Windows Central

October 2026 was an extremely stacked month for Xbox games, with titles like Gears of War: E-Day, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Final Fantasy Resonance, and many vying for attention and our wallets.How many games, you ask? Well, via analysis from @KoreaXBOXnews on X, 210 Xbox games launched in October 2026, 95 of which supported Xbox Play Anywhere.October 2026 was the biggest month of the year for Xbox releases, with 210 games launched.Of those, 95 games supported Xbox Play Anywhere, giving XP

Microsoft's COO Helen Chiang was fired from Xbox a few weeks ago, after 27 years of top-level leadership spent across the org, most prolifically at Minecraft. The removal was abrupt and somewhat confusing on the face of it. Chiang was widely respected across the Microsoft stack and is a trusted figure, described to me as "by the book" by our own sources. When it emerged that she had been fired for "policy violations," it added an unexpected twist that left us with more questions than answers, ul

The integration of Call of Duty: Warzone with Modern Warfare 4 is happening on November 6 when Season 1 begins for this year's game. While it also means the end of Warzone for players on Xbox One and PS4, it will be bringing a bunch of new content to the table. When the switchover happens, there will be two brand-new maps to play at first, alongside two returning classic maps at some point later in the season. Besides access to all the new weapons from Modern Warfare 4, the battle pass, the leve

Over the weekend, YouTuber "P1REMAKE" uploaded a new video that has every Persona fan up in arms with excitement and speculation — a supposed gameplay trailer for a Persona 1 Remake that's coming to Xbox.The video contains a gameplay montage of characters exploring a school filled with monsters, a visual-novel-style cutscene, and turn-based combat similar to that of modern Persona games like Persona 3: Reload, Persona 4: Revival, and Persona 5: Royal.The video also shows that it's coming to Xbox

Windows 11 has a new speed test feature in the works that will allow you to check your PC's connectivity without having to open a browser or a separate app. The feature is already in testing with Windows Insiders and looks promising so far.Windows 11 already has a shortcut for testing internet speed, but it's simply a button that opens Bing's speed test in a web browser. The new speed test feature is built-in, making it feel like part of Windows 11 rather than a tacked-on browser shortcut.The ad

November is finally here, which means it's time for an onslaught of early Black Friday discounts to give your favorite or most desirable laptops a much-needed price cut from all the rising costs caused by AI lately.One of these lucky devices is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8, which is currently on sale for $1,249.99 at Amazon (was $1,699.99). This beauty is Microsoft's latest flagship laptop, equipped with a state-of-the-art Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU for improved performance, all-day battery life,

I recently highlighted an app that allows you to click and drag the taskbar to reposition it on Windows 11. In my piece, I said that "changing [the taskbar's] position still requires digging through Settings." That phrase and other parts of my piece led to a discussion online about the nature of coverage and being positive or negative when discussing apps and features.Microsoft's Vice President of Design Diego Baca, said the phrasing in my piece was "unnecessarily negative" and argued that I cou

We're just days away from World of Warcraft: Forever's launch on November 4, 2026, but it looks like Microsoft may have spoiled a major surprise: WoW may be coming to Xbox after all.The rumor recently exploded on Reddit via u/hazedesunna, who spotted that Xbox UK's X account posted, "Don't forget to leave some space for these games coming to Xbox this November ⚔️" with images of Shrek 2: Remastered and World of Warcraft: Forever.WoW Forever on Xbox! from r/wowforeverHowever, Xbox UK quickly took

In this episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel Rubino and Zac Bowden break down the latest wave of Windows 11 Insider preview builds and major industry hardware shifts.The episode begins with an overview of incoming Windows 11 quality-of-life updates, including File Explorer context menu overhauls, controller-friendly Xbox Quick Settings for gaming handhelds, deeper Phone Link integration in the taskbar, native speed tests, and rich, actionable search results. Zac also details controvers

From around July, rumors began to swirl that Gears of War: E-Day had cost upwards of half a billion dollars, raising questions about the state of AAA game development. I can confirm at my end that Microsoft's financial auditors have attributed upwards of $500 million to The Coalition between Gears of War 5 and Gears of War: E-Day. But through multiple sources, I have a clearer picture of how that money has been spread and allocated over the past 6-7 years, and why there are even some internal di

Everyone is frothing at the mouth over Gears of War E:Day again, but this time it’s not the culture war. It's the sensationalized reporting around it's budget and retail sales. Headlines claim the game cost an astronomical $500 million to make, while other reports suggest it "only" sold 400,000 retail copies. Predictably, the terminally online commentary machine is in full force, with some rather insanely blaming Xbox fans for this failure. Xbox fans asked for exclusives, and yet when push comes

I've spent more than a decade testing gaming PCs, and even the best pre-builts usually have cables you simply can't hide. That made my first look inside Maingear's new Zero genuinely surprising, even after my previous Maingear MG-1 review.There's almost nothing there. Power connections have been moved behind the motherboard, the panoramic glass is uninterrupted, and the components that normally compete with bundles of cabling finally get the spotlight. It's one of the cleanest pre-built PCs I've

Microsoft spent October testing a surprisingly useful collection of Windows 11 features, and after digging through the latest preview builds, I found several changes that could make a noticeable difference in how you use your PC.Some address long-standing frustrations. Microsoft is finally experimenting with a customizable right-click menu, while the Start menu is getting more controls over its size and contents. Windows 11 can also run an internet speed test without kicking you into a browser,

Microsoft has explained why you cannot drag the new movable Taskbar on Windows 11, a feature that was present on Windows 10 but failed to make the move to Windows 11 when it gained the ability to move the Taskbar earlier this year.Vice President of Design at Microsoft, Diego Baca, explains that the inability to drag the Taskbar to move it is a "deliberate design decision," confirming that such behavior will not be coming to Windows 11 any time soon. "From our research, dragging the taskbar to re

The official XBOX 25th anniversary is approaching fast, with November 15 flanked on both sides by plans for special hardware, celebratory merchandise, and a wave of themed cosmetics from Microsoft's gaming division.It's almost hard to comprehend, given that I remember the much-anticipated launch of the original XBOX quite clearly.But time marches on, and XBOX has proven it can iterate its hardware and innovate its experiences over the years.So, in another mix of self-indulgent nostalgia and refl

Over a week has passed since EA shut down BioWare and subsequently canceled the Mass Effect game, Mass Effect Universe.This left many people grieving the loss of this legendary studio or motivated to start campaigns to save its iconic Mass Effect franchise through petitions, Fundraisers, and even raising a billboard in Times Square, New York.People are debating furiously as to why EA decided to close BioWare's doors, whether it's due to EA going private after being bought by Saudi Arabia for $55

Square Enix has concluded its Final Fantasy XIV FanFest Japan event with another Keynote preview of Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold, the latest expansion for Final Fantasy's most popular MMORPG.During it, it showed new gameplay info, trailers, and a new release date for the expansion. Instead of releasing in January 2027, Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold will now release on February 23, 2027, for PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.Pre-orders for the expansion will go live on Novemb

You don't hate OpenAI and Sam Altman enough. Sam Altman is among a variety of tech bros known for making absurd, often outright evil comments about the state of the world and the future of technology. The spectacularly tone-deaf and generationally ignorant Altman recently appeared on a podcast, Cheeky Pint (via Tom's Hardware) where he made some fresh comments about his hatred of consumer-owned compute. "From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a

Windows 11 finally lets you move the taskbar, but Microsoft has not fully restored functionality lost when jumping from Windows 10 to Windows 11. To help bridge the gap, developer Michał Łeptuch created an app that makes it easier to move the taskbar.The simply-named "Taskbar Location Options" lets you right-click and move the taskbar to the top, left, right, or bottom of your screen. Alternatively, you can simply click and drag the taskbar to any edge of your display once the app is installed.T

Windows 11 and wallpapers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Many of our laptop reviews are met with comments asking about our wallpapers. Microsoft deals with the same fervor for images. I spent weeks trying to find the wallpaper shown off during the RTX Spark event.Unfortunately, like the Jedi Archives, Microsoft's publicly shared collection of wallpapers is incomplete. The company has not shared that wallpaper from the RTX Spark event, but it has shared several images inspired by the S