Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is at the top of the heap, winning a Clippers bidding war for $2 billion. Steve Ballmer left Microsoft in February and is worth an estimated $20 billion.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says he has no intention of selling the Xbox business.

"I have no intent to do anything different with Xbox than we are doing today," Nadella told reporters at the Code Conference in California this week, according to The Verge.

Mojang's best selling open world building game Minecraft is about to generate more revenue for the company when new versions are released this August. Mojang has confirmed the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Minecraft will launch in early August.

A new report from the Natural Resource Defense Council concludes that the newest generation of game consoles consumer way too much power. The report notes that these new systems are on track to consume as much power nationwide as all the homes in Houston this year. That equates to about $1 billion to operate these systems annually.

Much of this energy is consumed in "the middle of the night, when the console is in standby mode but still listening for voice commands or using higher power than necessary to keep USB ports active."

The Xbox 360 version of Saints Row: The Third is now available for free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers until the end of May. Weighing in at 6.86 GB, the title is normally sells for right around $20 on Microsoft's digital marketplace, but you can get it for nothing if you are an Xbox Live Gold subscriber. Earlier this month the action RPG Dust was available for free.

Microsoft will offer refunds to Xbox Live Gold subscribers who want to cancel their membership when new service policies go into effect in June. The company said yesterday that Xbox Live users will no longer require a Gold subscription to access Netflix and other entertainment apps beginning next month. Gold will still be needed for online gaming and to benefit from promotions like Games with Gold on Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Following a June system update for Xbox One and Xbox 360, users will be able to request a refund on their Gold subscription, according to Microsoft:

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.

According to multiple sources within the company, Microsoft plans to lift the Xbox Live Gold requirement for consumers who want to watch Netflix, Hulu and other streaming media apps on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Basically it means that consumers who buy a brand new Xbox One will be able to watch these services right out of the box without having to worry about having an Xbox Live Gold account. Of course you'll still have to set up a free Silver account in order to do anything.

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.

According to a recent tweet from Microsoft's head of Xbox Phil Spencer, the new Xbox One version of Minecraft will allow you to do something that the Xbox One won't with Xbox 360 - have some measure of backwards compatibility. According to Spencer, Xbox 360 Minecraft owners will have the grand ability to transfer their save data over to the Xbox One version of the game.

Microsoft revealed this week that it generated $20.40 billion in revenue and a net income of $5.66 billion in the third quarter of fiscal year 2014. The company attributes those numbers to sales of Xbox consoles. The company says that it sold 2 million Xbox console units over the quarter, including 1.2 million Xbox Ones. We assume the remainders of that number belong to Xbox 360 sales...

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.

Microsoft is inviting fans to join them as they unearth the urban legend surrounding the supposed “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” video game burial site. Excavation on the site will take place on Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 9:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Alamogordo Landfill (4276 Highway 54 S) in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Xbox Entertainment Studios boss Nancy Tellem tells Bloomberg in this video interview that the PlayStation Network's television offerings are not a competitive threat to what Microsoft is doing with its Xbox Live original programming.

Tellem claims that the Xbox Entertainment Studios division has been working for a year and a half on creating its content, which is set to make a grand debut in June.

Seeing what Sony has done with the acquisition of Gaikai, Microsoft is considering the possibility of emulating Xbox 360 on the Xbox One. According to a report on Kotaku, Xbox partner development lead Frank Savage said that Microsoft does have some plans on emulation, but they are still "thinking things through."

"There are [plans]," he said. "But we're not done thinking them through yet, unfortunately."

Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft has now sold 12 million copies to-date at retail and online through Xbox Live Marketplace. Along with the announcement of the milestone, Microsoft also revealed that a new mod pack for the game called the Candy Texture Pack will be released on April 18.

Phil Spencer has been named the new Head of Xbox at Microsoft. In his new role he'll be in charge of Xbox Live, Xbox Music, Xbox Video and Microsoft Studios. Spencer says that he will employ a "gaming first" philosophy at the Microsoft division, making sure that video games are the most important component of the Xbox One.

Microsoft today detailed what kinds of punishments it has in store for players who engage in bad behavior on Xbox Live in the not-too-distant future. Players will have reputation levels, and when those levels fall to the ‘needs work’ category will get "reputation warnings" from Microsoft.

eSports gaming league Major League Gaming announced that its Xbox 360 app has launched today in Australia, Canada, the U.K and the U.S. You'll need an Xbox Live Gold account to use it. The streaming video / entertainment app allows users to get direct access via the Xbox 360 to its programming on MLG.tv, a streaming service the league launched in November of last year.

Electronic Arts announced today that it has delayed the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall for an additional two weeks. Executive vice president of EA Studios Patrick Söderlund confirmed a further two week delay to the game, which will now hit North America on April 8 and Europe on April 11. The Xbox One and PC versions of the game were launched on March 11.

Marc Whitten, best known as the chief product officer of Xbox at Microsoft, has left the company. Whitten has worked at Microsoft for the last 14 years and was key in launching all three Xbox systems, from the original console back in 2001 to the Xbox One last year. Whitten will take up the same role as chief product officer at wireless audio company Sonos.

Microsoft has ended its financed subscription based $99 Xbox 360 program, apparently. The program allowed consumers to pay $99 for a 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect and then pay a monthly fee of $15 over a two-year period. The program was launched in May of 2012.

Ubisoft is apparently comfortable enough to give us a concrete date for the release of its open world game Watch Dogs. Much to the chagrin of Wii U owners, the company only offered a vague timeframe of "available at a later date." That later date will be sometime after the game releases worldwide on May 27 for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Hopefully this will be the last time the game gets delayed.

According to one Electronic Arts executive, consumers should not expect to see a price cut on last generation systems like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 any time soon. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Technology conference in San Francisco this week, EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said not to expect any movement on that front until the end of this year - possibly during or after the 2014 holiday shopping season.

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.

New documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden cited in a new Guardian report indicate that UK spy agency GCHQ evaluated the potential of using the Xbox 360 (and now Xbox One) Kinect peripheral as a means to spy on people. The report also indicates that the agency also considered the usefulness of the PlayStation Eye as well.

Wargaming has launched its free-to-play online tank battling game, World of Tanks to the Xbox 360 today and the game is available "globally" for all Xbox Live subscribers. Published by Microsoft Studios and developed by Wargaming West (formerly Day 1 Studios), World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition is digital downloadable and free-to-play for Xbox Live Gold account holders, with a 7-day timed trial offered for Xbox Live Silver members. At launch World of Tanks on Xbox 360 offers tanks from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, and seven different maps to play on in 15 v.

Microsoft will soon share its plans for Games With Gold on Xbox One, according to a recent tweet by Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP Phil Spencer. Spencer recently said on Twitter that details about the free monthly game giveaway program coming to Xbox One "will be coming fairly soon."

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.

Electronic Arts announced financial results for the fiscal third quarter of 2013 that ended on Dec. 31. The company said that sales of next-generation software (PS4, Xbox One) were robust, but not enough to offset a massive decline in last generation software sales (PS3, Xbox 360). EA said that it was the number one third-party publisher of next-generation software, taking a 35 percent market share during the holiday season.