xbox

Microsoft plans to use the full force of its dominant Windows operating system to challenge iTunes and Spotify in the digital music business.

The software giant has baked its new 30-million-track Xbox Music service into Windows 8, making it the default way for users to listen to songs. The service, which CNET first reported in February and the company announced in June, will let users stream music for free, creating custom playlists, as long as they're willing to hear occasional ads. They can also subscribe to an ad-free version for $9.99 a month. And users can buy and … Read more

The video game industry had a rough time in stores last month.

During September, total U.S. video-game industry sales, including physical game discs, consoles, and accessories, hit $848.3 million, down 24 percent compared with the $1.1 billion the industry generated during the same period last year, research firm NPD Group announced yesterday.

The hardware sector of the industry suffered through a similarly troubling period as sales slumped 39 percent year-over-year to end the month at $210.9 million. Software sales were down 18 percent from $609.7 million last year to $497.4 million this year. Accessories … Read more

Microsoft really wants to make sure its shareholders, customers, partners, and competitors realize it's not just a big software company anymore.

In an October 9 letter to shareholders, part of Microsoft's just-released fiscal 2012 annual report, CEO Steve Ballmer repeated his new "devices and services company" mantra to drive it home.

Ballmer hasn't (yet) chanted "devices, devices, devices" in front of any public or private audiences (that we know of, at least) in the way he once, in 2006, infamously chanted "developers, developers, developers."

But he told The Seattle Times a … Read more

There's plenty of places online to watch and kibitz over tonight's presidential debate -- CNN.com, Twitter, YouTube, and many more. But one place offering live streaming and interactive features might surprise you: Xbox Live.

Usually known as a place for teenage boys to spend hours playing games like the latest Halo, or for people to watch Netflix streaming movies, the popular service will offer tonight's debate between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and is accentuating it with live interactive polling.

On the official Xbox site today, Microsoft touted its presentation of the … Read more

Microsoft is going to be pretty busy on October 26.

Along with the release of its latest Windows operating system, the software giant is also planning to launch its new game console music service, Xbox Music, that day, according to the Verge.

The site reports that Xbox Music will include a subscription offering and a free streaming service supported by ads. It will be available on Windows-powered phones, tablets, PCs, and the Xbox 360.

Microsoft announced the service in June, revamping its Zune Music service to better compete against Apple's iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify. The company, like rival Sony, … Read more

2K Sports' critically acclaimed NBA 2K franchise is no stranger to best sports video game lists. The CNET TV team recently went behind the scenes at 2K Sports' headquarters in Novato, Calif., just days before NBA 2K13 hits store shelves. The goal: to find out what's in their secret sauce.

I had the opportunity to jump into the company's motion capture studio, and suited up with markers placed strategically on my body. Lights surrounding the perimeter of the studio hit the markers, and the reflections allow them to be identified and processed by computers to capture wireframe animations … Read more

It's been nearly three years since the team at Gearbox Software released a new open-world RPG franchise with a unique art style and curiously addictive gameplay. Borderlands went from a sleeper hit to blockbuster seemingly overnight; since its release, it has seen sales in the range of 5 million copies.

Borderlands' looting-focused formula encouraged and rewarded exploration, which helped ease the otherwise intimidating undertaking that some RPG titles can endure.

With Borderlands 2, Gearbox Software has tweaked and refined the genre -- mind you, a hybrid that it seems to have invented -- and has unquestionably topped itself.… Read more

Game consoles aren't dying anytime soon, the original Xbox's co-creator claims.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published yesterday, former Microsoft employee and current head of mobile startup Innovative Leisure, Seamus Blackley, says he's had enough of the "histrionic articles" suggesting the death of game consoles. Today's consumers, he says, still want the high-end experiences made available in console titles.

"You have to remember that people want to play console games because they want to have a super premium high-end experience -- it doesn't really have to do with anything else,&… Read more