Justin has been a gamer since the Intellivision days back in the early 80′s. He started writing about and covering the video game industry in 2008. In his spare time he is also a bit of a gun-nut and Star Wars nerd.
Cameron Booth, a graphic designer in Portland, Oregon, has publicly accused Naughty Dog of using one of his copyrighted transit maps in The Last of Us without paying him or seeking his permission.
Microsoft has been approved for $20 million in tax credits by the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board in exchange for investing nearly $700 million to expand their data center in West Des Moines, Iowa. The data center -- which has been dubbed "Project Mountain" -- will support a range of Microsoft products, including the servers that will be used for Xbox Live and, presumably, the Xbox One's cloud computing services.
Microsoft's surprising Xbox One Eighty announcement earlier this week -- which reversed the next-gen console's draconian used game DRM policy and online requirements -- revealed that users will first need to perform a “one-time system set-up” before using the hardware. Microsoft has now confirmed that this brief online requirement is to install a day-one system update.
Let's face it, Electronic Arts completely screwed up the Peggle 2 announcement at E3 this year. The reveal of a sequel to one of (if not the) best PopCap mobile game of all time deserved far more than a quick five-second shout out by the awkward guy that EA dragged on stage to introduce Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare.
During Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference last week, the company revealed that for a limited time they will give Xbox Live Gold subscribers two free Xbox 360 games each month. The exact details of how this would work were not revealed during E3, however, the platform holder has now provided us with a schedule on when the games will be available for download.
Officially, Sony has refused to narrow down the PlayStation 4's release window to anything smaller than Holiday 2013. Unofficially, two separate European retailers have now pegged the next-gen console for a November 13th release.
After receiving "a lot, a lot, of emails" from fans, Eidos Montreal has confirmed that Thief is no longer exclusive to the next-gen, and will be launching on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC simultaneously next year.
One of the very few positive aspects of the Microsoft's Xbox One used game DRM scheme was the family sharing plan, which was described as a way to allow a user to share their game library with up to ten other people. The platform holder's Xbox One Eighty last night killed the sharing idea, and resulted in a fair number of upset gamers who were looking forward Microsoft's promise of a digital distribution utopia.
With Microsoft's surprising Xbox One Eighty on the next-gen console's used game DRM and online requirements yesterday afternoon, many have started to wondered if there will be similar wiggle room with the Xbox One's other questionable features. Microsoft has since commented on some of these issues, saying the Kinect requirements, cloud features, and $500 price tag are here to stay.
As a direct result of feedback from the gaming community, Microsoft has just announced a complete reversal of their controversial online requirements and used game DRM policies for the Xbox One.