Game publishers Zynga, Electronic Arts and Microsoft have signed an amicus brief ("friend of the court") asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to find parts of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. DOMA was signed into law on September 21, 1996 by President Bill Clinton after passing both houses of Congress by large majorities. The law was supported by both parties at the time. In 2011 President Barak Obama said that, while he would continue to enforce the law, his administration would no longer defend challenges to it in court.

One thing customers do not want to hear is something along the lines of "we can't do the right thing because it costs too much money." That is exactly what Fez developer Polytron has said about a broken patch that it plans to re-deploy for the game on Xbox Live. Polytron quickly yanked a patch it released earlier in the month because it corrupted some players' save game files.

In what could be considered taking a great stride towards the promise of Microsoft’s Smart Glass, the company has revealed that its My Xbox Live app is now fully compatible with Apple's iPad. Microsoft's app now provides the same capabilities that were added to other Apple devices last month including the iPhone and iPod touch.

Square Enix’s worldwide technology director Julien Merceron says that Microsoft’s and Sony's insistence on extending the lifecycle of their respective consoles has ultimately hurt the industry. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry International he called this protracted life cycle the "biggest mistake ever made" and claimed that this move has ultimately damaged the overall console market. Those are fighting words.

As is usually the case with every new version of Halo, Halo 4 will require a substantial amount of space on your Xbox 360. Halo 4 will need at least 8GB of hard drive or flash memory card space to play the multiplayer modes, according to Xbox.com. The description on Xbox.com also notes that using the hard drive is "highly recommended" for those who want an "optimal" experience.

A partnership between non-profits and the video game industry will bring gamification and education together through a new Games, Learning and Assessment (GLASS) Lab. This video game design lab will be housed in EA's Redwood, California headquarters, and will conduct research on how to better measure learning and to find new ways to get students more engaged in their education.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter expects that Microsoft’s next-generation "Xbox 720" console will be released in the Spring of 2014, adding that he expects the new console to function much like a set top box. Anyone that has followed Microsoft in the last ten years knows that the company has been working on a set top box strategy for a very long time - even before it considered making a video game console.

Pachter adds that he does not believe the speculation on a late 2013 release.

Microsoft has released the SmartGlass Software Development Kit (SDK), giving developer partners a chance to implement the company's new multiplatform interactive video platform into their products and service - or just tinker with it. According to the information already released about SmartGlass during E3, the technology allows for remote control functions, and additional interactive content for movies, TV shows, and games using various devices including a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Motorola has proposed royalty fees to Microsoft in an attempt to put an end to its long running and global patent disputes, but the Xbox 360 and Windows OS maker has rejected its offer claiming that the royalty payments are too high. Motorola's offer would squeeze a 2.25 percent royalty on every Xbox 360 sold and a 50 cent royalty fee on every copy of Windows sold. The royalty fees relate to patented Motorola technology that both products use.

Microsoft is doing its best to erase a 56-page document detailing its plans for the "Xbox 720" off the Internet with a series of DMCA takedowns. The lengthy document was leaked onto the Internet over the weekend, and offered a glimpse into some of the things Microsoft might have planned for its next-generation system. If there was any doubt as to the document's authenticity these series of DMCA takedowns prove that Microsoft cares about it being read.

As if you didn't have enough distractions on Xbox Live, Microsoft has decided to create new ads that take advantage of the Xbox 360's motion sensing Kinect technology. Coming to Xbox Live this fall, the ads (called NUads) will let consumers choose an ad-inspired adventure - a little mini-game you can play while you soak in the deliciousness of being served up information about this or that product.

According to this Eurogamer report, Sony has bid over a half a million dollars to secure top level web domains related to several of its products. Sony has bid a whopping $550,000 to secure ownership of three web domains: .sony, .xperia and .playstation. On a related note, Apple bid $185,000 for .apple, and Microsoft has bid for 11 different web domain names including .bing, .windows, .skype and .xbox for a total cost of $2.035 million.

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced via his official blog that Microsoft will skip two key gaming events later this year: Gamescom in Cologne, Germany and TGS in Tokyo, Japan. Hryb said that Microsoft is changing its focus from participating in large scale gaming events to doing more localized, smaller events.

Several Congressmen have signed onto a letter urging the International Trade Commission to express their strong concerns over a potential ban of the Xbox 360 related to a complaint filed by Motorola (now owned by Google). The list includes Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, co-sponsor of last year's patent reform bill (the America Invents Act), and the sponsor of SOPA; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cal.), the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Rep.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that Microsoft and Sony may very well cut the price of their respective consoles at some point but are waiting to see what the retail price of the Wii U will be so they can respond accordingly.

"I think both Microsoft and Sony are waiting to see Wii U pricing. If it is over $300, they don't need to cut." Pachter tells C&VG.

Florian Mueller, patent law expert and proprietor of the wonderful web site Foss Patents, passed along a note letting us know that the Federal Trade Commission recently sent a letter to the International Trade Commission asking the organization not to ban the sale of the iPhone, iPad or Xbox 360 related to complaints filed by Google.

Note to Microsoft: If you are going to host your E3 Media Briefing on Xbox Live, you might want to consider that when you issue commands to Kinect that they might activate commands on viewer's local systems. During the entire briefing I fought a war of words with my system yelling at it to "play" every time it paused or tried to exit out of the video I was watching.

Whatever side of the issue you are on, it is never a good thing when a company that is seen as a major rights holder rails against piracy and file-sharing and then gets called out for ... piracy and file-sharing. Using the site YouHaveDownloaded.com, TorrentFreak has once again caught the employees of a major corporation engaging in the very thing that it publicly rails against and pays millions of dollars to fight.

Google suffered what some are calling a "major legal defeat" in a German court today in a patent fight with Microsoft. The court ruled in favor of Microsoft, who argued that Motorola has violated a patent related to text messaging. The ruling would allow Microsoft to pursue a ban on Android products in Germany. Motorola won a similar decision earlier in the month in a German court that would allow them to pursue a ban of Xbox 360 and Windows products, but a Washington Federal Court has forbid the company for doing so until it makes a ruling in a U.S.

Microsoft and Motorola have been at each other’s throats for a while now.

Motorola claims that the Xbox 360 uses “Motorola-developed technology that allows set-top boxes to decode transmissions between its Droid2 and DroidX mobile devices” while Microsoft argues that Motorola refused “to abide by requirements set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association to set reasonable license fees of essential technology.”

Earlier this month we reported that some consumers who purchased Minecraft on Xbox Live wanted a refund because they couldn't play the game in split-screen co-op. The problem related to the game requiring a high definition television set to play the game that way - a fact that they did not disclose to consumers in any of the game's information or on the product page. Because of this fact consumers felt misled and were demanding a refund.

UK retailer HMV and Microsoft managed to raise over £19,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust as part of a 5-aside Soccer Challenge at Wembley. Koch Media, Warner Bros, and The Guardian also had teams involved in the competition that ultimately benefited charity, but Sony Music ultimately ended up winning the overall tournament.

Microsoft is reportedly backing a Russian-based start-up called "Pirate Pay" that claims to track and shut down BitTorrents that share copyrighted materials.

This week on the podcast we talk with Ben Sawyer, Project Director for Games for Health. Ben gives us a preview of what the event will offer next month and even talks a little bit about the impact of gamification on our privacy.

Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight delve into the fine print of Microsoft's recently announced $99 Xbox 360 and detail why it's not really a good deal for anyone. They also discuss the sorry state of the big three console makers.

According to this Kotaku report Microsoft is refusing to give some customers a refund for the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft. Why would people want a refund? Well, yesterday Kotaku uncovered the fact that if you don't own a high definition television set then the game won't allow you to play split-screen multiplayer with friends.

Microsoft has a new Xbox 360 bundle that costs $99, but consumers that buy it will have to commit to a two-year contract for an Xbox Live Gold membership. And that two year membership will cost you about $15 a month. While the idea might be to subsidize or finance the console as a trade-off for the low price point, the move also smacks of false advertising because the console will ultimately cost consumers $99, then 24 months of paying $15, for a grand total (not including sales tax) of $459 (24 months x $15 = $360, plus the price of the console at $99).

Microsoft has decided that it’s time to eliminate some of the "racier" apps that are available on Windows Phone 7's app store. The announcement was made by Todd Brix, Microsoft's senior director for Windows Marketplace, on the company's blog.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian parliament has decided that an enquiry is necessary to investigate the "imbalance in pricing" for online content and services in the country compared to other global territories.

Microsoft used to be a strong supporter of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but something happened over the last few days and the company told CNET that the bill needed to strike a better balance between user privacy and protecting against cyber threats (thanks PHX-CORP).

An International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has ruled that Microsoft violated several patents held by Motorola Mobility when it made its Xbox 360 console. ITC Judge David Shaw said that Microsoft infringed on four of five patents that Motorola filed on its complaint - International Trade Commission, No. 337-752. The patents in the complaint include technology like wireless connections to the Internet and video compression to speed up transmission of data, amongst others.