Microsoft

American and British Governments May Have Spied on WoW and Xbox Live

American and British spies infiltrated World of Warcraft and Second Life, using the games to monitor what they think are terrorist communications, recruit informers, and gather data on communications between players, according to classified documents uncovered by the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica. Xbox Live activity also was monitored by the agencies, which include the…

Don’t Fall For This Xbox One Backwards Compatibility Prank

A spurious image has been making the rounds and implying that you can use the Xbox One’s developer tool menus to make the Xbox One play Xbox 360 games. Problem is, the image is dead wrong and you could brick your Xbox One. Don’t do that. Earlier this week, the inputs that let you access…

​Call Now and Get a Great Deal on Next-Gen Video Game Pictures!

Poor Peter Clatworthy—the guy who paid £450 (USD$735) for a picture of an Xbox One—has been the butt of many an internet joke. This video, while verging a bit on the mean side, is one of the best. VideoGamerTV’s TV shopping show parody nails the frantic hucksterism of channels like HSN and zeroes in on…

Not Sure if Dance Moves or Assassin’s Creed IV Glitch

Weird things can happen during Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s fights, and while the game is about pirates, which means barrels full of rum, these moves might be too much even for Edward Kenway. Here’s the full clip by YouTuber BenBuja. I wouldn’t bat an eye this happened in a Devil May Cry game. Edward’s…

Teenager Pays $735 For A Picture Of An Xbox One

English teenager Peter Clatworthy made some very bad decisions during an Xbox One auction on eBay, paying £450 (USD$735) and not even getting a console. He got a picture of a console. The 19-year-old student told the Nottingham Post that he’d saved up the money so that he could buy the console as a surprise…

Reminder: The Witcher 3 Is Going to Look Pretty Damn Good

The last part of CD Projekt Red’s trilogy will be hitting the PS4. It looks pretty freaking great. Watch the trailer and you’ll see glimpses of bustling medieval hamlets, ominous storm-drenched beaches and impressive-looking combat. The game is also hitting PC and Xbox One and should be out some time next year. Read Kirk Hamilton’s…

Helpful Tips For Navigating Your Xbox One

The Xbox One’s interface has been a source of much delight and frustration in my household. Xbox Live’s Major Nelson put together this nifty video to help befuddled folks like myself make sense of it all. The Xbox One has quickly become the central hub of my living room — we use it for games…

Is this… The Valvengers? The Hulk, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Captain America and Thor (poor Thor) all transformed into Valve characters. With the Scout and the Soldier from Team Fortress 2 and a zombie from Left 4 Dead, teaming up with Gordon Freeman, this team probably wouldn’t function smoothly. Dayshot is an…

South Park‘s Japanese is Truly Horrible, Yet Hilarious

This week’s episode of South Park contained scenes of un-subtitled Japanese. I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not, but the Japanese was hilariously bad. Take a look and see for yourself. Note: If you haven’t seen the latest three episodes of South Park, turn back now because minor spoilers ahead. –Spoiler territory– In last…

Here Are 32 Studios Making Games For Xbox One’s Indie Program

The Xbox One is in the hands of players now, but it’s also in the hands of a large number of developers who’ve signed on for the ID@Xbox independent publishing platform. Today program director Chris Charla namedropped 32 of them, and they make for a very impressive list. From huge huge outfits like Crytek to…

The elevators in Battlefield 4? They’re fine, as long as you ignore stuff like this, straight from a horror movie. But glitchy elevator physics is the price we have to pay for collapsing buildings and levolution moments. Dayshot is an image-based feature, that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and…

Microsoft Is Researching a Bra. Well, a Smart Bra.

There’s a good reason for that. According to Microsoft, a bra is close to the heart. You know what else it’s close to? The stomach, that’s what. The BBC reports that researchers from Microsoft’s visualisation and interaction research group designed a bra that’s able to detect emotions. This comes after the reveal of Sony’s smart…

​Your Xbox One Responds To ‘Sexbox.’ The PS4? ‘Babe Station.’

To access the voice-control functionality on an Xbox One, you say, “Xbox.” To access it on PlayStation 4, you say, “PlayStation.” But those greetings aren’t very fun or sexy, are they? As Stephen found when he tested it out, the PlayStation 4 actually responds to some pretty casual language. You can say “A.C. Four” or…

​The Best Next-Gen Game. The Worst Next-Gen Dialogue.

Y’know, the collective chatter amongst Kotaku writers has unofficially dubbed Need for Speed Rivals as the best next-gen game so far. Several among us have raved about the way it draws you in and entices you to keep playing. But, man, the lines coming out of the characters’ mouths in this racing game are terrible.…

As Xbox One Complaints Increase, Microsoft Promises Improvements

Day-one Xbox One adopters have had their consoles for a week and a half now, and the warts are starting to show. Over the past few days, we’ve seen a surge of complaints about the new Xbox’s interface and operating system, and today, Microsoft’s publicly promising that they’ll do better. We mentioned a few of…

​The Game That Lets You Create for Xbox One Is Now In Open Beta

Project Spark—a game creation suite that lets players make platformers, RPGs and much more—might be Microsoft’s secret weapon for the Xbox One. Today, you can sign up to be among the first to try it out as long as you’re using Windows 8.1. If you’re running the latest update to Microsoft’s OS, you can go…

Here’s More Proof A Retro Run And Gun Borderlands 2 Would Be Fantastic

Borderlands 2‘s fast and frenetic gameplay could be perfectly converted into a classic 2D run & gun arcade game, similar to the Metal Slug series. Olsonmabob on DeviantART couldn’t resist further playing with this idea and made a pretty lively piece of concept art. His demake features the utopian city of Opportunity from Borderlands 2,…

Artists at Rovio were asked to mix Angry Birds with other games, and this Street Fighter mashup is what Javier Burgos came up with. Awesome coloring! And he really had to make those birds look upset to avoid mockery. Dayshot is an image-based feature, that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related…

When Composers Make Music Out Of The Xbox One Startup Sound

Last week, I wrote an article about how the Xbox One startup sound is a little melody. I even made the Xbox One and Xbox 360 perform a little duet. Then, something awesome happened. Inspired by that article, the folks over at Disquiet made the Xbox One startup sound into a compositional challenge. How many…

Battlefield 4 Reinvents Jousting With Jet Skis And Bazookas

Having a good time in Battlefield 4 in an unconventional way doesn’t always mean stacking 64 players into an elevator or changing pilot seats mid-air. There’s jet ski jousting! Jackfrags and his crew show us how to play this grand sporting spectacle. Two teams battle for supremacy on water, while jet skis and rocket launchers…