The DeanBeat: Can Microsoft’s Kinect gain cred from hardcore gamers?

Microsoft’s Kinect has always held out tantalizing promises. As a user interface, it brings computing devices to the edge of greatness but falls just a little short of our dreams of the Star Trek holodeck or the cool transparent, gesture-controlled …

Former Xbox 360 exec’s $1B pain and advice to entrepreneurs

The former president of Microsoft's gaming and devices division spoke to a captive audience about how to create entrepreneurial projects within a larger company. During that talk, he touched on the Xbox 360's early troubles and how that affected him personally.

Minecraft on Xbox 360 breaks digital-sales records in first day

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has broken all previous digital-sales records, selling more than any other title in the first 24 hours on Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft today announced.

Microsoft confirms $99 Xbox 360 + Kinect subscription deal

The rumors are true. Microsoft confirmed today that it will offer a $99 Xbox 360 console and Kinect bundle (with a $15 monthly subscription fee) in its retail stores.

The deal will be available via the above online coupon, which …

The DeanBeat: Don’t ya wish these fantasy game consoles were coming?

With a month to go before this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo video game trade show (E3), rumors are surfacing about next-generation console announcements. We’re not likely to hear much about what sort of features they’ll have for a while with …

Microsoft and Motorola patent dispute threatens Xbox 360 sales in Germany

Microsoft and Motorola Mobility are locked in a bitter patent suit regarding the use of H.264 video compression and encoding. The ongoing legal battle lead to German courts issuing an injunction that could halt the sales and distribution of the Xbox 360, Windows 7 software, and even Internet Explorer in the country.

Game over, Sony? Microsoft said to be working on $99 Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle with subscription

In a move that will surely stir up plenty of fanboy fervor, Microsoft is reportedly gearing up to announce a $99 Xbox 360 + Kinect package, which will be subsidized by a $15 monthly fee, reports The Verge.

Sources tell …

Xbox 360-quality graphics could come to mobile devices by 2014

Imagine a mobile device with the graphical capabilities of an Xbox 360. Hardware developer Nvidia thinks that dream isn't too far off.

Bloodforge brings a good, gory romp to Xbox Live Arcade (review)

Bloodforge isn't a great game or even a good one in some respects. It's not very polished, and it's not very deep. For some of us, though, it'll dish out 15 bucks worth of violent lunacy. And let's be honest with ourselves. Sometimes we just want to hit some buttons and watch some heads explode.

Harley Quinn gets her revenge in Batman: Arkham City GOTY Edition

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced last October’s Batman: Arkham City will be receiving a Game of the Year Edition on May 29.

The most notable addition is Harley Quinn’s Revenge, which WB is referring to as “the final chapter …

Free-to-play games on Xbox 360? It could happen sooner than you think

GamesBeat has learned that at least two free-to-play developers are currently in talks with Microsoft.

With Xbox 360 sales slowing down, Windows Phone desperately needs to succeed

Microsoft had mostly good news to report in its third quarter earnings today, although one division stood out as the biggest loser: Entertainment & Devices, home of the Xbox and Windows Phone.

The division reported revenue of $1.62 billion, down …

Xfinity customers are finally getting HBO Go on the Xbox

Earlier this week, Comcast was rumored to be in discussions about letting its subscribers finally access HBO Go on the Xbox. Friday, the company made it official, saying that “early next week” Comcast subscribers can watch their favorite HBO shows …

Anomaly: Warzone Earth successfully reverses tower defense (review)

In the year 2018, an alien spaceship breaks in two and crashes on Earth. Terrible invading machines emerge from the wreckage and assemble treacherous gauntlets in the middle of Baghdad and Tokyo. Good thing they know how to implement gamification in their invasion....

Reed Hastings & Comcast’s 22M subscribers may gain access to Xbox HBO Go app

Comcast is finalizing a deal to make the HBO Go Xbox app available to its 22.3 million customers, reports the New York Times.

That means Comcast customers will be able to watch new episodes of Game of Thrones anytime they …

Bungie says goodbye with 10 years of Halo stats (infographic)

Bungie Studios is in the process of severing its final ties to the Halo franchise and has shut down the multiplayer stat-tracking on Bungie.net. To commemorate the hundreds of thousands of years gamers have racked up playing various Halo titles …

Kinect Star Wars fails to live up to its potential (review)

Kinect Star Wars has been in the works for a long time.

When Microsoft first demonstrated the Kinect motion-sensing system in June 2010, it showed off the Star Wars game as a work in progress. The game made another appearance …

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

Here are some of the stories that ran on GamesBeat this week. We’re running more articles exclusively in the GamesBeat section of VentureBeat, particularly when they’re mainly of interest to our game readers. The broader-interest posts will continue to run …