Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Leo Laporte

Dec 7th 2022

Windows Weekly 806

Clippy in Prison

Brad Smith's acquisition argument, Communities, Paul's top podcasts of 2022

Records live every Wednesday at 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific / 19:00 UTC.
Category: News

There have been major moves in the Activision Blizzard drama this week

  •  Brad Smith publicly lays out Microsoft’s argument for the acquisition
  •  Smith compares Sony to Blockbuster
  •  He complains about Apple and Google app stores, but this deal won’t help
  •  He confirms that Microsoft offer Sony a 10-year Call of Duty contract
  •  Microsoft comes to 10-year Call of Duty agreement with Nintendo, Steam… and then heads to Washington D.C. to explain to the FTC how Sony never even responded to this offer
  •  Conclusions? Everyone is obsessed with Call of Duty but this is more about mobile than it is about COD. And Microsoft is remaining true to its vision for making games available wherever the gamers are. They did this with Minecraft, Flight Simulator, and more. And they will do this with AB’s titles

Windows 11

  • Beta channel: Builds 22623.1028 and 22621.1028 finally address long-standing game performance issues in Windows 11. Right, they supposedly fixed this in stable already.
  • Microsoft is spamming Windows 10 users with ads for Windows 11… in the product, of course. Because slippery slope. There’s even an ad in the OOBE no
  • Microsoft Edge version 108 is here with no new features for end users

Microsoft 365

  • Microsoft announces a free, Discord-like feature for Teams, starting on mobile. It’s called Communities

Xbox

  • Microsoft announces that new AAA first-party games will be $70 starting next year
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator hits a big milestone
  • Here are the first Game Pass titles for December
  • Amazon Luna customers can now stream PC-based Ubisoft games for free

Tips and picks

  • Thurrott's Top Podcasts of the Year
  • Thurrott's Top Audiobooks of the Year
  • Thurrott's Top Music of the Year

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