Xbox LIVE

It seems that Microsoft is doing some light cleaning in preparation for the launch of its Xbox Series X console. It has retired the Xbox One X as well as the digital edition of the Xbox One S but it isn't just the physical products that are being retired. Apparently, even the 12-month subscription tier of Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold has been quietly eased out of the scenes, feeding rumors that Xbox Live itself might be the next one to go.

Continue Reading

Last summer, Microsoft introduced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, something of a premium offering for to subscribe to all of Microsoft's services. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundles Game Pass for both Xbox One and PC along with a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, allowing you to play Xbox games online. It's a nice little package deal if you play on Xbox One and PC, but it can be a bit on the expensive side.

Continue Reading

The official Xbox Support group released a note this afternoon confirming the down status of Xbox Live online play. This system is down for some players for two significant areas of functionality. One of these areas is Joining Parties - one of the most essential bits of the entire Xbox Live universe.

Continue Reading

Paying a monthly fee that includes getting access to some free games has seemingly become the new norm in the gaming biz. Streaming services like Google Stadia and new stores like Epic Games Store have recently joined that bandwagon but consoles have long been at the head of that line. In fact, Xbox has just announced the games that Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to get their hands on starting in a few days and they will have their choice of gritty dark action or lighthearted platforming fun.

Continue Reading

NBA 2K20 was ushered into existence today by a set of player ratings and the reveal of three bundles. Three new Xbox One bundles were shown NBA 2K20 cover athlete Anthony Davis at a special event hosted by Xbox and the folks at 2K Games "to celebrate what's next in basketball culture." Davis showed three models, two for $500, another for $300. The most interesting of the three looked like it was splattered with paint.

Continue Reading

A number of websites and services have experienced issues today, including the multi-hour outage over at Reddit this morning followed by a brief outage at Twitter. Microsoft is among the companies having trouble, in this case with its Xbox services. Though most services remain operational, one is limited, and that's causing big problems for players who want to download purchased or new content.

Continue Reading

These days, people usually equate "online identity" with things like avatars or bitmojis. At the most basic level, however, an online user is almost always identified by their online handles or nicknames. In the Xbox world, that name is called "Gamertag" and it's going through a rather major change. Now only will it now let gamers use characters from among 10 new supported alphabets, it will also let you grab a Gamertag that might already be used by someone else, but with one minor catch.

Continue Reading

A day after Sony revealed the free PlayStation Plus games for June, Microsoft is following suit by announcing its upcoming Games with Gold lineup. As always, there will be four games up for grabs - two for Xbox One and two for Xbox 360 - and there's at least one very recognizable name in this group. Tell us: How do you feel about portals?

Continue Reading

It may not be long before we see Microsoft combine two Xbox subscription services into one monthly bundle. We're talking, of course, of Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass, the first being more or less essential to play games on Xbox One and the second being a still-relatively new subscription service that Microsoft has been promoting heavily. If you're subscribed to both, it may not be long before you'll have the opportunity to combine those two subscriptions into one and potentially save some cash.

Continue Reading

Today, Microsoft announced that it's bundling together all of its game development platforms into one initiative called Game Stack. The idea behind Microsoft Game Stack is to give developers the tools they need to make their games all in one place, whether it's Azure for cloud services, PlayFab for matchmaking and parties, or Xbox Live for community and identity. Game Stack is a significant move in itself, and it has big implications for Xbox Live in particular, which is heading to iOS and Android as part of this initiative.

Continue Reading

Nintendo has proven it wasn't out of the running yet in the gaming console race by breaking records last year with the Switch. But while Sony seems to be unfazed by the threat and remains bullish on its current strategies, Microsoft may be trying to take on the gaming market from a different angle. While the fruits are still a few years away, the company seems to be planting the seeds for an Xbox gaming experience that spans multiple devices and platforms, even those from its rivals.

Continue Reading

It's been a rough couple of days for Xbox Live. Yesterday morning, Xbox Support alerted users to possible issues with downloading games, and though that problem was at least mostly solved by the early evening, this morning brought some new issues with it. For a while this morning, Xbox Support was reporting problems with Xbox Live sign-in and accessing previously purchased content.

Continue Reading