In concluding their E3 2011 keynote, Microsoft reaffirmed fans that the Halo franchise wasn’t dead and showed off a short teaser of Halo 4. Master Chief, the Halo series’ protagonist was ordered to wake up and he navigated around some sort of destroyed space station. It was announced that the game will be released by the 2012 holiday season, and Microsoft has just confirmed earlier rumors that Halo 4 will be released on November 6th. And to commemorate the newest title in the infamous Halo franchise, the game will be featured tonight on Conan.

Much like the first release of Halo, Combat Evolved for the first Xbox, the original Crysis was a landmark title, and to many of those who played it, felt about as futuristic as they come.

With Rockstar Games still in the process of releasing Max Payne to mobile devices, the godfather of controversial games has just leaked a trailer of its upcoming PC and console title Max Payne 3, entitled Bullet Time.

With the Xbox 360 now in its seventh year on the market, the ardent gamers are getting increasingly excited about the prospect of its successor, and the rumor mill has been fairly rampant over the past 6 months or so, covering just about every eventuality possible.

Sony has claimed that the next PlayStation will beat the new Xbox to market according to a new report. As if all the rumors amongst fans and the press wasn’t enough. Sony itself has now thrown itself into the rumor mill by suggesting that it will beat Microsoft to market with a new, updated home gaming console.

Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE’s Director of Programming, better known to gaming fans as Major Nelson, has showcased a limited edition range of Chrome Series wireless controllers set to launch in the middle of next month.

The internet is once again abuzz with news and rumors surrounding the replacement to the Xbox 360. Despite Microsoft refusing to admit that the console is on its way sooner rather than later, the gaming community is currently falling over itself to suggest what the next Xbox may look like and, more importantly, what features it may sport.

Considering consumers pay such a high price in the stores for their gizmos and gadgets, they would be forgiven for thinking that the manufacturers of these high-end pieces of technology are doing all they can to ensure any data that passes through the product and associated services is as secure as it possibly can be. However, if recent research into the subject is anything to go by, then it would appear that this isn’t always the case, with sensitive data such as credit card details being easily accessible on Xbox 360 consoles through the use of widely available tools.

Microsoft has today released three new apps to add to its burgeoning collection of media-based apps for the Xbox 360 console. Microsoft may be in the middle of having to deflect questions about the replacement for its ageing Xbox 360, but the Redmond outfit clearly isn’t getting ready to put the world’s favorite home console out to pasture just yet.

We’re currently at that helpless stage with regards to the next Xbox release, whereby rumors and speculation are continually being recycled, and with little official word offered by Microsoft, we’re forced to try and dredge some truth from the many conflicting rumors.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Minecraft is slowly but surely taking over the world, after all, there doesn’t seem to be a day to go by that I don’t see some mention of it on my Twitter timeline or some forum. For those who may have been living under the largest rock known to mankind, or just don’t take interest in that kind of thing, Minecraft is essentially a block building game allowing participants to build pretty much anything that their heart desires.

Microsoft has reportedly revealed to partners that its next-generation Xbox – unofficially dubbed the “Xbox 720″ – will not feature an optical drive, and that games and other content will only be accessible through downloads or an “interchangeable solid-state card storage”.

The world wide web has been going Xbox – or more specifically – Halo 4 crazy today. With leaked images from the new Halo 4 game being shown earlier today, Microsoft and game makers 343 Industries have released a new preview video of the highly anticipated, yet extremely mysterious Halo 4 video game. The next release in the Halo franchise is tipped to hit our shelves sometime before the holiday season and will bring the iconic Master Chief back to the forefront of gaming, intended to launch the ‘Halo Reclaimer Trilogy’.

Whenever people talk about console-based video gaming these days, it seems to be the Call Of Duty franchise that gets the most attention. Granted, the COD games grow in popularity with every release, and the Modern Warfare series has certainly become one of the most popular series of games around the globe, but that doesn’t stop die hard fans from craving some more game-time with one of video games’ most iconic heroes – The Master Chief.

The world we live in is a very expensive place where every penny counts, even more so in recent times thanks to the worrying economic climate we find ourselves in. With that in mind, it is imperative that creators of goods and services which are not deemed as necessities go that extra mile to provide consumers with truly exceptional value for money. The problem with that is that one persons definition of value for money differs greatly to another, especially when we are talking about software. A growing trend is emerging where consumers seem to believe software should be free of charge is somewhat concerning when you take into account the days, weeks and months which are put into the design and development of these programs and applications.

Originally released on November 22nd, 2005, the Xbox 360 has been around for just over six years now. Sure, there have been multiple variations of the 360 that have been launched during that six year period – such as the Elite, Arcade, and the sleek, thinner S – but there is yet to be a major revision to its hardware. That being said, Microsoft’s huge focus as of late with the Xbox 360 has been software. At E3 of last year, several major updates to the 360′s software were announced and subsequently released, such as Live TV, a redesigned, Metro-inspired dashboard, voice commands, and improvements pertaining to the Kinect.

The Xbox 360 may now be over six years old, but Microsoft is showing that there is plenty of life in the old dog yet, with a new console bundle being released across multiple markets.

With the release of any new piece of consumer technology, especially an eagerly anticipated release, we expect a certain amount of rumors and speculations going side by side with it. However, as the conjecture flies in from all different angles, it sometimes becomes difficult to establish what is actually based on some form of reality and what is purely fabrication. The release of the next generation Xbox console is hot news, and rightly so in our opinion considering the current 360 is one of the world’s most popular consoles with millions of gamers around the world using it on a daily basis.

The last four of five weeks have brought about quite a bit of news and speculation surrounding Microsoft’s Kinect motion detecting hardware. When Microsoft took to the stage during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the beginning of this month, they announced that the original Kinect hardware had amassed more than 18 million sales during its first year.

Video games are a big business, and the mobile video game industry is growing at an alarming rate. You just need to look at the iPhone App Store’s top fifty applications to see just how popular games on mobile devices are, and again, they are growing faster than we actually hoped for. It is no wondering that developers are starting to invest a lot of time and money into producing highly polished and professional looking mobile games which in some instances even feature professionally recorded soundtracks.