Microsoft

Diablo III’s Endgame Dungeons Can Be Disappointingly Empty

Greater Rifts in Diablo III are unforgiving sometimes—not because they’re hard, but because you have 15 minutes to kill a huge amount of monsters, even if the dungeon doesn’t actually have that many of them. YouTuber avtorouc entered one of these dungeons where the monster density was, well, quite low. He was lucky it wasn’t…

Microsoft Buys Minecraft Maker Mojang for $2.5 Billion

Microsoft just announced in a press release that it has acquired Mojang, creators of Minecraft, in a $2.5 billion deal. Furthermore, all three of Mojang’s original founders, including Markus “Notch” Persson, will be leaving Mojang following the acquisition. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer talks about the acquisition in an Xbox Wire blog post, where he…

Five Things You Might Have Missed In Dark Souls II’s Second DLC

Bosses that act differently if you wear certain items, hidden areas, secret alternative death animations: Dark Souls II‘s second DLC, Crown of the Old Iron King, has a few cool things even veteran Souls players could miss. Vaati‘s here with his latest guide (including minor spoilers!) to show us all the cool stuff hidden in…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Destiny Nonvertising: The Winners!

Last week I asked Kotaku‘s image manipulation army to, whatever they did,not advertise the gameDestiny, just like Microsoft didn’t. I have never seen a group of people not advertise this much in my entire life. Thanks to a combination of factors too complicated for mere mortals to comprehend (how do people feel about corpse ass?),…

Leaked Video Shows Kinect-Controlled Gears of War Strategy Game

Rumors of a Kinect-centric Gears of War game had been circulating for years after Microsoft introduced the motion-control sensor to the world. One game called Gears of War: Exile was confirmed as cancelled two years ago. But, what looks like footage of another gesture-based Gears game has surfaced. It… it doesn’t look good. Embedded in…

Some fool was talking about Minecraft and Microsoft on the PBS Newshour last night. You can watch the segment or read a transcript here. No news. Just me explaining to the PBS crowd what Minecraft is and why it matters.

15 Must Have Diablo III Items

After an expansion, a console port, and several patches, Diablo III looks really healthy right now. With tons of special items and legendaries added to the game it almost—almost!—feels like Diablo II again, with all the math you have to do to assemble the perfect character with the perfect gear. We gathered 15 really great…

Report: Notch “Unlikely” To Stay At Mojang After Microsoft Sale

In addition to a reportyesterday claiming Microsoft was in talks to buy Swedish developers Mojang, Bloomberg now saysthat according to “a person familiar with Microsoft” Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson will in all likelihood step aside from the company once the sale goes through. This source says that the deal was first discussed a few…

Report: Microsoft Trying To Buy Mojang, Creators Of Minecraft [Update]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, according to “a person with knowledge of the matter”, Microsoft is in “serious discussions” to buy Mojang, the studio that made smash hit Minecraft. The deal is reported to be worth a whopping $2 billion, and “could be signed as early as this week”. UPDATE – Bloomberg now…

Microsoft Says They’re Replacing Abnormally Noisy Xbox Ones

Is your Xbox One making too much noise? Send it to Microsoft and they’ll give you a new one. The folks behind the Xbox say they’re offering replacements for the “small number of customers” affected by a noise issue that seems to have grown more prevalentafter the Xbox One launched in a number of new…

A Good Game for Griefing

Playing IDARB made me feel a tiny, tiny little bit like a NBA player at the free throw line when fans are trying to mess with his focus. Except, in this case, what they did gave me diarrhea. On its face, IDARB—short for It Draws a Red Box—is a super-simple action/sports/platforming hybrid where up to…

In Japan, Xbox One Loses Another Game to the PS4

Earlier this year, Batman Arkham Knight was announced for the PS4 and the Xbox One in Japan. Things have, you see, changed. Xbox.com is hosting a Batman Arkham Knight‘s Japanese language site for the game’s Xbox One release. Sorry, was hosting. If you scrolled down just a teeny bit, you could see the game’s box…

U.S. Military Using Xbox 360 Controller For New Laser Gun

Controlling military hardware with video game input devices isn’t new. Drones, bomb defusal robots and other battlefield equipment have steered by Xbox 360 gamepads for a while now. But the newest weapon using a Microsoft-made controller might be one of the most powerful ones yet. It’s a laser on top of a truck that shoots…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Destiny Nonvertising

Earlier this week Microsoft did not run an advertisementfor this week’s hot new release, Destiny. Something tells me our Photoshop-savvy readers would do an amazing job of not advertising Destiny. Let’s find out! I am referring to the strange Microsoft ad that popped up last week featuring the Destiny logo on a bottle of cologne,…

The Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Teaser is Full of Hidden Spoilers

Confirmed on September 1st’s Sony pre-TGS press conference was Resident Evil: Revelations 2. From what can be seen in the teaser, it’s about a little girl running through a crowd of green wristband-wearing party-goers into a crowd of red wristband-wearing zombies. But there’s a lot more hidden in plain view. “That video was a ‘concept…

Japan’s Xbox One Launch Looks Sad As You’d Expect

Today, the Xbox One finally went on sale in Japan. The launch looked rather depressing. But maybe you saw that coming, right? Granted, these days, it’s really hard to tell how hardware does. People can order stuff online, so there isn’t the same emphasis on launch lines, like as in the past. That being said,…

How To Get Tons of Loot in Diablo III’s New Dungeons

Diablo III‘s patch 2.1 for the PC introduced new endgame content: Greater Rifts. These are tiered, higher level dungeons with a 15-minute timer and with a boss at the end who almost always drops awesome loot. And there’s a smart way to finish these dungeons and get huge amount of legendaries. Here’s Diablo III veteran…

Report: A Merger Might Cause an Xbox-PlayStation Monopoly in China

Media reports are coming in that Chinese media companies BesTV and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group are merging. The two companies are respective joint venture partners of Microsoft and Sony for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in China. Sina.com, a major Chinese news portal, published an article early today confirming month-long rumours that the two…

Minecraft On Xbox One, Out This Friday, Has A Cool $5 Upgrade Program

First announcedlast year, Minecraft is making its way to the Xbox One this Friday. And because you’ve probably played it on at least one system before, Microsoft and Mojang have an interesting proposition. It’ll be $20 as a fresh download, but as a special offer anyone who already owns the Xbox 360 version of the…

State Of Decay Coming To Xbox One Next Year

State of Decay, Microsoft’s entrant into the ever-growing field of open-world zombie games, is coming to the Xbox One next year, the company just announced. The game is already available for the Xbox 360 and PC. But the Xbox Wire post assures zombie-curious gamers that the new version is the definitive edition of the game:…