Items tagged with Xbox Live
Microsoft has some big changes coming to its gaming platforms over the next few months, with the big launch of course being Xbox Series X. Although it hasn't been promoted nearly as much, Project xCloud streaming is almost as important, it not more important to the future of gaming at Microsoft. In an effort to make life easier for gamers that will be switching back and forth between native gaming and cloud gaming in the future, Microsoft is reportedly making a key change to the Xbox sign-in process. The current policy for Microsoft is that only a single Xbox Live account can be signed in at a time -- you can't have multiple instances running, even if all of the Xbox Live-linked devices are in...
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There have been a handful of rumors floating about over the last few weeks regarding Microsoft and their Xbox Live memberships. It appears that these rumors are false, as Microsoft recently confirmed that they have no plans to rename Xbox Live or get rid of Xbox Live Gold. Several events occurred over the past few weeks that fed these rumors. First, Microsoft changed their terms of service, using the phrase “Xbox online service” instead of “Xbox Live”. This caused many Xbox Live users to speculate that Microsoft would be renaming or eliminating Xbox Live. However, a Microsoft representative stated that this was not their intent when they used the phrase “Xbox...
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Microsoft has long had its Xbox Live service that you must have to play Xbox game online In 2017, it launched another service called Xbox Game Pass that gave gamers access to a slew of streaming game titles for one price, including some brand new games. A new rumor is going around that claims Microsoft is set to combine Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass at one cheaper rate for gamers. The rumor comes from WalkingCat via Twitter, who has a track record of being correct on these things. The leaker claims that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be the name of the new service and that it will cost $14.99 per month. If you bought those services separately, they would set you back $19.98 per month combined. Combining...
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Microsoft is cooking up something for GDC that will make gamers very happy. It has an entire GDC session where it will debut and talk about its new cross-platform development platform that will bring support for Xbox Live to platforms including Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch in addition to the Xbox and PC platforms that it already supports. Notice there is no mention of support for the PS4 from Sony. Microsoft noted in its GDC session description that when the new SDK rolls out for all the other platforms, it will reach over 2 billion devices, a massive gain from the 400 million gaming devices it reaches right now. There are a few Microsoft games out there now that have support for Xbox...
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Microsoft has gone all-in when it comes to the subscription model. It has found success with Office 365 and is even looking to recurring revenue for certain versions of its Windows operating systems. On the gaming front, it has Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass to keep the money flowing in from customers. But what about hardware? Microsoft is reportedly working on a new Xbox bundle called Xbox All Access. For a monthly subscription fee, you will be able to get a brand-new Xbox One S console, Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass for roughly $22 per month. You will pay this monthly fee for two years, after which you will be able to keep the gaming console (as you would have paid the full retail price...
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Gamers and tech enthusiasts have had their fair share of sales this summer from Amazon Prime Day to the Steam Summer Sale to the Google Store Summer Sale. If your bank account is still in decent shape, here is one more sale to entice you. Microsoft is offering deals on over 700 Xbox One and PC games, consoles, and subscriptions in its Ultimate Game Sale. The biggest draws of the Microsoft Ultimate Game Sale are the discounts on Xbox One games. Gamers can get up to 65% off while Xbox Live Gold members also save an additional 10% off the already discounted prices. There are many games on sale, but here are some of the best deals: Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition: $23.99 or $19.99 for Gold...
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Your mama, and now Microsoft, wants you to watch your mouth. Microsoft "may stop providing Services" or "close your Microsoft account" if you "publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material". "Offensive language" was listed as potentially inappropriate content. The new services agreement was posted this month and will go into effect Tuesday, May 1st for U.S. users. The service agreement applies to a number of Microsoft services such as Bing, Cortana MSN.com, Office, Skype, and Xbox Live. If one's Microsoft services are cancelled, either by themselves or by Microsoft, they will lose their licenses and other products they have acquired. They will no longer...
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If you have an Xbox 360 or Xbox One, Microsoft today just launched its “Biggest Sale Ever” for the Xbox Store. The 19-day sale lasts through January 9th and encompasses all type of digital media ranging from games to apps to movies to TV shows. But we know that all you folks care about are the games! The first round of sales for Xbox 360 and Xbox One games only lasts for a week, but those who choose to participate stand to reap some pretty large savings (up to 75 percent off). Here’s just a small sampling of some of the Xbox One game deals that are available through December 28th (prices shown are the discounts for Xbox Live Gold members): Battlefield 1 — 35% off ($38.99) Call of Duty: Infinite...
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Microsoft, in collaboration with Twitch, just announced capture card support for Twitch Xbox One broadcasters on Xbox Live. Hereafter, any Twitch user who has linked their Xbox Live and Twitch accounts together and is broadcasting an Xbox One game using a capture card will be able to benefit from Xbox Live features. Previously, only Xbox One players broadcasting their gameplay via the Xbox Twitch app could take advantage of all that Xbox Live has to offer. If gamers used the Twitch app they benefited from Xbox Live integration, but made do with lower-quality graphics. Streamers who chose to use a capture card, on the other hand, could not utilize Xbox Live features. Capture cards are for...
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Gamers were ready to launch a petition for Microsoft to build avatars in wheelchairs for Xbox Live but it turns out they won't need to. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer tweeted out that no petition is needed, that the voices of gamers requesting wheelchair avatars have been heard, adding "this is something that we've already looked at, not far off."Mike Ybarra, a 15-year Microsoft employee who now serves as the Partner Director of Program Management for the Xbox platform chimed in on the conversation with a sneak peek of two new avatars, a male and female, both in a wheelchair with flag attached sporting the Xbox logo. Here's a look at them both side-by-side.You'll notice that in addition to the wheelchairs,...
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“Game over, man. GAME OVER!” After over ten years of production, it’s time to say goodbye to the venerable Xbox 360. The console celebrated its tenth birthday this past November and global sales for the console have surpassed the 85 million mark. Early in its life the Xbox 360 was fraught with quality control issues, as witnessed by the infamous Red Ring of Death that struck many consoles (and subsequently resulted in lawsuits). And we can’t forget the HD DVD add-on debacle, which saw Microsoft on the losing side of the next-generation, high-definition optical disc format war. Sony eventually won the standards battle with Blu-ray and Microsoft was forced to hang its head in defeat (the...
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Microsoft dropped a bombshell earlier this week when it announced at the 2016 Game Developers Conference that Xbox One would support cross-network play, paving the way for Xbox One gamers to compete against (or with) PlayStation 4 and PC gamers. That announcement essentially put the ball in Sony's court to end console segregation in terms of online play, and the good news is Sony seems open to the idea."PlayStation has been supporting cross-platform play between PC on several software titles starting with Final Fantasy 11 on PS2 and PC back in 2002," Sony told GameSpot in a statement. "We would be happy to have the conversation with any publishers or developers who are interested in cross-platform...
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It what seems to be an increasing occurrence for gaming consoles (on both the Microsoft and Sony sides of the aisle), Microsoft experienced an extended Xbox Live outage yesterday that affected millions of gamers across the globe. The outage affected both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One game consoles, making it impossible for console owners to hit up their family multiplayer games or even perform simple tasks such as chats. While such service interruptions are annoying, we can’t really see it as a reason to get incredibly worked up about an outage that lasts for just a few hours. However, someone forgot to relay that message to rap mogul Snoop Dogg, who went on a 15-second profanity-laced tirade...
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Here's a bit of a strange issue. Microsoft, via its TechNet website, has said that the encryption keys used to secure the connection between a Windows PC and the xboxlive.com domain have been "inadvertently disclosed." At the current time, Microsoft isn't telling us exactly how that happened, but the fortunate thing is that the company has been rather quick in issuing a fix. With encryption keys that are used to validate a security certificate in the hand of malicious users, man-in-the-middle attacks could be performed. A MITM attack is when a connection is interfered with to either fetch the traffic information or reroute it. We saw an example of a MITM attack earlier this year when the Chinese...
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If you've been experiencing super-slow downloads on Xbox Live, don't fret: you're not alone. That's the upside; the downside is that while Microsoft is on the case, it doesn't seem to understand the rhyme or reason behind the cause. If there's a secondary upside; you can at least relish the fact that it's merely slow, and not down entirely, as has happened before. It's a Sunday, so maybe you're lounging around waiting for Xbox Live to fully restore itself. If that's the case, you might be interested in helping Microsoft diagnose the issue. Misses Quinzel, an official support rep for Microsoft, writes: Hey, guys! We're currently tracking this, but we need a few things from you to help us out....
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Look playa, you should never pay full price for an Xbox Live Gold membership, not when there's almost always a sale price to be had. Even Microsoft hawks its Xbox Live Gold subscriptions for a discount on occasion, like it's doing now -- for a limited time, you can purchase a 12-month Xbox Live Gold membership for $39.99 from the Microsoft Store.That's $20 off the regular price of $59.99 and represents the typical sale price that third-party vendors often mark these things down for. Every once in awhile you can find them for a few dollars less, and if you're lucky, you can snag one for about $30 from a reliable third-party vendor, though that type of deep discount is pretty rare.Microsoft's price,...
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An 18-year-old man living in the U.K. was picked up and arrested in Southport as part of an investigation into distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that brought down Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) and Microsoft's Xbox Live service on Christmas Day. The investigation is part of a joint effort between U.K. cybercrime authorities and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).The DDoS attacks carried out by members of the hacking group Lizard Squad caused both services to be overwhelmed with online traffic, which disrupted access. Both Sony and Microsoft were forced to shut down their respective online services as they investigated the matter. Earlier this month, another member of...
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All things eventually come to an end, and for Boyd Multerer, the dude responsible for Xbox Live and creator of the XNA game development language, the ride at Microsoft is over. Voluntarily, we might add -- he wasn't shown the door or the victim of restructuring. Instead, Multerer posted to Twitter that, quite simply, it was time for him to do something new.Most of us eventually get to that place in our careers, sometimes several times, though Multerer's resume is more impressive than most. During his time at Microsoft, which spanned nearly two decades (18 years), he not only launched Xbox Live, but more recently served as the director of development for the company's Xbox division.In his role,...
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It was a very un-merry Christmas for millions of gamers who scored a Microsoft or Sony game console yesterday, or otherwise wanted to partake in some online console gaming, only to find out that both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network had been rendered unusable due to a DDoS attack. Ah, but of all the unlikely heroes, Kim Dotcom swooped in today like ol' St. Nick and struck a deal with Lizard Squad, the hacker group taking responsibility for the DDoS attacks, to back off so that he could play some Destiny. Dotcom took to Twitter to offer the Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) 3,000 lifetime premium Mega accounts worth $99 each. Mega, if you're unaware, is Dotcom's newest online venture -- an encrypted...
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Both Sony and Microsoft have been reportedly hacked today, with numerous disruptions to both Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network. both services have been partially or totally offline all day, with Microsoft's official Twitter campaign chiming in to note that the service had been disrupted and that the company was working to bring it back online -- but didn't have an ETA on when that would happen. A group called Lizard Squad is currently claiming responsibility for the attack on Twitter, which likely involves spamming both networks with huge amounts of data to jam servers and make it impossible to process login requests. The attack was carefully timed to cause a maximum amount of disruption...
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The number of connected devices offering access to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu continues to grow. Heck, don't be surprised if the capability is baked into the next smart toothbrush you buy. What most of these devices have in common is they typically don't sit behind a paywall, though that isn't true of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles, both of which require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to access streaming media apps. Well, that's reportedly about to change. Citing "multiple sources within Microsoft [who] have been briefed" on the matter, ArsTechnica says an upcoming change to the Xbox Live Gold paywall will no longer require a Gold level subscription to tap into Netflix,...
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Time flies, doesn't it? That seems especially true when it comes to Xbox Live Gold subscriptions -- before you know it, Microsoft is nagging you that it's nigh time renew that 12-month subscription you purchased last year, leaving you to wonder where the time went. Inevitably, you end up picking up another 12-month card, so if Microsoft offered a 24-month subscription at a discount, would you bite? Microsoft is determined to find out. Gamers in the U.K. can already head over to GAME and purchase a downloadable 24-month Xbox Live Gold membership for £59.99 (around $100 in U.S. currency). A 12-month subscription typically sells for £39.99 (~$67), so there's a bit of a discount in buying...
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