Another quarter, another booming earnings report from Microsoft. But what’s notable for Q2 2021is that it isn’t just the cloud driving the company forward this time. The company reported revenues of $43.1 billion, up 17 percent from last year. That’s $2.9 billion more than what analysts were expecting. Even more impressive, its profit jumped by 33 percent to reach $15.5 billion. During the…
In machine learning, mel-filterbanks — fixed, hand-engineered representations of sound — are often used to train algorithms that classify sound. Decades after the design of mel-filterbanks, research shows that they exhibit desirable mathematical properties for…
On Friday morning, Microsoft announced it was increasing the price of its Xbox Live Gold subscription service. By Friday evening, it reversed that decision and then some. In an update to its news post about the price change, the company explained that it had “messed up.”…
GamesBeat Decides: The best (and worst) ‘core’ Mario games
January 24, 2021
Many Mario games are some of the best pieces of digital entertainment ever created. The series seemed like an obvious choice for a new tier list-making video series … so here we are.
My cohort Jeff Grubb and I rank every game in the core Mario series. What does “core” mean? It’s whatever we say it means.
There is some logic to our process, which we explain in the video above. And, yes…
Earlier today, Microsoft announced a price increase for Xbox Live Gold, the subscription service that lets Xbox users play games online. Somehow, Microsoft was surprised to find out that this was an unpopular move.
So less than 24 hours later, Microsoft is backtracking. Xbox…
In one of the first positive Friday night news dumps I can remember, Microsoft has not only reversed course on its poorly-received plan to raise the price for Xbox Live, it’s adding a treat. Soon, for free-to-play games (like Fortnite or Apex Legends), multiplayer access…
Microsoft is raising the price of Xbox Live Gold from $60 per year to $60 every six months. It included some caveats to that, and this increased fee doesn’t even affect Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. But it still seems like a miscalculation from a company that so often emphasizes value.
Xbox Live Gold already feels like an outdated, legacy product. It is the premium online service for Xbox…
YouTube finally delivers HDR videos on the Xbox One
January 22, 2021
You can finally watch YouTube videos in HDR on last-gen Xbox One S and One X consoles, along with the latest Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X models, according to Google. As spotted by Flat Panels HD and confirmed by Engadget, opening a YouTube HDR video on a recent Xbox One…
Microsoft increases Xbox Live Gold prices for new members
January 22, 2021
Microsoft continues sending not-so-subtle signals that it would really, really like you to drop Xbox Live Gold in favor of Game Pass. The company has raised prices for new Xbox Live Gold memberships across the board, with the changes becoming more noticeable the longer…
Resident Evil: Village is heading to PC and consoles on May 7. Publisher Capcom also revealed for the first time that it will release the survival-horror adventure for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in addition to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
This game picks up the story of Resident Evil VII, with players once again taking on the role of Ethan Winters. This time, Winters is infiltrating a castle to rescue…
