
8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
For more information, I encourage you to check out Digital Foundry’s deep dive to get a better sense of what all of these features mean for developers and gamers.
One of the biggest (and most noticeable to players) features in Xbox Series X will be support for hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing, which simulates the properties of light and sound in real time more accurately than any technology before it. To give us a better idea of how this technology directly impacts games, Clayton Vaught, Technical Director for Minecraft, ran us through a technical demo of how raytracing could impact one of the world’s most popular games.
Switching back and forth between current visuals to hardware
accelerated DirectX Raytraced visuals, Vaught walked around a pre-built
Minecraft world to show off the ways realistic lighting completely changes the
game. Shadows cast from objects soften or harden depending on how far away from
the object you are, while lava gives off a warm orange glow that dissipates
over distance and reflects off of minecart rails. Even the moon casts its own
rays, streaming down through cracks in the walls and reflecting off particles
in the air. The Raytraced visuals fundamentally change the way Minecraft
feels, drawing the player in and immersing them in a much more realistic world.
The most impressive feature (at least for yours truly) was the way light now passes through transparent objects like glass, picking up the color on its way to your eyes. This was beautifully demonstrated while walking through a hallway lined with a veritable rainbow of colored glass cubes, each of which cast a different colored shadow on the floor. The big wow moment came from the most unassuming of substances: water. With raytracing on, water was now fully transparent and allowed light from the moon to pass through it to the player underneath and realistically reflect off the seaweed swaying in the current. It was really an impressive demo that brought what hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing in Minecraft could deliver to life in a way I never imagined.
To close out the segment on the power of Xbox Series X, The
Coalition’s Technical Director, Mike Rayner, came up to show us how his team is
planning to optimize Gears 5 for Xbox Series X. The team showcased a
technical demo of Gears 5, powered by Unreal Engine, for Xbox Series X
using the full PC Ultra Spec settings, which included higher resolution
textures and higher resolution volumetric fog, as well as a 50% higher particle
count than the PC Ultra Specs allowed. They also showed off the opening
cutscene, which now runs at 60 FPS in 4K (it was 30 FPS on Xbox One X), meaning
the transition from real-time cutscenes to gameplay is incredibly smooth.
There were also some noticeable improvements in a few other
areas as well. Load times were extremely fast, and the team was able to turn on
some features that, while previously implemented, had to be turned off for the
Xbox One X version. This included contact shadows (providing extra depth to
objects) and self-shadow lighting on plants and grass, making every scene feel
more realistic. Rayner also shared that the game is already running over 100
FPS and that the team is investigating implementing 120 FPS gameplay for
multiplayer modes, giving players an experience never before seen on consoles.
Most impressive of all? The fact that the team was able to get all of this up
and running in a matter of weeks.
The team also announced that they will have an Xbox Series X
Optimized version of Gears 5 available at Xbox Series X launch, which players
will get free if they own the Xbox One version of Gears 5 and will leverage
Smart Delivery depending on which console you’re using.
Improving Immersion and Embracing Speed
The next major tenet of the Xbox Series X is speed, which
can be defined in a large number of different ways. Modern devices have changed
our expectations on how quickly you can move between experiences or
applications. Most of us want to be able to instantly jump into an experience
or return right to where we left off. This influenced the team designing the
system architecture, as they wanted to ensure they enabled gamers to spend more
time playing and less time waiting.
A big part of that revolves around the addition of a solid-state
drive (SSD). We have reached the upper limits of traditional rotational drive performance,
so the team knew they needed to invest in SSD level I/O speeds to deliver the
quality of experience they aspired to with Xbox Series X. This was an area
where the team really wanted to innovate, and they knew this could be a game
changer for the new generation. But they didn’t want the I/O system to be just
about your games loading faster.
Enter Xbox Velocity Architecture, which features tight integration between hardware and software and is a revolutionary new architecture optimized for streaming of in game assets. This will unlock new capabilities that have never been seen before in console development, allowing 100 GB of game assets to be instantly accessible by the developer. The components of the Xbox Velocity Architecture all combine to create an effective multiplier on physical memory that is, quite literally, a game changer.
“The CPU is the brain of our new console and the GPU is the heart, but the Xbox Velocity Architecture is the soul,” said Andrew Goossen, Technical Fellow on Xbox Series X at Microsoft. “The Xbox Velocity Architecture is about so much more than fast last times. It’s one of the most innovative parts of our new console. It’s about revolutionizing how games can create vastly bigger, more compelling worlds.”
A big beneficiary of this technological upgrade are large
open world games where players have freedom to play and explore in their own
way and at their own pace. Titles such as Final Fantasy XV, Assassin’s
Creed Odyssey, and Red Dead Redemption 2 have redefined expectations
of a living, dynamic world this generation.
To make these universes even more dynamic and feel like
large, high fidelity worlds requires a massive increase in processing power and
the ability to stream assets in extremely quickly to not break immersion (epic
elevator rides or lengthy hallways are good examples of how developers
creatively hide assets loading in). Developers will also be able to effectively
eliminate loading times between levels or create fast travel systems that are
just that: fast.
You also can’t talk about speed without also talking about
latency.
“Competitive gamers and the best gaming experiences demand precise, responsive controls,” said Goossen. “The Xbox team analyzed the entire end to end input pipeline, from the controller to the console and from the console to the display and we challenged ourselves to identify every opportunity to further reduce latency to provide the best experience for gamers on Xbox.”
This has included developing brand new technology such as Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) as well as helping to shape the HDMI 2.1 specification by adding new gaming-centric features such as support for 120hz, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). The team has also been working with the industry’s leading TV manufacturers for the past two years to ensure the display ecosystem is ready for the features coming with Xbox Series X.
While it can be difficult to
notice the improved latency from any one of these improvements alone, when they
all add up, it makes for a profoundly more responsive experience.
Finally, there are the player experiences that will be greatly improved thanks to the speed afforded by Xbox Series X. The most noticeable of these is loading times, which will be greatly decreased thanks to the processing power of Xbox Series X.
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There’s also the new Quick Resume technology that we outlined in our last blog post. With current gen consoles, you can resume the last game you played. However, since most players play (on average) three to four games a month, the team wanted to give them the option to switch between them easily and quickly. With Quick Resume, you can resume multiple games with the press of a button, instantly jumping back into the action, right where you left off, for multiple titles at the same time.
Since game states will be
stored directly in the system’s SSD, they’ll even persist after you turn off
the console, unplug it entirely, or even take a system update. One of the
testers on the team unplugged his console for a week, then took an update, and
was still able to continue right where he left off without so much as a
loading screen.
Game Compatibility
Continues in the Next Generation
The third and final pillar for Xbox Series X is
compatibility. Through the Xbox One generation, the team has shown their
passion and commitment for compatibility, putting the player and their favorite
games at the center of everything they do. As gamers themselves, they understood
that we all have our favorite memories, franchises or titles that we want to
continue to play even as technology and game design continues to advance.
“The
community’s response to Phil’s announcement of 360 backward compatibility at E3
2015 was one of the biggest career highlights for me in my time as part of Team
Xbox,” said Ronald.
For the next generation, the team knew from the outset that they
wanted to double down on compatibility. That vision helped influence the design
of the system and, through a combination of hardware and software, they
committed themselves to ensuring the thousands of games on Xbox One, including
Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, will play even better on Xbox Series X.
“The team came and told us about Xbox Series X. They said ‘What can you do with even more power?’ So, the challenge was set. They gave us the Xbox One X and it was like we got this big playground to play with,” said Peggy Lo, Principal Program Management Lead, Backward Compatibility. “Then we got the Xbox Series X and it was like we had a whole amusement park to play in.”
Players will see the benefits of the improved hardware of
Xbox Series X for backwards compatible games, including improved boot and load
times, more stable frame rates, higher resolutions and improved image quality.
The Compatibility team is also continuing to create entirely new techniques and
innovation that we can use to further enhance the existing catalog of games
when running on Xbox Series X.
The Xbox team is so committed to the concept of
compatibility and cross generation play, that not only do your games move
forward with you, but so do your Xbox One accessories, your game saves, and
progression. In fact, your entire gaming legacy moves forward with you to the
next generation.
What’s more, the team has also designed the system to enable cross generation multiplayer, as well as introduce new features such as Smart Delivery, which ensures you only have to purchase a title once, knowing you will get the best version of the title on whatever Xbox console you choose to play on. This will allow players to seamlessly move between multiple consoles and console generations as they see fit. Xbox Series X is the fastest, most powerful Xbox console ever, designed for a console generation that has you at its center. We hope this closer look at some of the design decisions and technologies powering Xbox Series X answered your questions and gave you a good idea of what to expect when the console becomes available this holiday season.
