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The Xbox 360’s Video Playback “Issue” Acknowledged, Microsoft “Working on a Fix”
After a few months of people pointing the issue out, Microsoft has finally acknowledged that the 2011 dashboard update has created a problem with the console’s video playback. Xbox spokesman Larry Hryb has said the company is “aware of the colorspace issue” affecting “some Xbox video apps”, and that Microsoft is “working on a fix”.…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 20, 2012 -
Microsoft now has Achievements for…Developers
Taking the notion of institutionalised rewards maybe a little bit too far, Microsoft has begun awarding achievements to developers Earlier today the company unveiled a beta plug-in for the Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment, which offers 32 achievements for developers based on how well they’re coding. There are even leaderboards, and the achievements can be…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
Microsoft is Not Doing Enough to Help Xbox Live “Hack” Victims
So there’s been some kind of security problem with Xbox Live accounts for a while now. Microsoft denies there’s been any compromise of its own data, yet still, for months now users have complained of having their accounts hijacked by people making unauthorised transaction. A theory emerged last week that the cause of the issue…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 16, 2012 -
This Might be the Reason Behind the Xbox Live “Hacks”
Ever since the first wave of “FIFA Hacks” surfaced last year, a lot of people have been complaining that their Xbox Live accounts had been “hacked”. Microsoft has continually denied any such breach of security, but you know, there have been too many cases for too long now for this to be nothing So, uh,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2012 -
Microsoft Shelves Fancy TV Service for the Xbox 360
There was a lot of buzz last year that Microsoft would be introducing a new TV subscription service for the Xbox 360, one that would bring all kinds of live TV shows to the platform and let them work with motion and voice control. Nothing ultimately became of it because, well, nothing ultimately became of…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012 -
Microsoft’s Explanation For What Caused Xbox 360 Factory Suicide Threats
Earlier this week, Kotaku told you about how a large number of employees at a Foxconn factory in China had threatened mass suicide having been “denied compensation they were promised”. Microsoft assured us at the time that it would look into the matter, and has informed Kotaku that it has now completed “an independent investigation…
Luke Plunkett & Brian Ashcraft Published January 11, 2012 -
Who Is to Blame for Slave Labor-Made Game Consoles: Gamers or Game Companies?
Last month, when I got my hands on the PS Vita, the first thing I did was open the box. The second? Flipped over the device to see where it was made. China. It wasn’t always that way. Heck, it wasn’t even that way until fairly recently. For years, Sony made its consoles in Japan.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 11, 2012 -
How Cops Use Xbox Consoles to Catch Crooks
Did you know that in the US, police can use Xbox 360 consoles—and Xbox Live—to trace and catch criminals? And that there are often law enforcement officers posing on the service undercover in an effort to catch child porn offenders? A report on Ars Technica, using recently-leaked correspondence from a digital forensics mailing list, shows…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 11, 2012 -
Microsoft on Foxconn: We’re “Committed to the Fair Treatment and Safety of Workers”
An earlier piece on the mass suicide threat at the Foxconn electronics manufacturing factory reported how 300 people there nearly jumped off a building in a labor dispute. Microsoft’s responded to the situation and you can see the full comment by going back to the original story
By Evan Narcisse Published January 10, 2012 -
Report: Mass Suicide Threats at Xbox 360 Plant [UPDATE]
On Jan. 2, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China threatened to throw themselves off a building in a mass suicide. Foxconn makes Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony products. These workers manufacture Xbox 360s. According to Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution (via Watch China Times), the workers were protesting denied compensation they…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 10, 2012 -
Kinect Coming to Windows on February 1 (and Costs $250??) [Update]
Microsoft has announced that Kinect is coming to Windows on February 1. While you’ll of course be playing games on it, as has been explained when the crossover was first revealed, there’s more to it than just waving your arms to play Microsoft Flight. There are a number of office and communications uses for it…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2012 -
There are now 66 Million Xbox 360 Consoles In the Wild
Microsoft announced just ahead of its CES keynote that the Xbox 360 has sold 66 million units worldwide. Kinect has sold 18 million. And there are just under 40 million Xbox Live users. That’s…a lot of people not connected to Xbox Live!
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2012 -
The Country That Shut Down Xbox Live for Kids
Every night across the globe, kids log into Xbox Live and game online. They should be studying or sleeping, but they’re gaming. Except in South Korea. Last year, South Korea enacted a “Shutdown Law” designed to block online gaming for a nightly six-hour block. It was apparently created with PC gaming in mind, hoping to…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 9, 2012 -
Analysis Alleges Microsoft Gimped Third-Party Video in the New Xbox Dashboard
Shortly after the new “Metro” dashboard for the Xbox 360 was released to the public, Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry noticed that in-dash video was of a poorer quality than the same video played elsewhere. Investigating further—as Microsoft remained totally silent on the matter—it’s discovered why: They say the software development kit given to third parties is…
By Owen Good Published January 7, 2012 -
Microsoft Refunds Money Lost in Xbox Live Phishing Scam, Promises Better Customer Service
Microsoft said it has intervened to restore the Xbox Live account of a customer hit by an overseas phishing scam, and refunded all unauthorized charges the scammers were able to make as her complaint got lost in customer support and was never properly locked down. Further, a Microsoft spokesman tells Kotaku that the company is…
By Owen Good Published January 6, 2012 -
Patents Show that the Next Xbox Might Be a DVR, Too
Xbox 3, Xbox 720, NextBox… whatever you call it, lots of rumors are being floated about Microsoft’s next home console. Some say it’ll output Avatar-level visuals while others say it’ll lean heavily on cloud architecture. But the latest hint as to Microsoft’s gaming future point to their ever-increasing ambition to fuse TV, film and gaming…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 3, 2012 -
Xbox Live Pries the Guns from Your Cold, Avatar Hands
This announcement oughta go over like a turd in a punchbowl. Seems that on Jan. 1, Xbox Live is taking guns away from all avatars. That is according to Epic Games’ community manager, who in a reminder to Gears of War fans said that if they don’t have the Lancer or Hammerburst avatar props, they…
By Owen Good Published December 24, 2011 -
The New Xbox Dashboard Is Stopping Some Users from Getting Online
Ever since the release of Microsoft’s new dashboard the other week, some unlucky users have been unable to get their consoles back online, something the company is promising to “resolve … as soon as possible”. “We have recently identified an Xbox Live profile data error that results in Error Code ‘801540B7’ for a small number…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 23, 2011 -
Video Playback Quality Poorer Under New Xbox Dashboard: Report
The Xbox 360’s video player does not display video properly, a problem that testers reported during the new dashboard’s beta period, and one confirmed by Eurogamer this weekend. The issue seems to be that the new dashboard forces videos to display at limited-range RGB levels, which in layman’s terms means the color looks washed out.…
By Owen Good Published December 18, 2011 -
Those Awful “No Sue” Clauses, In Plain English, So You Can Understand Them
The gist of many big company’s new “No Sue” clauses are that you can’t sue them, but beyond that, aarrggghh, there’s so much legal wish-wash it makes your head spin. So thank you, website EULAgony, for translating them into something we can understand. The site, whose name is a play on the term EULA (End…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 16, 2011