Latest Xbox One Updates

As gamers get geared up for the next generation of consoles out of Sony and Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox Infinity, publishers are looking at the realities of the gaming industry when deciding on their future steps.

For some, the first step into the next generation has been the Wii U, which is causing uncertainty in the industry due to its lackluster sales. Other publishers are sticking it out for the other consoles, but they are watching the Wii U carefully. Its lack of success thus far might be more than just missing first-party support and poor advertisement, the reasons that Nintendo has claimed to explain the shortcomings of sales, and Activision in particular is paying close attention. Find out more about publisher concerns after the jump!

Microsoft announced a conference concerning the "future of Xbox" for May 21st. This term obviously means the company's next console, and rumors have been flying all over the web about the system. Always online, no used games, and many more details have been shot down by fans. Now we have a rumor on the price.

According to the story, the next Xbox will come in two different models, similar to the Wii U's release. There will be a simple $499 console, and then a $299 bundle. Both versions are carbon copies of each other from what we know. Here's the catch: the $299 model will also come with a two-year subscription to Xbox Live, and the service will cost $15 a month. That adds up to $659, and you may want to continue your subscription after.

This rumor brings up a past business decision by Microsoft, when they sold a $99 model of the 360 with a subscription fee. It's been done before, and it can happen again.

Will this rumor be true? Will the next Xbox also block used games and have an always online connection? We'll find out on May 21st. A full line-up is also supposed to be revealed at E3 this year.

Stay at Gamnesia as the news rolls in.

As its official announcement on May 21st is only a few weeks away, there have been a number of rumors circulating regarding Microsoft's successor to the Xbox 360, from the much controversial "always online" rumor to the possibility of blocking used games. Well, here's another one to add to the mix. According to a post NeoGAF, the new Xbox may be called the "Xbox Fusion."

What makes this name more likely than other rumored titles is that Microsoft owns multiple domain names under the "Fusion" title. While they do own a few domains for other rumored titles, "Fusion" is the only one for which they own several.

Stay tuned on May 21st for the console's official unveiling!

Console-exclusive games and franchises can be selling points for video game consoles. Some people will continue purchasing Xbox consoles to play Halo, others will stick with Sony to play God of War, and the die-hard Nintendo fans will continue buying consoles to play their beloved Super Mario or The Legend of Zelda games. It is only natural to have console-exclusive games in such a competitive market, and it looks like Microsoft is going to be adding another winner to their side of the ring in the next generation. Find out why after the jump!

It seems that during a developer interview with CI Games, a question game up regarding the next Xbox's features. One of which that has gained a lot of fuzz between gamers is that the console must be "always on" to play games. Meaning that if you don't have internet connected with your console and you want to play games, you simply can't. He also had something to say about not being able to play pre-owned games on your console.

"What do I think? Very brave, so to speak, decision from Microsoft. Still, the question is whether or not somebody had to do it sooner or later. I'm not personally worried about it myself because as a player it's doable at my home..."

Full quote after the jump!

We love to report rumors, especially when they get people talking, so this time around we have an especially juicy one. Microsoft's next-gen Xbox has been rumored to use an AMD-based chipset in the past and Bloomberg seems to be backing up this rumor in their latest report.

The new console will use a chip based off of AMD's Jaguar APU architecture and that due to a shift from Power PC tech to an x86 system, the next Xbox will not be backwards compatible. This backs up the supposed spec leak that stated the system would use a 1.6GHz 8-core AMD CPU, similar to the PS4's 8-core AMD processor based on the same Jaguar architecture.

There were no other hardware specs mentioned in the report, but Microsoft is said to be planning an event for May 21st where they'll reveal the new Xbox which is rumored to launch in November of this year.

The cat has gotten out of the bag on numerous occasions for the next generation of consoles. Remember when the Cafe leaks were across the web before E3 2011, and the GamePad was an accurate rumor? Now the same thing is happening with the next Xbox and PlayStation. SuperDaE recently gave dozens of pages of leaked information on the so-called "Durango," or Microsoft's next console. This information included mandatory Kinect, the ability to launch more than one app at a time, and always-active online connectivity (Shameless Plug: to catch up on these leaks just click right here). Well it turns out SuperDaE has been raided by the police.

That's right. Microsoft finally put their league of ninjas in action. We thought they were crazy for hiring assassins, but Mr. Gates isn't afraid to utilize his trained killers.

Check out his Twitter account right here. Apparently. seven or eight police officers arrived at Dan's house with an FBI agent in tow. His phone was taken from him, and the newest tweets have been sent from an Apple store. Bank cards were also confiscated from the leaker.

For the rest of the story, clickety click on the jump!

Upset that Destiny hasn't been announced for the Wii U or PC yet? Don't be, it could be coming to both platforms and more! The official website for Bungie's upcoming game Destiny has data that can be found in its coding from the pre-order page that directly refers to both the Wii U, PC, PS4, Xbox 720, and PS Vita as platforms for the upcoming title. There is no mention of Nintendo's handheld 3DS platform however.

Of course, this could just be there in case Activision asks them to bring it over to those platforms and so it may mean nothing at all. Or perhaps Bungie is anticipating a release on these platforms. Whatever it means, we here just hope that it means every home console owner will be able to experience Bungie's next big title when it launches in the future.

What will the new Xbox look like?  Well, it's certainly hard to know for certain; the image here is just an artist mockup.  However, Kotaku just released the inside scoop on what the internals of new Xbox has in store, and let's just say it looks pretty good - though there are a few worrying pieces stuck in there.  For starters, the box is codenamed "Durango"—note that Durango isn't the final name for the system, but just the name Microsoft will use to refer to it before it's "officially" announced to the public. Check below the jump to see information on the specs.

With Sony and Microsoft's new consoles rumored to be coming out this year, game publishers Activision, Take Two, and Ubisoft have been contemplating the development costs of video games, and, by extension, a possible increase in the price of games from the current $59.99. Take Two and Ubisoft CEOs Strauss Zelnick and Yves Guillemot believe that development costs won't increase dramatically, at least during the beginning of the next generation.

"We don’t have any reason to believe our development budgets will change significantly. If anything we have become – group-wide – much tighter in terms of how we spend our money." — Strauss Zelnick

"What we've said is that, for the first two years of those machines, the costs will not increase because we can use a lot of the engines that we've already created." — Yves Guillemot

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, on the other hand, expects prices to go up.

"This is my 22nd year doing this, and in every single console transition, we've seen an increase in development costs. Over long periods of time, it gets smoothed out, but I would say this is not a transition where that's going to be an exception. We're going to have to figure out how to take advantage of the unique capabilities of new hardware, and that requires new skills and investment in tools and technology and engines and so yes, that's likely." — Bobby Kotick

The fact that these people are even considering an increase in price shows that, at the very least, the technology of video games will become noticeably more powerful and complex. What are your thoughts on this?

According to a new report from Edge, Microsoft’s next Xbox, codenamed "Durango," will feature 50GB Blu-Ray discs and a new, improved Kinect shipping with the console itself. On the less positive side, the new Xbox will also apparently require an internet connection in order to access the console and will do everything in its power to block access to used games. We already know Sony is thinking about implementing technology to prevent used games from working on the upcoming PlayStation, codenamed Orbis, but now with two main gaming competitors attacking the used game market, the next generation is certainly going to be an interesting one. Head past the jump for more on the new Xbox and why Microsoft’s new ideas may alienate parts of their market.