It seems that even Microsoft doesn't have faith in Windows 8, the OS that the Xbox One's OS is supposedly based on.

EA big wig Peter Moore assured us that the games it was showing off on stage at E3 were running on comparable dev kit specs to the actual home consoles. While this may have been true for the PS4, Microsoft made sure that its games were running on the most stable system specs available on the market and in some cases that may have been an HP powered, Windows 7 system with Nvidia's 700 series GTX GPU.

It all started when US Gamer's Julian Rignall tweeted that the Xbox One game he was playing with an Xbox One controller crashed to a Windows 7, Hewlet Packard-branded desktop. But that's just one man's experience on one specific machine that may or may not be the truth. As they say on the internet "pics or it didn't happen".

Well, ask and the internet delivers. These two pictures clearly show an Xbox One controller hooked up to PC hardware. The first picture to the right shows the iconic Windows 7 splash screen bellow an Xbox One display, and the second picture here actually shows a PC desktop in the supposed Xbox One cabinet. Busted.

What is more surprising is that it seems Microsoft doesn't even trust its own operating system, opting to run Windows 7 instead of Windows 8, the OS that the Xbox One's OS is supposedly based on.

The fact that the desktops were apparently running Nvidia 700 series GTX cards is another worrying revelation if proven true. The 700 series GTX is considerably more powerful than the modified AMD GPU the Xbox One will run on.

For the record, Sony has officially come out and assured us that all PS4 demos shown at E3 were running on actual PS4 dev kits.

Source: Cinema Blend

Update: Several Xbox One developers have come out and confirmed that their titles were most assuredly running on actual Xbox One dev kits. Apparently, only a single title: Lococycle, was running on a PC because it had not been ported to Xbox One yet, and the decision was made by the dev team, not Microsoft.

Source: Forza Central

Two new titles join the PlayStation Plus Instant Games Collection tomorrow, Saints Row: The Third and Gods Eater Burst.

That's the news, and now for explanations of what all of that means.

Those of you with PlayStation Plus subscriptions should already be aware that this entitles you to download and play a certain selection of games absolutely free of charge. Exactly which games you can enjoy gratis is constantly-changing, as Sony updates the list every few weeks, adding a few new titles here and removing a few older ones there.

Come June 18 we receive the PlayStation 3 incarnation of Saints Row: The Third, and the Vita's Gods Eater Burst.

The former you should know as a wildly over-the-top, open world sandbox action title. Something like Grand Theft Auto, only instead of homages to Scorsese films, Saints Row: The Third features weaponized sex toys. There's no mature, wholesome way to describe it, but if you haven't played the game and own a PlayStation 3, you really should click through the PlayStation Store to pick the thing up.

Gods Eater Burst, in turn, is far more obscure action title from Namco Bandai. The game originally debuted on the PSP in 2011, and while it's certainly a passable, overtly Japanese adventure, there's little of obvious merit to recommend buying the thing. Luckily that's not really a problem now that it's being offered up for free, is it?

While the biggest news here is obviously the new additions to the Instant Game Collection, it's important to remember that this update also removes titles from the Collection. Specifically Vanquish and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend. You have until June 25 to download either of those games, and each will continue to function until you delete it from your Sony device of choice.

If your interest in Sony's PlayStation Plus initiative has been piqued by all of this, you can find full info on how to sign up for the service by visiting the Sony Entertainment Network.

Source: PlayStation.blog

Several of his RoX.KIS teammates were also given lengthy bans following a "suspiciously horrible performance" in a DOTA 2 Star Series match.

Alexey "Solo" Berezin has been given the heave-ho from Star Series league play following a match between his team, RoX.KIS, and zRage, which RoX.KIS lost in an uncharacteristically bad fashion. That led StarLadder TV to do some digging, resulting in the discovery that Berezin had put $100 on the opposing team at egamingbets.com that earned him $322 for losing.

The match had no impact on the season but betting against yourself and then throwing a game isn't just ethically wrong, it's obviously against the rules, too. So seriously against the rules, in fact, that Berezin has been permanently banned from Star Series play, while teammates Andrey "Dread" Golubev, Stanislav "BzzIsPerfect" Glushan and Vladimir "Yol" Basov have all been slapped with three-year bans. A fifth member of the team, Ivan "Vanskor" Skorokhod, was found not to be actively involved in the scam but because it was so systemic, the entire RoX.KIS organization has been suspended for one year as well.

In its defense, RoX.KIS issued a statement saying that the evidence against its players is "very uncertain," and that while a cash-out from the betting site to Berezin's Webmoney account was made, that can be done using nothing but his publicly available ID. It also claimed that because RoX.KIS had no chance of making it to the finals anyway, this match was just a formality and its players were only going through the motions, which is why they were hammered so badly.

"[Berezin] and Rox team do not agree with these accusations and we continue to ask for a full investigation of this incident (with the help from StarLadder judges, players and managers of Rox, and egamingbets)," the team said. "We look forward to understanding of this among our fans, and please do not make sudden conclusions."

Being Russian, I suppose it's possible that the guys on RoX.KIS have never heard of Pete Rose and thus did not have the opportunity to learn his sad lesson. But Charlie Hustle never bet against his own guys (so he says), which is a pretty big distinction - and while getting kicked from a DOTA 2 league isn't quite as big a blow as being permanently ineligible for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, it's still a pretty crappy way to go out.

Source: joinDOTA

Images of the Xbox One's first-party headset have emerged and it's not too far from the system that shipped with the Xbox 360.

That image you see at right is the Xbox One's official headset. It's a monoraul device that features a "unidirectional microphone" and "wideband digital audio." Both of these terms are efforts by Microsoft's marketing team to make utterly standard features seem somehow more special.

In the realm of new, arguably impressive features, the headset does include a few. According to Gamespot, "players will be able to access mute and volume controls without taking their hands off the controller." Further, Microsoft claims that the headset comes equipped with a large battery that should keep it charged for an extended period of time. When it does run out of juice, the battery can be recharged in as little as four hours, either during gameplay or while your Xbox One is "off."

The company has chosen an interesting moment in which to debut this headset, as it's currently busy justifying the $499 price point it announced for the Xbox One at E3 2013. With Sony's PlayStation 4 priced at a comparatively frugal $399, Microsoft has been backed into a corner, forcing Xbox division head Don Mattrick to defend the decision.

"We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get," Mattrick claims. "Any modern product these days you look at it ... $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they're going to love it when they use it."

With those words in mind, we invite you to please visit the comments section below and enjoy airing your thoughts on the Xbox One's headset.

Source: Gamespot

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has yet to hit theaters, yet Sony Pictures already knows when its next two sequels will make their debut.

May 2, 2014 marks the day on which The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is slated to appear on movie screens around the world. That's barely less than a year away, so any number of issues could crop up to delay that release. Despite this, Sony has just announced tentative production plans for both The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4, as well as release dates for each film.

According to Sony's largely information-devoid press release, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will hit theaters on June 10, 2016. Its sequel will follow on May 4, 2018. No plot details or production information is offered for either film.

Those are pretty ambitious plans, given that we've only seen one film with Andrew Garfield playing Peter Parker, but Sony is very keen on this franchise. It doesn't have an intellectual property vault to match Marvel Studios, but since Sony Pictures was fortunate enough to pick up the Spider-Man license prior to superhero movies becoming a massively lucrative concept, you shouldn't be surprised to see the firm milk this cash cow until its teats are raw and bleeding.

Or, as Jeff Blake, Chairman of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution at Sony Pictures, puts it, "Spider-Man is our most important, most successful, and most beloved franchise, so we're thrilled that we are in a position to lock in these prime release dates over the next five years."

We've run out of concrete facts, so that means it's speculation time. If Sony won't tell us what these films will be about, then we'll just make things up. We know that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 features Jaime Foxx as Electro and Paul Giamatti as The Rhino, so there are two villains out of the running. Likewise, we can probably remove The Lizard as a threat, since he was the antagonist in the first Amazing Spider-Man flick. Who does this leave us with for potential foes?

If Sony sticks with the classic rogue's gallery trend, I'd have to expect The Vulture, The Scorpion, or Doctor Octopus to feature in one of these upcoming films, but there's always the chance that Sony might decide to give Venom another shot. It wasn't that character's fault that Sam Raimi's third Spider-Man film was an overlong chore, and there are many, many fans of the toothy symbiote.

Alternately, Sony could do something completely unexpected and create a film about that one time that Aunt May became a Herald of Galactus. They won't, but who doesn't want to see that in big-budget CGI form?