Microsoft has spent the past 25 years trying to shake up the game console market. The original Xbox, which launched on November 15th in 2001, took on an industry dominated by Sony and Nintendo. Twenty-five years later, Xbox finds itself in a similar position. It's not starting from scratch this time around, but to reach another 25-year milestone, it needs to do something radically different.

The original Xbox was radically different. Born out of a fear of Sony putting a PC in the living room, Microsoft built its first game console around familiar PC technology. A custom Intel Pentium III processor powered the original Xbox, alongside an Nvi …

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Microsoft is now rolling out Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR), an upscaling technology that competes with Nvidia's DLSS, for the Xbox Ally X, Xbox Ally X20, and select Windows Copilot Plus PCs, the company announced today. Auto SR is also getting some new features alongside this official release.

In April, Microsoft started testing Auto SR on the Xbox Ally X, but you could only use it while docked. The full release of Auto SR announced today now works while you're playing handheld and running on battery, and it also supports games running at 1080p. Microsoft does note that playing in handheld and at 1080p might lead to performance that …

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Rockstar Games is making Grand Theft Auto VI available on Xbox Cloud Gaming when it launches next week. While you'd normally assume that would mean Grand Theft Auto VI would be available to stream on phones, PCs, the web, Xbox consoles, and even TVs, it appears to be restricted to just Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One consoles.

That does mean that anyone with an older Xbox One console can stream Grand Theft Auto VI instead of having to upgrade to a PS5 or Xbox Series S / X console to play. Rockstar notes that Xbox Cloud Gaming will use the Xbox Series S graphics settings to stream to Xbox consoles.

Xbox's own announcement blog post only men …

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Protesters have broken into a construction site of a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam this morning. Members of the Geef Tegengas group helped organize the protest against the construction of three 85-meter data center towers in the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Reuters reports that around 100 people made it into the construction site, with some scaling a crane to place a "fuck AI" banner. Protesters also unfurled a "Microsoft powers genocide" banner on the construction site, and chanted "Microsoft has got to go" and "free Palestine."

Opposition to the new data center in Amsterdam comes more than a year after the city banned new data center …

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Microsoft is unveiling a new Xbox PC app that launches "up to 60 percent faster" than before, with an overhauled design to match new updates to Xbox Cloud Gaming on the web and smart TVs. Xbox Insiders will be able to start testing the updated Xbox PC app today, and the updated Xbox Cloud Gaming interface will start rolling out over the next few weeks.

Ever since Microsoft launched its Xbox Ally handheld devices last year, it was clear the Xbox PC app still needed a lot of work to feel more like an Xbox console experience on Windows. Microsoft has greatly simplified the app now, with a design that no longer feels like you're clicking a mous …

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While I wasn't expecting Microsoft to announce Windows 12 during its RTX Spark launch event last month, more than a few people were hoping to see something truly new. Between the growing frustration with Windows 11 and the muted response to Copilot Plus PCs, it's starting to feel like Microsoft needs to go bigger with its desktop OS.

Much of this year's Windows development has been focused on underlying performance improvements, after Microsoft acknowledged the bloat and reliability issues with Windows 11 and created a plan to fix them. That work is ongoing, and sources tell me there's now a big focus on quality for the next major release o …

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I revealed yesterday that the new Xbox Nano controller supports a Wi-Fi connection directly to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and now Microsoft is making it official today. Two new Xbox previews will let players try out using a phone as a controller on smart TVs, as well as cloud connect on the Xbox Nano to connect directly to cloud servers.

"Instead of a Bluetooth connection to your TV, cloud connect uses your Wi-Fi to connect directly to the cloud server running your game," says the Xbox team. "That can help reduce input latency, so gameplay may feel more responsive."

Players in the US will be able to preview the new cloud connect option for the Xbo …

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People, including on this staff, keep asking me with varying degrees of excitement or trepidation when the AI bubble will burst. I'll tell you what I tell them: If I knew that, I would make a life-changing bet on the market, levered up as far as I could, and then, after I made my money, go retire on a beach somewhere. Maybe run a cat sanctuary, who knows.

What I can tell you is that I read with interest a story in Bloomberg this morning: "Wall Street CEOs, Big Money Managers Divided Over AI Risks." The story itself is a roundup of stuff said at the 2026 Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit in Hong Kong. Here's what caught my attentio …

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Microsoft is about to launch its new Xbox Nano controller tomorrow, and the tiny device has a little secret. The Nano can connect directly to Xbox Cloud Gaming over Wi-Fi to improve latency. It's a feature Microsoft hasn't officially announced yet, but one I've been anticipating since the Xbox Nano leaked earlier this year.

The Nano will be able to connect directly to Microsoft's cloud servers to reduce latency, much like how Google's Stadia controllers used to work. This new cloud connect feature for the Nano is being privately tested on the new Xbox Cloud Gaming website, and it will require you to pair the controller over Wi-Fi to Microso …

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Even though I knew Microsoft's new Xbox Nano controller was tiny, I still gasped when I unboxed it a few days ago. The compact controller is small enough to slip into a pocket unnoticed, and it has been designed specifically for younger people, or for anyone with smaller hands.

I'm not young, but I do have small hands, and I've been surprised at how comfortable the Nano is during gaming sessions. At just over 5 inches long, almost everything on this controller has been shrunk down somehow. The ABXY buttons are ever so slightly smaller than a regular Xbox controller, and the thumbsticks feel like miniature versions. Microsoft hasn't changed …

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