You Can Now Migrate Your Xbox Live Account

Announced via the official Xbox forums, The Verge has picked up on the fact that Microsoft now allows users to migrate their Xbox Live accounts between regions. This was previously unavailable, meaning that anyone who moved to a new region was forced to connect to their now-foreign region. For instance IGN's own Mitch Dyer moved to the U.S. from Canada, but still has to connect to the Canadian Xbox Live service because that's where he first created his account. Sure, he could up and create a new one, but as many of you know it's easy to get attached to those oh-so-precious achievements and, you know, all the stuff you bought over the years.

The migration comes with some pretty hefty conditions, though. Most notably is the fact that the process can take up to six weeks, during which time your account will be unavailable. Additionally, per the post on the forums:

Some of the services and content that you are currently benefiting from in the country originally registered may not also be available in the country you are willing to migrate to.

All of your current subscriptions, except for Xbox Live Gold if you had any, will be cancelled. You may lose the ability to re-download some, if not all, of the content in your download history.

Any content that you will subsequently download after the account is migrated will be subject to any applicable geofencing rules of your new location.

Will you be taking advantage of this, or is the inability to use your account for a few weeks a deal breaker? It's nice to have an option at all, but the current conditions of it make it far from ideal.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Microsoft References ‘New Xbox’ for First Time

Update: Microsoft has responded to Hall's comments, providing IGN with the following statement:

“The comments to The Verge were not understood in their intended context. When Brian mentioned a ‘new wave of products,’ he was referring to the full lineup of products coming later this year from Microsoft, including Windows 8, Office, Windows Phone and of course our fall Xbox update which will bring a host of new consumer experiences like Xbox Music, Videos, Games on Windows 8 and Xbox SmartGlass.”

Original story follows:

A Microsoft employee has referenced “the new Xbox” for the first time. In an interview regarding the new Outlook.com, Microsoft’s Brian Hall (general manager of Windows Live) referred to “the new Xbox” as one of many projects that could be integrated with Windows 8.

“We’ve had Hotmail and operated Hotmail for about 16 years. We obviously have Exchange, and Outlook, that people use at work,” Hall told The Verge. “We just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best from each of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we could have coming out with Windows 8, with the new version of Office, with the new Windows Phone and the new Xbox.”

While this is the first time a Microsoft employee has openly acknowledged the new console, it’s not exactly a secret considering that we’ve already seen the system’s development kit. We know the console is codenamed Durango (or, more casually, Xbox 720) and we’ve seen several Microsoft studios reference a next-gen console in job listings, including 343 Industries and Rare.

Microsoft still hasn’t officially announced the console, but we’re certainly getting closer, as developers tell us the next generation of consoles will begin in 2013. Until that happens, read about the few details we know so far in IGN’s analysis of a recent Microsoft patent filing.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft about Hall’s comment and will update this story with any information we receive.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com