Microsoft

Xbox Just Had its Best Showcase Ever – and at the Perfect Time

Amid multiple leaks and rumors, we had a decent idea of what was going to be at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase with seemingly plenty to get excited about. But when the Showcase finally aired, Microsoft did the near-impossible for any company in a fickle social media-fueled age: they exceeded expectations and drew almost universal

Amid multiple leaks and rumors, we had a decent idea of what was going to be at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase with seemingly plenty to get excited about. But when the Showcase finally aired, Microsoft did the near-impossible for any company in a fickle social media-fueled age: they exceeded expectations and drew almost universal acclaim. Eighty-four percent of the 10,000+ voters in my X poll graded it an ‘A’ on the academic scale. Ninety-five percent gave it an ‘A’ or ‘B’.

A home run like this would be welcome at any time, but it’s an especially fortuitous one now for both Xbox fans and, no doubt, Xbox employees alike. Confidence had been shaken in recent months, with dedicated fans rankled by Microsoft’s decision to bring some previously exclusive games to other platforms. Worse, Microsoft joined the tragically long list of gaming and tech companies to lay off thousands of employees early in the year and, more recently, shut down four development studios it acquired as part of a $7.5 billion deal just four years ago. Two of those were household names in core-gaming circles: Arkane Austin, who, their recent Redfall misfire aside, had an incredibly impressive track record; and the one that really stuck in the community’s craw, Tango Gameworks. They were not only Xbox’s lone Japanese developer, but they’d had an unquestionably good run, highlighted by their most recent and arguably best game, Hi-Fi Rush.

Loading
Play

While Xbox’s best showcase ever can’t erase the human impact on the laid-off developers nor reignite the creative embers that have been snuffed out at the shut-down studios, it is the best way for fans who remain invested in the Xbox ecosystem to move forward with confidence and excitement for the future of the platform. And my goodness did that top-to-bottom brilliant showcase give me confidence and excitement for Xbox.

What was your favorite reveal from the 2024 Xbox Showcase?

Call of Duty debuted on Xbox’s stage for the first time since the Xbox 360 era, with Black Ops 6 already looking like it could be one of the biggest and best releases for the series in a half-decade – since Infinity Ward’s excellent Modern Warfare reboot in 2019. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer could barely contain his excitement on stage in announcing Doom: The Dark Ages, a bold, more melee combat-intensive prequel in id Software’s brilliantly revived and historically iconic first-person shooter franchise.

Loading
Play

And speaking of prequels, Xbox President Sarah Bond introduced the “one more thing” game for this Showcase: the long-anticipated new entry in the Gears series, which itself was not a surprise. What shocked everyone, though – which the trailer slowly made more apparent – was that we wouldn’t be picking up Kait’s story in Gears 6, but instead we’ll be going back to Emergence Day and the formation of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago’s Delta Squad in a Gears of War prequel – complete with a most-welcome (by me, at least) restoration of the “of War” part of the name.

But the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase didn’t just start big with Black Ops 6 and Doom: The Dark Ages and end big with Gears of War: E-Day – it kept cooking for almost the entire runtime. A new gameplay trailer for Fable floored me, as not only was I not expecting to see any more of it after getting our first tiny glimpse at gameplay at last year’s Showcase, but we got to see quite a bit of Playground’s gorgeous new rendition of Albion. The cherry on top was Microsoft committing to a 2025 release window, which means we can already pencil in Doom: The Dark Ages and Fable for next year – my gut says the former will drop in the Spring, and the latter in the Fall.

Loading
Play

Oh, but South of Midnight belongs on that 2025 list too! We got a proper gameplay trailer for Compulsion’s first game since joining the Xbox family after it was announced with a cinematic piece last year, and the art style is incredibly beautiful and wholly unique.

Meanwhile, it didn’t get a release year attached to it (meaning, assume 2026 for now), but the game that stole the fantastic show for me was Perfect Dark. The long-gestating reboot of the beloved Nintendo 64 classic (and decently liked Xbox 360 launch title) has reportedly endured a troubled development, but the co-developers at The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics blew me away by showing off a gameplay-packed trailer that showed off ga

Read More

Be the first to write a comment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Microsoft

Fake Microsoft Office add-in tools push malware via SourceForge

Threat actors are abusing SourceForge to distribute fake Microsoft add-ins that install malware on victims’ computers to both mine and steal cryptocurrency. …

Threat actors are abusing SourceForge to distribute fake Microsoft add-ins that install malware on victims’ computers to both mine and steal cryptocurrency. …
Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

How Microsoft’s AI chief measures consumer inroads for Copilot

Advertisement Business How Microsoft’s AI chief measures consumer inroads for Copilot Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman speaks at the company’s 50th anniversary celebration in Redmond, Washington, U.S., April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jeffrey Dastin Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman speaks at the company’s 50th anniversary celebration in Redmond, Washington, U.S., April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jeffrey Dastin Microsoft co-founder

Advertisement

Business

How Microsoft’s AI chief measures consumer inroads for Copilot

05 Apr 2025 08:13AM
(Updated: 05 Apr 2025 08:28AM)



Bookmark



Bookmark



Share

REDMOND, Washington : As Microsoft CEOs past and present gathered here to celebrate the company’s 50th birthday, one leader said he is targeting a particular metric’s improvement to guide his strategy on artificial intelligence.

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, said his consumer and research division is tracking the usual measures of adoption for the company’s AI assistant called Copilot. These include daily and weekly active users, distribution, and usage intensity for Copilot’s consumer offering, he said.

But Suleyman’s interest lies elsewhere.

“I really, really focus the team on SSR, the rate of successful sessions,” he said in an interview.

In an older era when consumers gave less real-time feedback on software, the time they spent with a product – on social media, for instance – or the problems they could solve represented crude “proxies for quality,” he said.

“Now, we actually get to learn from the anonymized logs and extract the sentiment,” said Suleyman, who joined Microsoft about a year ago after leading the startup Inflection AI. Suleyman was one of the only Microsoft executives other than former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and current CEO Satya Nadella to speak on stage at Microsoft’s Friday event at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

Suleyman said Microsoft has tasked an AI model itself to assess such sentiment and help determine Copilot chats’ SSR.

“Over the last four months, it’s gone up dramatically, and that’s what we optimize for,” he said.

Suleyman declined to state the rate in absolute terms or disclose other Copilot metrics.

The company last fall announced a more amiable voice for its consumer Copilot and the ability to analyze web pages for users as they browse.

On Friday, Microsoft demonstrated further features for Copilot: personalized podcasts, a tool to help consumers research complex queries, and eventually a look for Copilot that can be custom to each user and conversation.

“I would definitely go for something that was cutesy,” said Suleyman, “like a little Furby-type thing.”

Source: Reuters

Advertisement

Also worth reading

Advertisement

Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

Microsoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask Wallets

Tech Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Microsoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask Wallets A new report from Microsoft researchers warned of malware that could steal and decrypt users’ information from 20 of some of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets. By Margaux Nijkerk| Edited by Stephen

Tech

Share this article

X iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmail

Microsoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask Wallets

A new report from Microsoft researchers warned of malware that could steal and decrypt users’ information from 20 of some of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets.

Microsoft shareholders voted against adding bitcoin to its company's treasury. (Photo by Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images)

What to know:

  • Tech giant Microsoft shared a new report warning of malware that targets 20 of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets used with the Google Chrome extension.
  • The malware, dubbed StilachiRAT, could deploy “sophisticated techniques to evade detection, persist in the target environment, and exfiltrate sensitive data.”
  • While the malware has not been distributed widely, Microsoft did share that it has not been able to identify what entity is behind the threat.

Tech giant Microsoft shared a new report warning of malware that targets 20 of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets used with the Google Chrome extension.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don’t miss another story.Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Microsoft’s Incident Response researchers raised alarms of a new remote access trojan (RAT), dubbed StilachiRAT, which could deploy “sophisticated techniques to evade detection, persist in the target environment, and exfiltrate sensitive data,” the team shared in a blog post.

According to the team, the malware was discovered in November 2024, and it could steal users’ wallet information, and any credentials, including usernames and passwords, stored in their Google Chrome browser. StilachiRAT targets 20 crypto wallets including some of the most widely-used ones like MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, OKX Wallet, and BNB Chain Wallet.

While the malware has not been distributed widely, Microsoft did share that it has not been able to identify what entity is behind the threat and laid out some mitigation guidelines for current targets including installing antivirus software.

“Due to its stealth capabilities and the rapid changes within the malware ecosystem, we are sharing these findings as part of our ongoing efforts to monitor, analyze, and report on the evolving threat landscape,” the team wrote.

Read more: Microsoft Shareholders Vote Down Bitcoin Treasury Proposal

MicrosoftWalletsMetaMaskPhantomcoinbase-walletCoinbase
Margaux Nijkerk

Margaux Nijkerk reports on the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.

X

!–>!–>!–>
Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

Microsoft Identifies StilachiRAT Malware: Threatens Chrome-Based Crypto Wallets

TLDR Microsoft discovered StilachiRAT, a new remote access trojan targeting cryptocurrency wallets and credentials The malware targets 20 different crypto wallet extensions in Google Chrome, including MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet StilachiRAT can steal browser credentials, monitor clipboard content, and evade detection using anti-forensic techniques The malware communicates with command-and-control servers to exfiltrate data

TLDR Microsoft discovered StilachiRAT, a new remote access trojan targeting cryptocurrency wallets and credentials The malware targets 20 different crypto wallet extensions in Google Chrome, including MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet StilachiRAT can steal browser credentials, monitor clipboard content, and evade detection using anti-forensic techniques The malware communicates with command-and-control servers to exfiltrate data […]
The post Microsoft Identifies StilachiRAT Malware: Threatens Chrome-Based Crypto Wallets appeared first on CoinCentral…
Read More

Continue Reading