TwitchCon returns to the San Diego Convention Center this weekend for the first time since 2019, and for those of you planning to attend, we hope to see you in person at Hall D, Booth 3033.
Meet Grounded’s Broodmother
Arachnophobes be on guard — Obsidian Entertainment will be giving TwitchCon attendees an opportunity to meet the (larger than) life-sized Broodmother spider to snap a selfie with and escape intact. If you haven’t had a chance to experience Grounded’s 1.0 update yet, you’ll find demo stations running, and you can meet members of Obsidian’s community team.
Creators Welcome
For Twitch Affiliates and Partners in attendance, we’d love to meet you! The Xbox Creator team will be set up at the booth during show floor hours all weekend; drop by and set up an appointment to meet the team.
Streaming Schedule
Even if you won’t be in San Diego this weekend, the Xbox Stream Team has a full slate of livestreams for you to enjoy. Meg and Mav will be joined by several of your favorite Twitch creators throughout the weekend, broadcasting some of their favorite new games (including an early look at Scorn) on the Xbox Twitch channel. The streams are scheduled to kick off on Saturday and Sunday, October 8 and 9, 2022 at 10 a.m. PT, tune in to watch at twitch.tv/xbox.
How to Find Us
The PC Game Pass booth is set up in Hall D, at Booth 3033; that’s right next to the Loot Cave.
New gaming features in Microsoft Edge, the best browser for gamers
Did you know there are more than 3 billion gamers in the world? That is almost half of the population on the entire planet! This global community of people share a passion for gaming, and it only continues to grow: Two-thirds of Americans — people of all ages, races, genders, abilities and backgrounds — play video games, which shows the diversity of players. Seventy-five percent of U.S. households have at least one gamer and watching online gameplay is as popular as watching broadcast sports.
Microsoft is all in on gaming and as we recently announced, we’re building a platform for the next 20 years that offers the games players want on any device they want to play. Our teams throughout the company are continuing to collaborate to deliver awesome gaming experiences across devices, whether you like to play on your Xbox console, Windows PC, phone or tablet. As part of this exciting effort, Microsoft Edge is evolving to meet gamers’ needs and help bring gaming to everyone, everywhere.
Microsoft Edge is the best browser for gamers, and I am thrilled to share exclusive, new gaming features that are rolling out today for you to discover, learn, watch and play games directly from the browser on your desktop device. Plus, we partnered closely with Xbox to provide an even better, more connected experience when playing cloud games.
A new homepage built for gamers
With the new gaming homepage in Microsoft Edge, you can get right to gaming as soon as you launch your browser. It is personalized to your interests and designed to keep you connected to the content you care about like news, game guides, live streams, game highlights, tournaments, and upcoming and newly released games. And if you sign in with your Xbox account, you will get Xbox content such as games you might like and easy access to the Xbox Cloud Gaming library — including recently played games and related content. If you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, you can even launch and start playing games with Xbox Cloud Gaming right in the browser.
Try the new gaming homepage by clicking on the Gaming header in the navigation bar at the top of the page.
Level up with clearer and crisper graphics
Great games transport us to other worlds through immersive visuals. We understand how important it is to keep innovating to achieve more vivid, realistic graphics because that makes for a better gaming experience. We knew this needed to be a key focus when we set out to build the best browser for gamers. That is why I am so proud of our team’s work to bring you Clarity Boost, an exclusive feature to Microsoft Edge that enhances console games with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Clarity Boost is a spatial upscaling enhancement that makes streaming games look clearer and sharper while playing in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and 11. It uses a set of client-side scaling improvements to improve the visual quality of the video stream. Clarity Boost allows you to enjoy the most advanced games on the market and experience amazing graphics right from Microsoft Edge whether you are on your high-end PC gaming rig or your tablet. And, thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with Epic Games, you can try and play Fortnite today with no subscription needed.[1]Jump in to play with your friends. Create your free Xbox account and activate Clarity Boost to experience some amazing graphics.
While in the game, click on the (…) in the upper left-hand corner of the game to enable Clarity Boost.
Powering better performance for Windows PC gaming
When playing a game on their Windows PC, gamers want and deserve the best performance possible and that requires maximizing their PC resources for the gameplay experience. Through a new setting in Efficiency mode, Microsoft Edge helps improve gaming performance on Windows 10 and 11 to help keep games running fast and smooth by automatically reducing browser resource usage when a PC game is launched. With this feature, you do not need to close the browser to play and reopen it when you are done. As soon as you close the game, Microsoft Edge will exit Efficiency mode and get you right back to where you left off.
To enable this, just go to your browser settings and enable Efficiency mode for PC Gaming under the System and Performance Tab.
One-click access to free casual games
I still remember the first time I played Microsoft Solitaire, back in the old days of Windows 3.1. We built Microsoft Edge for all gamers, including people like me who are not hard-core gamers but enjoy a fun casual game occasionally. So, we created a dedicated Games menu where you can find a variety of free-to-play casual and arcade games. The Games menu gives you one-click access to classics like Microsoft Solitaire, Microsoft Jewel, Microsoft Mahjong and our exclusive Microsoft Edge Surf Game. Start playing your go-to game now or browse to discover your new favorite game and enjoy a little break between tasks during the day. To access the Games menu, click on the more options menu (…) in the upper right-hand corner of the browser and then select Games from the list.
We cannot wait to hear what you think about our new gaming features[2] — and stay tuned for more updates. Remember, if you’re running Windows 10 or 11, you already have Microsoft Edge installed, so launch it to check it out and see why Microsoft Edge is the best browser for gamers. For those of you who haven’t tried Microsoft Edge yet, download it and let us know what you think! Game on!
[1] A game controller may be needed to play Xbox Cloud Games in Microsoft Edge.
[2] You can share your feedback from the browser window by going to … menu > Help and feedback > Send feedback.
It’s lights out and away we go in Miami! PC Game Pass has signed up with BWT Alpine F1 Team for one incredible challenge this weekend, from May 6 through 8 at the 2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix — a challenge only the fastest fans will be able to accomplish.
All week long, BWT Alpine F1 Teams Twitter and Instagram channels will show fans what to expect with the Fast Track to PC Game Pass Challenge ahead of the inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix. Numerous QR codes will be placed on the surface of both A522 cars — all waiting to be scanned by your mobile device for your chance at 1-month, 3-months or 6-months of PC Game Pass.
On Friday, May 6, the challenge begins when the A522 hits the track for practice for the very-first time in Miami, with 1-month of PC Game Pass available to win. Alongside this, Xbox and PC Game Pass will be taking over BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Instagram channel, with special guest Sonja (@omgitsfirefoxx) posting live from the team’s garage in Miami!
Be warned: catching one of the codes is no easy feat and will be the test of a true pro! If you want to risk your chances at a bigger prize, wait until Saturday’s Qualifying session and scan the QR codes to unlock 3-months of PC Game Pass. And on Sunday, it’s 6-months of PC Game Pass! All motorsports’ fans, whether tuning-in on TV or in-person, will need lightning-fast reflexes and a locked-in “catch it if you can” mindset while the A522 cars flash by. QR codes will unlock PC Game Pass for new members only and you can only redeem one code — so redeem wisely.
If you are at the track, fans can try to grab a custom PC Game Pass x BWT Alpine F1 Team t-shirt with a retro design inspired by the undeniable energy and liveliness of Miami. Lastly, on Saturday, BWT Alpine F1 Team will introduce a very special surprise on their social channels which PC fans don’t want to miss. Stay up to date on the latest by following @AlpineF1Team, #GamePassHasPCGames or #PowerYourDreams across all social media platforms!
BWT Alpine F1 Team Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said, “We’re very excited to work on this unique collaboration with our partner PC Game Pass at the first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend in Miami. The digital world is continually evolving and, as a Formula 1 team, it is vital to remain at the forefront of this forever changing landscape. It’s great that we can work in unison with the Xbox team on something like this and it’s only made possible through our esteemed partnership with Microsoft.”
Microsoft is a long-time valued partner of the BWT Alpine F1 team. We at PC Game Pass are honored to celebrate with both Microsoft and BWT Alpine F1 Team in Miami and are thrilled to bring an exhilarating gaming experience to one of the most electrifying sports in the world today.
In addition to availability on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Pass for PC (Xbox Game Pass for PC is currently in Beta), Microsoft Flight Simulator will also be coming to Steam on August 18. We are thrilled to announce that Steam pre-orders for the Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Deluxe editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator start today!
Listening to the community has been a priority for the development team since the announcement of Microsoft Flight Simulator in June 2019. Two of the most requested features we’ve been hearing about from the Community are TrackIR and VR support. Today we are excited to announce that Microsoft Flight Simulator will have TrackIR support available on day one, and VR support will be available later this year in time for the launch of the HP Reverb G2!
TrackIR
TrackIR is the premier head tracking solution delivering full six degree of freedom (6DOF) camera control for an ultra-immersive simulator experience. TrackIR allows simmers to enjoy a low latency mouse free look around with Microsoft Flight Simulator in full 4K/HDR, while still allowing easy interaction with a suite of hardware peripherals.
HP Reverb G2
Created by HP in collaboration with Microsoft and Valve, the upcoming Reverb G2 headset has a bright, high resolution display, excellent tracking, and immersive audio to take maximum advantage of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s incredible visuals and fully 3D soundscape. The HP Reverb G2 will be available later this fall and the VR update will be a free update for all Microsoft Flight Simulator players.
In addition to Track IR and VR, we also continue to work with partners like Honeycomb Aeronautical, Logitech G, Thrustmaster, Virtual Fly and many other manufacturers to further improve your Microsoft Flight Simulator experience. We are excited to support Honeycomb’s upcoming Bravo Throttle Quadrant and Thrustmaster’s new TCA Sidestick and Quadrant Airbus edition peripherals. We are also committed to supporting existing peripherals and home cockpits via an updated SimConnect.
Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio are committed to the community, and the ongoing support of Microsoft Flight Simulator with experience enhancing features like those we’ve announced today. But we have even more planned post-launch! In the future, we will update our development roadmap with continued simulator updates such as themed DLC bundles, free world updates and more. We will be sharing more news in the coming months.
Free World Updates
Microsoft Flight Simulator heralds a new era of data-driven flight simulation. One of the exciting implications of this is that the data that makes up the world is always improving, and players can look forward to a simulator that evolves over time. Thanks to our partnership with Bing, players will enjoy new, even better terrain, and an ever evolving, machine learning-fueled simulator that grows over time.
We have so much ahead for Microsoft Flight Simulator, but even on day one simmers will get highly detailed aircraft, a new checklist system, live air traffic, dynamic weather, new aerodynamic modeling, as well as all the many other features we shared in our launch date announcement, all within a beautifully crafted and rendered world. Whether you are new to flight simulation or an aviation pro, the sky is calling in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Ashen Winds is the latest Sea of Thieves monthly update, coming July 29 and free for all players across Xbox One, Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass and Steam.
Powerful Ashen Lords arrive on the Sea of Thieves in raging flames and blinding ash clouds – and their skulls can be taken and wielded as fiery weapons!
Accessibility improvements led by single-stick control, alongside new Pirate Emporium pets and discounts, round out this monthly offering.
This month’s Sea of Thievescontent is being served up hot – literally! Captain Flameheart’s manipulation of Stitcher Jim, Duke and countless other pirates on the seas has finally granted him the knowledge and resources he needs to transform some of his most trusted underlings into Ashen Lords. This July, pirates are tasked with taking down a fearsome foursome in Sea of Thieves’ latest monthly update Ashen Winds, available today for all Sea of Thieves players across Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam and with Xbox Game Pass.
Lording It Up
July’s update centers on the rise of the Ashen Lords: four of Flameheart’s followers boosted by the blistering energy of the Ashen Curse, leaving them capable of causing huge destruction. These powerful skeletal foes have emerged across the Sea of Thieves and will strike back with fire, ash and flaming rocks at any pirates who dare to challenge them. The Ashen Lords have distinct personalities and different abilities to anything else seen on the seas, so seafarers must stay sharp at all times to ensure their defeat.
These emergent enemies will appear on islands indicated on the horizon by a raging tornado cloud, and will remain on the Sea of Thieves as a permanent threat to pirates. The Ashen Lords’ fires are far from burning out, and their hot-headed ways are set to rain fiery terror down on players for months to come!
All the Hot Gossip
In combat, an Ashen Lord can spit flame at its opponents – but even after defeat, it’s rumored that the Ashen Winds Skull left behind is potent enough to use as a deadly weapon. Take the cursed cranium and aim it at your enemies to use its fire for your own purposes, but be warned: constant use will drain its power, and reduce its substantial value to the Order of Souls. So if it’s the gold and reputation you’re after, a little restraint will go a long way. If not… fire at will!
Accessibility Additions
In a continued push to open the seas to everyone, more accessibility options are being added to Sea of Thieves this month. The most notable is support for play with a single analog stick, where players can opt to, well, play with just a single analog stick. All ship, pirate and menu controls are moved to your stick of choice, allowing anyone not comfortable with a traditional controller to reduce the number of held inputs required to set sail.
In addition there’s a new auto-centering camera option that ensures it always tends towards the horizon, and an auto-float mode to keep pirates with a dislike of the watery depths bobbing on the surface in a virtual lifejacket. With the number of options in the menu, there’s also a handy button to reset all accessibility options to their default state.
Pirate Emporium Scorchers
Ashen Curse pets are sizzling onto the scene with July’s update, and these charmingly charred critters are joined in the Emporium by new roleplay emotes for your pirates, based on the mannerisms of some of your favorite Sea of Thieves characters. If you’ve ever wanted to prop up the bar just like Duke or delve deeper into roleplaying as a Trading Company Emissary, you’re in luck.
Meanwhile, if you’ve been hankering to dress your four-legged friend in something that reminds you of your many-tentacled enemies, look no further: Kraken cat outfits have reached the Emporium, so your cute kitty can trot about in a dapper new outfit inspired by a terrible behemoth!
There’s also a sale coming to the ship livery aisle of the Pirate Emporium, with a range of Rare-inspired ship bundles (paying tribute to games as diverse as Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata and Perfect Dark) getting a sweet 35% discount to mark Rare’s 35th anniversary. Check out the Pirate Emporium page for all your window shopping needs.
Find Out More
For more information on the AshenWinds update, including full release notes, visit the Sea of Thieves website. The update is available for free to all Sea of Thieves players who have bought the game on Xbox One, on Windows 10 PC or via Steam, or players who have access to it with Xbox Game Pass. Simply download and install the latest Sea of Thieves update to get access.
New to Sea of Thieves? Join the fun with our Maiden Voyage, a narrative-driven tutorial experience separate from Adventure and Arena modes. New Sea of Thieves players will begin their travels within this scenario, which provides guidance and information to fledgling sailors. Learn more about Sea of Thieves at www.xbox.com/seaofthieves, or join the ongoing adventure at www.seaofthieves.com where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!
Games are a source of joy, inspiration, and social connection. They have the power to bring us together, create empathy, and strengthen our social fabric. As we prepare for the next generation, our efforts to make gaming more inclusive, more immersive, more connected, and more social are as relevant and important as ever.
At Xbox, we listen to what you – players, game developers, and content creators – tell us you want from the future of gaming. Based on your feedback, we’re building a future where you and your friends can play the deepest, most immersive and interactive games ever created across your Xbox console, PC, and mobile devices.
At the dawn of the next generation, it’s important to be clear about what you can expect from the future of Xbox.
Our vision has one hero at the heart of it all: You.
And today, I want to share our commitments to you:
You will always be welcome. We are building Xbox for you—players from all walks of life, everywhere in the world. We want to make your Xbox community safe, accessible, and welcoming – a place where you can have fun. As we say in our community standards, harassment and hate take many forms, but none have a home on Xbox. Should you feel others are behaving in ways that violate the standards, our safety team will investigate your report and support you 24/7/365 around the globe. And we continue to accelerate new technology to reduce hate speech and toxicity, giving you the tools to create the safe gaming community you want to play in.
In addition to tools, we commit to bringing more diverse stories to Xbox for you to enjoy. We are empowering creators of diverse backgrounds to develop new stories, advocating for an authentic and respectful representation in games, and championing accessibility so that all can play. Additionally, more than 300,000 Xbox Ambassadors give their time and passion to making Xbox the best place to play and we invite all players to join us on that mission. We still have so much more work to do and will not stop until everyone who plays feels welcome, heard, and valued.
Your games will look and play best on Xbox Series X. Xbox Series X is designed to deliver a new level of fidelity, feel, performance and precision never seen before in console gaming. All games will look and play best on Xbox Series X – whether they come from our 15 Xbox Game Studios, like Halo Infinite, or from our world-class publisher and developer partners. Packing over 12 teraflops of GPU power including new technologies like hardware-accelerated Direct X raytracing and variable rate shading, and with four times the processing power of an Xbox One X, Xbox Series X enables developers to provide you with transformative gaming experiences through richer, more dynamic living worlds, more realistic AI and animations, and support for higher frame rates including support for up to 120 FPS.
Xbox Series X also enables you to spend less time waiting and more time playing, as it virtually eliminates load times with the 40x boost in I/O throughput from last generation. With our custom next-generation SSD and Xbox Velocity Architecture, nearly every aspect of playing games is improved. Game worlds are larger, more dynamic and load in a flash, and fast travel is just that – fast. The Xbox Velocity Architecture also powers new platform capabilities like Quick Resume, which enables you to seamlessly switch between multiple titles and resume instantly from where you last left off without waiting through long loading screens. Right now, Xbox Series X is in the hands of our 15 Xbox Game Studios teams and thousands of third-party developers, empowering them to create a new generation of blockbuster games for you to enjoy.
You play new games day one with Xbox Game Pass. All Xbox Game Studios titles launch into Xbox Game Pass the same day as their global release, so you decide whether to purchase each game separately or play them all with your Xbox Game Pass membership. Xbox Game Studios franchises that will launch into Game Pass day one of release include Halo, Forza, Age of Empires, Gears of War, Minecraft, Hellblade, The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts, Microsoft Flight Simulator, State of Decay, Wasteland, Minecraft DungeonsandSea of Thieves—and more new franchises in early development. So, when Halo Infinite launches, you and your friends can decide whether to purchase the game or play it with Xbox Game Pass.
You won’t be forced into the next generation. We want every Xbox player to play all the new games from Xbox Game Studios. That’s why Xbox Game Studios titles we release in the next couple of years—like Halo Infinite—will be available and play great on Xbox Series X and Xbox One. We won’t force you to upgrade to Xbox Series X at launch to play Xbox exclusives.
Your games will not be left behind, thanks to backward compatibility. You will be able to play four generations of games on Xbox Series X on day one. That makes it the largest launch lineup for any new console ever, with thousands of games to play. Our backward compatibility engineers have spent years devising innovative ways for modern, next-gen technology to make the games library you’re building today even better, at no additional cost and with no work from developers. It’s our intent for all Xbox One games that do not require Kinect to play on Xbox Series X at the launch of the console. And because of the unprecedented power of Xbox Series X, most of your favorite games will load faster and look and perform many times better on the new console.
Your Xbox One gaming accessories come into the future with you, too. The Xbox Elite Controller and Xbox Adaptive Controller all work on Xbox Series X, so you don’t have to purchase new controllers. We believe that your investments in gaming should move with you into the next generation.
You can buy games once at no added cost. With our new Smart Delivery technology, you don’t need to buy the same game twice – once for the current console generation and once for the next generation. You always have the best available version of supported games on whatever Xbox console you are playing on, at no additional cost. If you own a title that supports Smart Delivery like Destiny 2, Gears 5 and Halo Infinite, you automatically have access to the version that plays best on your Xbox console. Highly anticipated games from the world’s biggest developers, like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Avengers and more have already committed to supporting Smart Delivery and more will be announced soon.
Xbox Play Anywhere digital titles also enable you to buy once and play on both Xbox consoles and Windows 10 PCs.
You choose how to jump into the next generation of gaming. We hear from you that you prefer choice and value. With Xbox All Access, you can get Xbox Series X, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a low monthly price with no up-front costs, no finance charges and no hidden fees. You get to enjoy an instant library of over 100 high-quality games, join friends with online multiplayer, and experience new Xbox Game Studios titles the day they release, including Halo Infinite, on the fastest, most powerful Xbox ever.
You are in control of a healthy and balanced gaming lifestyle. If you are a parent, guardian or caregiver, the new Xbox Family Settings app (Preview) for iOS and Android provides a simple and convenient way to create child accounts, customize family settings, and ensure that your kids have access to gaming that you feel is appropriate.
You will get more from your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Finally, today we’re announcing that this September, in supported countries, we’re bringing Xbox Game Pass and Project xCloud together at no additional cost for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. With cloud gaming in Game Pass Ultimate, you will be able to play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles on your phone or tablet. And because Xbox Live connects across devices, you can play along with the nearly 100 million Xbox Live players around the world. So when Halo Infinite launches, you and your friends can play together and immerse yourselves in the Halo universe as Master Chief—anywhere you go and across devices.
Cloud gaming in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate means your games are no longer locked to the living room. You can connect more than ever with friends and family through gaming. And just like you do with your movie and music streaming services, when cloud gaming launches into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can continue your game wherever you left off on any of your devices.
When you add it all up, Xbox Series X is the only next generation console that lets you play new blockbuster games at the highest console fidelity, enjoy the latest blockbuster games the day they launch for one monthly price, play four generations of your games at higher fidelity than ever before, and play with friends wherever you want across your TV, PC, and mobile device. And with Xbox All Access, you can jump into the next generation for one low monthly payment and no up-front costs.
The future of gaming has never been more exciting and limitless. It’s a future you’ll explore on your terms, not constrained by restrictive policies. Where your gaming legacy will not be left behind and where you will not be locked out of new exclusive Xbox Game Studios games even if you choose to stay with your current console for a while.
It’s a future where you and your friends play the most immersive, responsive, and vivid games together on every screen in your life, and where games reach across the world and bring you stories you’ve never experienced before. It’s a future in which you get more value from your games. And where everyone is welcome.
We hope you’ll join us next Thursday, July 23rd for the Xbox Games Showcase for the first look at the Halo Infinite Campaign and more.
Start preparing for take-off. Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio are thrilled to announce that Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on August 18, and you can pre-order on Windows 10* or pre-install with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) today.
We have been thrilled and humbled by the support and dedication that has fueled the Flight Sim community for the past 38 years. Since the launch of the very first Microsoft Flight Simulator in 1982, we knew it was finally the right time to develop the next-generation version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. We have the right tools, technology, partners and hardware to release the most realistic and authentic flight simulator to date. Microsoft Flight Simulator features include:
Vivid and Detailed Landscapes – Immerse yourself in the vast and beautiful world that is our planet with more than 37 thousand airports, 1.5 billion buildings, 2 trillion trees, mountains, roads, rivers and more.
A Living World – Earth is vibrant and ever-changing and so is the world of Microsoft Flight Simulator which includes live traffic, real-time weather and animals.
Highly Detailed Aircraft – Hone your pilot skills in a variety of aircraft from light planes to commercial jets with comprehensive flight models. Every aircraft includes highly detailed and accurate cockpits with realistic instrumentation.
New Checklist System – From pro to beginner, scale your level from full manual to full assist with interactive and highlighted instrument guidance and checklist.
Dynamic Weather – The new weather engine enables users to switch on the live weather mode to experience real-time weather including accurate wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rain and more.
New Day & Night Engine – Experience flight at any time of day or year allowing for night VFR, visual flight rules, navigation.
Aerodynamic Modeling – A state-of-the-art physics engine with over 1,000 control surfaces per plane allows for a truly realistic experience.
Three Editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator
Explore all of this and more with any of the three editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard Edition ($59.99 USD) includes 20 highly detailed planes with unique flight models and 30 hand-crafted airports. The Standard Edition will be available on day one with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta).
The Deluxe Edition ($89.99 USD) includes everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator’s standard edition plus five additional highly accurate planes with unique flight models and five additional handcrafted international airports.
The Premium Deluxe Edition ($119.99 USD) includes everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard Edition plus 10 additional highly accurate planes with unique flight models and 10 additional handcrafted international airports.
In addition to its digital versions, Microsoft Flight Simulator will be available as a retail disc version at European stores via Aerosoft. For more information on these retail disc versions in Europe, please visit the Aerosoft website.
Your fleet of planes and detailed airports from whatever edition you choose are all available on launch day as well as access to the ongoing content updates that will continually evolve and expand the flight simulation platform.
Enhanced Airports
Airplanes
Whether you are new to flight simulation or you are an aviation pro, the sky is calling you in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Today, on National Solitaire Day, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the beloved Microsoft Solitaire and saying ‘Thank You!’ to all the players over the past 30 years!
With a worldwide appeal, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, as it is known today, hosts over 35 million players each month, from more than 200+ countries and territories, in 65 different languages. And after 30 years, Microsoft Solitaire is still one of the most played games on the planet every day, with more than 100 million hands played daily around the globe.
The Solitaire we all know and love was first called Windows Solitaire on Windows 3.0 in 1990. The game helped people learn how to drag and drop items on their computer screens using a mouse, which was novel at the time.
Today, at the start of year 31, Microsoft Solitaire is played on computers, laptops, tablets, and phones in every corner of the globe, arguably by one of the most diverse gaming audiences in the world. Its Microsoft Solitaire’s unmatched familiarity and availability that’s contributed to its unending popularity, with more than half a billion players in the past decade alone, which no doubt added to the game being inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame in 2019.
We’re celebrating the 30th Anniversary by inviting all players to join our record-breaking event today, with our goal to reach the most games of Microsoft Solitaire completed in one day. Join us as we embark on this record-breaking mission by downloading Microsoft Solitaire Collection for free on Windows, iOS, or Android, or play right through your browser! You can also visit our 30th Anniversary Event page on Facebook for more details and extra Anniversary fun. And don’t miss Major Nelson’s interview with a pair of Solitaire experts discussing the coveted winnability rate of the game.
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Whether you play to take a break and relax or to test your brain for a challenge, we offer you, our players, a sincere round of applause for your passion and dedication. For that, there’s something new that I couldn’t be more pleased to introduce for the Microsoft Solitaire community: Microsoft Solitaire t-shirts and mugs are available now for the first time ever!
No matter where you shuffle the deck from – whether it’s the US, Japan, Brazil, China, or the UK – coincidentally, that’s in order the territories with the most Microsoft Solitaire players, or the Cocos Islands, Anguilla, Vatican City, Barbados, or New Zealand, in order the territories with the most players per capita (I love this stat!) – thank you for creating this amazing community!
It really is something special that a game called Microsoft Solitaire has brought together so many people for so many years.
Enjoy your next hand of Microsoft Solitaire.
Microsoft Solitaire Collection
Xbox Game Studios
☆☆☆☆☆1
★★★★★
Check out the new look and feel of Microsoft Solitaire Collection on Windows 10! Solitaire remains the most played computer game of all time, and for good reason. Simple rules and straightforward gameplay make it easy to pick up for everyone. Solitaire has been part of Windows for more than 25 years, and the Microsoft Solitaire Collection makes it the best experience to date with five different card games in one: Klondike This version is the timeless classic that many people just call “Solitaire.” Try to clear all the cards from the table using one or three-card draw, while using traditional scoring or the Vegas scoring system. Spider Eight columns of cards await your attempts to clear them with the fewest moves possible. Start out playing with a single suit until you’re comfortable, and then see how you fare when using two or even all four suits in a game. FreeCell Use four extra cells to move cards around as you try to clear all cards from the table. More strategic than the Klondike version, FreeCell rewards players who think several moves ahead. TriPeaks Select cards in a sequence, either up or down, to earn points and clear the board. How many boards can you clear before you run out of deals? Pyramid Pair two cards that add up to 13 in order to remove them from the board. Try to reach the top of the pyramid. See how many boards you can clear and how high you can score in this highly addictive card game! Daily Challenges Players receive new challenges each day. Complete enough Daily Challenges in a month to earn badges and compete with your friends. Star Club Even more challenges arranged in collections and packs you can unlock by earning stars. Choose Your Theme The Microsoft Solitaire Collection features several beautiful themes, from the simplicity of “Classic” to the serenity of an Aquarium that comes to life before you while you play. You can even create custom themes from your own photos! Xbox Live Integration Sign in with your Microsoft account to earn achievements, compete with your friends on the leaderboards, and track your personal gameplay statistics. If you sign in with a Microsoft account, your progress is stored in the cloud so you can play the game on any device without missing a beat!
We’re delighted to announce that our ever-evolving pirate adventure Sea of Thieves will be launching on Steam on June 3, 2020. For over two years the members of our community have been sailing freely into fantastical adventure with Xbox Game Pass and on Xbox One and Windows 10, but as we go full steam ahead we look forward to onboarding a whole new community of PC players. We can’t wait to welcome these eager new pirates into the fold and watch them discover Sea of Thieves’ wide open world for themselves.
With a player base of 10 million pirates and counting and a host of exciting plans for the future, the wind is now in Sea of Thieves’ sails. Since launching on Xbox One and Windows 10 in March 2018, the game has been on a hugely eventful journey. From the arrival of its first free new adventures in The Hungering Deep to the enormous Anniversary Update that introduced Tall Tales and The Arena, and then on to the introduction of more regular monthly content releases in 2019 – most recently with Ships of Fortune in April – it’s evolved into the definitive pirate adventure – growing stronger with each slew of additions and ways to play.
With this in mind and to celebrate everything it means to be sailing our seas in 2020, we’ve created a brand new Sea of Thieves showcase trailer, which you can watch above or on YouTube here.
Set to the track ‘New Legends’ by rock band Gold Coin, this new trailer is designed to take you on a tour of some of Sea of Thieves’ most unique and awe-inspiring moments. Anything can happen in a session on the seas: you can fight immense Megalodon battles, tangle with a Kraken, raid a Skeleton Fort, chase down other unsuspecting player ships to steal their loot (or fall prey to another crew with the same idea), or change gears to take on fast-paced PvP gameplay at its purest in The Arena. If you’ve got the skill and the mettle to overcome these challenges, you might even reach the heights of Pirate Legend – unlocking exclusive cosmetics, locations and quests reserved for only the best of buccaneers.
When it launches on Steam with a price tag of $39.99 USD/£34.99 GBP/€39.99 EUR, Sea of Thieves will be opening up the virtual pirate life to more players than ever before by sailing into brand new territories. Sea of Thieves is the biggest new Xbox IP of this generation, and we’re proud to be forging on through uncharted territory with a wave of new Steam players incoming and even more feature-packed updates on the horizon! For more details and answers to your burning questions, check out our Steam FAQ on the Sea of Thieves community page on Steam.
New to Sea of Thieves? Join the fun with our Maiden Voyage, a narrative-driven tutorial experience separate from Adventure and Arena modes. New Sea of Thieves players will begin their travels within this scenario, which provides guidance and information to fledgling sailors. Learn more about Sea of Thieves at www.xbox.com/seaofthieves, or join the ongoing adventure at www.seaofthieves.com where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!
Halo 2: Anniversary is Available Now on PC as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta), on the Microsoft Store and Steam.
Halo 2: Anniversary is the the impeccably remastered edition of the original Halo 2 release alongside Halo: The Master Chief Collection on console in 2014.
The game on PC comes equipped with new features, optimizations, customizations and more built for the platform.
The last few months have been eventful for Halo fans on PC, as Halo: The Master Chief Collection released in December 2019 with Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary joining its younger sibling in the collection via a surprise release on March 3. The Halo fun continues as Halo 2: Anniversary releases today as the next installment in Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Xbox Game Pass, on the Microsoft Store and on Steam.
The game that changed online multiplayer forever, Halo 2: Anniversary is the impeccably remastered edition of the original Halo 2 game released alongside Halo: The Master Chief Collection on console in 2014. Following the Chief’s victory in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, experience the pivotal battle in the Human-Covenant war to defend Earth, where the Master Chief finds an unlikely ally on a new Halo ringworld and fights to prevent the destruction of humankind. Enjoy legendary multiplayer with seven remastered multiplayer maps from Halo 2: Anniversary and 25 multiplayer maps from the original Halo 2, as well as the ability to toggle between the remastered graphics in the Anniversary edition and the graphics from the original Halo 2 campaign.
Halo 2: Anniversary on PC comes equipped with new features, optimizations, and customizations built for the platform. The game looks and plays better than ever at 60 frames-per-second (or greater) with 4K UHD support, and players can fine-tune their experience with a vast array of options, including customizable mouse and keyboard support, ultrawide support, FOV customization and more.
Like all titles in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC, players will have a few different ways to experience Halo 2: Anniversary depending on their platform of choice:
Xbox Game Pass – Join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) and get Halo 2: Anniversary, the next chapter in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4 will also be included in your membership and will be available on each game’s respective release date, completing the collection in 2020.
Microsoft Store and Steam –The Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundle is available today for $39.99 USD, which includes Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and now Halo 2: Anniversary, plus the remaining titles as they launch next year. Halo 2: Anniversary can also be purchased individually for $9.99 USD.
Thank you to Halo Insiders who’ve shared feedback and participated in hands-on testing of pre-release builds on our journey to bring Halo 2: Anniversary to Halo: The Master Chief Collection! The community’s support and involvement through public “flights” over the past several months has been critical to ensuring Halo 2: Anniversary offers the best experience possible. If you’re interested in joining the flighting process for future releases, sign up at HaloInsider.com.
