Microsoft plans gaming, cloud, and Windows events — and they start Thursday

Microsoft's 2021 calendar is packed with gaming, cloud, and Windows events
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It looks like Microsoft is readying its Powerpoints to show off the future of Windows — and much more. A new report signals that the company will put forward a series of live streams that showcase its ambitions for its operating system, the Microsoft 365 suite (and work in general), security, gaming and the cloud.

This upcoming Windows event will likely show off the refreshed version of Windows 10, code-named Sun Valley. It's also been a while since we've heard talk about Windows 10X, so that may also be on the agenda.

This is all, of course, the company's way to do things differently while it cannot have live events because of the rules of social distancing during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

This news come from a story at The Verge, which notes it "learned" of Microsoft's plans for "a series of news events over the coming months."

The first event is titled "Reimagine the Employee Experience," and will take place at 9 a.m. ET this Thursday (Feb. 4). Since it was posted by the Microsoft 365 account, we expect to see how Teams, Word, Excel and the rest of the Office suite has been updated for optimal co-working.

It will be hosted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft 365 Corporate VP Jared Spataro. 

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As for the gaming event, Microsoft's XCloud and Xbox Game Pass seem like top contenders for news — as such an event seems more likely to focus on services than actual game news. We're not getting anything close to a normal E3 this year, so Microsoft could still save some game announcements for its own stream. It's unclear when Microsoft's gaming event would be at this point.

These events reportedly won't replace Microsoft's Build and Ignite events, but rather  augments them as a series of announcements.

There's no word about how Microsoft plans to announce the Surface Pro 8 — as it just gave a minor update for business and education crowds with the Surface Pro 7+.

Henry T. Casey
Managing Editor (Entertainment, Streaming)

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.