We’re excited to announce that Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available worldwide for Xbox One.

From Rockstar Games, the creators of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America at the dawn of the modern age.

Download Red Dead Redemption 2 from the Microsoft Store by October 29 and you’ll also get the pre-order bonuses including The War Horse, The Outlaw Survival Kit, and bonus cash for Story Mode.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will also include access to Red Dead Online. Launching initially as a public beta this November, Red Dead Online is the evolution of the classic multiplayer experience in the original Red Dead Redemption, blending narrative with competitive and cooperative gameplay in fun new ways.

By Mikey Campbell
Friday, October 26, 2018, 07:40 pm PT (10:40 pm ET)

Apple is now $7 billion behind in patent royalty payments to Qualcomm after directing contract manufacturers to withhold further remittance on grounds that the chipmaker participates in unfair licensing practices, according to testimony presented in court Friday.

Apple’s iPhone X used both Qualcomm and Intel modems.

Qualcomm commented on Apple’s unpaid royalties in a court hearing in California, reports Reuters.

Apple does not directly license Qualcomm patents, though money from the tech giant does end up in the chipmaker’s coffers through reimbursements made to partner manufacturers that do pay royalties.

The $7 billion figure, and a number of other major details surrounding the sprawling legal battle, are in dispute. Apple for its part argues Qualcomm’s royalty rates are unfair and amount to price gouging and extortion.

Last year, Apple filed suit against Qualcomm, claiming the chipmaker participates in monopolistic practices and other nefarious business strategies including withholding nearly $1 billion in rebates as retribution for participating in a South Korean antitrust investigation. The initial case ultimately spawned some 100 separate suits and countersuits around the world.

As it applies to royalties, Apple alleges Qualcomm flouts FRAND (fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory) patent commitments to charge customers, including suppliers, exorbitant rates on standard-essential patents. The chipmaker further restricts sales to buyers who agree to license its SEPs, a practice Apple refers to as “double-dipping.”

When Apple halted royalty payments, so too did partner suppliers using Qualcomm IP.

During today’s proceedings, Qualcomm also attempted to forward a motion to render moot Apple’s patent validity challenges, reports Bloomberg. The company filed the motion earlier this month and presented its case in court on Friday.

At issue are nine Qualcomm patents “handpicked” by Apple to illustrate weak spots in the chipmaker’s portfolio of mobile technology IP. Apple is attempting to invalidate the inventions that Qualcomm asserts is essential to current mobile standards. Qualcomm is attempting to avoid scrutiny of the patents by saying it has no plans to leverage them in infringement assertions against Apple and its contract manufacturers.

Apple in its own filing opposed the request, saying Qualcomm is attempting to deflect allegations of double-dipping. Specifically, Apple argues that Qualcomm should not be able to demand a license on patented technology if that same technology is built into its baseband chips sold to smartphone makers.

In addition to the California court action, Qualcomm lodged a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission that seeks to halt the import of iPhones powered by Intel modems.

For its part, Qualcomm on multiple occasions has said the legal battle comes down to favorable IP pricing, and that it expects the fight to end in a settlement.

Welcome to the final installment of The Weekender. Yes, this is the very last edition and for those who have checked in weekly, and swung by for Out Now before that, thanks much for your interest and support! I’m going out with a bang, by which I mean a full slate of great new games and sales to check out. Let’s get to it. 

Out Now

STARDEW VALLEY (IOS UNIVERSAL)

Legendary Steam game Stardew Valley has made, what has to be, one of the bigger leaps to mobile this year. It’s a farming-simulation game where you step into the shoes of a disgruntled office worker who leaves their job in favor of managing their deceased grandfather’s farm in Stardew Valley. The farm has fallen into disrepair and your job is all about prioritizing the tasks necessary to bring it back to flourishing.

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There’s a ton to do, both on the farm and in terms of the town’s social scene, and the game is a big sandbox where you really can do whatever you desire. Stardew Valley does a great job of setting up that short/medium/long term goal cycle so that you’re always after the next thing and time flies while playing. 

DARKEST DUNGEON: THE COLOR OF MADNESS (IPAD)

Gothic-styled roguelike Darkest Dungeon is a compelling, party-based, combat-centric game with a focus on the toll that adventuring in Lovecraftian dungeons has on the adventurers. It’s layered, entertaining, and more than a little frustrating. A new expansion, The Color of Madness, was just released for iPad and adds a new region called the Farmstead.

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Along with it comes a new enemy faction (The Miller and his workmen), three new bosses, new trinkets, new quirks your hirelings can become afflicted with, four new districts for your hamlet, and a new Endless Quest mode where you must face unending waves of enemies. As if things weren’t hard enough already! All this can be yours for a $5 in-app-purchase. 

LOVE LETTER (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID)

Love Letter is a game of bluffing and strategy where up to four players vie to get a letter to a princess shut in a high tower. It’s one of the most entertaining tabletop card games to play with a group, preferably over adult beverages. It’s also now a digital game on both mobile and Steam.

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I understand that everything is making its way to digital these days, and that’s all for the good, but so much of Love Letter is about reading the table that I can’t imagine it’ll be quite the same. Regardless, it’s available now and a great game. 

ELEMENT – RTS (IOS UNIVERSAL)

If you’re a fan of real-time strategy games but don’t like getting snowed in by complex details or committing to hours to get a game in Element – RTS by Flightless Games is for you. With civilization’s home solar system increasingly unfit for life a battle for the resources necessary to travel beyond is on. You travel across the system looking to secure control of each planet’s primary element.

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You have competition each step of the way of course and… well, that’s what your attack and defense stations and missiles are for of course. Gameplay is straightforward and tactically compelling. You need a strong strategy and to maintain a good mix of resource generation, element mining, defense, and attack capabilities. Element – RTS is well worth a look for fans of the real-time gaming genre. 

EUCLIDEAN SKIES (IOS UNIVERSAL) (REVIEW)

Three-dimensional puzzle-combat gem Euclidean Lands got a well-deserved five-star review when it came out in 2017. This week the game has a successor, Euclidean Skies, which maintains the same great turn-based gameplay, spatial problem-solving, and interesting architecture. Your goal is help the protagonist proceed through level after level by twisting and turning the setting to create a path.

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Obstacles and hazards appear and become progressively difficult as the game moves through its 40 levels. There’s no requirement to solve a level in a particular number of turns, though there are achievements for those who enjoy seeking the most efficient path. If you enjoyed Euclidean Lands, or like 3D puzzle games in general, Euclidean Skies is an easy buy.  

FIDEL DUNGEON RESCUE (IOS UNIVERSAL)

Fidel Dungeon Rescue is a clever pick-your-path puzzle/dungeon crawler freshly released on iOS after about a year on Steam. You lead Fidel, our puppy protagonist, through grid-based levels where you must squash bugs and monsters for XP, restore your health by grabbing med kits, grab gold and other loot, and earn enough XP to unlock the exit. You drag a path across the screen but can’t cross over where you’ve already been.

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There’s a brilliant undo feature where you can just retrace your steps to try again. Fidel is challenging and a great deal of fun for those that like to ponder the best way to proceed. 

SIRALIM 3 (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID)

Another mobile conversion, Siralim 3 is a dungeon-crawling light-RPG that focuses on taming and breeding over 700 different creatures to fight alongside you. There’s also a crafting system that makes use of the loot you find while adventuring. Siralim 3 boasts a ton of end-game content, an asynchronous player-versus-player mode, and cross-platform play and support.

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Unfortunately, the game also makes use of an awkward, giant, on-screen D-pad and virtual A and B buttons right there on your nice touchscreen display. This turned me off immediately, but, if you’re less picky about controls the game does sound promising.

Sales

DARKEST DUNGEON (IPAD): $.99

Tied to release of The Color of Madness expansion on iPad, the Darkest Dungeon base game is on sale for just a buck.  You can’t beat this price, so if you have any interest but haven’t gotten around to it, now’s a great time.

SPACE GRUNTS (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID): $1.99/$2.49

If you want to feel like you’re playing an action game—complete with camera-shaking explosions—within the safe confines of turn-based tactics Space Grunts is for you. It’s a must-own for any roguelike fan and is currently half price.

SIR QUESTIONNAIRE (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID): $1.99/.99

The latest game from the maker of Space Grunts, Sir Questionnaire, is an entertaining roguelike with a lot to explore. It’s on sale for the first time ever.

REBUILD 3: GANGS OF DEADSVILLE (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID): $1.99

Rebuild 3 might be the best colony management and zombie survival game on mobile. You recruit, manage, and level up a team of survivors who must to do all the things needed to survive: grow food, scavenge supplies, kill zombies, and construct shelter. It’s normally $5.99 and is currently three bucks off. Get it.

THE GAME – PLAY … AS LONG AS YOU CAN! (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID): $1.99

Tabletop card game The Game’s digital version is a one-player affair and is a lot of fun. It’s worth picking up for fans of solo card games.

ASMODEE DIGITAL SALE: $1.99

In celebration of the SPIEL in Essen gaming convention a whole slew of Asmodee Digital board games are on sale for two bucks on both iOS and Android, making it a great time to expand your collection.

D&D LORDS OF WATERDEEP (IOS UNIVERSAL AND ANDROID): $3.99

Dungeons & Dragons-based board game D&D Lords of Waterdeep is available for a solid discount on both the App and Google Play stores. You play as a masked Lord of the city and must out wrangle your opponents to recruit adventurers to complete quests and thus increase your political power.

On a crisp autumn day just outside the town of Peshashtin in central Washington, I could be seen alongside seven other Microsoft employees hauling bunches of dogwood and alder saplings down a steep embankment in Darby Canyon to the trickling creek below. For a day, we stepped away from our standing desks and back-to-back Skype meetings to roll up our sleeves and work with Trout Unlimited on a fascinating project, constructing beaver dam analogs – BDAs – on Darby Creek.

Let me answer the two obvious questions here. First, what are BDAs? They are lines of pilings driven into the streambed with branches woven between them that mimic the functionality of beaver dams, generating a host of water availability and quality benefits, such as reducing sediments and stream temperature in the summer. Secondly, why are Microsoft employees weaving beaver dams in central Washington? Believe it or not, this project represents the future of our approach to water, and specifically water replenishment.

Microsoft has been taking actions, within our operations and with our partners, to use less water and preserve this vital natural resource. Overall, our approach rests on four cornerstones: understanding water risks, setting water reduction goals, investing in replenishment, and fostering digital transformation in the water space. Increasingly, we’re looking beyond conservation to include replenishment in this water strategy.

By supporting water replenishment, we have an opportunity to balance our consumption of water, while generating tangible water benefits for the ecosystems and communities where we operate. As a changing climate and competing demands for water put greater pressure on this essential resource, it’s important for companies like Microsoft to engage in water replenishment, particularly in water-stressed regions where we have substantial operations.

One such region is central Washington, where we have datacenter operations, and just over the mountains, our global headquarters in Redmond. Given the proximity and import to our business, it just made sense as the location for our initial investments in water replenishment. In addition to the BDA project, Microsoft partnered with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to support projects that will increase flows and habitat conditions for migrating fish, remove fish passage barriers, and test new irrigation techniques that can improve the quality and quantity of fruit, while using less water. These projects are designed to produce tangible benefits that are meaningful for the aquatic environment and for the agricultural sector in the area.

Our work won’t end here. Microsoft is a global company with an operational presence around the world and we want our water stewardship program to span the globe as well. To accomplish this, we’re evaluating what we’ve learned in central Washington and are experimenting with ways to apply it more broadly. We know that as we explore scaling replenishment, we’ll need to keep some key factors in mind:

• Replenishment investments should be informed by what’s happening on the ground in a region with respect to water – this could vary from lack of availability of water for aquatic species to inadequate access to drinking water for people. The famous axiom “all politics are local” could be applied to water, with “water” replacing “politics.”
• Working with partners who understand what is happening on the ground is critically important, and we need to collaborate with them and listen to their guidance.
• Replenishment investments should be directed toward activities that will contribute to alleviating water stress.

We endeavor to make our operational commitments serve a higher value than just improving our operations – from carbon neutrality, renewable energy, AI for Earth, and beyond, we are focused on making changes that can scale globally and deliver benefits well outside of our four walls. As we explore the role Microsoft can play in water, we’ll look to and build off the work, experiences and lessons learned along the way to advance an environmentally sustainable agenda. Follow this blog to learn about our progress.

Tags: green tech, Microsoft, Water

Two brothers sat at their Commodore 64, eyes fixated on the screen. Fifteen-year-old Aydin Aslaner had caught computer fever; as he showed his 2-year-old brother Milad Aslaner what the magical, boxy, beige machine with the black and green screen was all about, Milad got hooked, too.

“I literally could not go to school some days because I loved our computer so much,” said Aydin. “Windows 3.1 in 1995,” he said, “it was my life.”

Fast forward 20 years to their mother’s dinner table: Aydin was bantering with Milad about whose company was better, Apple or Microsoft. Their middle sibling, sister Aylin Aslaner-Chahin, a civil engineer, passing the potatoes to her mother, amused at her spirited, competitive brothers.

The three siblings had no idea then how their three careers would one day intersect.

After Aydin finished his computer science degree, he spent the following years in various technical positions in Germany before he decided that he wanted to go into business for himself. At the time, Milad had just graduated from high school, so Aydin asked Milad to open a consultancy/PC store with him.

“As crazy as it sounded, I agreed. So there I was, 18 years old, following my big brother to build our own business,” recalled Milad.

But two weeks before the store was scheduled to open, Aydin got a phone call that changed the trajectory of all three Aslaner careers forever.

It was Microsoft, where Aydin had dreamed about working. He didn’t feel like he could pass up the opportunity. Taking the job would mean leaving Milad to open the store on his own, which the younger brother was less than thrilled about.

“As selfish as it sounds, I was against it,” recalled Milad. “How was I supposed to run a business without my brother? I’m happy he went for it, but for me it sounded crazy.”

Aydin joined Microsoft, and Milad opened the doors and ran the business solo. He did well enough for several years, but he grew restless. He sold the business and eventually landed at Apple’s Ireland offices.

Meanwhile, their sister, Aylin, was well into her career as a civil engineer. Family dinners were interesting, she recalled. Aydin raved about Microsoft, Milad praised Apple, and there she was between them, absorbing it all.

It reminded her a lot of when the siblings were young, how the adventurous Milad was always ready to jump into something new but also looked up to the steady Aydin, who was forging the path ahead. And how she was always somewhere in the middle, happily holding it all together, observing them and quietly plotting her own path but rarely quick to leap into her brothers’ schemes.

Though she didn’t see a future for herself at a technology company back then, she did remember being impressed with the way her oldest brother spoke about Microsoft.

“I was learning so much at my job and at the company—it was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wanted my siblings to have the same experiences,” Aydin said.

His persuasion plan had begun.