Xbox 360'sGames with Gold' becomes permanent, still no word on Xbox One version

Microsoft's Xbox 360 monthly free game promo, "Games with Gold," is being extended indefinitely. The program is essentially Microsoft's response on Xbox 360 to Sony's PlayStation Plus initiative on PlayStation 3 and Vita: members who pay the monthly or annual fee to the programs receive a variety of free games each month. Sony announced an extension of its program to its next game console, the PlayStation 4, back at E3 2013 -- anyone who already pays for PS Plus on PS3 or Vita is automatically a member on PS4.

Microsoft, however, won't say if "Games with Gold" will extend to its upcoming game console, the Xbox One."We're excited to announce we are extending Games with Gold for Xbox 360. We will share more details on the program soon. Stay tuned for our plans on Xbox One," a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget. There are, of course, many other benefits to paying for an Xbox Live Gold account on the Xbox One, the least of which is the ability to play online multiplayer games.

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AMD unveils Radeon R9 and R7 series video cards, unifying graphics code for PCs and consoles

Graphics cards aren't normally our go-to choices for audio processing, but we may have to make exceptions for AMD's just-unveiled Radeon R9 and R7 lines. The R9 290X (shown above), R9 290 and R7 260X (after the break) will support TrueAudio, a new programmable pipeline that enables advanced audio effects without burdening a PC's main processor or a dedicated sound card. Not that the range will be lacking in visual prowess, of course. While the company isn't revealing full specifications, it claims that the R9 290X flagship will have five teraflops of total computing power versus the four teraflops of the previous generation. The boards will ship sometime in the "near future," with prices ranging from $89 for an entry R7 250 to $299 for the mid-tier R9 280X. AMD isn't divulging the R9 290X's price, but pre-orders for the card will start on October 3rd.

The firm has also revealed a new programming interface, Mantle, that makes the most of the Graphics Core Next architecture found in many of its recent processors and video chipsets. Developers who build the low-level code into their games should get better performance from GCN-based devices without having to re-optimize for each platform -- a title meant for Radeon-equipped PCs should still behave well on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, for instance. Mantle will debut on Windows through a December update to Battlefield 4, and should spread to other platforms in the months ahead.

ENGADGET

Source: News in Hindi

PlayStation 3 firmware update coming June 27th, promises to fix bricked systems

Are you one of the "small number" of folks with a PlayStation 3 that was bricked in this week's 4.45 firmware update? Though Sony's been aware of the issue since the update launched, apparently a fix isn't coming until June 27th -- that's nine days after 4.45 launched to an unsuspecting populace. The PlayStation Europe Twitter account announced as much this morning in a tweet. "We have identified the issue related to PS3 software update (4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3 systems earlier this week," the feed reads.

"A new system software update is planned to be released on June 27 that resolves that issue," it adds. There's also a bit of an apology, but that won't do much for the folks who are without their PlayStation 3 for the next six days. PlayStation's US arm also confirmed that the update will arrive in North America on the same date.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony

Via: The Verge
Source: Sony, @PlayStationEU