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Source-SeekingAlpha Facebook might be having games from the xbox 360 to Facebook for a price Facebook is hoping an upcoming batch of 10 console-type games from developer partners will draw your attention (and virtual goods dollars). Titles include the first-person shooter Offensive Combat and the real-time strategy game Stormfall: Age of War. They present fresh competition for Zynga (ZNGA -1.8%), which has been working to expand its lineup of "mid-core" titles. Also Facebook might be having their gift cards coming to retail stores. Facebook users can now say "charge it," with a new physical gift card the social network is rolling out, which people can use to make purchases in brick-and-mortar retail stores. Facebook's mockup of its physical gift card. The product, called the "Facebook Card," is a plastic, reusable card that users can give their friends to redeem at four different partner companies: Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target. Facebook describes the product as "a new type of gift card," in a blog post announcing its launch. Here's how the Facebook Card is designed to work: A person can select a gift for a friend on the site's Gift Cards & Digital category to be redeemed at one of the affiliated stores. After the user chooses the amount of the gift, the friend is notified and receives the card in the mail a few days later. When the card arrives, the friend can use it at the retailer that was chosen for the gift amount. If the chosen retailer were Target, for example, the person doing the giving can choose between, say, a US$10, $50, or even $100 value for the card. Once the recipient receives it in the mail, it can be used at any local Target store, Facebook said, although it will not work at Target.com or Target Mobile. Company officials were not immediately available to comment on whether the card would work with websites of the other stores involved in the program. One card, several accounts Also, because the card is reusable, it can store multiple gifts from multiple stores. That means that first-time gifts arrive physically in the mail as the card itself, but then later gifts are loaded instantly, electronically, to the same card, the company says. If there are multiple balances on the card, each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift, Facebook says. In other words, a person can have a gift balance of $25 at Target, $10 at Jamba Juice, and $40 at Olive Garden. The balances are not cross-distributed among the stores. Card holders can view their balances on Facebook from either their phone or desktop. Facebook will also send an instant notification to recipients' phones whenever the balances change, the company says. Facebook did not provide details on whether additional vendors would eventually be included in the program. It is also unclear how the card will be sent to recipients who have not provided their mailing address to the site, or whether there would be any other methods to distribute the product for people who do not wish to share their address with Facebook. Facebook has long promoted digital gift cards for a variety of services. Last year, its Gifts service moved beyond digital options to offering sale and actual delivery of physical items. Migrating from virtual Those questions aside, the Facebook Card is a good product that could help the company move beyond the virtual environment where it largely operates today and into the physical world, said Puneet Mehta, CEO of location-based app developer MyCityWay. The card could lead to payment models beyond gifting, such as microfinance, wherein a person could use Facebook to send money to, say, an entrepreneur in South Africa, he said. Mobile app to manage the gift card. And Facebook's mobile app could eventually bypass the need for the gift card. "Eventually, users might be able to carry money just on the app itself," Mehta said, akin to a "mobile wallet." Company executives were not very bullish on Facebook's Gifts product during the firm's January 30 fourth-quarter earnings call, so the timing of the card launch is interesting. The company sought to "temper near-term expectations on revenue" coming from areas such as Gifts or search, for instance, and instead focus attention on its mobile platform, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Facebook said the card will roll out gradually to people in the U.S. The company did not say whether the card would be available in other countries.

Source-Perthnow It looks like Halo 4 stood highly of other games last night at the Australia Ign Awards Halo 4 won top honours at one of Australia's biggest gaming awards night. IGN awarded the first-person shooter Game Of The Year at the IGN Black Beta Select Awards in Darling Harbour, where more than 700 gamers, game developers, journalists and the industry's elite had gathered. It also won gold for the Best Console Game and Best Visual Design. The new title, Dishonored, won the best original game category due to the "true" choices users can make. Players can go through the entire game without killing a single person, or they can enjoy a good bloody battle. It's also one of the few popular games of 2012 that wasn't a sequel. Mass-Effect: Infiltrator won the Best Aussie-made Game. The third-person shooter was the brain child of Firemonkeys, the new super-studio that formed after Melbourne video game developers at Firemint merged with Iron Monkey last year. Not a bad achievement for a newly developed company. Far Cry 3 took out the top spot for Best PC Game and Pokemon Black 2 / White 2 won for Best Handheld Game. The awards were decided by voters, with more than 88,000 votes cast by the IGN Community across Australia. The only award not decided by readers was the Editor's Choice Award which went to Sound Shapes, an innovative game for the PlayStation 3 which lets users create sounds using different music instruments controlled via a touch screen and back touch pad. Cam Shea, senior editor of IGN Australia told news.com.au that he was thrilled with the outcome. Mass Effect: Infiltrator won for Best Aussie-Made Game. Picture: IronMonkey Studios "At first I was surprised that Tetris didn't walk away with more honours," he said. "I mean, it is the hottest thing on the GameBoy right now. Then I realised I was having yet another flashback to 1989,” he said. "After taking off my parachute pants and getting my head around this thing called 'the internet', I've got to say our audience really has chosen an incredibly deserving selection of titles.” Mr Shea called Dishonored “a breath of fresh air grounded in player choice with a painterly visual aesthetic” . “The Walking Dead: The Game also hit hard with a heart-wrenching tale of a desperate survivor trying to protect an innocent little girl,” he said. "Far Cry 3 gave players an epic map to explore and hunt across, and introduced the gaming world to shark punching. It goes on.” However, Mr Shea said that Halo 4 was by far the biggest winner, taking out three categories including Overall Best Game of 2012. "(It was) no surprise, really - it was a superb reboot for the franchise, injecting much-needed character alongside superb shooter game play and gorgeous graphics," he said. "Congrats to all the winners and thanks to all IGN's readers who voted and helped maked the Black Beta Select Awards such a success." Scroll down for a full list of all the winners. The IGN Black Beta Select Awards winners for 2012: Best Visual Design: Halo 4 Best Audio Design: Mass Effect 3 Best Original Game: Dishonored Best Storytelling: The Walking Dead: The Game Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Black Ops II Best Aussie-made Game: Mass Effect: Infiltrator Best Console Game: Halo 4 Best PC Game: Far Cry 3 Best Handheld Game: Pokémon Black 2 / White 2 Best PSN / XBLA Game: Journey Game of the Year: Halo 4 Editor’s Choice Award: Sound Shapes

Source-Examiner The Price Is dropping from 60$ to 20$ at best buy for the game halo 4 We learned through a Best Buy representative on Thursday that "Halo 4" for the Xbox 360 will go on sale Sunday, Feb. 3 for a stunningly low price. "Halo 4" will have its price dropped from $59.99 all the way down to just $19.99 from Sunday through Saturday at Best Buy according to the information we received. It was listed at that more at a third of its regular price along with "Borderlands" and "Grand Theft Auto IV". We were initially skeptical and asked the representative to confirm that this will indeed be the price. "It is! This is what Best Buy gave us," was the response. This same representative clued us in on deals in previous weeks that even the popular deal sites did not know about. "Halo 4" was released on Nov. 6, 2012 but did not see any of the ultra-low Black Friday prices from competing products such as "Borderlands 2". It's hard to figure out if the drastic slashing is due to slowing sales of the Xbox franchise title or just a rare boost during the typically slow month of February. Either way, this is a boon for those looking to get their "Halo" in on the cheap.

Source-Slash Gear It seems people with silver membership get to watch hulu plus free but gotta have a paying netflix account if they wanna use Netflix. Microsoft is unlocking two of the most popular video-streaming services on Xbox LIve this weekend. Xbox Live Silver members will be able to access Netflix and Hulu PLus without having to pay for a Xbox Live Gold membership. While you’ll still need a Netflix subscription to access movies and TV shows, Hulu is allowing access to Hulu Plus at no cost throughout the weekend. Netflix’s new original series House of Cards is debuting this weekend, and it seems Netflix wants as many users as it can get to watch the new show, even if it means unlocking access on Xbox Live. Plus, all episodes of the new show will be available for streaming, so clear all your weekend plans and make sure to tune in if you’re interested. Furthermore, Hulu Plus on Xbox Live will be completely free for anyone this weekend. Since it’s Super Bowl weekend specifically, Hulu is letting users access the Hulu AdZone in order to watch all the commercials from this year’s Super Bowl, as well as commercials from as far back as 2008 that aired during the big game. Again, both Netflix and Hulu Plus will be open to Xbox Live Silver members at no cost, but you’ll still need a separate Netflix subscription in order to access the app, while Hulu Plus will be completely free for anyone with an Xbox 360 and an internet connection. Happy watching!

Source-Examiner The next update will be receiving multiple updates in one update. Brace yourself, updates are coming! In the Halo Bulletin posted last nightWednesday, Jan. 30th, 2013, Andy "Bravo" Dudynsky, part of 343 Industries Matchmaking Team, went into more details about the Team Doubles playlist being added this coming Monday along with some other playlists that he is excited to talk about. Starting Monday, Feb. 4th, 2013 Team Doubles will be part of the regular matchmaking playlist options and they will feature three game types to choose from in the initial weeks which are Infinity Doubles, Doubles Pro, and CTF Doubles. Infinity Doubles offers the Infinity Slayer experience in 2 vs 2 form. In this variant, players have the option to choose their custom loadout, and instant respawn and radar are enabled. Personal ordnance will kick in at the traditional 70 point mark, but the options are tweaked specifically for Team Doubles. Games are played up to 300 points. Doubles Pro offers an experience that features preset game loadouts. The score limit is the same as above, but radar, personal ordnance and instant respawn are disabled. CTF Doubles offers the ever-popular Capture the Flag game type, customized for 2 vs 2 play. Custom loadouts and radar are enabled, and respawn time is set to 10 seconds. Flag settings provide an optimal experience for small maps and teams: 5 flags to win, 3 second return, and 15 second reset. Lastly, your flag does not have to be home to score. For map selection, Bravo said that they will be using slightly modified Haven, Abandon, Solace, and "several" community forge maps. He goes on to say that they "will continue to update the map pool on a regular basis to keep everything fresh." More details will be posted on the matchmaking forums before the playlist goes live. Speaking of CTF [Capture The Flag], 343i will also be updating the CTF playlist to include two new maps to the gametype Relay and Exile. They will also be tweaking some of the settings on already existing maps such as, "the flag reset time on Adrift, Abandon, Solace and Relay will be dropped to 15 seconds to account for the smaller map size. " Last but not least a new option will be available when choosing the CTF playlist which is Infinity CTF and it is the same as regular CTF but with ordinances to add a touch of surprise to the gametype. One more update that Bravo snuck into the bulletin this week was a name for the recently announced competitive playlist that will be coming out in the near future, and it's going to be called Team Throwdown. The playlist will feature multiple game types all tailored around the competitive gametypes ( aka MLG Customs) like Slayer, CTF, Extraction, and King of the Hill. Some details about this play list were posted on the forums: 4 vs 4 Pre-set game loadouts Forced respawn timers No instant respawn Ordnance on re-supply timers Join-in-progress off No split-screen play Friendly fire on Max party size 4 with big party matching enforced No guests allowed Bravo mentioned that this playlist would be released before the CSR [Competitive Skill Rank] does to ensure the playlist works smoothly for players. No time frame yet on how soon that will be.

Source-Gamespot If Mlg creates a game it will most likely be a game only for mlg players. SweatyBagels Found this news- Give him a pat on the back when you see him. Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni told The Penny Arcade Report that an internally produced game is inevitable, though the competitive gaming company is in no rush. "One day we will. One day we will. Yeah," he said. "We've had people approach us about it. Right now we want to focus on partners with games like PlanetSide 2 and help them broaden out and take advantage of what we’ve built." "But we can also take advantage of their understanding of the game mechanics. We've done this with folks at Bungie, with folks at Activision. We've done it with lots of studios. We've done that enough times to have the understanding to take to our own title, eventually." No firm plans are in place just yet for the MLG-developed game, but DiGiovanni said he hopes it would "disrupt" the current state of play. "The thing is, I think it would have to be derivative of a few things. I loved Quake, and I've played a lot of Counter-Strike and fighting games," DiGiovanni said. "The perfect game for me is something that would disrupt a little. I've always dreamed of a multi-screen experience where you have players and coaches interacting and having touch surfaces and communication, but that's so complicated and hard to explain." Whatever the case, DiGiovanni and MLG are not likely to create the game anytime soon. "I don't want to rush," he said.

Source-Examiner The next Spartan Ops Episode Is gonna be a blast for people enjoying the season! 343 Industries released a new trailer and screenshots Wednesday for "Halo 4" Spartan Ops Episode 8. While also introducing new environments, the episode will also bring back a missing Spartan IV and drop a plot twist involving Dr. Halsey. Here's the official description for Spartan Ops Episode 8 from 343 Industries. "Fireteam Majestic are reunited, but the Infinity is still under attack by Promethean forces. Unfortunately for Lasky, he won’t know what the Prometheans are after until it’s too late." If you've already played through Episode 7, you probably know where the Spartan Ops plot is headed. The trailer and screenshots for Episode 8 are a dead giveaway as well so avoid those if you don't want to see spoilers. You can check out the trailer for Spartan Ops Episode 8 in below this post. The episode will be released the morning of Monday, Feb. 4 along with multiplayer playlist updates and the last two Specializations. The first season of Spartan Ops will end with the release of Episode 10. 343 Industries has hinted that additional seasons may come prior to the release of "Halo 5". http://www.examiner....isode-8-trailer

Source-Neowin It seems The Xbox has been having problems this evening but it will be fixed It looks like Microsoft is having some issues with its Xbox Live service this evening. People have reported they are unable to sign onto the online gaming service and Microsoft's Xbox Live support webpage confirms the issues. The status page claims the problems are affecting Xbox 360 owners, along with Windows 8, Windows Phone, Games for Windows Live and even the Zune PC client. Microsofts message states: "It looks like you’ve been disconnected from Xbox LIVE and worse, you can’t sign back in! We will get this fixed as quickly as possible. Thanks for being patient while we sort this out. Please check back in half an hour for more information." Hopefully this will be solved quickly.

Source-www.343industries.org Thank Spades A Az For This Wonderful News Fileshare is up and running! When you see spades make sure you thank him he is the first person in this entire world to post that news in his latest post FILE SHARE IS WORKING!! He told me I could post this,and plus this news needs a lot of attention. Spades Was So Excited- Yes that is right, the file share is up and running right now. Hopefully this is a permanent resolution which will not be taken from us. This is what Halo needed to kick start the numbers and help us enjoy the community forged maps. This week on Custom Game Night is already full of content but I hope to bring you guys more amazing stuff in the future. If any of you run across AMAZING content then please share it with me. I am so excited that this has finally happened. So when you see him congragulate him for being the FIrst person to post this in the world! Like This http://i1227.photobu.../ee438/InvaderD

Source-The Offical Xbox Magazine There is still no release date,but there has been many details on Update 8 Released On the release date front, 4J offers the following via Twitter: "we're hoping it's this month, but we need to wait and see how it does in Cert Testing." Fingers crossed. And with that, I disappear backwards into the velvet darkness of night, leaving the world with naught but the silvery echo of my mocking laugh. The fix list is below: - Fix for random crash on Kick Player. - Fix for a random crash on loading the tutorial. - Fix for freeze when writing on a sign as an autosave starts. - Fix for crash when attempting to enter an online enabled game session after losing connection to the Xbox LIVE service. - Performance improvement for the Enchantment interface. - Fix to display a message when monsters are nearby on trying to sleep in a bed. - Fix for an issue causing blocks to reappear after being destroyed when the server is busy. - Fix for Experience Orbs being invisible for a period of time when created. - Fix to force a Nether Fortress, Blaze Spawner and Nether Wart to always be present in the Nether for a newly created world. - Fix for autosave not working when the host has gone into an idle state. - Fix to increase the spawn rate for Mooshrooms. - Change to make Blazes drop Glowstone Dust as well as Blaze Rods. - Fix to player experience level display in two player vertical splitscreen mode. - Fix for Quick Move not being possible while holding something in the cursor. - Fix for armor position on Bad Santa when sat down. - Changed "Download Content" menu to "Minecraft Store". - New photo frames for avatar items in the Minecraft Store. - Fix for Magma Cube hit boxes. - Added an Awkward Potion to the Potions page in the Creative Menu. - Fix to show the aura of enchanted items for other players in an online game. - Fix for tools enchanted with Unbreaking occasionally repairing themselves. - Changes to improve breeding - Love Mode status is now network synchronised, and animals react more correctly if spawn limits are reached when breeding. - Fix for issue with "Take Half" in the Brewing Stand interface. - Fix to allow the map to be displayed when the player has turned off Display Hand. - Fix for potion effects being removed after using the Nether Portal. - Fix to stop the item in hand being changed when traveling to/from the Nether. - Fix for Compass not pointing to the original spawn point after having been in The Nether. - Fix to allow players to be able to eat food even if they are not allowed to build and mine. - Fix to allow client players to toggle Custom Skin Animation. - Fix for player gamertag border color being wrong after a respawn/dimension change. - Fix for issue in splitscreen where it was possible to craft items without a player having the resources required. - Fix to remove the Love Mode tooltip when animals are unable to enter Love Mode. - Change to moderator option description in the Host and Player Options. - Fix for the submerged edge of the world emitting a faint light. - Fix for lighting issue with mobs in water. - Fix to stop food being removed when feeding animals in Creative Mode. - Fix to stop Bones being removed when taming wolves in Creative Mode. - Change to make baby wolves tame when born. - Fix for Blaze Rods not being identified as fuel for a furnace. - Fix for issue with sky lighting values making bedrock layer fully lit.