Ah, yes, June: Schools are out, the days are getting long and hot, and the sweet sound of marketing wafts our way from southern California, where E3 — the annual video game exposition that in theory is still at least kinda, sorta an industry trade show — is finally underway. [More]
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121,000 Energizer Xbox Controller Chargers Recalled Over Burn Hazard
By 3.14.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Here’s the thing: You’re Xbox controllers will only work if they’re charged (they don’t even make good boomerangs; we’ve tried), but the charger you use to juice up your controller shouldn’t put you at risk for being burned. [More]
Xbox Launching $10 Monthly Subscription To Library Of 100+ Downloadable Games
By 2.28.17
Times used to be, a video game player’s library might have been limited to as many piles of cartridges or discs as they could fit at home. But as consumers turn to digital libraries for everything from movies and TV to music, it only makes sense that the gaming industry would follow a similar path. That’s why Microsoft is launching a new monthly subscription service that gives users access to more than 100 downloadable games from its legacy catalog. [More]
Pizza Hut Brings Back Cardboard Pizza Dresser For The Holidays
By 11.10.16
Hey, remember that cardboard dresser of pizza that Pizza Hut imported from its overseas outlets for the holidays last year? That odd product, the Triple Treat Box, has returned this year, and comes with an Xbox giveaway and the same selection of pizzas, breadsticks, and cookies. [More]
Microsoft To Stop Production Of Xbox 360
By 4.20.16
Last fall, Microsoft issued a software update on the Xbox One’s second birthday that included backward compatibility that allows owners to play some of their old Xbox 360 games on the newer console. With that feature firmly in place, Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will say goodbye to the 10-year-old console. [More]
Verizon Ends FiOS Streaming Apps For Xbox And Smart TVs March 31
By 3.21.16
While the Federal Communications Commission has okayed maybe going ahead with creating a market for non-proprietary cable boxes, Verizon FiOS customers who have been using their Xbox consoles or smart TVs to access a subset of channels instead of renting extra cable boxes for each television set in their home are about to be disappointed, as Verizon is ending these apps. [More]
Xbox One Will Support Cross-Platform Multiplayer With PS4, PC
By 3.14.16
If you like playing online multiplayer games on your Xbox One but hate that you can never play your pal because she’s a PlayStation 4 devotee, here’s some promising news. [More]
How Do Video Game Publishers Continue To Get Away With Mistreating Their Customers?
By 6.17.15
It’s E3 time: the annual video game conference — still, barely nominally, a trade show — is taking place this week in Los Angeles, drawing developers, publishers, and media from around the world to gawk at titles large and small. From Facebook games to Fallout, everything is on display… including the long history of the contentious, adversarial relationship between the companies that make the games and the consumers who play them. [More]
Xbox One Getting A Lot More Useful With Backwards Compatability
By 6.15.15
When Microsoft and Sony announced their current slate of gaming consoles in 2013, neither manufacturer included backwards compatibility, meaning all your Xbox 360 and PS3 games still needed the old console to play those games. Today at E3, Microsoft finally announced that the Xbox One will include the ability to play previous-generation games on the current-gen console. [More]
Microsoft Reportedly Adding DVR Feature To Xbox One Over-The-Air Broadcasts
By 5.6.15
When Microsoft announced last month that its Xbox One would have the ability to provide users with live over-the-air content from local broadcast networks, the company said the new feature would allow viewers to pause the action for up to 30 minutes. But a half-hour just isn’t a lot of time for today’s busy TV watcher, which is probably why the company is reportedly looking to add a DVR feature to the console [More]
U.S. Xbox One Users Can Now Watch Over-The-Air TV (With $80 Add-On)
By 4.8.15
Some days it seems as if the uses for the Xbox One are unlimited; you can play games, watch on-demand programing from HBO GO, Netflix and other apps and you can live stream content through a subscription to Sling TV. One thing you haven’t been able to do? Watch live over-the-air content from local broadcast networks. But that’s about to change. [More]
Sling TV Adding More Channels To Base Package, Now Works On Xbox One
By 3.17.15
Dish’s standalone streaming Sling TV service continues to add more value to its $20/month subscription price, with the announcement today that Sling is now accessible through Xbox One consoles and that four channels are being added to the standard Sling lineup. [More]
GameStop: Industry Needs Market For Used Downloads If It Wants To Keep Charging $60
By 1.8.15
While GameStop brazenly believes it can weather competition in the used game business from bigger retail competition like Walmart, the company faces a more deadly foe in a future marketplace where most games are downloaded. Currently, there are no industry-supported methods for reselling digital games, but GameStop says it will have to happen — not just for its bottom line, but so that game publishers can continue charging top dollar. [More]
Soon You Can Use Your Xbox One To Stream Live TV To Your Phone (But Not In The U.S.)
By 8.12.14
The Xbox One gaming console is getting a new function added to it, Microsoft announced today. As of this fall, the late-2013, next-gen, still-new gaming and media device will also function as high-tech rabbit ears for your TV. [More]
The Competition Is As Fake As The Blood: Why New Video Games Are Always The Same Price
By 3.15.14
Video games have gotten ridiculously predictable. Not in stories, writing, or mechanics (although sometimes those, too) but in release, pricing, and distribution. When it comes to the big-budget blockbuster console-ready games, by now pretty much every player can recite the pricing timetable by heart. [More]
Microsoft Wants To Run More Political Campaign Ads On Xbox
By 3.10.14
You know those ads that you ignore on your Xbox dashboard? President Obama used them as part of his re-election campaign in 2012, and with midterm elections on the horizon, Microsoft is doing its best to try to convince more politicians that these spots are ideal places to run targeted campaign and other political ads. [More]
Man Runs Into Burning Home To Rescue Xbox
By 1.28.14
There’s a story I used to tell my college roommate’s little sisters that would make them squeal with joy every single time: There was once a fire in my house (not the laughter part) and upon seeing the flames, my dad ripped the Nintendo console out of the wall in my brothers’ bedroom, dashed downstairs and got everyone — and the Nintendo — safely out of the house. That’s how we explained having the console later but not the necessary cords to connect it. [More]
