Last night’s news about a possible Microsoft buyout of the indie developer responsible for Minecraft, Mojang sparked quite a reaction last night. A lot of people do not seem to relish the thought.

Now Bloomsberg have reported that far from Microsoft approaching Mojang as was assumed, founder Notch approached Microsoft first. The report states that Notch “reached out to Microsoft a few months ago, based on a positive working relationship on Minecraft for Xbox,” and that details have been being hammered out ever since that time. If the deal did go through it would also see Notch leaving Mojang entirely after assisting with the transition.

The news comes as a bit of a shock given that Notch has a reputation for being big on indies but not as much on bigger companies, having once famously pulled out of a Minecraft/Oculus deal after the VR company was acquired by Facebook. Personally I am still a tiny bit sceptical, but then $2 billion is a lot of money and you can never really tell.

All we can do now is wait and see whether there’s any truth to the news flying about.

In the midst of the Bukkit episode, it didn’t seem possible for another shockwave to hit the Minecraft community. But it has, and from a completely unexpected direction in some ways.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that according to “a person with knowledge of the matter” Microsoft have been in some serious discussion with the makers of the sandbox game, Mojang with the intent to acquire them for themselves.

The deal, said to be worth around $2 billion could be signed as early as this week. It comes as a bit of a surprise given what else has been happening recently though.

Minecraft is undoubtedly a very popular game and it’s easy to see why Microsoft would be interested. However, Mojang founder Notch has always been fairly wary of venture capital and big business and even once criticised Microsoft’s Windows 8 as being very bad for indie gaming.

All I can say is that the idea of a Microsoft-owned Minecraft makes me feel very… uneasy.

The Xbox Wire blog posted up an announcement about the new Xbox One version of Minecraft, revealing that the game will be available to be downloaded from the Xbox store on Friday, September 5th.

For owners of the Xbox 360 version the price is just a simple $4.99/£3.99 to upgrade the game, and it will be possible to port across worlds from the 360 version to the One version, meaning that all the hard work can be implanted into a world that is now up to 36 times larger than before. And if you’ve purchased DLC for the 360 version, that’ll also transfer across for no extra charge. For players who don’t own the 360 version, the price is $19.99/£15.99.

So for all you console Minecrafters; enjoy your new larger world. I’ll be in the PC version enjoying 1.8 😛

It’s that time again, so let’s see what goodies Major Nelson has unleashed for us lucky XBox Live gold subscribers…

Xbox Live Games with Gold for September 2014

Coming up in September, Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to three new free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Super Time Force is coming to Games with Gold on Xbox One as a free download, replacing Strike Suit Zero (so grab it now if you haven’t already). Crimson Dragon will continue to be available for Xbox Live Gold members as a free download for Xbox One.

    

Then, on September 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Halo: Reach (normally US $24.99) for free through September 30th.

    

*Titles are available as free downloads for qualifying Xbox Live Gold members in all markets where Xbox Live is available. Some regions may offer different titles depending on market availability.

Woah…   HALO Reach for free?    Well I know what I’m getting (and trading in my disc copy)

When we heard that Volition was kicking off PAX this weekend and would be announcing their new project, we knew there was a good chance it was going to be related to the Saints Row franchise. Especially when the voice of one of its characters was there to help present the panel and then later artwork surfaced of a ouija board that contained the prominent fleur-de-lis image of the games’ titular gang.

So it comes as no surprise that the project turns out to be a new standalone expansion to the Saints Row 4 game – Saints Row 4: Gat Out of Hell has gone from the superheroics of the last main game to the supernatural. The two-player co-op sees Johnny Gat and Kinzie of the Saints sucked to Hell by ouija board to battle demons and eventually face Satan himself to rescue the Boss.

The game’s version of Hell will be half the size of SR4’s Steelport and will feature some new weapons which in true Saints style, are just plain bonkers. For example one of them is called Arm Chairmageddon and is basically a La-Z-Boy recliner with guns. Others draw more from the ‘hell and damnation’ side of the game’s style, including the Locust Gun.

Gat Out of Hell will be sold separately for $19.95 in North America and will be released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on Jan. 27, 2015. The expansion will also be part of an upcoming re-release of Saints Row 4 called Saints Row 4: Re-Elected for PS4 and Xbox One. No word yet about prices or release dates for European versions.