Hasta La Gadget!

We hope you weren’t counting on using the Xbox One’s USB ports for external storage from day one; as it turns out, you’ll likely have to be patient. Speaking at the PAX Prime expo this weekend, Microsoft’s Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) mentioned that external drive support wouldn’t be available at launch because the Xbox team was “working on other things.” It’s not certain when the feature will arrive, Hryb says. We’ve reached out to Microsoft to verify the statement. If it’s accurate, though, you’ll want to be cautious when filling the Xbox One’s built-in 500GB drive with Xbox Game Store downloads.

Filed under: Gaming, Storage, Microsoft

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: Major Nelson

There are still a few months until its November launch, but the Xbox One is already ready for primetime, apparently. One of the first Xbox One retail units — among just 20 or so in existence — made an appearance this morning in an unboxing video hosted by Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, director of programming for Microsoft’s Xbox division. In particular, the video features a limited edition “Day One” version of the console, which is more or less sold out at every major retailer (at least Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy). It’s just below the break.

If you were one of the lucky few (thousand) to get in on Day One Edition pre-orders, you’ll be getting the same stuff as standard edition pre-order folks, albeit with some extra “Day One Edition” branding flair — the gamepad says “Day One Edition” on it and has a chrome d-pad, and there’s an achievement exclusive to DOE owners. Both the standard and Day One editions cost $500, and both now include a wired Xbox One headset — something that was previously excluded from the retail box.

Also of note, the video’s subsequent blog post reveals that Xbox One gamepads recharge using microUSB rather than the proprietary cable used for charging Xbox 360 gamepads. Moreover, when the One’s gamepad is plugged in, the internal wireless radio is turned off and it transmits data through the wire (which was not the case with the 360 gamepad). This has interesting implications for the One’s gamepad in PC applications, which we’ll assuredly explore more in the coming weeks as Gamescom returns to Cologne, Germany for another year of Euro-style game news.

Update: We’ve added some official press photos of the headset that comes in the box. Enjoy!

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft, Larry Hryb (Twitter)

E3 is over, but Microsoft still has a long way to go to answer questions from gamers about its new Xbox One console, particularly when it comes to the effects of DRM. Director of Programming of Xbox Live Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson takes on the most upvoted ones from posters in Reddit’s games section in this video interview with Chloe Dykstra. One question that seems to have a clear answer is whether banned users will lose access to any games they’ve activated, as he stated “Absolutely not, you will always have access to the games you purchased.” That goes against a previous response from the Xbox Support twitter account, although that may have been the result of confusion between the Xbox One and Xbox 360 policies. A question with no satisfying response yet however, is what gamers can expect years down the road if Xbox One’s authentication servers are shut down. Major Nelson followed up with a response in the comment thread that “I’ll get the real answer, I just don’t know it yet.”

Interestingly, the question he wished more people would have asked is about the “family package” and, we assume game sharing with a single account, after previously bringing up its cloud library as one upside to the new DRM setup. Tracking back to the original debut’s focus on the console’s HDMI input and TV overlays he mentioned using snap mode to watch TV while gaming, or getting Xbox Live notifications and jumping “instantly” to a game while watching TV. A similar crowdsourced interview was planned with the PlayStation team, but cancelled. Major Nelson says he will address more questions leading up to launch and is planning an ask me anything session later, so keep your (many) inquiries at the ready.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Reddit, YouTube

Microsoft’s offering a hearty thank you to some of its longest running Xbox Live members with the handsome limited edition Xbox 360 seen above — totally gratis — celebrating this month’s 10 year Xbox Live anniversary. Director of Xbox programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb posted an image of the box to his Twitter account this evening along with a tease that Redmond’s hooking up more than just old-school XBLers. “I’ll have details on how you can win one for yourself later this week,” he noted. One lucky Kotaku reader already got their hands on the limited edition 360, which appears to be a Slim model — it’s unclear how much HDD space it comes equipped with. Hopefully it’s more than enough to handle the 10 years of downloadable content it’ll soon be holding.

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

Microsoft gifting 10-year anniversary Xbox 360s to long-term Xbox Live loyalists originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it certainly looks like the news of that Xbox Essentials Pack isn’t the only thing coming out of Redmond today. As the communicative Major Nelson unequivocally notes, Microsoft’s officially dropping down the price of its “You Are the Controller” Xbox 360 add-on in the US to a mere 110 bucks. Additionally, he’s also said there’s a “permanently reduced” pricing scheme coming to other countries in North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions (save for Japan) where the company’s Kinect is available for purchase; meanwhile, folks in the Middle East, Europe and Africa seem to be out of luck for now, since there are no price-slashing plans for the time being.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Microsoft permanently lowering Kinect price in the US to $110, slightly reducing it in other parts of the world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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