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Tag: Xbox Live

  • You Can Get a Refund If You Cancel Xbox Live Gold

    On Tuesday, Microsoft did something that Xbox users have wanted them to do for years–the company finally tore down the part of the Golden Paywall that encompassed entertainment apps. What this means is that starting June 9th, Xbox users will be able to stream Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime Instant Video, HBO Go, and more without having to purchase an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

    Generally good news all around, right? Well, if you happened to have already purchased a full year’s worth of Xbox Live Gold (as many are wont to do, as it is cheaper that way), then this announcement could’ve left you a bit miffed.

    Don’t worry, however. Microsoft is handing out pro-rata refunds for Gold subscribers who cancel their accounts by August 31st of this year.

    “Once the Xbox One and Xbox 360 system updates become available in June, Xbox Live Gold members who purchased a paid membership before that day can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of any unused remaining days between the date of cancellation and the date their paid Gold membership ends. Cancellation and pro-rata refund requests must be made by August 31, 2014 and require six to eight weeks for processing. Free or trial Gold memberships are not eligible for a refund. To request your pro-rata refund, please click http://support.xbox.com/contact-us after the system updates become available in June,” says Microsoft in an Xbox FAQ.

    For people who ponied up for Xbox Live Gold just so they could stream videos from various services, this is really good news. If you’re an online multiplayer enthusiast, don’t go canceling you subscription. The tearing down of the Golden Paywall doesn’t affect you. You still need Xbox Live Gold to play online.

    Image via Xbox.com

  • Netflix on Xbox without Gold Now a Reality

    Netflix on Xbox without Gold Now a Reality

    It appears the rumors are true. Xbox head Phil Spencer has just announced that they are tearing down the Golden Paywall–at least for entertainment apps.

    In under a month, you’ll be able to stream Netflix (and all other entertainment apps) without a subscription to Xbox Live Gold.

    “Xbox 360 has been a leader in delivering entertainment experiences for years, with over 170 global entertainment apps and experiences available today. We’re constantly adding new partners and experiences to the growing catalog on Xbox One. Coming in June, anyone with an Xbox will be able to access popular entertainment experiences – whether or not you have an Xbox Live Gold membership. This includes great gaming apps like Machinima, Twitch and Upload, popular video services like Netflix, Univision Deportes, GoPro, Red Bull TV and HBO GO, sports experiences like the NFL app for Xbox One, MLB.TV, NBA Game Time, NHL Game Center and more. Microsoft experiences including Internet Explorer, Skype, OneDrive and OneGuide will also be available to all Xbox customers,” says Spencer.

    The one caveat is that some services will only be available to non-Gold members on the Xbox One–this includes Skype, OneGuide, and Twitch Broadcast.

    But for both Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners–you can now stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, Amazon Prime Instant Video, WatchESPN, YouTube and all of your favorite streaming video apps without Xbox Live Gold (as long as you have the requisite subscription to the particular service, obviously).

    And with the addition of Internet Explorer to the non-Gold lineup, you can now do all the internetting you want on your Xbox without that pesky Gold subscription–well, everything except online multiplayer. This will all go into effect on June 9th.

    In other Xbox news, Microsoft also announced that they will be selling a Kinect-less version of the Xbox One for $399.

    Image via Xbox.com

  • Netflix May Be Leaving Xbox’s Golden Paywall

    Netflix May Be Leaving Xbox’s Golden Paywall

    UPDATE: Microsoft made it official.

    Original Article: Unlike many of its competitors, Microsoft forces Xbox users to pay for the company’s console subscription service, Xbox Live Gold, if they want to stream content from media apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Although nobody (on the consumer end) has ever really liked this, it’s been that way for so long that it’s just accepted as a reality. Wanna watch House of Cards via your Xbox 360–well, you’re going to have to pony up the $60 per year for Xbox Live Gold alongside Netflix’s monthly fee. It’s always been a bummer, especially when you consider the fact that other popular streaming video devices like the Roku and PlayStation do not have any subscription requirements to access streaming apps.

    Apparently, this could be changing. Finally.

    Ars Technica cites multiple Microsoft sources who claim that the company is planning to tear down the Golden paywall. “According to our sources, Xbox 360 and Xbox One users will soon no longer need a paid subscription to Xbox Live Gold to access Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming media apps,” says Ars.

    That’s the good news. Of course, no final decisions have been made, but this announcement could come as early as Microsoft’s June 9th E3 keynote.

    The bad, or at least tempering news is that Microsoft is considering putting other things behind the Golden paywall to compensate. It’s unknown at the time whether or not this would include apps that are currently free to use, or just new content that Microsoft is about to debut via the recently announced Xbox original entertainment studio.

    But for Xbox (360 and One) owners who don’t really play their games online and like to use the console to stream all of their video–this is pretty great news.

    Ars’ sources say that this long-time-coming move has a lot to do with the leadership shuffle at Microsoft’s Xbox division. Last July, Don Mattrick left to be the new CEO of Zynga, either due to the botched Xbox One unveiling and subsequent DRM blowback, internal strife over his position in the company, or both–depending on whom you ask.

    Image via Xbox.com

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ Premiere Breaks Piracy Record

    When the season four premiere of HBO’s fantasy-drama series Game of Thrones aired on Sunday night, a record 6.6 million viewers tuned in legally. Another million-plus viewers pirated the episode, setting another record. Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, which owns HBO, called the new piracy record “better than an Emmy.”

    The Sunday night episode entitled “Two Swords” garnered a number of viewers not seen since the series finale of HBO’s The Sopranos in 2007, and the level of piracy exceeded the previous record, which was held by the Game of Thrones season three premiere.

    BitTorrent protocol blog TorrentFreak reported over a million downloads within 12 hours of “Two Swords” airing, with the majority of the torrents being shared in Australia. Naturally, due to HBO’s subscription-only status, piracy is rampant. Though another contributing factor was the crashing of HBO’s streaming service, HBO Go, due to overwhelming demand.

    Here is the Game of Thrones season 4 trailer:

    Game of Thrones was created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The series is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, a set of fantasy novels penned by George R. R. Martin. The complex storyline is set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos at the end of a decade-long summer, and concerns the dealings of several noble families in a civil war over the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. Sex and violence prevail, as an army of zombie-like creatures gain strength in the northern reaches of the fantasy realm.

    Torrent downloads in the United States came in behind those in Australia at 9.3%. File sharing was also significant in the United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands, Philippines, India, Greece, Poland and Sweden. HBO has roughly 114 million legal subscribers worldwide, and has also made Sunday night’s GOT episode free to XBOX live users.

    Image via YouTube

  • Xbox One Reputation System Gets Teeth This Month

    During the last generation of console gaming, Microsoft took a huge lead in multiplayer gaming, providing gamers with a large community of players linked by a robutst, well-designed infrastructure. Unfortunately, as the generation wore on Xbox Live became notorious for younger, immature gamers who use racist and homophobic language while screaming into their headsets.

    To combat this blight on the community, Microsoft last year introduced a new reputation system that would be central to online interactions on the new Xbox One console. The system seems similar to the Xbox 360’s star-powered rating system for users, but with a few key differences. An Xbox Live subscriber’s reputation will be more heavily influenced by community reporting and users with a poor reputation will, in theory, find their online Xbox One experiences degrade due to bad behavior.

    Today Microsoft detailed the Xbox One’s reputation system and gave gamers a head-up on when bad sports will begin to see consequences for their actions.

    The reputation system is currently split into three categories: “good players,” “needs work,” and “avoid me.” Players start off in the “good players” category and an algorithm will be used to determine whether negative reports on a player will kick them down to lower rankings.

    Players with the green-colored “good players” reputation ranking will be able to have regular online interactions through the Xbox One. According to Microsoft the majority of Xbox Live users will fall into this category, as most user do not receive much negative feedback.

    From there players descend to “needs work,” the yellow- or orange-colored category that indicates players who may be receiving negative reports from the community. According to Microsoft, players in this category will begin receiving “reputation warnings” sometime this month. The warnings will be issued based on feedback from players obtained since the launch of the Xbox One.

    The bottom category is the red-colored “avoid me.” Players in this category have passed through the “needs work” category without altering their behavior or paying attention to warnings. “Avoid me” players will have their matchmaking priority reduced and will no longer be able to use features such as Twitch streaming.

    For those who worry that the system might be used to punish players who are more skilled, Microsoft claims that its algorithm corrects for false reports and griefing.

  • Microsoft Wants To Put Xbox Live On Android, iOS

    Microsoft Wants To Put Xbox Live On Android, iOS

    When it comes to gaming, Microsoft has really only dominated the living room with Xbox. Part of its success has been thanks to Xbox Live – the first online gaming service for consoles that got it. Now it wants to bring that same kind of experience to more mobile platforms.

    The Verge reports that Microsoft is working to bring Xbox Live to mobile platforms other than Windows Phone. In other words, you may soon be able to play against your friends, earn achievements and more all from your iOS or Android device via Xbox Live.

    Normally, this kind of information usually comes from sources close to development, but Microsoft pretty much confirmed that they’re working on Xbox Live for iOS and Android in a recent job posting:

    “New Devices and Gaming” is looking for passionate and experienced developers to join us. Your contribution will have direct impact on how we win back our game developers from our competitors. As a member of the newly formed team, you will have the rare opportunity to influence our planning and design from the beginning. We will create a modern framework that is open source, light-weight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS and Android. Working on the gaming technologies, you will collaborate with both internal partner teams across the company and external ecosystem partners to enable end-to-end gaming scenarios.

    Perhaps the most interesting about this job posting is that Microsoft is working on an open source solution. The company has gone out of its way to be more open source friendly in the last few years, but seeing them build a platform to be open source from the start is pretty surprising.

    By making its mobile Xbox Live extension open source, Microsoft may very well “win back [their] game developers from [their] competitors.” There are already multiple platforms that enable online play for mobile games, but Xbox Live would be super enticing for developers also creating console games. I can see developers building an Xbox One title that would be able to communicate with a mobile companion app via Xbox Live for further interoperability between the two. Even non-console developers would probably love to integrate Xbox Live into their games due to it being a recognized brand among gamers – hardcore and casual.

    Despite the job posting making this seem like a done deal, it may not come to fruition. Microsoft could change its mind at any time. Still, a move into online mobile gaming only makes sense if Microsoft wants to better compete with Google and Apple whom both have similar services.

    Image via windowsphoneuk

  • Free Xbox Live Gold Weekend Coming For ‘Titanfall’ Beta

    Microsoft wants everyone with an Xbox One to play Titanfall. Every one.

    In order to achieve this, Microsoft is easing back its Xbox Live Gold paywall for one weekend. One weekend that just happens to coincide with the start of the Titanfall beta test.

    The free Live Gold weekend begins at midnight on Valentine’s Day and lasts until midnight on Sunday February 16. During that time all Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners will be able to access multiplayer games, apps (like Netflix and Hulu), and Video Kinect. The free Gold only applies to Xbox owners in either the U.S. or Canada.

    This, of course, means that everyone using an Xbox One that signed up for the Titanfall beta will be able to play it this weekend – regardless of Xbox Live subscription status. EA earlier this week announced that a beta test for the PC and Xbox One version of Titanfall will begin on February 14 and last into next week.

    This synergy between the free Xbox Live Gold and the Titanfall beta is almost certainly not a coincidence. The offering could demonstrate just how important Microsoft believes Titanfall is for the success of the Xbox One. Microsoft has positioned its console as a device for Call of Duty and Madden gamers who also love to watch sports on TV. Partly because of this focus the Xbox One is less powerful, yet more expensive than the PlayStation 4 console. If Titanfall – an Xbox One “exclusive” with loads of industry and marketing hype behind it – cannot drive Xbox One sales, it may be a sign the console will continue to fall further behind Sony’s competing platform for years to come.

  • Xbox Live Subscribers Get ‘Sleeping Dogs’ Free in January

    Though the second half of 2013 was a PR nightmare for Microsoft and the Xbox One’s original incarnation is still fresh in gamers’ minds, Microsoft did manage to bring one very consumer-friendly feature to Xbox Live subscribers this year. The new Xbox “Games With Gold” program brought to Xbox Live users an answer to the free games that Sony has been giving away with PlayStation Plus subscriptions.

    Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed II, and a few games from earlier in the last console generation have all been given away for Xbox Live users now. Though gamers have complained that the selection of games given away so far hasn’t matched the quality of Sony’s PlayStation Plus freebies, it now appears that Microsoft is getting serious about adding value to its Xbox Live subscriptions.

    Microsoft today announced that both Sleeping Dogs and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for the Xbox 360 will be free for Xbox Live subscribers in January.

    Sleeping Dogs was a surprise hit when it was released in 2012. The game features open-world gameplay in the streets of a fictional Hong Kong and a story that fits neatly into the Hong Kong cop movies of old.

    Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a love-it-or-hate-it downloadable title that is a spinoff to the Tomb Raider series. The 2010 title differed significantly from past Tomb Raider titles in both its gameplay and multiplayer co-op emphasis.

    Sleeping Dogs will be available for free to Xbox Live users starting January 1 and will stay free to download until January 15. Lara Croft will then become the free title from January 16 until the end of the month.

  • Here’s How Multiplayer Is Changing On Xbox One

    Xbox Live has been the defining feature on Xbox 360 as millions of players hop online every day to play games with friends and strangers from all over the world. That will remain the same on the Xbox One, but Microsoft is introducing some new features that will make Xbox Live even better.

    As previously revealed, the core of the new Xbox Live multiplayer experience is centered around reputation. As you play online, people will be able to rate their experience with you, and your reputation will go up or down accordingly. From there, you’ll be paired with other players of like reputations so you no longer have to play games with the less savory folks in the community.

    Another big change coming to multiplayer is dedicated servers and cloud processing. For the former, Microsoft says that every online game on Xbox Live will now be hosted via a dedicated server. That means less lag and less cheating all around. As for cloud processing, Xbox One developers will be able to offload some computations, like AI processing, onto Microsoft’s servers to increase performance.

    Finally, the Xbox team will be introducing some major changes to achievements on Xbox One. For starters, achievements lists are no longer static. For the life of the game, developers can introduce as many achievements as they want. Some of these new achievements may even fall into new categories, like Challenge Achievements or Community Achievements. For example, a developer may introduce an achievement in a racing game that challenges the community to reach 5 billion miles driven. Once that goal is reached, every player that participated will receive the achievement.

    Xbox Live has always been a great online service, but Microsoft looks to be finally turning it into a great online community with the Xbox One. For more on that, check out the Xbox team’s breakdown of the new Friends App for Xbox Live.

    [Image: xbox/YouTube]

  • Xbox Fitness Coming To Xbox One This Holiday Season

    On November 1, Nintendo will jump back into the fitness gaming category it helped create with Wii Fit U. Later this year, Microsoft will be throwing its hat into the ring with a similar app for Xbox One.

    On Friday, Microsoft announced a new Xbox One app called Xbox Fitness that will be launching this holiday season. Unlike Nintendo’s game that utilizes a virtual trainer and the Wii balance board, Xbox Fitness will use real trainers alongside Kinect to help people get into shape.

    Check it out:

    “What makes Xbox Fitness so innovative is the feedback it gives you,” says Insanity’s Shaun T. “The Kinect sensor can evaluate your form, tell how high you’re jumping, how hard you’re punching and even read your heart rate. It’s that little missing piece of validation that hasn’t been possible for home fitness products before. Xbox Fitness completes the puzzle.”

    Alongside its exercise programs, Xbox Fitness acts as a personal trainer. It will create personalized workout programs for each user based on their history and past performance. It will also accommodate any schedule with workouts that last anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes.

    Xbox Fitness will also include Xbox Live integration in the form of online challenges, leaderboards and other methods for you to compare your performance with that of your friends.

    Speaking of Xbox Live, Xbox Fitness will be free to all Xbox Live Gold members until December 2014. Microsoft doesn’t explicitly say it will start charging separately for the service at that point, but it’s heavily implied. That means you’ll want to take full advantage of Xbox Fitness when it launches this holiday season.

    [Image: xbox/YouTube]

  • Xbox Live Summer of Arcade Kicks Off With Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

    One month ago, Microsoft announced that, despite the company focusing heavily on launching its new Xbox One console, it would still be putting on its annual “Summer of Arcade” promotion. The even is now here, and Xbox Live subscribers can now download the first title in the promotion, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

    Brothers is a fairy tale game created by the development studio behind Syndicate and the Chronicles of Riddick games. The game tasks players with controlling two characters – one brother with each thumb stick. Gameplay involves solving puzzles, exploring, and fighting bosses. The new launch trailer for the game shows off Brothers‘ stylized fantasy world and interesting mechanics:

    Brothers may end up being one of the more interesting titles to be released on Xbox Live this year. It is currently selling for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). Other titles will be hitting the Xbox Live Arcade in the next three weeks, including Charlie Murder on August 14, Flashback on August 21, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows on August 28.

  • These Xbox One Features Require Xbox Live Gold

    Since the launch of Xbox Live, players have had to pay to play online. Microsoft began adding more perks with Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox 360, such as using Netflix or Internet Explorer. Now it’s adding a whole host of new features that are exclusive to Xbox Live Gold members on the Xbox One.

    In an update to its Xbox Live page, Microsoft has provided a list of what features will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription going forward. Unsurprisingly, many of the Xbox One’s most unique features will require a subscription:

    These Xbox One Features Require Xbox Live Gold

    So, what are these features that Microsoft thinks you should pay for? OneGuide is the software that will provide a customized cable TV viewing experience while also adding a social layer for friends to talk about their favorite TV shows. Game DVR allows players to record footage of their gameplay to share with friends, or even broadcast it live on Twitch. Skype is pretty self explanatory and SmartMatch complements Xbox Live online play by matching players up with the best possible players based upon their skill level and preference.

    Besides online play, some people began to question whether or not Microsoft was actually offering a value with Xbox Live compared to what Sony offers with PlayStation Plus. With the Xbox One, Microsoft is answering that criticism by offering more value with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

    Microsoft has also started to offer free games on the Xbox 360 to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, but the offering thus far has paled in comparison to what Sony offers via Plus. We can only hope that it gets better with the Xbox One.

    In short, you’re going to be paying to play online on both next-gen consoles. Microsoft and Sony now just have to convince consumers that their value added perks are better than the competition’s.

    [h/t: Engadget]

  • Xbox Live Enforcement United Gets The NMA Treatment

    Xbox Live is generally characterized as a Wild West of sorts, but full of racists and bratty children instead of outlaws and cowboys. Microsoft does its best to filter out the bad players from the good, but it can only do so much. For the next iteration of Xbox Live, Microsoft is turning to the community to help them moderate.

    Last week, Microsoft announced Xbox Live Enforcement United. In short, it’s a program that allows Xbox Live Gold members to moderate the Xbox Live community. In the beta that started last week, members of Enforcement United can vote upon whether or not a gamertag violates the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. In other words, members will be voting on whether or not your gamertag contains any offensive language.

    In theory, it’s a pretty good idea. Some aren’t fans of the program, however, as they think Microsoft is pushing moderation duties onto its player base. Some also aren’t comfortable with the idea that players are essentially paying Microsoft to moderate Xbox Live as only Gold members can participate.

    There’s a lot to take in here. It’s a good thing then that everybody’s favorite Taiwanese animators are here to explain it all to us:

    While I don’t think Microsoft will replace its own in-house moderators with the Xbox Live community, it does bring up the downsides of crowdsourcing. There are plenty of people on the Internet who will gladly do somebody else’s job for free. Will companies start to push these jobs onto their communities and fire their own employees all in the name of embracing their communities?

  • Xbox Live Summer of Arcade Starts August 7

    With the Xbox Live summer sale behind us, Microsoft is giving Xbox 360 gamers only a few weeks to play their new games before this year’s Summer of Arcade games begin showing up. The promotion will begin on August 7 and run until August 28.

    As announced at E3, the titles for the Summer of Arcade will include Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Charlie Murder, Flashback and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Brothers will be the first game to appear in the Xbox Live Arcade on August 7 for 1200 Microsoft Points. August 14 Charlie Murder will be released followed by Flashback on August 21, both for for 800 Microsoft Points. Out of the Shadows finished out the month on August 28 for 1200 Microsoft Points.

    In addition to the games themselves, Microsoft is offering some free DLC for Ascend: Hand of Kul for those who buy at lease two of the Summer of Arcade titles.

    Activision has been promoting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows with individual trailers for each of the turtles. The game is described by the publisher as a “third-person brawler” that features co-op play. It is the first of three upcoming Ninja Turtles games to be based on the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series on Nickelodeon.

  • Assassin’s Creed II Free For Xbox Live Gold Members on July 16

    Xbox Live’s “Ultimate Game Sale” began on Tuesday, offering games such as Assassin’s Creed 3 and Borderlands 2 for as much as 67% off. Though the second day of the sale isn’t quite as exciting, Xbox Live Gold gamers will be pleased to know that Microsoft has announced the next game in its “Games with Gold” program.

    Assassin’s Creed II will be the second game given away during the program, which was announced during Microsoft’s big E3 presentation. The game will be free for Xbox Live Gold members starting July 16. It will remain free until August 1, when a new title will become the rotated in. The program lasts through December, to encourage loyalty to Xbox Live going into the next console generation.

    This announcement comes to reassure Gold members just two days after Microsoft announced its first free “Games with Gold” title, Defense Grid: The Awakening, on Monday. That announcement caused yet another PR nightmare for Microsoft, since Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed II were mentioned during E3 as the games that would “kick off” the “Games with Gold” program. Gamers expecting those titles vented their anger online, a familiar theme during the past few months for Microsoft.

  • Xbox Sale Day 2: Kinect, Board Games, and LEGO

    Yesterday, Xbox Live’s “Ultimate Game Sale” got off to a big start with hit AAA sequels such as Assassin’s Creed 3, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, and Max Payne 3 on sale for 63% to 75% off. Today the sale continues with several new titles taking the place of those games, though yesterday’s momentum seems to have slowed a bit.

    Today’s sale titles are Lego Lord of the Rings, Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, Hasbro Family Game Night 3, Monopoly Streets, Kinect Sports 2, and Rockstar Table Tennis. The LEGO games are each 50% off, with Lord of the Rings selling for $15. Lego Batman 2, Family Game Night 3, Monopoly Streets, and Kinect Sports 2 are $10 each. Rockstar Table Tennis, which was released over seven years ago, is 80% off at $3.

    Though the LEGO games are every bit as good as most of the “blockbuster” titles that come out each year, it’s clear that today’s sale titles are a bit of a step down from Tuesdays. Still, Xbox 360 gamers shouldn’t despair. According to the preview list Microsoft released last week, games such as Crysis 3, Gears of War: Judgment, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Tomb Raider, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, and BioShock Infinite will all be on sale later this week.

  • Xbox Live Summer Sale Starts With Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3 on Sale

    Last week, Microsoft announced that its “Ultimate Game Sale” on Xbox Live would be starting this week, complete with an impressive list of games console fans can expect to be on sale. Today, the sale has begun, and Microsoft has kicked off the deals with a few of the best-received sequels of the past year.

    Assassin’s Creed 3, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, and Max Payne 3 are all on sale today, Tuesday, July 2. Assassin’s Creed 3 is 63% off, going for $15, while Far Cry 3 is 67% at $20. Both Max Payne 3 and Borderlands 2 are both 75% off, selling for $10. These deals will last only until midnight tonight, when another set of games will go on sale. The “Ultimate Game Sale” lasts until July 5. Xbox Live Gold members can also pick up a free copy of Defense Grid: The Awakening as part of the new “Games with Gold” program.

    In addition to the daily game sales, Microsoft has put 11 older games on sale as well. The games, including WWE 13, Dragon Age Origins, Bulletstorm, and the original Crysis, will be on sale from now until July 8. The full list of the games can be seen over at the blog of Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox Live.

  • Microsoft Gives Away its First “Games with Gold” Game

    Though Microsoft’s big E3 presentation was mostly about games, the company did manage to slip in a bit of good information for gamers who are sticking with the Xbox throughout this year. Xbox Live Gold members who don’t unsubscribe will be getting two free games each month, from July until December. This “Games with Gold” program is Microsoft’s way of encouraging a bit of loyalty going into the next console generation, and is also an acknowledgement of the value gamers are finding in Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription.

    Since Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed II were name-dropped as two of the titles gamers will be getting for free, the first free game coming to gold subscribers might be a disappointment. Microsoft today announced that Defense Grid: The Awakening is the first title in the “Games for Gold” lineup. The game will be free until the 16th, when a new free game will take its place. Though the game was well-received when it was released, that was all the way back in 2008. Considering that Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed II were released in 2007 and 2009 respectively, Microsoft is setting precedent, suggesting that its upcoming free games might all be four or five years old (though Fable III was handed out last month, before the program started).

    In other Xbox news, Microsoft has announced the release of a special edition gold Xbox 360 controller, sold only at GameStop and Microsoft Stores starting in August:

    Gold Xbox 360 controller

  • Xbox Live Game Sale Coming Next Week

    While PC gamers everywhere are waiting with baited breath for the Steam summer sale to begin, it seems that a big summer sale for console gamers will begin soon too.

    Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb today announced that an Xbox Live “Ultimate Game Sale” will begin next week. Multiple titles will be on sale each day of the week. Hyrb provided a full list of the games that will be on sale, and there are some good ones, including game-of-the-year material from both 2012 and 2013:

    Assassin’s Creed 3
    Bioshock Infinite
    Borderlands 2
    Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
    Bulletstorm
    Command and Conquer Red Alert 3
    Crysis
    Crysis 3
    Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga
    Dragon Age Origins
    Far Cry 3
    Far Cry Instincts Predator
    Forza Horizon
    Gears Judgement
    Hasbro Family Game Night 3
    Hitman Absolution
    Kinect Sports 2
    Left 4 Dead 2
    Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes
    Lego Lord of the Rings
    Mass Effect
    Max Payne 3
    Metal Gear Rising: Revengence
    Monopoly Streets
    Perfect Dark Zero
    Prey
    Rockstar Table Tennis
    The Orange Box
    Tomb Raider
    Witcher 2
    WWE 13 GonD
    X-com: Enemy Unknown

    Though Microsoft’s Xbox Live sales don’t normally see the kind of deep discounts PC gamers get with a Steam summer sale, Xbox 360-only gamers should jump at the chance to grab some of these games for a lower price. Though Microsoft did hold a surprise sale earlier this year for the 10th anniversary of Xbox Live, it’s rare that large numbers of games on Xbox Live are discounted.

  • Netflix Unlocked This Weekend for All Xbox LIVE Users, Just in Time for Arrested Development

    If you’re excited about this weekend’s big Arrested Development season 4 premiere and you want to watch it on your TV, Microsoft is giving you another option.

    The Xbox Netflix app will be unlocked this weekend – meaning that those with just an Xbox LIVE Silver membership will be able to utilize the app (as long as you have a Netflix subscription). Usually, you must have an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription to access Netflix.

    “If you’ve been yearning for more of the Bluth family, look no further. The new season of Arrested Development finally premieres this Sunday, May 26. And it gets even better. Starting today, Xbox Live Gold will be unlocked* for the weekend for Netflix members in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Basically, we’ve made it ridiculously really easy for you to catch up on the first three seasons of Arrested Development. If you’re not a Netflix member, fear not,” says the Xbox Wire.

    The new season of Arrested Development drops (all 15 episodes) at 12:01 am PT on Sunday. Netflix offers a free 1-month trial right now, so it looks like the perfect storm for Xbox LIVE Silver members who want to watch via their Xbox. If you want to get caught up, you have until then to stream the first 3 seasons, which are all available on Netflix.

    This sort of deal promotes binge watching – but be careful. According to Arrested Development’s creator, that could make it less fun. Marathonning is hard to resist, however. So, do what you want.

  • Hackers Obtain Xbox Live Accounts Owned By Microsoft Employees

    Hackers Obtain Xbox Live Accounts Owned By Microsoft Employees

    Xbox Live is generally seen as pretty secure – at least more so than others. The service has never been taken down by hackers, but it has seen its fair share of account hacks.

    Ars Technica reports that Xbox Live accounts belonging to former and current Microsoft employees have been hijacked by hackers. It’s suspected that those responsible may belong to a group of hackers going by the name of Team Hype. The group reportedly has a history of obtaining Xbox Live accounts and selling them to other players.

    To Microsoft’s credit, the company confirmed the hijacking with Ars Techinca, and said it is working on a solution:

    “We are aware that a group of attackers are using several stringed social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts of a handful of high-profile Xbox LIVE accounts held by current and former Microsoft employees. We are actively working with law enforcement and other affected companies to disable this current method of attack and prevent its further use.”

    Unfortunately, there may be more account hacks on the horizon as a Microsoft Entertainment Awards Facebook app accidentally revealed account information for nearly 3,000 Xbox Live members. No passwords or other critical information was leaked, but the information that was revealed could be enough to obtain more through social engineering.

    In this case, the best thing you can do is change your Xbox Live account password if you happened to use the Xbox Entertainment Awards app earlier this week. You should also be wary of any messages sent over Xbox Live asking for your password of other personally identifiable information.