Today, were excited to release the preview of Catan Anytime – the entirely new social version of the beloved board game . Play is completely free and available on any device with a modern browser. We hope Catan fans will appreciate its simplicity – Catan Anytime is fast, fluid and designed for touch making it easy to play the game from mobile to your big screen with IE on XBOX and everything in between. Catan Anytime is a partnership with creators of Catan, Mayfair Games and Bontom Games. This...

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Google has reached a deal to buy game livestreaming firm Twitch for $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. Citing unnamed sources, Variety said back in May that Google had made an all cash offer and that the deal could be announced soon. If confirmed, the deal will underscore the value of live Internet streaming and the rise of competitive gaming as a spectator sport — something that draws millions of viewers, can offer prize pools that surpass pro golfs marquee events,...

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Is Microsoft buiding a single version of Windows that will run on phones, tablets, PCs and gaming consoles? Nope. Here a refresher as to what really is happening. Follow @maryjofoley Thanks to a passing comment by CEO Satya Nadella during the July 22Microsoft Q4 fiscal 2014 earnings call, the struggle is continuing. We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes, Nadella told press and...

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isnt the first game to straddle two generations of gaming hardware, but its one of the few currently in play that was built from the ground up with that in mind. With its latest title, Bungie took on the Herculean task of building a game for four systems: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. With the foundations now laid and the all important beta just around the corner, we spoke with Bungie engineer Roger Wolfson to find out more about the challenges of building a game that...

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and most people will think immediately of its hiccups—the sort of hysterical, impossible errors one finds collected on sites like Damn You Autocorrect. But despite the inadvertent hilarity, the real marvel of our mobile text correction systems is how astoundingly good they are. It not too much of an exaggeration to call autocorrect the overlooked underwriter of our era of mobile prolixity. Without it, we wouldnt be able to compose windy love letters from stadium bleachers, write novels on...

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Remember the Surface Mini, a device that got axed at the last minute? Microsoft gave it a shout out in its earnings report today. The company noted in its hardware section that its [c]urrent year cost of revenue included Surface inventory adjustments resulting from our transition to newer generation devices and a decision to not ship a new form factor. Ding. The Mini was yanked from the Surface Pro 3 event at what Ive heard was the very last minute possible. The Mini, so hastily squirreled away,...

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Theres no app version of Settlers of Catan — the island building board game beloved by geeks worldwide — for Windows Phone, although its iOS and Android versions are excellent. So Microsofts Internet Explorer team announced an HTML 5 version thats truly cross platform — in addition to running on devices with IE, like Windows Phone, it should work in any modern browser that supports HTML5. Catan Anytime is a multiplayer web app: Youll need to find at least two friends, because...

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Here are this week’s games and add-on deals on the Xbox Games Store.Discounts are valid now through 28 July 2014 […] The post This Week’s Deals with Gold appeared first on Xbox Live's Major Nelson.

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