Rockstar responds to GTA Online issues, is working ‘around the clock’ to fix things

Rockstar responds to GTA Online issues, is working 'around the clock' to fix things

Unfortunately, as many predicted, the rollout of Grand Theft Auto Online on Tuesday did not go smoothly for many gamers. On launch day many were unable to connect, or connected but couldn’t complete the tutorial, or got into the game and ended up losing created characters. Rockstar Games has posted a list of issues players have reported and says the team is working “around the clock” (presumably the members of the team that aren’t busy counting that billion dollar haul) on fixes. A problem limited the number of concurrent PSN users has been squashed, and they’re working on unblocking users that can’t get through the tutorial. For the time being, the team has also disabled the ability to buy ingame cash with real money. If you’re one of the players affected, keep an eye on the support page for all the latest updates, or contact Rockstar Support via Twitter or on its website, while general suggestions for the online experience should go to GTAOnline@rockstargames.com. We’ve had more success logging on in the last few hours, let us know if your online crews are connecting with any success. If they’re not, check out Joystiq’s early impressions of the multiplayer for a taste of what GTA Online has to offer, when it’s working.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Rockstar Games

New Xbox 360 update bids farewell to points, welcomes local currency

Goodbye, Microsoft Points. Hello, local currency. A new Xbox 360 update, debuting today, has finally made official the long-awaited switch from Microsoft’s own virtual currency, allowing you to spend your hard-earned pennies on Xbox Live content. If you’ve still got Microsoft Points laying around, never fear. As we’ve previously reported, existing point balances will be converted to their equivalent cash value. According to the company’s FAQ, prices are now listed in whatever your local currency happens to be, plus tax. It’s worth noting that purchases made with converted money will not be taxed for the time being, and said currency is good until June 1, 2015. For more details, check out Microsoft’s breakdown of the switch at the source link below.

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Via: Polygon

Source: Xbox

Microsoft’s employee-only white Xbox One colors us green with envy

Some Microsoft employees rumored to receive free white Xbox One, make us jealous

There are certainly benefits to working for Microsoft beyond a steady paycheck. We’ve seen the company gift employees with phones and tablets and, if the picture above proves legit, a lucky bunch will receive a free Xbox One on launch day — in an exclusive white and silver-grey hue, no less. In addition to a console etched with “I made this” and “launch team something,” they’ll get one year of Xbox Live and all first-party games (if we’re understanding “1P” correctly) gratis. According to the picture, which surfaced on NeoGAF’s forums and Reddit, this special edition Xbone will be given to full-timers (as of July 12th this year) in MS’s Interactive Entertainment Business who are still employed at launch. This is just a rumor, of course, but if some Photoshop trickster cooked this up, we’d think they’d go as far as making the Kinect white, if only for consistency. Or, maybe that’s what we’re supposed to think.

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Source: NeoGAF forums, Reddit

Microsoft reportedly funding Blake’s 7 remake for Xbox Live TV content push

Blake's 7

According to the Financial Times, Britain’s other blockbuster sci-fi series may finally be remade, thanks to Microsoft’s growing interest in television. Blake’s 7, the Terry Nation-created show about a band of renegades fighting for survival, is believed to be part of Xbox Live’s push for original and exclusive TV content to rival both traditional media and services like Netflix. Persons familiar with the matter have claimed that after cable channel SyFy withdrew its funding, Steve Ballmer and former CBS Chief Nancy Tellem opened up Microsoft’s secret checkbook. Naturally, none of the parties are willing to confirm the deal, but that won’t stop us humming the classic series’ theme for the rest of the day.

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Via: The Register

Source: Financial Times

Xbox Live Family Plans get converted to individual memberships starting August 27th

Xbox Live Family Plans get converted to individual memberships August 27th

Microsoft just detailed how the Xbox One’s “Home Gold” will spread the Xbox Live Gold love across multiple users of a particular system, but what about those with the current generation’s Xbox Live Family Plan? The folks in Redmond stopped accepting new subscribers to the $99 / year package back in March, and now users are receiving an email (included after the break) with details about what happens next. First, the good news: As of August 27th, if you have the family plan then each one of your activated subaccounts get full Xbox Live Gold status for the duration of your remaining subscription, plus three extra months. Prior to the conversion, you can still add sub accounts to the maximum total of four, and if you’re set to auto-renew prior to conversion then that will still happen. The conversion may not happen exactly on that date, but subscribers can expect another email a week before it actually occurs.

Now the downsides: Activity reports and Microsoft Points allowances are going away, with reports disappearing at the time of conversion and the latter with the next system update. Another issue will apply to those who used it to game on multiple consoles in or across multiple households, since they’ll need multiple individual XBL Gold subscriptions to do so — one of the big problems the Family Pack resolved when it launched back in 2010. That could make sticking with the Xbox 360 or upgrading to an Xbox One more expensive going forward, check out the FAQ for all the details and run the numbers for yourself.

[Thanks, Corey]

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Source: Xbox Live Family Plan conversion FAQ, Microsoft

Microsoft pushing Xbox 360 update allowing Xbox Live purchases with real money (update: too soon)

Xbox 360 real currency purchasing

Remember when Microsoft said that you could soon buy Xbox Live content using real money? Well, check your Xbox 360: following an update to one of our consoles, we’re now seeing content available in local currency. It’s unclear at this stage how many gamers are seeing the change, although Microsoft has already mentioned that the next update will flip the switch. We’ve reached out to the company for confirmation of the rollout. If you get the update as well, don’t worry about your account balance — as Microsoft mentioned before, any existing points will be converted to their cash equivalent.

Update: Microsoft says that real money purchases are still limited to beta program participants, and you’ll have to wait until the fall to see the currency change — false alarm, folks.

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Source: Xbox Wire

Xbox One’s Xbox Live Gold benefits, digital games shared with all users on a single console

The Xbox One game console will enable all users of a single console to enjoy the benefits of a single users’ Xbox Live Gold account, Microsoft announced this afternoon. This initiative, called “Home Gold,” includes online multiplayer, various streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, NFL), Game DVR and the One Guide — services that are specifically enabled through Xbox Live Gold membership ($60 a year). That also includes digital games that any user of a single Xbox One purchased as well, a variant of functionality that Microsoft previously promised with Xbox One and subsequently rolled back after consumers reacted negatively.

Microsoft’s Xbox VP Marc Whitten announced as much on the company’s Xbox news site, Xbox Wire, where he wrote:

“It means that your account and your gamertag are truly yours. You don’t have to share your gamertag for multiplayer gaming with others in your home, or see recommendations for your kid’s cartoons next to the recommended first-person shooter for you. It also means that you can introduce new games and enjoy multiplayer with friends while they are at your house. Last but not least, it also means that when you buy one Xbox Live Gold membership, multiple people can enjoy the best benefits of Xbox Live Gold on your Xbox One at no additional charge.”

Apparently the same XBL Gold account can be signed in on both an Xbox One and an Xbox 360; as expected, Xbox 360 Gold accounts carry over to Xbox One, though this is the first we’re hearing about peaceful co-existence between the two consoles. We’ll surely hear more from Whitten and co. in Cologne, Germany during Gamescom 2013 in just a few weeks.

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Source: Microsoft

Microsoft deputizes gamers for Enforcement United beta, awards XP for policing trolls

DNP Xbox Live Enforcement United

Microsoft wants you to help protect Xbox Live. With the Enforcement United beta, Redmond is using its customers as a first line of defense against online miscreants. If you make it into the testing pool, you’ll be giving your opinion on whether or not content on the service violates its code of conduct. At first it’s just Gamertags, but given Xbox One’s focus on user-made media, that’ll likely expand. The united enforcers won’t have the last word, of course. Once the query passes through them, it’s filtered into an algorithm that determines the next step: either forcing a username change, or escalating the ticket to an actual Microsoft employee for review. What’s in it for you? A (hopefully) friendlier Live, and XP that’ll move you through the ranks of the Halo owner’s gamified participation program, Xbox Community Level. If you get in, we’d appreciate if you went ahead and flagged all those handles with “69” and “420” in them — trust us, they’ll thank you later.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Xbox Wire (1), (2)

Xbox One’s ability to play in-development code has Minecraft-esque implications for gamers

Xbox One debug functionality has interesting implications for gamers

The Xbox One‘s retail units will also run in-progress game code and function as debug units for budding devs, but Xbox VP Marc Whitten says not all of that functionality will be available when the console launches this November. More details will be available during Gamescom 2013 this August, but he told us in an interview this afternoon that “some of this won’t be there for launch.”

Self-publishing for indies, however, is already on the table, though Whitten didn’t provide a specific roadmap for when and how it’ll work. “It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time — how do we shorten that process, how do we automate a lot of the core requirements checking and some of those things. That’ll continue to be our focus around that,” he said. Nor would he confirm the turnaround time, said to be close to Apple’s 14-day turnaround, though he did suggest it could be even shorter. Again, more details will arise closer to Gamescom, but in the meantime Whitten says: “As games move towards games as a service, that becomes a more important part of the cycle. It’s the reason that we dropped the title update fees, as an example. We’ll announce more on the specifics, but our goal is frankly just to minimize that.”

Beyond benefitting indie devs, Whitten spoke to the implications of retail consoles running in-progress code could have on gamers. “I’m not confirming any feature or anything like that,” he prefaced. But? “This idea of how can [Xbox] Live and the console work on a certain set of code which is what you need to do when you’re the developer. Well that also opens up these sorts of ideas around early access to betas or these types of features, and that’s foundationally what we’ve been working on around the architecture of the system,” he said. As expected, that content won’t live in the same marketplace as completed code (read: finished games), but it does sound like the Xbox One has room for the Minecraft model of game launches.

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New Office 365 subscriptions get 12 months of free Xbox Live Gold (update: offer available in US)

Office 365 subscription now includes 12 months of free Xbox Live Gold (but not in the US)

Sweetening the deal on its cloud-based Office 365 suite, Microsoft will start bundling a year of Xbox Live Gold with any purchases of Office 365 Home Premium or Office 365 University made before September 28th. You’ll then pick up an Xbox Live code as you sign in during the initial Office setup. Unfortunately, US customers aren’t eligible for this promotion, but the majority of Europe, plus Australia, Canada and parts of Asia are all included. Alongside the recent promise of two free games a month, Microsoft’s made this bundled subscription a pretty tempting proposition.

Update: Turns out that this offer is available in the US after all. Thanks to tipster David for spotting, and sending that in. Details can be found at the More Coverage link.

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Via: TNW

Source: Microsoft Office, Microsoft (German)