Microsoft

Life After Xbox

Over the weekend, I donated my Xbox 360 Elite to Goodwill. It represented a time in my life as a developer that I’m not overly proud about living. I worked for a couple years designing games at Microsoft. It is honestly difficult to say the exact group I was in since the organization was hit…

Microsoft Sells Off Its IPTV Business, Turns TV Focus to Xbox

Microsoft will sell its IPTV platform, Mediaroom, to Ericsson, and focus all of its consumer TV strategy on its Xbox division, the companysaid this morning in a statement. “With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox,” the company said. Originally announced as far back as 2007, Mediaroom brought cable television…

Now This Guy Is Totally Pissed about the Xbox Always-Online Controversy

Think you are upset about that Microsoft creative director’s always-online remarks? No, you are not upset. Francis, however, is upset. Very upset. All of this comes in the wake of a piece Kotaku published earlier today, detailing how sources told Kotaku that the next Xbox requires an internet connection to start games. Francis is MAD…

A Microsoft Creative Director ‘Doesn’t Get The Drama’ Around Always-Online Consoles, Devices

Adam Orth is a creative director at Microsoft Studios. That places him pretty high up on Microsoft’s video game chain of command. Not the top, but he’s an important guy. Anyway, earlier today, Adam took to Twitter to seemingly talk about our report that the next Xbox console will require an always-online internet connection While…

The Next Xbox Will Require an Internet Connection To Start Games, Sources Say

Two Kotaku sources have added more credence to the rumor that the next Xbox, expected to battle the PlayStation 4 in late 2013 or early 2014, will be an always-online system, though it will be able to tolerate dropped connections. “Unless something has changed recently,” one of the sources told us over email, “Durango consumer…

The Next Xbox and Its Controller Are Currently Covered In Crazy Stripes

Controllers for the next Xbox as well as prototype versions of both Microsoft’s new, powerful console and the machine’s new, mandatory Kinect sensor have been in the hands of game creators since last month. But that’s not much of a surprise. What is a surprise is that all of that gear is covered in criss-crossing,…

Hackers Are Targeting High-Profile Employees, Says Microsoft

Microsoft has revealed that a “handful” of accounts held by current and former high-profile Microsoft employees have been hacking targets. In a statement issued to The Verge, Microsoft stated that a “group of hackers are using several stringed social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts.” While Xbox Live doesn’t ask for social security numbers for…

Six Critics Consider Gears of War: Judgment Fresh, Frantic and Fun

Gears of War has been around for a while now—seven years, with Judgment being the fourth game in the series—and it seems the franchise is not ready to slow down just yet. Most reviewers agree that the gameplay is exhilarating, the story is tight, and the war-torn world is prettier than ever. So what was…

Gamer Comedian Kumail Nanjiani Finds Ways to Make Gears Of War: Judgment Funny

We’ve already seen Kumail Nanjiani making jokes about video games, that’s what a comedian who loves his hobby (and lots and lots of video games) does. In conjunction with Funny or Die and IGN, he put together three shorts. They’re not his best work, though, as he clearly shines most during his stand-up. The focus…

An Admirable Attempt To Explain Why Gamers “Love” Company Executives

It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in this job, especially when you consider so many gamers spend so much of their time loathing the companies they represent. But when it comes to the actual men and women running giant video game publishers, there’s a lot of love in the house. We saw…

Japan’s Advice for the Next Xbox

Japan loves foreign products—Apple, BMW, and even Red Wings shoes are popular here. Yet, there’s the Xbox 360. Gathering dust on store shelves in cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Unloved. People in Japan just don’t care! Poor Xbox. The original Xbox was a failure in Japan. The Xbox 360 was a failure in Japan. Microsoft’s…

Judging by the .gifs, Microsoft’s Console Announcement Should Be Right Around the Corner

Scuttlebutt has it that Microsoft is eyeballing an April date to reveal its next console, in an event similar to what Sony held for the PS4 on Wednesday. While this is very, very thinly sourced, we’ve heard the same murmuring, and a domain registration by the company that handles Microsoft’s E3 keynotes has drawn a…

Here’s a Peek at Halo 4‘s Next Map Pack—Before Bungie’s Date with Destiny

Today’s the big day for Halo‘s ex, Bungie, which will soon tell all about its new affair, Destiny. That makes the discovery of these four images for Halo 4‘s forthcoming Majestic Map Pack quite a coincidence, indeed. It’s probably not as nefarious as it sounds, actually. NeoGAF user Wifiplayer13 found them by altering the URL…

Kinect + Department Store Mannequins = Horrible Waking Nightmare

Microsoft exec Larry “Major Nelson” tweeted out this melding of Kinect and commerce earlier today. Nelson is likely proud of the execution here, since it shows the flexibility of the company’s motion-sensing camera in a non-gaming setting. But me? All I can think of is how utterly disturbing it would be if a mannequin in…

What People Used To Say About The First Xbox

We don’t know every last thing about the new Xbox. Some leaked details, for the most part, sprinkled with a liberal helping of rumors. While we wait for new bits and pieces to be revealed, why not reminisce a bit? Let’s have a look at how the very first Xbox, turning 12 years old this…

The Next Xbox Has Mandatory Kinect, Game-Swapping and New Controllers, According To Leaked Info

The next-generation Xbox—the one that will follow the still-popular Xbox 360—will run multiple games at once, require game installations, and will only work when a much-improved version of the popular but divisive Kinect sensor array is plugged in, according to a source who says he has access to development hardware. Those are a just a…

The Reaction to a Console Rumor Explains Why Some Gamers Aren’t Buying

The rumor going around earlier this week wasn’t really anything new. The console that locks out used games is an anticonsumer bogeyman going back years and though the technology to do it exists, it’s yet to come true, for whatever reason. Still, a report this week repeated the same year old rumor about the next…

Japanese Xbox Users Made a Miiverse Clone. Yep, It’s Covered in Dicks.

Dicks, why does it always have to be dicks? Before the Wii U’s user forum, dubbed the Miiverse, launched, I said that it would be a dick drawing inferno. Little did I know that Japanese Xbox users would launch their own Miiverse clone. But, I’ll tell you what, I sure saw the dick drawings coming.…

Report: The Next Xbox Will Require An Internet Connection, Block Used Games

A new Edge report suggests that Microsoft’s next Xbox gaming console, code-named Durango, will require an Internet connection to use. It also won’t be able to play used games, Edge says. We have not been able to confirm the veracity of this new report, which claims that Durango discs will ship with one-time-use activation codes…

Microsoft’s Surface Pro sounded pretty good for gaming. Shame getting Civ V running sounds like pulling teeth