Xbox Live general manager Alex Garden has issued a statement about ongoing concerns about Xbox Live account security. In the letter he says that many of the security issues have very little to do with the Xbox Live service, which has not had its security breached. The letter is in response to numerous user complaints about their accounts being hijacked or stolen, and their points being used. He acknowledges that there is little comfort in knowing that Xbox Live is secure when a user's account has been compromised.

Microsoft has added some new streaming video services on Xbox Live that fans have been asking for for awhile. The company announced that the popular Crackle and CinemaNow services are now available to Xbox Live Gold members. 

Crackle, Sony's popular free movie and TV streaming service, is available in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States regions. It offers a healthy selection of old movies and TV shows. CinemaNow, Best Buy's movie and TV rental and purchase service, is only available to US Xbox owners for now.

According to several outlets - most notably Inside Mobile Apps, Microsoft is rumored to be considering dumping its Microsoft Points currency that it uses on Xbox Live Marketplace for real world dollars. Transaction will allegedly be shifted over to real world dollars instead. Naturally transactions would use the currency of the region a given account is in.

Microsoft and Datel have decided that it would be in both companies' best interests to settle their Xbox 360-related lawsuits against each other. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle since 2009, when Datel accused Microsoft of engaging in "predatory conduct" after an Xbox 360 update rendered all unauthorized storage devices and third-party memory cards unusable. Datel's Max Memory line of cards were among the devices affected by the update.

According to a Digital Factory investigation, the new dashboard update that was supposed to turn the Xbox 360 into a savvy media-friendly device suffers from one serious problem: reduced video playback quality. What's more, Microsoft reportedly knew about it and covered it up, says this C&VG report. Apparently the update forces video content to run at "limited range RGB levels," which results in washed out colors.

Kiosk-based rental firm RedBox has announced the top ten most rented games in 2011, revealing that the Xbox 360 was the platform of choice based on the games rented. The most popular game was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360, followed by Just Dance 3 for Wii, Dead Island for Xbox 360, Cars 2 for Wii, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on PlayStation 3. Clearly the big winner in the list was Modern Warfare 3. Game rentals have been available at the company's kiosks nationwide since June.

While Microsoft might not appreciate it too much, Reddit users have found a way to block the ads (which many find to be obnoxious) being served up post-Xbox Live dashboard update. People tired of seeing that Chuck Norris World of Warcraft ad (for the record I love that ad!) in the Xbox Live dashboard got together on Reddit and created two work-arounds. One involves blocking the ad server in your router - assuming that it supports it. Another method is to reroute your traffic with the free OpenDNS service.

Microsoft has released its My Xbox Live App on Apple's App Store. The free app lets Xbox Live users access their profiles on the go much like the Xbox Live hub on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. The app features the Metro UI style that Microsoft has deployed across all its current products, including the recent Xbox Live dashboard update and Windows Phone 7. The app also links to a browser-based demo of the Windows Phone 7 OS.

Microsoft is rolling out the new Xbox 360 Dashboard, but not without some problems, according to a report at IGN.

Apparently, users are getting video and connection issues, while others are reporting problems as serious as a dead console.

Microsoft announced this week that it is taking part in next year's Independent Games Festival, the annual celebration of all things indie game-related that runs in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference. The new partnership with Microsoft adds a new prize to be awarded to the winner of the festival: a first-party publishing deal through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service. The news is part of a multi-year partnership between the Independent Games Festival and Microsoft.

The fabled 2011 Dashboard update has been delayed slightly by Microsoft. It was set to go live today, but according to a tweet by Microsoft's Larry Hyrb at 7 am ET, the update had been pushed back.

"The timing for Xbox 360 dashboard update has been slightly delayed," said Hyrb. "I’ll have a status update later today."

With the second major overhaul of the Xbox 360 dashboard ready to go tomorrow during a major system update, GameSpot notes that some promised services seem to be conspicuously absent from it. Microsoft had said previously that a slew of new services would make their way to Xbox Live with this update. Some of those services have been pushed back to "late December," while a bunch of other services won't make it onto the Xbox 360 until early 2012.

EPIX, the premium entertainment service that is a joint venture of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, will soon be on some pretty familiar devices. The premium programming is already available on a number of platforms including Android and the iPhone. Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer for the company, says that the service will be available next month on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Apple's iPad.

According to Xbox Live marketing boss Robin Burrowes, all entertainment will be interactive within the next five years. But his boldest claim is that Microsoft's Xbox Live service adds a new member every two seconds.

The Company Town Blog on The LA Times web site poses an interesting question: will the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today cause problems for any movie that just happens to be hitting theaters today? If you asked anyone who purchased either of these games and has settled in to start playing them, the answer would be a resounding "yes."

According to a Computer and Video Games report, the next Xbox 360 - which some have been calling the Xbox 720 - is codenamed "Project Ten," will be released during the 2012 holiday shopping season, and will be "going the Apple route." All this comes from technology reporter Paul Thurrott, who says he's been told these things, but doesn't specify any particular source. Thurrott made the claims on the Windows Weekly video show.

If the fight between EA's Battlefield 3 and the Call of Duty series is a popularity contest than EA is losing, according to online usage stats released by Xbox Live's Major Nelson. According to his list of most popular game being online for the week, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 are more popular than Battlefield 3. This might give EA some pause considering that these are very old games beating a game just barely released this month.

Team Meat has decided to bury the hatchet with Microsoft after criticizing the console maker publicly for its experience in trying to get the Xbox Live Arcade version of super Meat Boy approved and onto the Xbox marketplace. Today in a blog post announcing the one year anniversary of the game, Team Meat’s Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes said that it was time to move on and let the past be the past:

Buried inside its first quarter fiscal year 2012 results, Microsoft revealed that it has shipped 57.6 million Xbox 360 units around the world to date. The company also revealed that for the quarter the ended on September 30, it managed to move 2.3 million units of its Xbox 360. Compared to last year, that's a 2.8 percent decrease. The good news for Microsoft is that the Xbox 360 has been the top-selling console in North America for the last seven months and revenue for the platform was up 7 percent thanks to sales on Xbox Live.

Battlefield 3 producer Patrick Bach said in a recent interview with Gamerzines that the hi-res textures on the second disc of the Xbox 360 version of the game must be installed to a hard drive to get full graphical effect. Bach dsays that these textures are optional because some Xbox 360 models don't have a hard drive. whereas an installed hard drive on PS3's and PC's is the standard setup.

A new report by social gaming network Raptr details how Zynga and its gamers are still a forced to be reckoned with. Tapping into the playing habits of its 10 million members, Raptr has found that Zynga's "Ville" games are as popular - or more popular - than hardcore console and PC games.

Microsoft confirmed today that it will cost Dance Central players 400 Microsoft Points to import tracks into Dance Central 2 when it launches in late October. Dance Central owners will need to enter a code from the original game's manual then download an "Import Pack" to move songs over to the new game. Of course, those who pre-order the game can get a voucher that gives them the Import Pack for free.

Microsoft claims that over two-thirds of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions purchased are obtained at retail, as opposed to using Xbox Live to renew subscriptions or buy new ones. According to what Microsoft tells MCV, 68 percent of the premium subscriptions for Xbox Live are purchased via retailers.

Robin Burrowes, marketing manager for Xbox Live, also said that Microsoft is "very respectful" of retail, and has no plans to simultaneously release Xbox 360 titles at retail and via digital download at the same time.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft plans to withdraw its patent infringement claims (337-715, U.S. International Trade Commission - Washington D.C.) against Datel Design & Development Ltd. over controllers for the Xbox 360. In response to the patent lawsuit, Datel took it upon itself to simply redesigned its controllers and stopped importing earlier versions of the TurboFire2 Xbox 360 Wireless that were the at the center of Microsoft's complaint filed with the U.S.

When it comes to Portal 2, it seems that most gamers prefer the game on PC and via Steam, according to Valve Software. That's according to Valve's Gabe Newell, who talked at length with Gamasura in a recent interview on a variety of topics. On the other end of the spectrum (and somewhat surprising), PC gamers didn't enjoy Left 4 Dead as much as console users did - at least when using sales as a metric for popularity.

Guillaume Martin's puzzle/platform game Blocks That Matter has been honored with the grand prize of $40,000 in Microsoft's annual Dream.Build.Play XNA game development competition. Astronomical's Solar 2 won first prize and $20,000, followed by the action-adventure title TIC: Part 1, which won a lovely $10,000 second prize, and rhythm-game/RPG Sequence winning $5,000 for third prize. Honorable mention awards were given to Alien Jelly, for production quality; The Bridge for innovation; and Ninja Crash for fun factor.

According to new data released by ABI Research, the most popular method of streaming Netflix content continues to be through a video game console. The new data also shows that console owners spend a substantial amount of time --seven to eight hours a week-- watching online video through their console devices.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell says that Microsoft needs to relax the terms and conditions of Xbox Live to allow other platforms onto Xbox Live. Newell made his comments related to the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive release, which features Steamworks integration. Newell said that Microsoft would do well to emulate Sony, whose decision to allow Steamworks support in the PlayStation 3 release of Portal 2 resulted in better experience on that platform.

If you were hoping to drive a Porsche in Forza 4, you can forget about it, according to developer Turn 10. The developer of the popular racing series published by Microsoft says that the fancy car brand couldn't be included because of a licensing deal Electronic Arts already has with the company. While Turn 10 or Microsoft could have sub-licensed Porsche from EA, Turn 10 decided against it. In a post on the official Forza 4 site, Turn 10 community manager Brian Ekberg explained the absence:

Despite posting a decline in sales in July, the Xbox 360 still leads the U.S. console market and Microsoft said this week that it is still on track to have the biggest year in the system's history. For the month of July, the Xbox 360 held the top spot for the seventh consecutive month, despite posting a 37.6 percent drop in sales compared to July 2010. Last July, Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox to clear out inventory and make room for the new console. This obviously gave the company a huge boost in hardware sales.