Here’s your chance to win a badass custom Xbox 360 that doubles as an Atari 2600

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This just might be the coolest-looking Xbox 360 out there. To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the arcade classic Pong — yes, it’s been that long — Atari is giving away a freakin’ awesome custom Xbox 360 that is modded to look like an old school Atari 2600 with an attached LCD. To enter, you’ll just… Read More…

Xbox 360 Black Friday stats: 750,000 consoles, 72 million online hours

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We wrote yesterday about Nintendo selling more than 400,000 Wii U consoles last week. While it isn’t new and doesn’t have dual-screen capabilities, the Xbox 360 still sold nearly double that for the same time period. Microsoft today reported that it sold more than 750,000 consoles in the U.S. alone for the Black Friday week of Nov…. Read More…

Microsoft reportedly set to debut Xbox TV device next year

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Microsoft isn’t quite done turning the Xbox 360 into an entertainment hub for the living room. Tom Warren over at The Verge reports that multiple sources familiar with Microsoft say the company plans to release a TV set-top box based on Windows 8 in early 2013. The “Xbox TV” console will be a “lite” and… Read More…

Live ESPN programming now available with Xbox WatchESPN app (video demo)

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The old ESPN app on Xbox Live was mediocre at best. There were highlights and a few non-important ESPN3 live offerings, but not much past that. That all changes today with the official launch of WatchESPN, an updated app that now features ESPN’s full slate of programming, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Goal Line…. Read More…

Hit the high notes at home: New Xbox Karaoke app charges by the hour

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It’s Friday night and you have a bunch of people at the house after a concert. The musical vibes are still goin’ and people are antsy to get some karaoke in. You could head over to the local dive bar, but the place isn’t your favorite and the commute sucks. Enter The Karaoke Channel on… Read More…

A 7-inch Xbox Surface? Yes, this makes a ton of sense

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Back in June, hours before Microsoft unveiled its new Surface tablet computer, a series of apparent leaks pointed to the possibility that Microsoft was working on a 7-inch tablet called the Xbox Surface. As it turned out, that wasn’t what Microsoft announced at the time. But increasingly it’s looking like those leaks weren’t wrong —… Read More…

Name that Tech Tune, Space Shuttle edition: Chance to win two new Xbox 360 games

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Identifying the song for this week’s Name that Tech Tune contest is the easy part. But this is a two-step challenge, and the ultimate answer we’re looking for is considerably harder than that: What is the significance of this song in Space Shuttle history? Up for grabs are two new games for Xbox 360: Nat… Read More…

Yo, Sounders fan in that Xbox shirt! Be honest, what’s your favorite game console?

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Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the title sponsor of the Seattle Sounders FC soccer team — which means that fans show up at games with the Xbox 360 brand across their jerseys. But where do their loyalties really lie? Team GeekWire spoke with some Sounders fans before Sunday’s 3-1 win and asked fans what their favorite game console… Read More…

Xbox Music: Windows 8 plays lead as Microsoft debuts new service

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It’s called Xbox Music, but make no mistake — the frontman in this band is Windows 8. Microsoft is taking another run at digital music with a new service called Xbox Music, unveiling the details tonight. Xbox Music will include free, ad-supported music streaming on Windows 8 PCs and tablets, starting with the Oct. 26… Read More…

Sesame Street goes interactive on Kinect, our kids give it a try

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This is better than regular television. But it’s very hard to beat the good old-fashioned real world. That was the conclusion in the Bishop and Cook households this weekend after our kids spent some time getting a preview of “Kinect Sesame Street TV,”  a new interactive TV experience on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console. It… Read More…

Late at night in private club, Nintendo tries to win back the love of longtime fans

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The line out the door at this trendy venue wasn’t for a band — it was for Mario. Nintendo fans packed a rented space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood Friday night for their first official date with Wii U, the next big thing from the iconic game company. The main attraction: Wii U’s motion-sensitive, touch-screen,… Read More…

It’s official: Mobile gamers outnumber the console ‘core’

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It’s no secret that the rise of the iPhone, Android and other mobile devices have shifted the attention of gamers away from traditional game consoles in the living room. But the mobile gaming phenomenon just reached a notable milestone in the United States. Numbers out today from the NPD Group research firm show that people… Read More…

Sony hides PlayStation 3 sales data as profits fall

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Maybe I’m a nerd, but one of the things I look forward to each quarter is the release of Sony’s earnings, because they provide the final data point that we need to update the status of worldwide game console sales — showing how the PlayStation 3 stacks up against the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360…. Read More…

Apple TV outsells Xbox 360 in latest quarter, still a ‘hobby’

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Apple sold 1.3 million Apple TV devices during the June quarter, an increase of 170 percent over the same quarter a year ago. That still qualifies as a “hobby,” according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who disclosed the number in response to an analyst’s question on the company’s earnings conference call. But here’s an interesting… Read More…

Xbox 360 marks 18 months atop U.S. console market

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Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sold 257,000 units in the U.S. in June, topping Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii for the 18th consecutive month, according to NPD Group research cited by the Redmond company. That translates into 47 percent market share among current-generation consoles. The latest numbers were down considerably from the 507,000 Xbox 360 units… Read More…

Legislators rally against possible Xbox 360 import ban

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It’s not often that Congress argues in favor of video game consoles, but it appears all bets are off when the issue is patents. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from both parties have been writing letters to the International Trade Commission, siding with Microsoft and others in the tech industry on the issue… Read More…

Microsoft exec: Xbox 360 has ‘a lot more than two years’ left

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In an interview with GameSpot down at the E3 video-game convention in Los Angeles this week, a Microsoft Xbox executive made an attention-grabbing statement about the Xbox 360, saying that the console has “a lot more than two years” of life left in it. The quote from Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer doesn’t necessarily mean that… Read More…

Microsoft unveils Xbox SmartGlass, Xbox Music, IE for Xbox, and Nike+ Kinect

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Microsoft just confirmed plans to release new technology that will let the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Windows Phone and Windows 8 computers serve as companion devices for games and entertainment on Xbox 360 — aiming to extend Xbox Live to become a more universal cloud-computing service for consumers. The announcement came a short time ago… Read More…

E3: Microsoft ‘SmartGlass’ trademark filing hints at bigger ambitions for Xbox

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[Follow-up: Microsoft unveils Xbox SmartGlass, Xbox Music, IE for Xbox, and Nike+ Kinect] It’s going to be a big week for anyone who cares about video games, with the E3 convention happening in Los Angeles. And one of the biggest rumors to emerge so far is a juicy one involving Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. The report… Read More…

Amazon Instant Video on Xbox Live: The good, the bad and the buffering

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As an Xbox Live Gold member and Amazon Prime subscriber, the release of Amazon Instant Video for Xbox Live yesterday was pretty much made for people like me. For no extra charge (beyond the ~$140/year we already pay for both services), we get access to a library of 17,000 movies and TV shows on my… Read More…