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Microsoft's Latest Round Of Layoffs May Have Killed A Brand New Age Of Empires Game
Rumors suggest World's Edge might have been working on a new entry, after news that its current project has been cancelled
Hitachi Solutions achieves the 2026-2027 Microsoft AI Business Solutions Inner Circle award.
/PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Solutions, has been selected for this AI Business Solution's 2026-2027 Microsoft Inner Circle membership. Participation within Inner...
Hitachi Solutions achieves the 2026-2027 Microsoft AI Business Solutions Inner Circle award.
/PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi Solutions, has been selected for this AI Business Solution's 2026-2027 Microsoft Inner Circle membership. Participation within Inner...
Microsoft files patent for "ad-credit" system to show ads on PC and Xbox without disrupting gameplay
After viewing content, players would receive a "credit" for a designated period of ad-free playtime
Microsoft launches 12-inch Surface Pro with Snapdragon X2 Plus & 5G, 13-inch Surface Laptop too
Microsoft is rolling out refreshes to its smaller Surface Laptop and Surface Pro machines powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus...
Microsoft unveils new Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch with Snapdragon X2 Plus, brighter screens, and 5G options
The company is launching its new "entry premium" Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, both starting at over $1,000.
Microsoft's New Surface Pro 12 And Surface Laptop 13 Feature Snapdragon X2 Plus Chips
Microsoft's smaller Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 13 are getting a much-needed chip upgrade.
Microsoft refreshes its smaller Surface Pro and Laptop with Qualcomm’s X2 Plus
Microsoft’s smaller Surface devices keep the same design with upgraded internals
Verizon is investing $70 million in free AI training for job seekers and small businesses
The telecom company is partnering with IBM, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI to offer no-cost AI courses through community nonprofits
Microsoft plans $10 billion-plus Gulf investment with focus on resilience
Microsoft is planning to invest more than $10 billion across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait between now and 2030, including in cloud and AI infrastructure, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
Microsoft: September Windows updates break Always On VPN connections
Microsoft warned that the September 2026 security updates may also break Always On VPN connections on some Windows 11 systems.
New Adtech From Microsoft Would Interrupt Your Game at 'Promoted Content Trigger Events'
Fantastic news for everyone who loves ads in their video games.
Microsoft is killing an Office app you've used for decades
Microsoft's advice for saving your work turns it into something you can't change
Microsoft lays off 300 employees in WA
Microsoft cuts 268 Xbox roles as new CEO Asha Sharma tries to revamp the gaming division.
State Of Decay 3 Studio Announces It's Now Free From Xbox And Employee-Owned
The studio behind open-world zombie series State of Decay confirmed it has completed its separation from Microsoft
More Xbox Layoffs; Activision Takes Over 'Halo'
The Microsoft-owned gamemaker is in the process of eliminating 3,200 jobs.
More Xbox Layoffs; Activision Takes Over 'Halo'
The Microsoft-owned gamemaker is in the process of eliminating 3,200 jobs.
Microsoft starts a new round of job cuts
Microsoft started a new round of layoffs on Tuesday, primarily in its Xbox gaming division but also including roles in other units such as Cloud + AI.
With new Macs, Apple aims to take on Microsoft, Nvidia in a rush to lower AI costs
When Apple's new desktop computers start shipping Tuesday, the company's executives will make an unusual pitch to corporate buyers: They are cheaper than renting data centers.
With new Macs, Apple aims to take on Microsoft, Nvidia in a rush to lower AI costs
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - When Apple's new desktop computers start shipping Tuesday, the company's executives will make an unusual pitch to corporate buyers: They are cheaper than renting data centers. Apple's upgraded Mac Minis and Mac Studios which can cost nearly $20,000 and handle AI tasks locally will go head-to-head against new desktop machines that Nvidia and PC makers are rolling out, expected to be the focus of a Microsoft Windows event in San Francisco next month.
Microsoft planning Xbox layoffs today.
Microsoft is due to announce another round of Xbox layoffs today, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The cuts will reportedly be part of a larger restructuring, with The Information reporting that Microsoft plans to “consolidate several of its game studios.” Today’s layoffs will reportedly affect hundreds of employees, and are part of the 3,200 Xbox layoffs that Microsoft is planning by the end of June 2027.
Exclusive: Xbox to Cut Hundreds of Jobs, Consolidate Game Studios
Xbox is planning to lay off hundreds of employees this week in its second major staff reduction this year, according to someone briefed on the plans. The Microsoft-owned firm also plans to consolidate several of its game studios, this person said. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma in July told staff she would eliminate 1,600 roles by the end of the year on top of 1,600 roles the company cut that month.
Why NuoData Believes Enterprises Need a Different Way to Connect Data, AI, and Automation — Not Another Place to Store It
NuoData’s leadership team sat down to answer six questions about the platform’s origins, its position alongside Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric and Google Cloud, and where they believe enterprise data and AI architecture is headed next. The answers have been lightly edited for length. NuoData describes itself as an end-to-end enterprise Data, AI and Agentic orchestration […]
Microsoft patents idea for in-game PC and Xbox adverts shown during downtime "trigger events"
Microsoft may soon show ads during downtime moments in PC and Xbox games, similar to free-to-play mobile games.
Microsoft: September updates break File History backup feature
Microsoft warned that the built-in File History backup feature in Windows may stop working on some systems after installing the September 2026 security updates.
Microsoft patent describes in-game advertising triggered by boss fights, loading screens, and cutscenes
The filing points to a possible ad-supported model for PC and console games that is less disruptive than the approaches commonly used in mobile titles.
Business Email Compromise: How AI Is Transforming An Old Scam
Microsoft identified scammers using AI to perpetrate Business Email Compromise scams on a massive scale
Microsoft's AI CEO: 'Controlling' AI will be 'a really big challenge'
"We should not create something that we can't control," Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said.
Bethany Children's Health Center to feature assistive technology, adapted sports at resource fair
The free event was born out of a desire to meet the needs of children with physical and intellectual disabilities and their families.
Forza Horizon 6, Skyrim, and More Microsoft-Published Games Are Getting Big Discounts in Best Buy’s Deal of the Day
Best Buy has dropped big discounts on Starfield for PS5, Skyrim for Switch 2, and a few more Microsoft-published games, but only for today.
Engrams Embedding Entendre: Codesign for Efficient DRAM/SSD Offloading
Engram extends standard token embeddings with learned multi-token lookups. Recurring local patterns retrieve vectors directly, reducing the need to reconstruct them through attention and feed-forward layers. With Engram model architecture optimization, it allows for lower HBM capacity to be needed for models at the same quality. This does not mean there won’t be an insane demand for HBM but it just means that model architecture will continue to innovate around constraints. This model architecture design is naturally codesigned for parameter offloading: each token accesses a few embedding rows whose addresses depend on token IDs, not hidden states. The runtime can prefetch those rows from host DRAM while earlier layers compute, keeping the table outside HBM without transferring entire weight matrices. Our Memory model contains our latest estimates of quarter by quarter HBM, DRAM, & NAND supply and demand. Offloading frees HBM for model weights and KV cache, potentially supporting larger batches or more concurrent sessions. When DRAM becomes the next constraint, NVMe offers another tier. Recommendation systems already cache frequently or recently accessed embedding rows in faster memory while backing colder rows with SSDs. After NVIDIA roadmap had to change due to massively despec’ing Rubin Ultra from 1024GB to now ~200GB of HBM per chip, model architecture optimizations like emgram maybe helpful. Our DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash configuration uses roughly 189 GiB of memory for Engram. We replace it with a memory-mapped (mmap) file and measure serving performance with offload to SSD. Later on in our report, we will show our Engram offloading experiments along with the official InferenceX agentic inference serving results on Engram models like DeepSeekv4.1 Flash across all 6 NVIDIA GPU SKUs along with MI355X. Unsurprisingly, the CUDA Moat is still mogging MI355X on the ultra popular DeepSeekV4.1 Flash model. We also show how even on high capacity HBM SKUs, offloading emgrams to DRAM could result in even better performance for most of the pareto than keeping the emgram in HBM. Our benchmark has been widely reproduced, validated and/or supported by almost every major buyer of compute from Google Cloud to Microsoft Azure to Oracle, to Meta and many more. Furthermore, it has the support of the ML community including from vLLM, LMCache, SGLang, PyTorch, Huggingface and the support of major labs like OpenAI, MiniMax, ZAI, Qwen, Moonshot Kimi, etc. Star the InferenceX GitHub repository if you find the open-source benchmark and data useful!. InferenceX is the only inference benchmark in the world to have TPUv7, Jalapeño, Nvidia Rubin NVL72, AMD, and soon, SambaNova and Trainium. Due to how realistic AgentX scenario is to real world agentic inference workloads, AMD has committed to collaborating on MI455X UALoE72 too. DeepSeek did not release the original paper’s two trained Engram models. We replicated its setup on fineweb-edu using the released code and training hyperparameters, at an estimated 6E18 FLOPs per run. We observed the same U-shape scaling: Engram improved performance over pure MoE baselines. We also reproduced DeepSeek’s results, where earlier-layer representations with Engram resembled those of later layers. Like the original Engram paper, it is possible to probe Engram’s gate scores to see what n-grams DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash makes the most use of. Our gate scan finds names, code fragments, relational phrasing, and boilerplate. These examples prioritize interesting-ness over gate strength. One unexpected result was Wright : Ace Attorney. These examples suggest learned memory optimizes the training objective, not a judgment of which facts deserve storage. Licenses, bibliography fragments, API scaffolding, and website furniture can provide prediction shortcuts, so the value of additional Engram capacity may depend on what survives data preparation. This does not show that table capacity is “wasted”: the evaluation-corpus scan establishes neither training exposure nor the capacity occupied by each category. For offloading, strong gates do not identify cache-hot rows. Low gates do not automatically save reads either: computing the gate requires the retrieved key and undoes the performance gain of a fused kernel. Skipping reads would require a separate usefulness predictor before retrieval. In the original paper’s inference-time ablation, factual-knowledge benchmarks retained just 29–44% of their original performance, while reading comprehension retained 81–93%. This is due to the training–inference mismatch. The resulting degradation therefore measures this trained model’s dependence on Engram, not the performance difference between models trained with and without it. In our ablations, suppressing Engram worsens token likelihood across all evaluated domains, especially encyclopedia text and several code corpora. Surprisingly, GSM8K accuracy stays within measured run-to-run variation and removing Engram has no effect. Engram is not a detachable dictionary beside an unchanged MoE. Removing it changes downstream features and expert selection. We tested whether rerouting hurts or compensates by holding tokens fixed in a teacher-forced experiment on CRUXEval, a code-reasoning benchmark of small Python functions where the model predicts a function’s output from its code and an input, and scoring the reference answer. Removing Engram raised answer loss from 0.2848 to 0.3093 bits/token. Forcing the ablated model to use the original Engram-on expert choices made it worse still, at 0.3375 bits/token. Rerouting partially compensates for the missing memory. Memory features and expert selection work together, rather than following a clean “memory stores facts; experts reason” division. On the same CRUXeval, removing Engram during either phase reduced accuracy and increased generated tokens; removing it throughout produced the largest changes. Keeping Engram for prefill leads to more correct answers than keeping for decode likely due to semantically richer KV cache transferred to decode workers, allowing it to mitigate some of the performance loss. Engram’s table is large, but each lookup is small. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash requests 24 rows at each of two Engram layers, about 12.4 KiB per processed token position across the model, or 3.1 KiB per GPU when split across four GPUs. Currently as of Day 7 since Model Release, MI355X is still 2-4x worse performance per dollar compared to B200 even when normalized by Mi355X’s lower TCO. Our full total cost of ownership breakdown comes from our AI Cloud TCO Model along with monthly market surveys of over 100+ gpu clouds & gpu cloud customers. On the Day 0 release of DeepSeekv4.1 Flash, NVIDIA vLLM works out of the box with zero issues across all 6 SKUs: H100, H200, B200, B300, GB200, GB300! This was thanks to the amazing work by the NVIDIA & Interact teams! In comparison, AMD vLLM did not work on day 0 for DeepSeekv4.1 Flash.Source: SemiAnalysis InferenceX AMD’s vLLM documentation points to using vllm/vllm-openai-rocm:deepseekv41-flash-0909, but from hour 0 of the model release to hour 23, AMD has not publicly released the image. AMD claims, “SPEED IS THE MOAT,” yet it has still not released it by the 23rd hour. We wish that, going forward, the AMD team has a better process for hour 0 model releases. Eventually when they did publicly release for “day 0” image support, performance-wise, it is currently up to 14.8x worse perf per dollar than H200 and up to 42x worse perf per dollar than B200/B300. The power of the CUDA MOAT is NVIDIA’s collaboration with its massive 6 million-developer community ecosystem including most of the vLLM & SGLang & Tokenspeed maintainers which means that CUDA is optimized on day 0. Overall, AMD did make significant improvements but the performance per dollar is still currently 2-4x worse than B200. AgentX Engram DRAM Offloading Improving Performance The HBM and DRAM offload use the same GPU kernel to select and dequantize rows. With HBM, it reads GPU memory; with Unified Virtual Addressing (UVA), it reads pinned host memory directly. Both support full decode graphs. Moving the table into HBM accelerates only the sparse lookup, leaving decoder computation and communication unchanged, resulting in little overall benefit while consuming memory otherwise available to KV cache. Another benefit of Engram offloaded to DRAM which means you can reduce the communication overhead by using less HBM GPUs per replica. For example, when enabling Engram offloading on B300, we are able to switch from TP4 to now TP2 which improves the pareto curve by up to 1.6x. When iso-model quality, less HBM is required as the engrams could be offloaded to host DRAM. Thus HBM bandwidth matters way more than HBM capacity. For inference workloads where memory bandwidth matters the most, 4-hi HBM provides the best $/bandwidth and therefore lowest cost per token. If China continues to make more and more revolutionary model architecture innovations, soon it could potentially 0Hi HBM stacks. [ ](https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/long-live-the-short-king-why-4-hi) [ Long Live the Short King: Why 4-hi HBM Wins ](https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/long-live-the-short-king-why-4-hi) Myron Xie, Bryan Shan, and 3 others · Sep 13 [ Read full story ](https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/long-live-the-short-king-why-4-hi) Moreover, on B300 and week-0 stack, moving the Engram table back to HBM did not improve results and stay within run-to-run variance. This is a result of the work optimizing DRAM offload, such as async, and overlap. SSD Offloading On B200, we created a unoptimized vLLM fork and stored the Engram tables in memory-mapped files on local SSDs. File backing lets the OS reclaim table pages when other applications need RAM. Pages already cached in memory can be served without reading the SSD again. Furthermore, note that we were unable to turn on GDS The unoptimized SSD implementation changes how rows reach the GPU. It copies row IDs to the CPU, deduplicates them, gathers the requested rows into pinned buffers, copies those rows back to the GPU and dequantizes them. This work runs between segments of the GPU execution graph. Native UVA performs row selection and dequantization directly on the GPU, avoiding the CPU round trip. A warm filesystem cache removes physical SSD reads, but leaves the coordination, row gathering and transfers. This is why a file already cached in RAM can still perform worse than a pinned DRAM table. The comparison measures the whole serving path; it does not separate the time spent on each of these operations. B200 DRAM dominates both measured SSD serving curves in total tokens per dollar and P90 interactivity. Near 125 tokens/s/user, DRAM delivers 121 million total tokens per dollar versus 52 million for SSD. For production serving, SSD offloading is likely not worth the tradeoff. On the B200 configurations we measured, SSD offloading loses on both measures: every observed SSD point has a DRAM alternative that delivers higher P90 interactivity and more total tokens per dollar. The only points where Cheaper storage does not automatically produce a cheaper inference service. Moving Engram to SSD leaves the same four expensive GPUs and the rest of the server in place. Reclaiming RAM only creates an economic benefit if it enables a cheaper server configuration or additional useful capacity. The current unoptimized path provides neither benefit, and the filesystem cache still consumes RAM when table pages are resident. Next we will look at the mechanisms and specific implementation of ngrams from DeepSeekv4.1 Flash, LongCat, Qwen3.8 Flash Next.
Bethany Children's Health Center to feature assistive technology, adapted sports at resource fair
The free event was born out of a desire to meet the needs of children with physical and intellectual disabilities and their families.
Microsoft fixes broken copy and paste for Excel 2016 users
Microsoft has fixed a known issue that causes copy-and-paste failures for some Excel users after installing the September 2026 KB5002914 security update.
Microsoft’s AI playbook shows businesses how to turn experiments into results
Microsoft’s new Frontier Playbook outlines how businesses can move beyond AI experimentation and turn artificial intelligence deployments into measurable business results, including greater productivity and time savings, Inc. reports. The guide draws on more than 100 of Microsoft’s internal AI projects across its corporate functions, commercial organization and engineering teams. It comes as enterprise AI […]
Xbox’s clever disc-to-digital feature was 15 years in the making
Microsoft’s controversial Xbox One bets are paying off more than a decade later.
Microsoft patch gives domain-joined Windows PCs trust issues
Machine Identity Isolation policies can reject valid credentials unless controllers meet the Server 2025 functional level
Serenity Forge announces sci-fi visual novel and strategy card game Faraday Blues for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC
Serenity Forge has announced Faraday Blues, a science-fiction visual novel and strategy card game hybrid coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store in 2027.
Shape of Dreams now available for PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2 alongside ‘Starless Path’ update
Publisher NEOWIZ and developer Lizard Smoothie have released roguelite action video game Shape of Dreams for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Microsoft Store at a launch discount pr…
Xbox Tokyo Game Show Sale kicks off with big discounts on 700+ titles
This year's Xbox Tokyo Game Show Sale is now up and running on the Microsoft Store, offering hefty discounts across some big-name games, DLC packs, and more.
Microsoft shares workaround for Windows domain login issues
Microsoft shared a temporary fix on Wednesday for a known issue that prevents Windows 11 users from logging in with valid domain credentials after installing the September 2026 security updates.
Virginia DEQ fines Microsoft $2.5M over Leesburg data center
Virignia DEQ issued about $2.5 million in penalties to Microsoft after its Leesburg data center exceeded permitted fuel and emissions limits.
Windows 11 KB5124008 update breaks domain trust for some users
Microsoft is investigating reports that the Windows 11 KB5124008 security update is breaking domain trust relationships on some enterprise systems, preventing users from logging in with valid domain credentials.
Anthropic debuts Claude Docs, raising stakes for Microsoft
Frontier AI labs are unleashing products that compete with established software giants and startups alike
Microsoft doesn't dismiss rumours a major Xbox Game Pass shake-up is on the way, which reportedly removes day-one game offerings entirely
Xbox Game Pass may dramatically change in 2027, losing day-one games and cloud streaming, and seemingly getting an ad-supported tier, according a new leak.
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember launches March 4, 2027, alpha demo now available
Three Kingdoms action RPG sequel Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on March 4, 2027, publisher Koei Tecmo and deve…
Microsoft announces Windows and Surface event for October 7th
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Windows 11 emergency update: Microsoft races to fix Patch Tuesday bugs
The latest patch fixes issues created by the September Patch Tuesday update last week.
Microsoft Reacts To Xbox Game Pass Rumor That Could Change The Service In A Big Way
Xbox Game Pass could see a major overhaul soon.
Looks like Samsung Gallery has already found its OneDrive replacement
As Samsung's partnership photo storage partnership with Microsoft winds down, the company is moving to Google to fill the gap.
Google Photos backup is coming to Samsung Gallery
A few weeks ago, Samsung announced that it would end support for Microsoft OneDrive integration with the Gallery app on Galaxy phones and tablets. Now, it has b
Game Pass adds Dune: Awakening, Minecraft Dungeons II, Gears of War: E-Day, and more in late September to early October
Microsoft has announced new titles coming to Game Pass in late September to early October, including Dune: Awakening, Minecraft Dungeons II, Gears of War: E-Day, and more.
Microsoft issues emergency Windows 11 update to fix its record-breaking patch
The out-of-band update fixes Remote Desktop, USB audio, and Hyper-V issues.
Microsoft's Satya Nadella adds to AI debate with internal warning
Satya Nadella urged the AI industry to prioritize safety and maintain human control over the technology.
Microsoft sets its own AI guardrails amid rising industry concerns
As top artificial intelligence labs call for a slowdown in the development of the technology, Microsoft released a code of conduct for how it plans to clamp down on its
HP and Lenovo laptops are the latest victims of a Windows 11 update
Microsoft's August update (KB5121003) is reportedly corrupting BIOS on HP laptops and disabling AC charging on Lenovo laptops.
Microsoft publishes 37-page AI code of conduct: 'This is urgent'
Microsoft sums up its AI code of conduct in five words: "People matter more than AI."
Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste
Redmond's quality drive takes another detour through the known issues list
AI warnings spark decline in tech stocks, Nvidia slides
AI warnings from Anthropic's Dario Amodei impact tech stocks like Nvidia, SpaceX, and Microsoft, causing a premarket decline.
Microsoft CEO says superintelligence must remain 'under human control'
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that any pursuit of superintelligence must "help humanity" while urging human oversight and broader access to AI.
Microsoft blocked every Windows 11 account bypass except the most boring link on its own page
Windows 11 Home still lets you skip the Microsoft account requirement, and the trick is clicking a Learn More link Microsoft put there.
Xbox Series X and S Update Brings New Upgrades to the Consoles
A new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S update has added new upgrades and features to the pair of Microsoft consoles.
Microsoft’s supply chain AI agents now factor carbon into routing
SupplyChainBrain reports Microsoft is deploying AI agents for supply chain planning, weighing cost, speed and carbon in routing recommendations.
Microsoft admits Windows 11's biggest September update is breaking multiple features, days after it warned users not to delay updates
Windows 11 KB5124008 was supposed to be one of the year’s best updates, at least on paper. It restored Windows 10-era features, including a movable taskbar and a resizable Start menu, but unfortunately, it’s causing issues on some PCs. Microsoft has confirmed two known bugs, is investigating a third issue, and reports point to two […]
Passkey-themed phishing attacks lead to Microsoft 365 data theft
Microsoft says threat actors linked to ShinyHunters, Helix, and other extortion gangs are using passkey and single sign-on-themed social engineering attacks to compromise corporate Microsoft accounts and steal data from Microsoft 365 services.
Microsoft’s head of comms is leaving after almost 20 years
Frank Shaw has been supporting Microsoft’s communications for nearly 30 years.
This Week In Security: It’s Patch Tuesday Again, TVs Spying, Supply Chain Worms Return, Prolonged Hack Impacts, Stolen IDs
Several times this summer, Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, the monthly roundup of major security patches for Microsoft products, has included record-breaking numbers of security fixes. The August …
Iowa communities grapple with regulating data centers as development spreads
As data center development spreads across to Iowa, at least six cities and 10 counties are considering policies to regulate the industrial use. Several local governments have enacted moratoriums, ranging from three months to 18 months, as officials draft ordinances to govern the developments and their impact on resources while also allowing for economic growth. …
Blizzard Workers Secure Contract Covering AI Use & Layoff Protections
Blizzard Entertainment workers signed a new contract with major protections at the Microsoft-owned studio.
Microsoft-owned Blizzard, video game union ratify contract
Nearly 1,900 employees across multiple divisions of Microsoft subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment have ratified a union contract with the video game developer, following two years of bargaining. Communications Workers of America,
Top Seattle tech and business leaders demand 100-day public safety action plan from City Hall
In a letter sent Thursday, executives from major area employers — including Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, F5, Alaska Airlines, Zillow, and others — urged city leaders to protect and expand public safety funding amid growing skepticism that the city currently has an effective strategy to address crime and homelessness.
Microsoft-owned Blizzard, video game union ratify contract
Employees across Microsoft-owned video game developer Blizzard have ratified a union contract with the company.
Can MSFT Stock Rally on the Back of Dynamics 365 Business Applications?
Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Activate targets Salesforce migrations as AI agents expand, but slowing growth and softer bookings cloud the stock's rally.
Build business apps with Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio
Build full-stack business apps through conversation in Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio, grounded in enterprise data.
Xbox picks up Kojima’s Physint after PlayStation dropped it
Sony’s loss is Microsoft’s gain.
Blizzard Entertainment Workers Ratify First Contracts
The deals require management to bargain over the use of AI in the workplace and enshrine layoff protections at the Microsoft-owned company.
Almost 1,900 Blizzard workers ratify first union contract with Microsoft
Blizzard Entertainment has secured a first union contract with parent company Microsoft, ratified by a workforce vote c…
Persona 6 adds Switch 2 version
Persona 6 will launch for Switch 2 in addition to its previously announced PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) versions, ATLUS announced. A release date was not announced.
Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch, and PC
Square Enix has announced Romancing SaGa 3 remake Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch, and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store). It will launch on February 16…
Blizzard Workers Ratify Union Contract With Microsoft
Blizzard's many disparate unions are also being condensed into three groups for ease of future bargaining
Microsoft breaks Patch Tuesday record with 974-CVE deluge
Adobe also brought goodies to the patch party and they deserve immediate attention
Microsoft patches a record 972 vulnerabilities, 112 of them critical
Security gnomes are pumping out patches ahead of an expected onslaught of AI-assisted attacks.
Microsoft September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 966 flaws, 2 zero-days
Today is Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday, with security updates released for a record-breaking 966 flaws, including two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities.
Microsoft breaks another patch Tuesday record
Windows and security engineers have had a busy summer.
Microsoft said it would cut Windows 11 ads, then put a Harry Potter ad on your desktop if you use Bing Wallpaper
If you’ve set up Bing-powered wallpapers on Windows 11 (and Windows 10), you might see a full-fledged advertisement for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter + Fantastic Beasts 11-film collection. And if you haven’t seen it yet, the ad doesn’t appear to be showing up on every PC because of how Bing chooses wallpapers, which are auto-rotated […]
Fake IT Calls Target Executives in Microsoft 365 Data Theft and Extortion Attacks
PREY-0058 uses help desk vishing and AitM token theft to steal data from Microsoft 365 and other SaaS services for extortion.
BigBear Microsoft 365 phishing service bypassed MFA at 258 organizations
A phishing-as-a-service framework called BigBear 2.0 has been used to bypass multi-factor authentication at 258 organizations and steal more than 5,000 Microsoft 365 credentials.
13th Annual Women on the MOVE Summit in Atlanta brings business executives and entrepreneurs
One-day leadership and business summit will feature powerful conversations, masterclasses, strategic connections, and resources for growth Business Women Empowerment Project, Inc. will host the Women on the MOVE Summit 2026 on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, at the Microsoft Atlantic Yards at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta. Created and produced by entrepreneur, author, and business leader […]
Tim Schafer: "No one puts Double Fine out of business except me"
Studio boss discusses regaining independence after leaving Microsoft, and navigating the current industry landscape
Microsoft engineer says 'typing code is absolutely over' as GitHub Copilot takes on more development work
Fowler was not suggesting that software engineers are becoming unnecessary. But as AI handles more routine coding work, developers may spend less time writing individual lines and...
Microsoft (MSFT)’s Outlook and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work Both Broke the Same Day
On August 31, 2026, CNBC reported that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) suffered a widespread Outlook and Exchange Online outage on August 31, with Downdetector reports peaking at 6,015 for Outlook and 2,044 for Microsoft 365. Microsoft said on its status page that “users may experience degraded functionality with various Exchange Online functionalities” while it reviewed service […]
Video game makers really don't want to give customers tariff refunds
Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all arguing in court that they don't have to the pass tariff refunds they've received to their customers.
Video game makers really don't want to give customers tariff refunds
Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all arguing in court that they don't have to the pass tariff refunds they've received to their customers.
Xbox Cloud Gaming's new hourly cap is reportedly set exactly where Microsoft stops making money on it
Xbox Cloud Gaming's new 15-hour monthly cap reportedly lines up exactly with the point where the service stops making Microsoft any money.
Microsoft’s recent decisions paint a clear picture — Xbox Cloud Gaming is no longer the future the company once promised
Xbox's cloud gaming hourly limit rates have been met with derision in the fanbase, and have highlighted gaps between other services.
Court Filings In A.I. Suit Invoke Copyright Law, Culture and Sports
Filings made Friday in The New York Times’s closely watched lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft included a range of copyright law and cultural references.
The Seattle Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over copyright infringement
The lawsuit joins a growing list of copyright complaints against OpenAI and other AI companies, including suits from publishers, authors and musicians.
15 discouraging hours with Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and 10 brilliant ones with He Who Watches
In the last few weeks, while playing some video games that I might review, I emailed two cries for help. I sent the first to a rep for Capcom, confessing that the company’s samurai game Onimusha Way of the Sword (out today for PC and console) was crushing me. “Feels like I’m playing ‘hard’ mode, not ‘normal,’” I wrote. “And I don’t want to have to knock it down to “story”. I’m exploring, trying to level my gear, but these two-phase boss fights with no mid-fight checkpoints are brutal.” I wagered I was only about halfway through the game, if that. I wasn’t sure I could keep up with the steepening difficulty curve. Was I missing something? Then, on Monday, I took some photos of some puzzles that were baffling me in the mind-bending He Who Watches (out now on PC), wrote out lengthy descriptions of how I’d been trying to solve them and asked Bobby Vanden, the game’s solo developer, for a nudge in the right direction. I told Vanden I’d spent hours on these puzzles. “I’m stuck in triplicate,” I told him. Could he tell me if the solutions I was attempting were even on the right track? I didn’t mention that the puzzles—coupled with major time pressures from other work—were stressing me out so much that playing the game was giving me headaches. This double dose of panic was unusual. I’m used to managing a workload full of reporting and reviewing, used to a crowded schedule and the need to stay calm amid the bustle. But I was stressed about these games. No one was forcing me to review them, nor even play them. I’d simply found them interesting enough to start, hoped they’d be interesting enough to write about and I’d sunk hours into them assuming I’d made the right call. Suddenly, however, I felt trapped. I was emailing for a way out. Above: This guy took me about an hour to beat. The feedback I got from Capcom confirmed my fears. They didn’t say it, but I will: Onimusha Way of the Sword is not for me. It’s a brutally hard game in need of a normal difficulty level. It’s a game that spikes so severely during its abundant boss fights—yet offers such flawed ways to improve when outside of them—that it feels like a bait-and-switch. In the new Onimusha, you play as famed samurai Musashi Miyamoto, aided by a magical soul-absorbing gauntlet that is possessed by a lady who offers advice. (Way of the Sword is a continuation of Capcom’s long-dormant Onimusha series, but that set-up had me wondering if the company was cribbing from their ill-fated Bionic Commando reboot; read about “wife-arm” when you get a chance). Way of the Sword is partially set in 17th century Kyoto, an explorable city where Miyamoto can fight demons, help civilians and eventually rescue ghostly dogs. The city evolves over time, with new mini adventures and obtainable loot on offer, all feeding into systems that promise to upgrade your gear and sword-fighting skills. Upgrades, however, are so incremental as to be imperceptible, causing the exploration of Kyoto to feel like inconsequential busywork. From that hub, players can go on linear missions into forests and old temples, where they will encounter many of the game’s tough bosses. Combat in Way of the Sword is akin to many modern melee games. Players are asked to mix attacks with dodges and parries. They’re encouraged to deplete an enemy’s stamina bar in order to do greater damage to its health bar. The old Onimusha games’ signature move was the issen, a counter-attack so sudden it’s all but pre-emptive. You strike just as they begin to strike toward you, beating them to the cut. By definition, the issen is a high risk move, leaving you wide open to pain. It feels risky in the game, especially against bosses, who can maul you in just a few blows. A game might train you to perform an issen well by offering a variety of lesser enemies who are not as tough as the boss but get close. Or it might offer a toehold against bosses by saving or checkpointing the player’s progress when a boss’ first health bar has been destroyed and before the second health bar appears. It might offer the less skilled player a chance to over-level their character, should the player simply commit to playing through its optional sidequests. Way of the Sword does none of this. Fighting its trivially easy grunt enemies and then its ferociously adept bosses is like playing a game of chess where I’ve got a rook, while the opposing side is all pawns and five queens. Bosses simply don’t checkpoint. You may be able to clear a boss’ first phase without taking much damage. Good for you. Do it again, every time you fail the second phase. As for the the central Kyoto hub, I kept pace with all of its added side activities and never felt like I was overpowered. Bosses could still easily buckle me. The new Onimusha, I concluded, is just too discouraging to keep playing. The advice I got from Capcom had been well-intentioned. They reminded me of the game’s various systems. They alerted me to an optional assist that flashes recommended button inputs (basically: counter this move; dodge that move). It was a little helpful. So was dropping down to “story mode,” which I tried last night. Story mode turns on those button prompts by default. It makes countering and dodging way too easy, nearly automatic. I don’t consider myself a master of action games like these, but I’ve cleared the likes of God of War, Stellar Blade, Star Wars Jedi and others of sub-Sekiro difficulty and had a fun time doing so. Not here. Not yet. Unless they patch Onimusha: Way of the Sword and add a middle difficulty or just checkpoint the damn bosses when they’re between health bars, my streak of loving Capcom games released in 2026 will likely end at two. It’s a shame, because I was having a good time finding those ghostly dogs. And then there’s He Who Watches, a phenomenal first person puzzle game with Portal vibes, except instead of a portal gun you’ve got a magical bow that shoots one arrow that can activate switches or be used to drag blocks. The twist is an actual twist: you can also walk on walls and the ceiling, reorienting gravity as you do, thereby placing blocks onto those other surfaces. Walking on walls and ceilings to solve problems is really the best thing. Would that I could in reality. He Who Watches consists of locked-room challenges, each brief enough to only require about a minute to actually solving, though it will take five, 10, eventually 30 minutes to figure out said solutions. They are not obvious! It’s a game of layered mechanics and shocking solutions. For example, see if you can follow this: You can drag a block to a wall. Then you can walk on the wall, which now feels like the floor, and drag that block across the wall. Later, back on the floor, you might realize you can look up. The block is still on the wall, stuck to it. You can shoot your magic arrow to its underside. Doing so creates a tether, so that you can yank the block off the wall and carry it, as if it were a balloon, into the spot where you need it to be to solve the puzzle. Here, watch Vanden explain some of the game’s basics in this launch trailer: As with any great puzzle game, the solutions to He Who Watches’ puzzles elicit relief and amazement. Oh my god, that worked! I didn’t even think that could be possible! Learning to solve the game’s puzzles feels like learning magic. But, oh, does the game get hard. Its Steam reviews, mostly glowing, are full of players remarking how quickly He Who Watches made them sweat. Wrote one: “loving this one already although my brain is hurting!” Wrote another: “As you get further in the game it feels like you need an IQ level of at least 120+.” Vanden has shown some mercy. Each locked room puzzle includes an optional junior version of the puzzle, meant to teach you. Difficulty nevertheless ramps severely. By the time I was emailing Vanden for help, I was struggling to even clear one of the hint puzzles. When I messaged him, my stress was exacerbated by strange things I’d found in the game’s various hubs: suspicious passageways, odd blocks and some intriguing locked doors. These were hints of secrets, I realized, yet I sensed I needed to play further into the game to understand them. I was stuck, but I wanted to see the rest. Vanden offered to give me the exact solutions, to solve those three puzzles for me, but first he gave four nudges. Three were for the specific puzzles, but his best hint was for all and ultimately proved to be a terrific life lesson: go back a bit, he suggested. Do the puzzles right before those. They were teaching you something. Focus on what their lesson was. Don’t rush, in other words. Recognize what you’ve accomplished. Build off of that. I did so. I absorbed the lessons. I saw those three tough puzzles in a new light. I solved one the night after he wrote back, another the morning after. I left a third for another time. I didn’t need it and I wanted to plunge deeper into the game, closer to the moment when I was sure I could start unlocking those secret doors. My head stopped hurting, too. He Who Watches feels special. It’s got more challenges, and I’m undeterred. It’s also nice that its puzzles don’t have a surprise second health bar. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: In brief… 🎮 Ilari Kuittinen, co-founder of Helsinki-based Housemarque (Super Stardust HD, Resogun, Returnal) has stepped down from his studio, after a 31-year run, saying he’s “ taking a rare and well-deserved breather.” Sony purchased Housemarque in 2021, and the studio released its newest game, Saros, earlier this year. Trend-watch: Sony-owned Insomniac saw its founder Ted Price retire in early 2025, after a 30-year run. Sony-owned Sucker Punch saw its co-founder Brian Fleming step down in late 2025, after a 28-year run. 👀 Savvy Games Group chief Brian Ward is stepping down from the Saudi-government-backed games conglomerate, Bloomberg reports. No word on a long-term successor yet, nor if this augurs any closer integration between Savvy and Electronic Arts. EA was purchased by a consortium led by Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, in early August. 💿 Square Enix has denied a Japanese media report that the company was planning to go private. In very different Square Enix news, the company revealed that the physical version of Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, the April 2027 finale of its radical remakes of FFVII, will include just one disc in its case, requiring a download for the rest. The first two FFVII remakes in the trilogy shipped on two discs apiece. While Square hasn’t commented on the reason why, a feature here in Game File last month broke down the processes and costs for physical games. The expense of a second disc comes out of the game publisher’s cut of each copy. Square could be saving in excess of a dollar a copy with this move. 🟥 Grand Theft Auto IV’s 26-minute ’‘extended look” gameplay showcase that premiered on Netflix last week—and was exclusive to the platform for six hours—drew 31.1 million views in its first four days, the streamer announced. (Netflix calculates views as total viewed hours divided by runtime; excludes replays). Compared to YouTube: The version that later premiered on Rockstar Games’ YouTube channel is sitting at 22.6 million views after seven days (YouTube’s more liberal counting system tallies anyone who viewed even just the first few second.) Compared to other Netflix mega-events: Last year, Stranger Things season 5’s first four episodes, which debuted together, drew a record 59.6 million views in their first few days on Netflix. For more of a live event type of comparison, in 2024, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match drew 65 million concurrent streams as it happened; Netflix didn’t release live numbers for the GTA premiere. ☁️ Microsoft is changing the way it charges for cloud gaming, from an all-you-can-play offer for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, to caps for the subscription’s tiers (15 hours per month at the Ultimate tier), with the option to buy more hours in bulk beyond that. The company also said it will sell batches of cloud gaming time to non-Game Pass subscribers, details TBA. Microsoft does not release figures for cloud game usage, but said its changes would impact 4% of Game Pass subscribers. That implies a small portion of its subscribers exceed the 15-hour monthly mark. Cloud gaming offers the promise of playing games without the need for console or PC hardware, as the graphics, sound and controls are all transmitted via a streaming connection. Microsoft notes that its cloud gaming service can be used for a range of things, including Xbox One players using it to play newer-gen Xbox Series games via streaming; and people playing games via streaming, sans any console, “in markets where consoles are less available or affordable.” (That latter use case could even be relevant in Xbox’s home market soon, as console prices keep rising.) Take Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick recently told investors he expects game-streaming tech, which has been only lightly adopted by gamers for over a decade, to be widely used within three years. 🇺🇸 The Trump administration has published multiple agenda-driven web video games to the White House’s website. One called Build The Wall partially clones Tetris as it asks players to build a wall to stop a “zombie border siege.” While actual Tetris involves clearing lines and basically not building a wall, the Trump-backed game omits the line-clearing aspect (and omits the fun as well). On Instagram, Tetris’ official license holders reacted by stating: “At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them. To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community. P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall.’ P.P.S.: We take copyright infringement very seriously.” Item 3: The week ahead: Tuesday, September 8 Game releases: Mewgenics (consoles; already out on PC) is an engrossing tactical combat game (with cats). It is getting its console port right after the release of a Star Wars tactics game and ahead of the late September launch of a Fire Emblem–a bumper crop for the genre. Wanderburg (PC) is an auto-shooting game like Vampire Survivors, but you’re a castle on wheels Event: Nintendo airs a 30-minute Nintendo Direct (10am ET) focused on The Legend of Zelda’s 40th Anniversary. A full unveiling of the upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is expected. Will they also show footage from next year’s live action movie? Tease the next big 3D Zelda? Add Link to Mario Kart World? Shadow-drop a new Tingle game? Wednesday, September 9 Event: Nintendo again! On this day, they’re planning to air a 45-minute Nintendo Direct (10am ET) focused on games heading to Switch 2 this winter. Followed by about an hour of gameplay demoed by the company’s Treehouse team. The September Nintendo Directs are always some of the year’s biggest. The 2025 edition included announcements of several major 2026 Switch/Switch 2 games: Pokémon Pokopia, Mario Tennis Fever, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave. Plus the return of the Virtual Boy. Friday, September 11 Game release: EA Sports NHL 27 (PlayStation, Xbox) is a hockey game. There are so few that an indie studio that had been making wacky sci-fi first-person shooters just announced that, hey, we’re going to fill a void and make a hockey game for PC.
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