According to a statement released by Apple this afternoon, co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs has died.

The statement is as follows:

Statement by Apple's Board of Directors

 

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

 

Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

 

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

The company has replaced Apple.com with the image above and created a page where fans can email the company, sharing their thoughts and condolences.

Sign up quick!

Beta Testing Weekends for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ began earlier this month and during our first weekend, we invited more players into testing than we’ve ever invited before in a single weekend! Now we’re getting ready for another Beta Testing Weekend, starting on October 7th and finishing on October 10th. With increased invite numbers from the first weekend, even more of you will get to play The Old Republic.

 

If you don’t get invited to this weekend’s test, don’t worry. More Beta Testing Weekends will occur before the launch of The Old Republic. To have an opportunity to get into future Beta Testing Weekends, be sure to sign up for future testing on www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com and opt-in for game testing.

 

Invites to the Beta Testing Weekend are being sent this week. If you are selected, an email invite will be sent to the email address associated with your Star Wars: The Old Republic account. Please add the email address no-reply@bioware.swtor.com to your ‘safe senders’ list in your email client to ensure delivery. If you are uncertain whether you have been invited, login to the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website’s tester page. If you have been invited, the client will be available to download from that page. If you have other questions, please ask them in the official Forums.

 

Also, be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook pages for the latest updates on our upcoming Beta Testing Weekends!

Subscription-based streaming TV allegedly on they way.

According to a new report from Bloomberg today, Microsoft is planning to partner with Comcast and Verizon to offer subscription-based streaming television service on the Xbox 360.

Citing sources "with knowledge of the situation," Bloomberg says that the company is in talks with two dozen networks and media service providers in both the United States and Europe, including HBO, Crackle, Bravo, SyFy, and LoveFilm in the UK.

The report falls in line with other recent rumors, as well as Microsoft's presentation at this year's E3, where they demoed Kinect-enabled television control.

Most importantly, sources suggest the announcement of the new services could arrive as soon as next week.

Even when we’re talking about totally different games, we still find posters bringing up questions about Guild Wars 2 – usually regarding Beta and release dates – and we’re not even ArenaNet. That has to say something about how much fans are wanting to get their hands on the upcoming title. While a release date is still unknown, it does sound like some will get a chance to play in a closed beta before the end of the year.

Currently, Guild Wars 2 is in a closed alpha test. However, the beta phase may be coming up as early as November according to a French site-translated Korean report, which was mentioned on MMOCrunch (which makes this almost like information from “a friend of a friend a friend”). However, Colin Johanson, the lead content designer, told Eurogamer that the closed beta would begin “by the end of the year for sure.”

While that might be good news, it unfortunately doesn’t provide any answers to when the upcoming MMO will actually launch. Apparently, ArenaNet isn’t certain when that will be either. The release date will, apparently, be dependent on how actual testing goes. Given that the game is taking some major departures from traditional MMOs, it makes sense that they would want to be careful to see how players react to the game, and discover if they need to tweak the game before launch. Extensive tweaking, of course, would mean a later release date.

This suggests that, much like Blizzard, they’re taking a “when its done” stance on release. Still, a closed beta this year is a “for sure” thing. We’ll take that. In the meantime, you can check out the Eurogamer article which has some more statements from Colin Johanson.

Co-founders confirm interest in the idea.

Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk have confirmed that they're interested in a Mass Effect MMO.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, the BioWare co-founders explained that they're open to the idea of expanding the game's world.

"You never know," Zeschuk said. "I think once The Old Republic is done, we'll take a fresh look at the market. And we'll have learned a lot. While making it, you learn an enormous amount."

The game wouldn't come until after BioWare's other releases, including some projects that haven't been revealed.

"We're focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and Wrath of Heroes, and all the other things we've announced, and haven't announced," Muzyka said, "but we also have the opportunity to look at our franchises in a way we haven't ever before. There are lots of new platforms and lots of new business models."

"It's one of the nice things about having these properties in our back pocket. If we want to use something we own as a source for a game, it's easy to do," Zeschuk added. "So yeah, you never know. We've got this giant product to launch, but once that's done we'll consider next steps."

Mass Effect 3 will release on March 6th for PS3, 360 and PC.