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.

While Microsoft's heart is probably in the right place (as much as any corporation's 'heart' can be) its new Xbox Live Reward scheme asks you to spend big on Xbox Live for some small rewards. Microsoft has been fiddling around with its rewards program for quite some time but the biggest complaint is that the rewards are nickel and dime.

At least its latest rewards scheme for Xbox Live users ups the reward amounts - even if ever so slightly.

A mother in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) blames lax security at Microsoft after her 11-year-old son's Xbox Live account was hacked for $300 in fraudulent charges for in-game content. Jennifer Stubbs of Toronto said an unknown hacker charged the FIFA 13 Ultimate in-game buys to her credit card.

"I wasn't aware that these purchases were happening," she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "Someone had gone into our device remotely."

Microsoft's Major Nelson points out that a number of entertainment apps and options will be deployed on Xbox Live this week.

Whatever your thoughts are on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, many young immigrants are taking advantage of the opportunity to go from illegal to legal residency status. However, some are finding the requirement to show proof of residency since 2007 a little tough. Take for example the story of Jose Muñoz.

Hackers have targeted an undisclosed number of "high-profile" Xbox LIVE accounts owned by current and former Microsoft employees, according to GII. The hacks are somehow tied to individuals gathering social security numbers.

Microsoft, who is not all that good at adding free-to-play games to its Xbox Live service for Xbox 360 (there are only a couple at this point), is probably happy that it allowed the free-to-play and kid-friendly MOBA game Happy Wars to launch on the platform in October of last year. As of today the game has been downloaded over 2 million times, according to maker Toylogic. While the game is completely free to download and play, players can purchase "Happy tickets" with real money to upgrade equipment and buy vanity items.

Update: We didn't have to wait long to hear Vblank Entertainment's thoughts on WiiWare. Speaking to Nintendo Life exclusively in an interview to be published in full over the weekend, Brian Provinciano called the WiiWare release a $20,000 gift to Wii fans. He asks everyone to go buy it so he can recoup some of those costs.

Microsoft announced that worldwide sales of its Kinect motion sensing peripheral have hit 24 million, matching sales of the original Xbox system and outpacing the 21.7 million GameCube's sold by Nintendo. The company also said that it has sold 76 million Xbox 360 systems worldwide to-date.

Microsoft's next Xbox system will use Blu-Ray and will require users to be always connected to Xbox Live, according to an Edge report citing sources with "first-hand experience."

The new raft of rumors are an echo of an older rumor post by VG247 back in April 2012 - also citing anonymous sources close to the company.

According to research by analyst firm FADE, Xbox Live Arcade set a record for annual revenues in 2012. In 2012 Xbox Live Arcade made $290 million according to the firm. The driving force behind these revenues were three games: Minecraft, Trials Evolution, and The Walking Dead.

The biggest title of all was Minecraft, bringing in an estimated $97.38 million, followed by Trials Evolution at $14.29 million, and The Walking Dead at $10.27 million. Even the lowest game on the top ten list of best selling games managed to rake in nearly $2.8 million.

It looks like those indie and professional game developers that like Microsoft's cross-platform XNA development platform will no longer be supported. An internal Microsoft email reveals that XNA Game Studio is basically dead. The email reveals that Microsoft plans to "retire" XNA and DirectX from its 'MVP Award Program' - a reward initiative for developers who wish to become evangelists for various technologies.