When the next-generation Xbox arrives later this year, it will likely come with the same eight-core AMD chips being used by Sony’s (SNE) rival PlayStation 4. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that Microsoft (MSFT) will be making the switch from IBM (IBM) chips to AMD chips because it wants to “cut the cost of building machines and get developers to create more titles.” Bloomberg says that game developers will benefit from having common specifications for next-generation consoles since it should become easier to develop across multiple platforms. The next-generation Xbox is rumored to feature an 8-core 1.6GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, an 800MHz graphics processor, a 50GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive, and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Science-fiction drama "Defiance" wants to go where no television series has gone before, weaving a show with an online video game to achieve the elusive goal of parlaying success on one entertainment platform to another. The new series, which premieres on U.S. cable channel Syfy on April 15, tells the story of frontier town Defiance, formerly St. Louis, in the near future following a 30-year war between humans and seven alien races. ...

Microsoft (MSFT) reportedly has plans to unveil its next-generation Xbox video game console during a press conference in May. The new console was previously expected to be revealed during a special event in April but Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott now reports that the press conference has been pushed back to May 21st. The Verge then claimed to have independently confirmed the date in a follow-up report. Preliminary details are expected at the May 21st event and then a full unveiling will reportedly follow just a few weeks later at the E3 gaming conference in June. Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is expected to launch ahead of the holidays this year.

"I don't get the drama around having an 'always online' console," Microsoft Studios creative directorAdam Orth wrote yesterday on Twitter. "Every device now is 'always on'. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit" In doing so, Orth dismissed what he saw as "drama" about the rumor that the next-generation Microsoft Xbox console would not be able to play games at all unless it were connected to the Internet, and also insulted the people concerned about it.

While we still don’t know for certain if Microsoft (MSFT) will really require an always-on Internet connection for its next-generation Xbox, one Microsoft executive doesn’t see why anyone should be upset about the prospect of being online as a prerequisite to playing games. Kotaku has spotted some tweets sent out by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth on Thursday that hit back at people who were critical of the idea that the Xbox must be online to work properly. “Sorry, I don’t get the drama over having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth wrote before leaving a hashtag that told people to “#dealwithit.” “Every device now is ‘always on.’ That’s the world we live in.” Kotaku notes that while Orth’s “opinions here are

While we still don’t know for certain if Microsoft (MSFT) will really require an always-on Internet connection for its next-generation Xbox, one Microsoft executive doesn’t see why anyone should be upset about the prospect of being online as a prerequisite to playing games. Kotaku has spotted some tweets sent out by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth on Thursday that hit back at people who were critical of the idea that the Xbox must be online to work properly. “Sorry, I don’t get the drama over having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth wrote before leaving a hashtag that told people to “#dealwithit.” “Every device now is ‘always on.’ That’s the world we live in.” Kotaku notes that while Orth’s “opinions here are

This is a crucial period for the PlayStation Vita: several weeks after a price cut that revived the console in Japan, Vita is demonstrating fairly astonishing tenacity. According to Famitsu, Vita remained the No. 2 console in Japan during the week of March 31st with 33,000 units sold, down moderately from 38,000 units in the previous week. The reason this week was particularly important was the debut of a major new title for Nintendo’s (NTDOY) struggling home console Wii U. Alarm bells at Nintendo’s headquarters must be on full blast, because Dragon Quest X sold just 36,000 units and failed to lift weekly Wii U sales higher than 21,000 units from the previous week’s dismal 10,000 unit level. During the

Online game developer Zynga Inc. said Friday it appointed John Doerr to its board of directors. Doerr is a general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that ...

Given Electronic Arts’ (EA) recent misadventures with requiring always-on Internet connectivity to play SimCity, you might think that Microsoft (MSFT) would be more cautious about implementing such a scheme for its next-generation Xbox. But unnamed sources have told Kotaku that Microsoft’s new Xbox “must have an active Internet connection to be used” and will only let users continue to play games on their consoles if their connection is disrupted for less than three minutes. To make matters worse, one source tells Kotaku that “no games or apps can be started” without an Internet connection, meaning that console will essentially be useless unless it’s hooked up to the web. We’d previously heard rumors that Microsoft would require an Internet connection when

HELSINKI (AP) — Mobile game developer Rovio Entertainment Ltd. says the popular Angry Birds franchise helped it double revenue in 2012, with net profit surging more than 55 percent to 55.5 million euros ($71.2 million).

Shares of Zynga Inc. rose in premarket trading as the online game maker said that two casino games would debut in the United Kingdom Wednesday. But a Jefferies analyst cautioned that the new offerings ...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The head of Zynga Inc's New York studio has left the social gaming company a year after its $180 million purchase of his mobile game start-up failed to produce the expected results. Dan Porter, the former chief executive of OMGPOP, will be succeeded by Sean Kelly, an executive formerly in charge of Zynga's smash hit "CityVille," the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Zynga's New York office focuses on developing games for mobile devices, a top priority for the company. ...

Dan Porter is leaving Zynga a year after the online game maker bought his company, OMGPop, for $183 million. Zynga Inc. said Tuesday that Porter has left Zynga's New York office. Sean Kelly has been named ...

The next generation of mobile graphics will be able to deliver better performance than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, according to NVIDIA’s (NVDA) SVP of content and technology Tony Tamasi. Speaking to Bit-tech, the executive noted that current gaming systems are “barely more powerful” than mobile devices and he believes that upcoming smartphones and tablets powered by NVIDIA chipsets will finally begin to outperform traditional gaming consoles. The current generation of gaming systems from Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SNE) have GPUs that can handle about 200 gigaFLOPS (Floating-point Operations Per Second), compared to NVIDIA’s Tegra 4′s 80 gigaFLOPS and Tegra 3′s mere 12 gigaFLOPS. It will take some time for mobile devices to reach the level of the PlayStation

Sony (SNE) on Wednesday shed some new light on the PlayStation 4′s all new controller at the Game Developers Conference, The Verge reported. One of the most predominant features of the new DualShock 4 is a two-point capacitive touchpad on the front of the controller that can support a variety of gestures such as flick, pinch and twist. The touchpad can be utilized by developers for on-screen slider buttons, navigating the user interface or can even act as a cursor controller. The controller is equipped with digital face buttons, a headphone jack, a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope that will support motion controls and an LED light bar that will be used to differentiate players. The DualShock 4 also includes a stereo

HAVANA (AP) — Fight your way through mangrove swamps shoulder-to-shoulder with bearded guerrillas clad in the olive green of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Your mission: Topple 1950s Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The Angry Birds have landed at NASA's gateway to space.

At first glance, the idea of playing Bioshock Infinite on your web browser sounds like a pipe dream. But according to Ars Technica, it’s a pipe dream that Mozilla is working very hard to make real by porting Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 onto its open-source Firefox web browser. To achieve this daunting task, Ars says Mozilla “has been working on WebGL, in order to bring 3D graphics to the browser; Emscripten, a tool for compiling C++ applications into JavaScript; and asm.js, a high performance subset of JavaScript.” It goes without saying that bringing the Unreal Engine 3 to the web would be a very impressive feat, since it’s used to power such A-list games as the aforementioned Bioshock Infinite, Mass

By Joe McDonald (Reuters) - Play doesn't need to stop for sports fans taking a bathroom break at a Pennsylvania minor-league baseball stadium that has installed video games in men's room urinals. The "hands-free" video game is played by directing oneself right or left in the urinals at the Lehigh Valley IronPigs' Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The game is aimed at increasing prostate health awareness. The video screens challenge players to steer their way along a snowmobile course, while trying to hit cartoon penguins. ...

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - A video game that uses a computer-generated layout of a building can help to prepare the blind to navigate the venue in real life by improving their spatial awareness, researchers said on Wednesday. The game, based in a building at a center for the blind in Newton, Massachusetts, uses audio cues to help blind players find hidden jewels and remove them from the building without being spotted by roving monsters. ...