Microsoft sent out an announcement to customers today to let them know that some changes would be coming to Xbox Live Gold membership. Starting in June Microsoft will bring its free games give-away program, Games with Gold to the Xbox One, in addition to Xbox 360.

They also announced that Deals with Gold for Xbox One, which gives members exclusive discounts on games and content in the Xbox Store, will also be coming to Xbox One.

Origin's 'On the House Program' is offering Plants vs. Zombies for free this month. The game is free to download and keep, no string attached - except that you have to install and use EA's digital distribution platform. Last month EA gave Battlefield 1942 away for free, and the month prior it offered Dead Space for free.

Blizzard has made its classic Super Nintendo adventure game, The Lost Vikings, available as a free download (thanks Joystiq). It was one of the first games the company made (which was published by Interplay, long before it was known for creating Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft. In the game players take control of three Vikings and alternate between them to use their special skills to solve environmental puzzles.

Microsoft's Games With Gold program will give Xbox Live Gold subscribers two more free games in May. From May 1 up until May 15, gamers can download Dust: An Elysian Tail for free. Originally released on Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012, Dust is a hand-painted style RPG adventure created by indie developer Humble Hearts.

Dust will be replaced on May 16 with Saints Row: The Third, the adult themed action comedy game originally released in November 2011.

Origin's 'On the House Program' is offering Battlefield 1942 for free this month. The game is free to download and keep, no string attached - except that you have to install and use EA's digital distribution platform. Last month EA gave away Dead Space for free.

EA plans on continuing to release full games, expansions, and more at no cost for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft's second game in the Xbox Live Games With Gold free game giveaway promotion for the month of April is Deadlight. From now until the end of April Xbox Live Gold subscribers can download and keep the game free of charge.

Deadlight is a 2012 side scrolling survival horror/cinematic platforming game for Xbox 360 and Windows developed by Tequila Works and published by Microsoft. Deadlight is rated "M" for "Mature" by the ESRB.

Earlier in the month Hitman: Absolution was free as part of the program.

Electronic Arts has launched a new promotion similar to Microsoft's Games With Gold for Xbox Live. The new promotion is called "On The House," and gives away a free game from time to time. The only catch is that you have to be a registered user of the company's Origin digital distribution platform.

"We're gamers, too," EA said. "We appreciate you making Origin your gaming home... and besides, who doesn't like free stuff?"

The first game available to consumers for free is the horror action survival game Dead Space.

Research firm IHS Inc. and game network WildTangent released research today that indicates consumers are willing to put up with "value exchange-style advertising" in games. IHS describes "value exchange advertising" as a method used by advertisers to reward gamers for viewing ads with items such as in-game items or free game sessions.

Speaking at SXSW this weekend, Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer said that Xbox’s Games with Gold program (it's free monthly game giveaway for Xbox 360 - and eventually Xbox One) is "fundamentally different" than "other programs" (we assume he is referring the PlayStation Plus for PS3 and PS4) because it allows members to keep the games regardless of whether they continue to pay for a subscription or not.

A new post on Major Nelson's blog (Xbox Live's Larry Hryb) has revealed the next two free games you'll be able to download in March as part of Microsoft's ongoing free-game-giveaway program, Games With Gold. The free monthly game giveaway is for those who subscribe to Xbox Live Gold memberships.

GOG.com is celebrating Valentine's Day with a sale and a special gift to gamers to show how much they love us. The gift is a free copy of Dungeon Keeper Gold (which includes the Deeper Dungeons expansion pack), which you can simply grab by visiting gog.com and logging in to your account (yes you'll need to have a GOG.com account to get it). In addition to the free game (courtesy of EA), you can also get the sequel, Dungeon Keeper 2, for the wonderful rock-bottom price of $1.49 in GOG.com's Valentine's Day sale.

Dead Island and Toy Soldiers: Cold War will be available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers in February through Microsoft's Games with Gold program, the company announced today. Techland's open-world zombie survival action-RPG Dead Island was released in September 2011 and normally costs $19.99 on Xbox 360 Games on Demand. Dead Island will be free to Xbox Live Gold level subscribers from Feb. 1-15.

Developer Toylogic has some good news for people who want to play its free-to-play faction-based RPG game Happy Wars but don't want to pay Microsoft a monthly fee: they can now play the game without having to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber.

If you are an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, today is the day that you can download Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for free as part of Microsoft's ongoing Games with Gold promotion.

Released in August 2010, the downloadable title would normally cost you $14.99, but you can score it for free of charge beginning now and until the end of the month.

Earlier in the month Microsoft handed out Sleeping Dogs for free.

Look for Microsoft to announce new games available in February for free as part of the program.

Microsoft's Games With Gold program is offering two games in the month of January, The first two free games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers in 2014 will be the action game Sleeping Dogs and Lara Croft's 2010 adventure, Lara Croft: Guardian of Light.

Sleeping Dogs will be the first game made available on January 1, followed by Lara Croft on January 16. As always, you have until January 15 to grab that copy of Sleeping Dogs, and after January 16 you have until the end of the month to grab Lara Croft.

Sony is kicking off the new year right for those who subscribe to its PlayStation Plus premium online service for its various devices. In January, PS Plus subscribers will be able to download BioShock Infinite, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for the PlayStation 3. PlayStation 4 owners will be able to grab the indie title Don't Starve. Finally, PS Vita owners will be able to grab Worms: Battle Island and Smart As...

Sony gave away Borderlands 2 for PS3 in December (which we assume is still available to PS Plus subscribers who haven't grabbed it yet).

If you heard that Valve's hit Zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 was free for a limited time but didn't get it yet - don't fret, there's still time. According to Valve's Left 4 Dead blog you have until 9 am PDT, or 1 pm EDT. From the blog:

If you own Mojang's turn-based card game Scrolls, then you can share it with a friend. To celebrate the holidays, Mojang is letting Scrolls owners give away a free copy of the game to one friend.

So how would one go about doing that? It's very simple: login to your Mojang account and then click on the "Send to a friend" button. A code will then be sent to the email you specify, and the recipient will have until January 31, 2014 to redeem the code.

The second free offering from Microsoft's "Games With Gold" for the month of Dec., Shoot Many Robots, is available now on Xbox Live for Xbox 360. In the first half of the month Microsoft offered Gears of War for free as part of the program. Shoot Many Robots is usually priced at $4.99 on the Xbox Games Store. Shoot Many Robots is a four-player action platformer developed by Demiurge Studios and published by Ubisoft for Xbox Live Arcade.

The Standard Edition of GameMaker: Studio is free for a limited time, according to a post on the official GameMaker Studio blog. Normally the game engine software retails for $50, but the company is giving it away for free. It's the same set of tools used to make such games as Hotline Miami, Gunpoint and the original Spelunky.

Sony is giving away 10 free games (two each week for five weeks) to all PS Mobile gamers. Detailed on the PlayStation Blog, the games will work on your PlayStation Certified smartphone, tablet, or PS Vita. Between November 27th and December 18th of 2013, and then from January 8th through January 22nd of 2014, you can download two PS Mobile games. The first two games, available later today, will be Passing Time and Rymdkapsel.

The new two titles to be free to Xbox Live Gold members as part of Microsoft's Games With Gold program will be Epic Games' popular shooter Gears of War and multiplayer scrolling action game Shoot Many Robots. Gears Of War will be available as a free download starting December 1 and will be available as a free download to Gold subscribers until December 15. Shoot Many Robots will be free starting December 16 all the way until December 31.

2PlayerProductions has released Minecraft: The Story of Mojang on YouTube for free. Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is a feature length documentary about the ultra-popular indie sandbox title and the people that made it on YouTube. The Minecraft documentary began as successful Kickstarter project in February 2011 where it received $210,297 out of a $150,000 goal.

2PlayerProductions is a documentary film company that is currently working on a documentary about the making of Double Fine's Broken Age adventure game and Keiji Inafune's Mega Man successor, Mighty No. 9.

Microsoft's free game offerings to Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of its Games With Gold promotion are A World Of Keflings and Iron Brigade. A World Of Keflings will be available beginning Nov. 1 up until Nov. 15. Iron Brigade will be available for free Nov. 16 until the end of the month. In case you are not familiar with the game, is a real-time strategy kingdom management game that lets your Avatar be the star.

It looks like Microsoft has decided that its free giveaway program for Xbox Live Gold subscribers is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Microsoft announced via its official Xbox blog that the Games with Gold program will continue on as a permanent fixture.

"Today, as part of the 'Week of Xbox Live,' we're excited to announce that we are making Games with Gold an ongoing benefit for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox 360," the team wrote in a blog post.

Sony is bringing four existing PlayStation 3 and PS Vita games to the PS4, but if you already own the games on either system you'll get them for free when they launch. The four games are Flow, Flower, Escape Plan, and Sound Shapes. All of them will be coming to the PS4 next month.

Bungie's 2007 first-person shooter hit Halo 3 is now available as a free download to Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of Microsoft's Games with Gold program. The game normally sells for $15. In the first half of the month Microsoft offered the puzzle-RPG Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes for free.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about last week's poll about the importance of Metacritic, critics not playing Beyond: Two Souls all the way to the end before writing a negative review, GOG.com giving way free games to furloughed government workers, Russia wanting more patriotic games, and a whole lot more. Download Episode 73 now: SuperPAC Episode 73 (1 hour, 3 minutes) 29.1 MB.

While many indie developers are struggling to find a way to deal with the problem of piracy, there is yet another equally big problem for them, obscurity. As big a problem as piracy is, it does have one thing going for it that obscurity doesn't, people actually playing the game. It is this lack of people playing that has resulted in Gun Monkeys creator Size Five Games to take a novel approach to combating it.

Beginning today and continuing until August 31, Xbox Live Gold subscribers may download Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising: Case Zero for free. The new free game downloads are part of Microsoft's Games with Gold program, which gives away two free games a month.