Whoever wins the first round of this new console cycle war, individuals at Microsoft are showing that they can be cordial and decent. Today via its official Xbox Twitter account Microsoft offered Sony congratulations on lunching its PlayStation 4 console. Several Microsoft executives involved with the Xbox One also extended their own personal messages congratulating Sony.

Quicktime events are out of the latest Thief game, Eidos Montreal announced this week. The studio removed the events because of strong reactions from the press and the community at large, although Eidos Montreal says there were not that many in the game to begin with - and there was only one in the game demo that was at E3 way back in June.

Rather than be a bunch of hard cases to customers that managed to buy Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag a little bit early, Ubisoft has taken a different attitude. In a series of tweets (gathered by GoNintendo) Tim Browne, the Lead Game Designer on Assassin’s Creed III & IV: Black Flag MP, said that Ubisoft will not punish consumers who were able to buy the latest AC game early by resetting gained levels of in AC IV multiplayer.

On Friday Sony revealed that the PlayStation 4 would require a 300 MB day one update in order to use most of the system's most popular features. While Sony has not changed its tune on that front (you're still going to need to download the update the minute you turn it on and connect to the Internet), there is one silver lining to the story now: you'll be able to do other things while you wait.

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.

In an update to the State of SimCity Blog, Maxis Emeryville studio General Manager Patrick Buechner said that the company is considering an offline mode for the game that launched as an online-only, always-connected game earlier this year. I'm sure you remember how that turned out...

BioShock 2 no longer uses Games for Windows Live, according to ShackNews. 2K Games has switched Irrational's game over to Steamworks and has made the Minerva's Den DLC free to current owners.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is likely to relax its long-standing rules about using electronic devices during flights. According to this New York Times report, the FAA is expected to issue a new set of recommendations to ease most of - but not all - the restrictions on what passengers can do with their smartphones, tablets, PCs, and portable gaming devices while on airplanes.

Gamasutra reports that 3D Realms has dropped a lawsuit it filed against Gearbox and has publicly apologized for the 'misunderstanding.' 3D Realms filed a lawsuit in June against Duke Nukem Forever co-developer Gearbox, alleging that Gearbox owed it $2 million in unpaid royalties as part of the 2010 agreement regarding the Duke Nukem IP.

Admitting that the launch of its newest Final Fantasy MMO was less than stable, Square Enix announced that it will compensate subscribers of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn with an extra seven days of game time.

The publisher admitted that it has been unable to deliver a reliable and stable service to customers since the game launched on PC and PS3 last week. The company chalked up the game's technical difficulties to high user demand. This led to a temporary halt in digital sales as it attempted to expand server capacity.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced a partnership with the Black Association for Science and Engineering, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF), HHF's Leaders on the Fast Track (LOFT) and other groups to create the ESA Loft Video Game Innovation Fellowship.

I have been saying for almost a year that if Sony really wants the PS Vita to be successful it would need to cut the price by a considerable margin. The hand-held has been struggling to make any headway in sales due to it being priced the same as a new PlayStation 3, which doesn't set well with many consumers.

In an "Ask Microsoft Anything About Xbox One" feature over at IGN, Microsoft revealed another change of heart related to its upcoming Xbox One console: it doesn't have to be plugged into the Xbox One if you don't want to use it. This revelation came from Microsoft's Marc Whitten. In two sections about Kinect, Whitten explained what the different states of having the Kinect motion sensing and voice recognition technology turned on and off will mean:

No one at Microsoft would be foolish enough (at this point) to deny that the messaging on Xbox One's various features has been muddled. Since the E3 press conference in June where it took so much heat for all of its policies that seemed to be anti-consumer, Microsoft has made a serious effort to turn things around. Microsoft has done this by changing its stance on everything from indie games requiring a first- or third-party publisher, and the Xbox One having to be always-connected, to tossing out its system for managing used games.

Way back in February we reported on the opening of the Sandy Hook Arcade Center, an arcade founded by Andrew Clure and Scott Cicciari, two long-time Newtown residents, who wanted to share their love of pinball with the community in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adult staff members.

Last week we offered a cautionary tale on what happens when Kickstarters are successful but the people collecting the funding mess up. Last week we told you about The Doom that Came to Atlantic City, the board game that managed to rake in nearly $123,000 on Kickstarter and was later canceled (last week) by the company that collected the money, The Forking Path. The Forking Path raised $122,874 for the board game last spring on Kickstarter, head and shoulders above the $35,000 goal it initially asked for.

Blizzard is celebrating three years of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty being available by giving players some special treats. For a limited time it is unlocking all three of the game's races (Humans, Protoss and Zerg) in the Starter Edition of the game, offering a new wallpaper, and increasing XP gains for a limited time by around 25 percent. Here's more from Battle.net:

Two League of Legends competitive teams have teamed up with eBay to create a charity tournament called the eBay Charity Invitational. The idea for the tournament came from members of League of Legends teams Evil Geniuses and Team Curse. Members of both teams will compete in one-on-one matches, with each player fighting for a charity of their choice. The tournament will take place on July 24 at 8 p.m. ET and will be live streamed on Twitch by One Nation of Gamers.

Riot Games is the fourth best technology company to work for beating out such tech heavyweights as Google according to a survey conducted by recruitment company Glassdoor and Business Insider. Riot Games came in at #4 behind Riverbed Technology at #3, Guidewire at #2, and Facebook at #1. Other notable entries included Apple at #19 and Intel came at #11.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently told investors that reducing staff may be a good way to lower overhead costs in the short term, but it also comes at the expense of developer morale and productivity in the long term.

"If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results employee morale will decrease and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world," Iwata told investors.

Two equity research firms have weighed in this morning on Microsoft's decision yesterday to give up on its Xbox One used games restrictions, region locking, and internet connectivity requirements. First up is BMO Capital Markets, who said in a note to investors this morning that this was good news for the industry - and in particular GameStop.

Realizing that it has lost the war on Xbox One's online requirements and its used games policies, Microsoft announced today that it is abandoning them altogether. Microsoft has changed its stance on always online and used game policies to be more like they were on Xbox 360. In a blog post explaining the changes President of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, Don Mattrick, laid out the changes.

Electronic Arts' President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau says that its online pass system was dumb, that it is dead and that it will never be coming back. EA announced back in May that it would wind down its online pass system. The system required consumers who purchased an EA game to punch a code in to get access to multiplayer and other game extras. If someone purchased that same game used they would then have to pay a small fee - usually around $10.

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said during an Electronic Entertainment Expo analyst call today that the company is formulating a customer-friendly strategy for used Xbox One and PS4 games based on information released by platformer holders Sony and Microsoft.

Gibeau said the secondhand market has "certainly been a topic of discussion this week" and that his company is still digesting the information revealed earlier in the week. He promises a more definitive statement on the topic at a later date.

After yesterday's story that Ska Studios XBLA game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile had been hacked, ported and pirated by a Russian hacker, Ska Studios founder James Silva said today on his development blog that The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile Director's Cut is headed to PC.

Electronic Arts has cut the price of online passes for dozens of its games - and in some cases - has made them free of charge, according to Eurogamer. Earlier in the month EA announced that it was discontinuing the use of its online pass system.

While some may be worried that the PS3 and Xbox 360 would be abandoned as soon as the PS4 and Xbox One is released to retail at the end of this year, EA says that it plans to continue to support both platforms with new games for at least another four years. Chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen revealed the company's commitment to the current generation during his recent keynote address at the Stifel 2013 Technology Conference in New York. Games already widely known to be in development for the current generation systems include Battlefield 4, FIFA 14 and the next Need For Speed.

Nintendo has a novel way of getting gamers (who do not already own a Wii U) excited about the games it will be showcasing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles next month. At participating Best Buy stores consumers will be able to get hands-on time with pretty much the same game demos as the press gets access to from the E3 show floor. The announcement was made by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime today during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

Is EA and its Maxis studio learning a lesson from SimCity? We think so. Today Electronic Arts announced The Sims 4 will be coming to the PC and Mac sometime in 2014. The company also confirmed to IGN that the game will not require an internet connection in order to play, or more precisely, that it will have a single-player offline play.

According to this Bloomberg report Sony executives have agreed to forgo salary bonuses for the second year in a row following another year of less than stellar profits from the electronics giant. According to a Sony spokesperson (speaking to Bloomberg), around 40 of the company's executives will return bonuses scheduled to be paid out following a general shareholders meeting this June.