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Microsoft to Allow Indie Self-Publishing on Xbox One

Microsoft’s road to PR redemption is slowly but surely continuing. I guess when you bottomed out in public perception, it’s pretty hard to do anything but improve how you’re perceived.

After backtracking on the console’s always-connected DRM and hinting that they might find a way to bring back family sharing, Microsoft has made overtures to the developing community by changing policies to allow indie games to be self-published on Xbox One.

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Tags: Indie, Microsoft, Xbone, Xbox One

Will The Xbox One Be Your Overly Attached Girlfriend?

Microsoft might have gotten rid of the online check-in DRM requirements for the Xbox One but doesn’t mean that it isn’t still watching you. We’ve all read that it’s built around advertising with the Kinect integral to making that advertising work better for advertisers. The Kinect always watching and Microsoft’s compliance in giving data to the NSA doesn’t make me feel better about it.

So is the Xbox One going to be like a clingy girlfriend? The folks at Kensington make that case in a handy infographic.

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Posted on July 19, 2013 | Image

Microsoft Uses Change from Points to Money to Raise UK Prices

Jul 11

Posted by Steve Murray

The exciting change from the mythical Microsoft Points system (which, according to a friend in marketing, was designed to make people think they were paying less than they actually were) to real world currency might not be all that it’s cracked up to be for gamers in the UK.

Reports from Xbox Live users in the UK say that Microsoft has used the conversion from Microsoft Points to real money as an opportunity to raise prices by upwards of 34%.

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Tags: Business of Gaming, Microsoft, Money, Xbone, Xbox Live

Defense Grid: The Awakening is the First Xbox Games with Gold Game

Jul 2

Posted by Steve Murray

Back at E3, Microsoft promoted their new Games for Gold program during their keynote. This program gives away two free games between the beginning of July and the launch of the Xbox One. Fable III was the first game given away under this promotion and Assassins’ Creed II and Halo 3 were announced as the first two games that would be given away as part of “Games with Gold.”

Well, funny I should mention that. Today was the release of the first Games with Gold game and it wasn’t Assassins’ Creed II or Halo 3. It was actually 2008 tower defence game Defense Grid: The Awakening.

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Tags: Defense Grid: The Awakening, Games with Gold, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live

Don Mattrick Leaving Microsoft for Zynga

Jul 2

Posted by Steve Murray

After he took Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment division, AKA Xbox, from the top console brand in America and battered its reputation with a series of bad decisions over the last few months, it looks like Don Mattrick is going to leave brand destruction behind and try his hand at brand rehabilitation instead.

Mattrick is leaving his post as Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment for the CEO job at Zynga Entertainment.

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Tags: Don Mattrick, Microsoft, Xbone, Xbox, Xbox One

Xbox One’s Cancelled Family Sharing Was a One Hour Demo

Jun 24

Posted by Steve Murray

While Microsoft eliminating the DRM on the Xbox One can only be seen as a good thing, it wasn’t all positives to come from that. The elimination of the online check-ins and mandatory installation of games resulted in the elimination of the family share program which was considered one of the bright spots of the upcoming console.

However, the might have been for the best. Reports indicate that the Family Share program wasn’t actually going to allow you to share full games with your 10 family members on Xbox Live. It was going to let you play the game in hour-long chunks rather than the whole game.

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Tags: DRM, Microsoft, Xbox One

An Animated Examination of Microsoft’s Xbox One-80 DRM Change

Jun 21

Posted by Steve Murray

Taiwanese animation producer NMA, or Next Media Animation if you’re more formal, have a unique way of explaining news. I’m not sure I’ve seen a more accurate, or more colourful, way of explaining Microsoft removing DRM from the Xbox One but NMA has it covered. Personally, I think their depiction of the Xbone isn’t too far off the mark.

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Tags: DRM, Microsoft, Used Games, Xbox One

Microsoft Removes Xbox One DRM

Jun 20

Posted by Steve Murray

After taking a PR battering over 24-hour online check-in, used games restrictions, contradictory explanations of their policies and seemingly mocking people who didn’t like the Xbox One’s policies, Microsoft is performing an about-face on their established DRM policies.

A post on the Xbox website said that Microsoft was backtracking on the DRM and used games restrictions that nearly derailed the Xbox One in this console generation before it started.

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Tags: DRM, Microsoft, Used Games, Xbox One

The Xbox One Used Games Instructional Video

Jun 17

Posted by Steve Murray

Just when you thought that Sony had all the momentum coming out of E3 with their anti-DRM policies and pot shots at the Xbox One, Microsoft fires back with their own versions of the famous PlayStation 4 game sharing instructional video. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will help Microsoft that much.

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Tags: Microsoft, Parody, Xbox One

E3 2013: Xbox One Games Were Running on High-Powered Windows 7 PCs

Jun 17

Posted by Steve Murray

When a game developer works on a game for a particular console, they get a “dev kit.” These are computers that are specced out to perform similar to the retail version of the console. One would assume that the games being shown off at E3 were running on dev kits but you’d be wrong.

It turns out that eye-witness reports from the floor at E3 say that not only were Xbox One games not running on dev kits but PCs that were likely far more powerful than the XB1.

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