Xbox

Microsoft Denies Participation In PRISM Data-Gathering Scheme

Yesterday was an unusually troubling day for online privacy. Microsoft clarified the potentially problematic privacy settings for the Kinect video and audio sensor that must be plugged into the Xbox One for it to operate. And yet according to a stunning, unrelated report, Microsoft has also been offering up its users’ data to the NSA…

What Time Does The Xbox One Actually Check To See If You’re Online?

Persona fans know the answer. Everyone else: you’ll want to be asleep when it happens

As Expected, Francis Is Not Happy at All About Today’s Xbox One News

Think you’re mad about tonight’s flood of controversial news from Microsoft about the Xbox One? Your rage pales next to Francis’ fury. Francis’ reaction to the unveiling of Microsoft’s next home game console was something to see. But, in this one, he takes the current-gen Kinect into his big, meaty hands and tries to break…

The Xbox One Just Had A Very Bad Day

In two weeks’ time, we may look on this as one of the smartest PR moves of all time. But for now? It’s been a bad day for Microsoft. Seeking perhaps to head off criticisms that it had been vague (at best) and incompetent (at worst) in its messaging of core Xbox One services at…

Xbox One Lets You Share Your Games With Up To 10 “Family” Members

Here’s another interesting detail from the Xbox news that popped up this evening. Microsoft says that 10 of your “family” members can access your shared games library. Not just on your console. On any Xbox One. Here’s Microsoft: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family…

Xbox One Games ‘Can Only Be Given Once’ [UPDATE]

This is unreal. Microsoft’s new policies seem to confuse more than they clarify. Right at the bottom of one section of the big list of policies Microsoft just released for Xbox One is a little detail about how you’ll be able to share games with your friends. Turns out you’ll only be able to give…

Xbox One Needs To Connect To The Internet Every 24 Hours For Gaming

Following a whole lot of mixed messaging and confusion Microsoft has just confirmed what we told you three weeks ago: the Xbox One will indeed need to be connected to the Internet once every 24 hours to play games. If you don’t connect once every 24 hours, you will not be able to play games…

Microsoft Accidentally (?) Advertises PlayStation Game

Microsoft’s Dutch Facebook page, maybe realising E3 was on the horizon, has asked readers/fans if they can recognise the four big games shown in an image. At first glance, they all look like games shown at Microsoft’s big Xbox One reveal. That bottom one is Collar of Duty. Above that, Madden. Up top is Forza…

Man Gets Sick Of Playing Xbox, Asks To Go To Prison

You’d think a 19 year-old convicted criminal would be happy to avoid jail in favour of home detention and the chance to get some gaming done, but nope, not in the case of this unnamed New Zealander. Having already served ten months of an eleven month sentence for an undisclosed crime, the man called his…

Deadline Hollywood says that Microsoft’s trying to get Hollywood bigwigs excited about the Xbox One. CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly said that Microsoft “doesn’t want to be a cable channel.” Well, that’s a relief.

Survey: Half of You Won’t Tolerate Any Online Requirement for Xbox One

Just over half of the more than 400 respondents to an informal Kotaku survey about the Xbox One say they will not accept an online requirement for single-player gaming. The other half said they would be able to live with it but offered wildly divergent replies as to how long they’d tolerate their single-player games…

The Vultures Circle To Pick At The Carcass Of Used Game Sales

Responding to a report last week that claimed Microsoft would be taking a cut from all pre-owned game sales on the Xbox One, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick chimes in with the inevitable follow-up. It’s equally hard to imagine used game sales surviving attitudes like this. Even if they technically make it past this generation of…

Achievements Have Ruined How I Play Games

It‘s almost midnight and I have spent the last hour killing myself over and over and over again. 205M. Too far. 199M. Almost there. 199M again. So close. This continues, the tapping of my space bar sharpening behind the force of frustration with each failed attempt, for dozens of playthroughs. 201M. Fuck, seriously? This is…

Why The Xbox One Is The “Blackest Black” A Black Can Be

The Xbox One is not just black. It is “liquid black”. There’s an element of marketing fluff behind this, of course, and the console’s design team are not short on marketing fluff, but behind all that, there’s some interesting reasons for the decision. No, really. Here’s an excerpt from a design piece on Microsoft’s new…

Marine Vet Justifies His Argument For Xbox As “Anti-Empathy Machine”

Today on televison, somebody said something reasonable about violent video games. Karl Marlantes, an author, Marine veteran and author of the book “What It Is Like to Go to War” fielded a question on C-Span2 about the long-term effect that unrealistic depictions of war in media and specifically gaming will have on the military. Despite…

Chart: How Microsoft Confused Everyone With the Xbox One

For the past week or so, we’ve all been a tad confused about how Microsoft will be handling used games, online requirements and indie developers on its new Xbox One console. So many official Microsoft comments about these things! Not all of them backwards-compatible with each other. Friend-of-the-site Superannuation suggested that someone make a chart…

Get So Close To An Xbox One You’ll Think You Can Touch It

Seeing as precious few people on Earth have actually been up-close with an Xbox One in the flesh, why don’t you check out this 3D model of the console, which you can explore right here. You can rotate, pan and zoom to your heart’s content, getting close to all the lines, ridges and ports there…

Microsoft Vows To Support Indie Developers on Xbox One

A report last week that the next Xbox console won’t allow independent game developers to self-publish on the Xbox One gave people yet another next-gen Xbox thing to stew about. But Microsoft’s Xbox chief says that Xbox One will have some sort of indie-friendly program. We’re not necessarily in contradiction territory here but rather in—stop…

Xbox One’s Kinect Can Turn Off, Microsoft Says, Noting Privacy Worries

The state of confusion around the new Xbox One console is such that we’re delighted to bring you the news that Microsoft’s next console has a power button. What’s more: its watchful new Kinect sensor that must be plugged in for the console to run can be turned off. Oh brother, big brother! Maybe this…

Want To Play Xbox One Offline? Make One Out Of LEGO.

The Xbox One requires an Internet connection. This LEGO version of the Xbox One—made by YouTuber and LEGO aficionado Kooberz—does not. It might not be able to render Call of Duty dogs, but at least you can put it under your television and play pretend.