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LG's Monitor App Installer, which was mentioned on PCPer Podcast #877 thanks to the software automatically installing (and re-installing) on Windows systems the moment a new LG UltraGear is connected.  It's…

In the age of (primarily) digital gaming, having solid download speeds is vital, especially as games continue to grow in scope and size. While there are tons of different factors which can lead to slow speeds, Microsoft is trying to alleviate issues on their end – announcing a new Xbox system update which optimises “game install and update speeds.”

As part of the latest Xbox Firmware update (available to those signed up to Xbox’s Insider program), Microsoft is introducing a new system which should make game download speeds smoother and more consistent, writing:
“Users will experience a new feature to optimize game install and update speeds by introducing a smart download client.”

Explaining how it functions, they continued, “Shortly after your game download begins, the client will check which content servers are available for the install or update. It will then test the connection speed to each server pool and select the fastest available connection for that install. The speed test will rerun periodically during the install or update to ensure that the client continues using the fastest available connection.”

Reactions to the update have been mixed so far, with some users lamenting the fact that server pool switching wasn’t already being used – while others claim to have never had any issues with downloads in the first place.

As mentioned, downloads speeds are a fickle thing, with countless factors going into the experience. That said, it is welcome to see Microsoft attempting to make the whole process a little bit easier on their end. Hopefully this change does have a notable impact.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you part of Xbox’s Insider Program? Have you tried to download anything since the update? If so, have you noticed a difference? Let us know down below.

After years of rumors and speculation, original Xbox games are now finally playable on PC thanks to the early access debut of official Xbox Backward Compatibility on Windows 11. While Microsoft has promised that the program will be significantly expanded in the coming months with the addition of Achievements, among other things, dataminers made some interesting discoveries which suggest that Xbox 360 games are likely coming to PC in the future. The reason why this is very likely is simple. The four backward compatible games now available on PC, including Fuzion Frenzy, use the same tech that the Xbox One […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/microsofts-pc-xbox-backward-compatibility-hides-360-emulator/

For quite a while now, we had been hearing various leaks and rumours pertaining to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, with insiders claiming that the console maker is planning to offer some form of ad-supported game streaming tier. Though yet to be officially announced, Microsoft has now unveiled that it is testing “an ad-supported way to stream select games from your library for a limited time.”

Taking to the Xbox Wire blog to make the announcement, ‘Team XBOX’ officially unveiled their first test for this long-rumoured ad-supported game streaming tier, writing:

“Today, we’re starting to test an ad-supported way to stream select games from your library for a limited time, available to XBOX Insiders. During this test period, XBOX Insiders with an XBOX account will be able to stream games they own for free with ads. Players will have one hour session limits across supported devices and regions.”

Speaking on their mentality behind this decision, Microsoft continued, “Advertising has existed in gaming for decades, from in-game placements to free-to-play models. But it hasn’t always been built with the player in mind. When done well, advertising can help lower the cost of access. It creates another way for players to get into games without an upfront streaming purchase and expands audiences through new ways to play. For brands, this only works if showing up here adds to the experience, not takes away from it.”

Seemingly built as an alternative to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft promises that ads will only appear ‘before’ the session itself begins, meaning players shouldn’t encounter any distractions mid-game. That said, with the 1 hour time limit currently in place, sessions will wind up being interrupted regardless.

Of course, cloud streaming isn’t free for Microsoft, and so it seems they believe having an ad-supported version could bring in additional revenue in its own right, while also hopefully drawing players into the full fat Game Pass experience.

As with other insider programs, Microsoft will be monitoring feedback, and so it will be interesting to see what the final form of this ‘Ad-supported Game Streaming Test’ winds up looking like.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest announcement? Does it entice you in any way? Would you rather stream your games using remote play without ads, or cloud streaming with ads? Let us know down below.

2026 has been a year of great change at Xbox, with the console maker engaging in a major restructure leading to the parting of ways with 5 different studios and thousands of employees. One notable move made by Xbox was the appointment of Jared Palmer as the new vice-president of engineering. Joining the brand this past May, Palmer has already announced that he is leaving Xbox.

Taking to Twitter, the recently-appointed VP of Engineering at Xbox – Jared Palmer – announced his departure from the company, writing:

“Personal update: I’ve joined @Cognition to lead engineering. I’m grateful to [Asha Sharma] and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year. Excited for this next chapter with [Scott Wu] and team.”

As mentioned, Palmer was a relatively recent addition to the Xbox team, with the announcement happening just a couple months ago in early May. At the time, Palmer was said to be joining “as a member of technical staff to work on product, engineering, developer tools and infrastructure” while also serving as a”taste” maker of sorts.

As with Sharma herself, Palmer came from an AI background, previously serving as the ‘CoreAI vice president of product’ and a ‘senior vice president of Microsoft's GitHub subsidiary.’

Whether his short stint at Xbox was always part of the plan or not, we will have to wait and find out. Either way, this latest change does not lend a great deal of confidence to the new Xbox regime.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest move? Is it an indicator of deeper issues? Or did Palmer simply receive an offer he couldn’t refuse? Let us know your thoughts down below.

AMD's Advancing AI 2026 event will be the center stage for the company's next-gen AI portfolio, which includes Zen 6 EPYC and the Instinct MI400 series, powering the Helios AI rack. AMD To Host Advancing AI 2026 Event In July: Pushing AI Forward With Next-gen Ecosystems Advancing AI is back as AMD is all set to unveil how it's advancing the segment for next-generation workloads. At this year's event, AMD will focus on the next-generation ecosystems powering the enterprise and cloud markets. The event will begin in less than 24 hours at 9:30 AM PST (23rd July), with a keynote […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/watch-amd-advancing-ai-2026-event-live-here/

Xbox Backward Compatibility has long been the benchmark for backward compatibility on consoles, and rumors of it coming to PC rightly made more than a few players excited at the prospect of playing classic Xbox games which never received an official PC port. Today, Xbox Backward Compatibility was officially launched on PC with the first batch of games, and some exclusive features that will vastly improve the experience while preserving the original gameplay. "Today, we’re introducing XBOX Backward Compatibility on PC, making it easier to play classic XBOX games from the past across PC and handhelds, including the ROG XBOX […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/xbox-backward-compatibility-comes-to-pc-at-last-reviving-conker-and-blinx-with-4x-upscaling/

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is among the few third-party Xbox Series X|S exclusive releases, which wasn't too surprising, considering the quality of the latest entry in the series and how unique the franchise generally is. What is surprising to learn, on the other hand, is how the exclusivity deal with Microsoft was reportedly decided. In a recent interview with OLDboi, GSC Game World founder Serhiy Hryhorovych revealed that Microsoft agreed to fund the game's console exclusivity primarily because of the overwhelming view count on one of the game's YouTube trailers. "We put out a STALKER 2 video, and when […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/stalker-2-xbox-exclusivity-sealed-views-stunned-microsoft/

For years, there have been rumours that Microsoft is working on an official emulation tool to bring classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games to the PC platform. Now, Microsoft is making it official, with the first wave of original Xbox games becoming PC compatible for the first time.

The Xbox Backwards Compatibility program has re-opened after spending the last few years on pause. Now, Microsoft is turning its attention to bringing console titles to PC, starting with four original Xbox titles, including Blinx The Time Sweeper, Conker Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fuzion Frenzy. All four games are available for purchase via the Xbox App and support Play Anywhere, so you only have to buy it once to access it on both console and PC.

This isn't just the same console version now running on PC hardware. Microsoft has taken extra steps to implement customisable graphics settings, so users can enable enhanced anti-aliasing, higher anisotropic filtering, run games in fullscreen or windowed modes, enable or disable V-Sync and boost resolution by up to 4x. While the initial wave of PC-compatible Xbox games is small, Microsoft has plans to add more titles in the future.

In order to run backwards compatible Xbox games, you won't need a particularly powerful PC. These games should run on current-generation PC gaming handhelds, and if you have a DIY PC, anything with a GTX 950 or newer should do the trick. You will need to be on Windows 11 though.

KitGuru Says: Are there any original Xbox or Xbox 360 games that you would like to see brought over to PC?

As part of one of Microsoft’s earlier Xbox restructures – in which the likes of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were shut down – a lesser-known team was also impacted, with Alpha Dog Games unfortunately being closed. Like with Tango Gameworks however, reports of Alpha Dog Games’ death were ‘exaggerated’, with the studio now back and independent once again.

As shared by Timur222, Alpha Dog Games founder Shawn Woods updated their LinkedIn page revealing that the studio, which was shuttered by Microsoft back in 2024, has since been revived.

Said to have been opened back up in May of 2025, Woods confirmed that Alpha Dog Games is once again an independent studio – suggesting that they stuck a similar deal to that seen with the likes of Double Fine and Compulsion Games more recently.

As of now, no new details have been shared on what the team is working on, however they did give a bit of a timeline on their independence, writing: “Originally acquired by Bethesda in 2019 and later becoming part of Microsoft Xbox through the ZeniMax Media acquisition in 2021, Alpha Dog returned to independent ownership in 2025 when the founding team reacquired the studio.”

Alpha Dog Games was one of Zenimax / Bethesda’s lesser-known studios, with the small team being responsible for the mobile-focused Mighty DOOM – which launched to mixed reviews. That said, many of the complaints came from its monetisation practices, and so it will be interesting to see how an independent Alpha Dog Games will approach their next title in this regard.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What did you think of Mighty Doom? How was the gameplay itself? Are you glad to see most studios survive their Xbox exodus? Let us know down below.

With Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 set to launch globally later this year in October, the teams at Infinity Ward / Activision have started to ramp up their marketing. Following its presence at the recent Fanatics Fest event, we’ve now gotten full details on when the general public will be able to get a taste of MW4 – with the early access (and open) beta set to go live in just under a month’s time.

Taking to the Call of Duty blog, Infinity Ward shared a roadmap detailing all of the various dates in which fans will be able to try out Modern Warfare 4 ahead of its full release on the 23rd of October.

Being the first Call of Duty entry in many years to be coming to a Nintendo console, the multiplayer beta this time round will operate slightly differently to prior titles. That said, there will still be two rounds of betas: an Early Access and an Open Beta – the details of which are as follows:

Early Access Beta

• 21st – 25th August
• Requires you to have pre-ordered MW4
• Available on PS5, Series X/S and PC

Open Beta

• 28th August – 1st September
• No pre-order necessary
• Available on PS5, Series X/S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2

While we did not get a complete breakdown of all the content being made available for the beta, it appears as though players will have plenty to try out, with the team confirming access to:

• 19 Weapons
• 3v3 skirmishes
• “Massive tactical battles featuring tanks and more”
• Search & Destroy mode
• New Kill Block game mode
• Training Mobility Course
• And more

For many, the most interesting part of the beta will be having the opportunity to try out MW4’s new gameplay changes/additions, including their new movement mechanics; FOV and depth-of-field innovations; lack of hipfire bloom among other refinements. Full details on the Modern Warfare 4 beta (including a first look at some new pre-order bonuses) can be found HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you excited for MW4? Which change are you most curious to try out yourself? Will you bother pre-ordering? Let us know down below.

Ever since Microsoft transitioned its Copilot Cowork offering to a metered pricing architecture, where you pay for the number of tokens consumed, it has been eyeing open-source models from China with particular interest, especially given the materially lower inference costs that such models entail. Now, a new report suggests that Microsoft might add Moonshot's Kimi K3 model to Copilot, risking the ire of the Trump administration in the process. Microsoft is working to add Kimi K3 model to its Azure cloud services, while its engineers continue to evaluate the model for a deployment within Copilot According to The Information, Microsoft […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/microsoft-looking-to-save-as-much-as-600-million-by-swapping-gpt-and-claude-for-chinas-kimi-k3-in-copilot-risking-a-rap-on-the-knuckles-from-the-trump-administration/

In a surprise announcement last week, Bethesda Game Studios shared a lengthy post detailing their future, including confirmation that Fallout 5 is a real thing alongside official details on the long-rumoured Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters. As part of this, the team also offered updates on the sales performance for its RPGs, revealing that Starfield has amassed just two million more players over the course of the past year and a half.

As part of their recent post detailing the future of Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and Bethesda as a whole, the team at BGS also gave up-to-date sales figures for its past 3 titles, writing: “With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later.”

With regards to Fallout 4, BGS claimed that “Fallout 4, the most award-winning game in the franchise, just celebrated its 10-year anniversary and recently passed over 35 million copies sold, continuing to attract a new audience every year.”

Curiously, when it came to discussing Starfield, the verbiage used was quite different, writing: “With over 17 million players logging almost a billion hours to date, Starfield remains an important part of our future.”

As always, 17 million players does not equate to 17 million copies sold, especially given the fact that Starfield was a day-one Game Pass addition. Offering some further context, it appears as though interest in Starfield has dwindled, with this latest announcement marking an increase of just 2 million players compared to their last performance update back in late 2024.

Starfield was a pretty launch-heavy game, interest-wise, with the 2023 title amassing over 10 million players in its first month on the market. Given that nearly 3 years on from this, the total number of players has only increased to 17 million, it’s safe to assume that Bethesda’s first new IP in decades will not be able to match the scale of either Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you one of the 17 million players? What’s your opinion on Starfield in 2026? How many copies do you think have been sold? Let us know down below.

Back in 2024, Xbox made the shocking decision to pivot away from exclusive games and begin shipping new titles on PS5 and in some cases, Nintendo Switch as well. Now under new leadership, Xbox is pivoting back to exclusives, and Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will just be the beginning.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Xbox Chief Content Officer, Matt Booty, explained that “there has to be a reason for people to buy an Xbox”, adding that exclusives serve as “a reward” for players investing in the platform. To dispel any ideas that Microsoft is going to pivot to ‘timed exclusives' rather than true exclusive games, Xbox Chief Strategy Officer, Matthew Ball, explained that games like Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be “permanent” exclusives and Xbox has no plans to pivot from that.

As for why games like Fable and Halo Campaign Evolved are not part of this transition, Ball explained that those titles were already too far along in production to pivot. However, it certainly sounds like most, if not all future single-player Xbox games will now be exclusive to the platform again, except in rare cases where multiplatform makes sense.

It is also worth pointing out that Microsoft does still count PC as an Xbox platform. When discussing Xbox exclusives, PC is still included in the equation and those games are likely to continue landing on Steam, alongside other storefronts.

Xbox's Matthew Ball acknowledged that fans may be a bit confused by the strategy shift right now, but it will make its approach clearer over time.

KitGuru Says: Do you think moving back towards exclusive games is the right move for Xbox? At this point, I'm also expecting day-one games to eventually be dropped from the Game Pass offering due to its heavy impact on launch-day sales for many titles.

Last week, Microsoft officially unveiled its upcoming Xbox Game Pass line-up for the month of July, confirming a number of titles including the likes of Gears of War: Reloaded, Quarantine Zone: The Last Check and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. In an odd twist however, Microsoft has now come out to reveal that the Xbox-owned THPS 1+2 will no longer be joining Game Pass this month.

Taking to the Xbox Wire blog to offer an update on the previously-announced line-up, Microsoft amended their upcoming list of Game Pass inclusions, stating: “We’ve removed Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 from the list of titles coming soon to Game Pass.”

Unfortunately, we did not get any further details, and so it is unknown exactly why Pro Skater 1+2 is no longer joining.

Ever since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for just under $69 Billion, the console maker obtained an influx of IPs, including Call of Duty; Crash Bandicoot; Spyro the Dragon and of course, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Given this, it is unlikely that its removal has anything to do with licensing and ownership issues, and so the reason remains unclear.

Either way, this is not the best of looks for Microsoft / Game Pass, especially considering everything else going on at the company right now. Hopefully the game does wind up being added eventually.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this sudden change? Could it have something to do with in-game music? What other reason could there be for Microsoft to backtrack like this? Let us know down below.