Microsoft

WSJ: Microsoft Is Testing Its Own Smartphone

WSJ: Microsoft Is Testing Its Own Smartphone [updates.gizmodo.com]

Chinese Grandma Tries to Shut Down a Microsoft Event, Then Things Get Ugly

To kick off Surface, Microsoft held big launch events in China. At the midnight event in Beijing, there were dancers, loud music, and one pissed off grandma. That’s when things got ugly. According to Sina, the noise was apparently keeping her grandchildren awake—a problem since the next day was a schoolday. So the grandma and…

Check Out Halo 4’s New “Gameplay” Launch Trailer

Putting aside the fancy live-action stuff for a day, Microsoft tonight released this “gameplay” launch trailer for Halo 4. As pretty as it looks, “In-game cinematics interspersed with brief staged moments of gameplay from a third-person perspective” might have been a more accurate title. Though, admittedly, a little less snappy.

You Can Get a 250GB Xbox 360 For $99 (But There’s a Catch)

Microsoft is expanding its “pay as you go” plans for the Xbox 360 in the United States, adding a 250GB console (and a 250GB console + Kinect) to go alongside the 4GB console that’s been available for a few months now For $99, you can get the 250GB unit (the 250GB + Kinect deal is…

Microsoft has released the list of games and apps that will support Smartglass when it launches on Friday.

Why Didn’t Anyone Use Facebook or Twitter on the Xbox 360? In a Word, Screenshots.

I am an inveterate Twitter-er, with the second-most Tweets of anyone on Kotaku‘s staff. I’ll interrupt a game to bash out a 140-character punchline to something that just happened or occurred to me in one. It’s just my nature. After locking myself out of my bathroom and resolving the matter by literally kicking down the…

Who Is Stealing Halo 4?

Halo 4 doesn’t come out until November 6th. Millions of people are eagerly awaiting the highly anticipated next chapter in the Master Chief saga, poring over every bit of info released about the game. But some others aren’t waiting at all. They’re already playing and selling Halo 4. As of this week, half a dozen…

There’s Five Spots We Get THIS Close to Seeing Master Chief’s Face in the New Halo 4 Trailer

The Halo 4 launch trailer was predictably big budget, but what I found most interesting was how human they made Master Chief look. We usually just see him as a giant hulking killing machine, all armour and visor, but Tim Miller and David Fincher’s clip goes right ahead and actually takes the mask off the…

Xbox Live Has Got A Binder Full Of Awful Debate Questions

I’ve been watching the Presidential debates on my Xbox 360. I’m not alone—Microsoft reports that more than 100,000 people watched last night’s debate on their gaming console. While I applaud Microsoft for making these vital discussions available on the Xbox, there’s one big downside to watching them this way: Those insipid, meandering interactive questions. At…

Xbox Live Gamers Think Obama Won the Second Debate

Tonight, President Obama squared off against Governor Romney. Did either win one hundred percent of the debate? What about 47 percent? Oh, the suspense! Xbox Live thinks it knows. According to 100,000 Xbox Live community members, President Obama took the second debate, with 51 percent of undecideds giving it to the Commander in Chief. Republican…

You Can’t Watch Halo 4‘s Intro Right Now [Update]

The leak, and subsequent piracy of (and perma-bannings for playing) Halo 4 resulted in a flurry of videos such as this one, uploaded by the YouTube user Madchinima. [Update] Microsoft is officially not screwing around with this leak. This video was taken down inside of 20 minutes. This is the opening of the game, not…

Xbox 360 Gets a $50 Price Cut And a Bunch of New Bundles for the Holidays

The Xbox 360 is getting a set of holiday bundles as well as a short-term $50 price cut, Microsoft announced today. As Kotaku reported over the weekend, the $50 discount promotion applies to the 250GB Xbox 360, the 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect, and the 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect. (Not included: the 4GB Xbox…

Here’s The Video That Convinced Microsoft To Pay For Mark of the Ninja

You might wonder why Microsoft decided to publish Mark of the Ninja, an independently-developed 2D stealth game that looks and plays like very few other games out there. Today Kotaku can reveal the pitch video that Ninja developers Klei Entertainment showed Microsoft in late 2010 to get them to fund the game. You can watch…

You’re Getting a (Slightly) New Xbox 360 Dashboard Today

Unlike some of its more drastic overhauls, today’s Xbox 360 dashboard update is a relatively subtle one. Alongside the introduction of Xbox Music and, finally, a console version of Internet Explorer, perhaps the most notable changes include the ability to “pin” your favourite programs to the home menu screen and the fact 12 new languages/accents…

Play Halo 4 Early, Get Banned From Xbox Live. Forever.

With Halo 4 not out until the first week of November, the fact people are playing it now—and getting banned from Xbox Live for doing so—all but confirms the suspicion that copies of the game have been leaked According to a report on MCV, Xbox Live users found playing the game are being given permanent…

Two More Key Developers Leave BioShock Infinite

Two more developers have left Irrational Games, makers of BioShock Infinite. According to LinkedIn, Artificial intelligence lead Don Norbury and combat design director Clint Bundrick are the latest to depart the Boston-based company. The changes to their LinkedIn pages were first spotted by Superannuation. (Who, incidentally, shares a lot of that kind of scoopery in…

Xbox Music Sounds Amazing (If You Use Microsoft Devices)

First announced back at E3, Microsoft today revealed the first serious details about its Xbox Music service, which will use the cloud to stream a music catalogue across platforms like the Xbox 360, PC and Windows 8 tablets. It’ll have around 30 million songs when it opens. It goes live on the Xbox 360 tomorrow,…

Spoiler Alert: Halo 4‘s Out in the Wild, So Be Careful What You Read for the Next 3 Weeks

Yesterday brought word that Halo 4‘s discs had leaked out, three weeks ahead of the game’s street date, which is a common claim for a major franchise and a highly anticipated game. Still, Microsoft’s security division is looking into the matter, which lends a little more credence to the report. And now, this appeal from…

Microsoft Investigating Purported Halo 4 Leaks

That image of Halo 4‘s two discs popped up on NeoGAF earlier today. Some in the forum shrugged it off, saying that reviewers must be getting their copies, to which I chuckle heartily. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, consumer codes being sent out for review three weeks before release. Please. What really…

Nothing Says Windows 8 Quite Like Anime Schoolgirls

Microsoft and anime girls are not strangers in Japan. In fact, you could say that Microsoft and Japanese anime girls are a thing. And not a new thing at that! For Windows 7, Microsoft had an OS character—or OS-tan, as they’re called. OS-tans are anime personifications of operating systems that are created online by fans.…