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Halo 5: Guardians is rated “T” for Teen and appears to a younger demographic. It’s interesting when you consider that previous Halo games had M ratings despite their violence not really being much more explicit. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg stated that, “I do expect the T rating will help game sales. Core Halo fans are going to buy the game no matter what the rating is, and I think we’ve seen that. A lot of people were surprised that previous Halo games were M-rated sort of given the style of the game and the lack of real graphic violence and things like that. We’re pleased with the rating.”

Once in a while, Microsoft decides to release the “Work & Play Bundle,” a collection of one-year subscriptions to its best services at a steep discount. For a limited time, the Work & Play Bundle is back.And for $149, you get a lot of good stuff, including subscriptions to Xbox Live and Office 365. Think of it as your gateway drug to the new Microsoft.

Speaking to Gaming Bolt, Anshu Mor, Director of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft India, about the console’s success in India and the efforts being made to appeal to gamers along with the impact that new features like Windows 10 and backwards compatibility will have, said, “Xbox for example is just not built to play hardcore gaming. It is gaming, it is Skype, it is TV, you know it is entertainment, there are a bunch of things that you can do with an Xbox where every person in the family young or old will benefit from the experience.”

Diwali is round the corner and Microsoft exactly knows how to make it special. The tech Microsoft has come up with one of its own kind of deal for this Diwali festive season. The company recently announced a Smart Buybackoffer of INR 7199 on Microsoft Lumia 540. So, this means that you can get the latest and stylish Microsoft Lumia 540 at an amazing buyback price of INR 7199.

Microsoft’s instant messaging platform Skype on Saturday said it was going to enter the mobile messenger service segment to take on WhatsApp and Hike. The company is working on India-specific features to be incorporated into Skype. “We want to make sure our features are available on lots of mobile devices. We are going big in mobile messenger apps. Skype is being optimised for mobile devices,” said Gurdeep Pall Singh, Skype Corporate Vice President.

Customer experience and contact centre solutions company, Genesys, has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to bring rich video support from Skype for Business to the Genesys Customer Experience Platform. Additionally, Microsoft will deploy a Cloud-based contact centre from Genesys for its own global contact centre.

Microsoft unwrapped a smorgasbord of data-related offerings at the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit in Seattle, including the next beta for its flagship database server software and the public beta of its Azure Data Lake Store and Analytics services. Version 3 of the SQL Server 2016 Community Technical Preview includes new support for SQL Server R Services, which brings the popular open source R language into Microsoft’s database software.

343 Industries’ Halo 5: Guardians is now available across the world, including in India for Rs. 4,699. Microsoft has been hyping the release through a six hour live broadcast on YouTube that featured celebrity appearances and gameplay. Anshu Mor, Director, Interactive Entertainment Business in Microsoft India, said “Games and gamers are at the center of everything we do and we’re always looking to offer the best ways to play on Xbox. With the launch of Halo 5, we hope to offer fans slick gameplay and a fantastic campaign. The two new multiplayer modes mark the greatest evolution in Halo history,”

Microsoft is revamping its Outlook app for Android and iOS. The company announced its plans to integrate features of Sunrise, a calendar app it acquired earlier this year, into the email client. In addition, Outlook mobile app has also become cleaner and refined, the company adds. Microsoft announced on Wednesday that the team at Sunrise has “put their design expertise and fresh thinking to work to deliver a more beautiful and improved experience.”

The much-anticipated Android launcher app designed by Microsoft has officially made it to the Google platform. The Arrow Launcher offers a different interface for Android by allowing users to customise the way they use their smartphone and makes it easier to access frequent apps, message friends, take notes, or change settings.