Polytron's Phil Fish announced via Twitter recently that he will finally patch a long standing bug on his Xbox Live Arcade title FEZ. Last week it came to light that - earlier in the year - Microsoft had ditched its policy of charging developer tens of thousands of dollars to do title updates beyond the one free title update they would get after publishing a game on XBLA. Fish lashed out last week at Microsoft because that same policy kept him from providing fans with a fix for a nasty bug. Now all that seems to be water under the bridge.

Speaking to the Reddit community, Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb said that he was sorry that fans were disappointed that the first free game for July in Microsoft's Games for Gold program was Defense Grid. Fans expected to receive Halo 3 or Assassin's Creed 2 - which were announced as games being given away free as part of the program during E3.

Update #2: It looks like no one will replace Mattrick, according to a memo obtained by Kotaku attributed to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Instead of replacing Mattrick, all of Mattrick's subordinates in the division will now report directly to Ballmer.

Larry Hryb announced via his blog this morning that Defense Grid: The Awakening will be given away for free this month as part of Microsoft's “Games With Gold” program. Beginning today until July 15 Xbox Live Gold subscribers can download the game for free to their Xbox 360's. The Games for Gold program will give away two free games a month until the launch of the Xbox One. Other upcoming games include Assassin's creed 2 and Halo 3.

Fez creator Phil Fish has criticized former co-publishing partner Microsoft for doing what he considers "nothing" to help sell his game on Xbox Live Arcade. Fish took to Twitter yesterday to complain about Microsoft's lack of support for him and his game and gave no quarter in his harsh criticism:

Microsoft is no longer charging developers and publishers a fee for updates according to multiple sources speaking to Eurogamer. Apparently, Microsoft made the change to its policy on updates earlier in the year. Prior to that change any updates after the one free update publishers were entitled to cost developers "tens of thousands of dollars."

Microsoft will spend $700 million on a new data center in West Des Moines, Iowa - according to the Des Moines Register. The data center is the result of a deal with the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board, which has approved through the state $20 million in tax credits for the computing giant for what has been named ‘Project Mountain’.

In Episode 57 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about several GamePolitics polls, Microsoft's decision to pull a 180 on its various Xbox One policies, Cliff Bleszinski's public comments about the whole thing, and a whole lot more. Download Episode 57 now: SuperPAC Episode 57 (1 hour, 16 minutes) 69.5 MB.

Borut Pfeifer and developer 17-bit Studios signed an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for its game Skulls of the Shogun. The game was released in January on Surface, Windows Phone and Xbox Live Arcade in January. Now that that window of exclusivity is almost over, Borut Pfeifer is relieved.

The official Xbox Live website reveals that on the 1st and 16th of every month Xbox Live gold subscribers can expect a new game. While Microsoft has not said why it suddenly started handing out free games to Gold members, some believe it is the company's way of competing with Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription model which hands out freebies every month. Whatever the reason for these free giveaways, it's tough to badmouth a promotion where people get full free games - even if they are slightly dated...

Speaking to Polygon, Microsoft has confirmed that the required Xbox One launch-day patch is not tied directly to offline functionality. Before consumers can start using the system they will have to download a "day one" update.

More details have been revealed on the new Xbox 360 consoles that have been released to retail outlets today. The newly redesigned console comes in three SKUs: a 4GB model, a 4GB model with Kinect included, and a 250GB model.

The 4GB vanilla option will cost $200, a 4GB with Kinect included will cost $300 and the 350 GB Xbox 360 will cost $300. We assume that these newly designed models will eventually replace older models on the market now.

Microsoft held its Electronic Entertainment Exp Xbox One press conference today, finally showing off some of the games that will ultimately make or break its system as it goes head-to-head with Sony's PlayStation 4 later this year. The most notable news coming out of the event is when the console will be released and how much it will cost consumers when it hits retail.

Blizzard announced this morning that Diablo III will be released on the PlayStation 3 on September 3, 2013. The company also revealed that an Xbox 360 version of the game has been in the works for quite some time and will release on the same date. Both games will be released simultaneously in the U.S., Canada, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

A Russian coder and hacker known only as "Barabus" has ported Ska Studios popular "M" rated XBLA action game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile to the PC. But before you celebrate, this PC version of the game is not an official port and doesn't exactly have the blessing of Ska Studios founder James Silva. It is basically pirated version of the game.

Barabus defends his action by arguing that the developer of the game should have made a PC port himself and that by not doing so is "not very nice."

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.

Microsoft tells OXM that it can sell 25 million more Xbox 360s even after it rolls out the Xbox One. The Xbox 360 has sold an estimated 77.2 million units since it launched in 2005. Speaking to the UK's Official Xbox Magazine, Interactive Entertainment Business Senior VP Yusuf Mehdi said that Microsoft plans to sell these 25 million additional consoles over the next five years.

Microsoft's Phil Harrison seems to be on a different page than the rest of Microsoft - or at least his messaging was out of sync yesterday after Microsoft announced its new Xbox One console. First there was the whole dust-up over used games on Xbox One, and now there is some confusion on how long your Xbox One can be disconnected from the Internet...

People hoping to hear that Xbox 360 games would be backward compatible with the freshly announced Xbox One will be upset to hear that Microsoft has not suddenly changed its position on the matter. Speaking to Microsoft's Marc Whitten today, The Verge asked if it would do something similar to what Sony promised with PS3 games on PS4 - to eventually make them playable (somehow) through the cloud.

Update #2: The Verge caught up with an unnamed Microsoft rep. who claims that Microsoft will not stop the use of used games: "Microsoft says it's 'designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games,' and promises to offer more details in future."

As you are probably aware today is the day that Microsoft will reveal more about its next-generation console. Besides catching the press conference live stream on Spike TV and Xbox Live, just about every major website will be live blogging the event in an hour or so. You can watch it at Xbox.com beginning at 1p ET/10a PT/17:00 GMT.

If you miss the press conference, Microsoft's Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) will be running a recap show of the event on Twitch.

The Verge is reporting that Microsoft may kill off its point system used on its Xbox Live Marketplace. Citing sources "familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans," The Verge says that Microsoft will replace the MS Points system with a gift card system for retail and will support straight transactions of money using credit and debit cards. The gift cards will be similar to what Apple offers for iTunes - in other words they will have a real cash value.

Select Twitch.tv content is now available via Xbox 360 thanks to the release of a new app. While Xbox Live Gold members won't be able to use the service to broadcast their gameplay exploits with the new app, they will be able to watch content from the top 300 live Twitch channels. For now the app is only available to Xbox Live Gold members in the United States.

An internal Microsoft memo offers some good news for those worried about the next Xbox system (which they call Durango in the memo) requiring a constant connection in order to use. According to that internal Microsoft e-mail (as reported by Ars Technica) the next Xbox has been designed in a way that recognizes the delicate nature of today's Internet connections.

During its Q3 earnings report, Microsoft announced that Xbox live subscriptions have reached 46 million worldwide - an 18 percent increase from last year - and that it has sold 1.3 million consoles over the past three months - down nine percent from the same period a year ago. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division revenues rose 56 percent to $253 million despite the drop in console sales.

Microsoft has announced a new incentive for Japan that will kick into high gear on April 20th. Xbox 360 owners in the region will get free Microsoft Points based on the collective amount of time that participants in the campaign use the console in Japan. To get those free points Japanese Xbox 360 players will hit the milestone of playing for 300,000 hours using the Xbox 360 to get 100 ($1.25) Microsoft Points for Xbox Live Gold subscribers and 10 Points for free members.

It's that silly season (the time between major events like the Game Developers Conference and the Electronic Entertainment Expo) where rumors fly fast and furious about what the biggest companies in the industry have planned. So with that in mind, there's a new rumor that says that the "always online" requirement we have been hearing about for the new Xbox console is actually for the Xbox Mini device. Rumors about the device first surfaced in March of last year.

The Microsoft employee whose glib response (in a series of tweets to a developer friend) to the rumor that the company's next-generation console might require users to be connected to the Internet all the time has lost his job, according to Game Informer.

Microsoft announced that it plans to sell its ITPV business called Mediaroom to Ericsson. Microsoft said that the divesture of this company will put "100 percent of the company's focus on its TV consumer strategy for Xbox. The sale is still subject to regulatory approval, but it is likely to be finalized during the second half of 2013.

An interesting story via the Huffington Post (based on this CBC report) details sexual predators in the United States using online games and consoles to talk to children in Canada. This particular report focuses on Winnipeg, but it's not far-fetched to imagine that if it's happening in one province, it's happening to some degree in other provinces as well.