Here’s some rare joy for UK gamers now, as Microsoft is going to make all Xbox Live silver subscribers very happy this weekend. The company has announced that UK gamers specifically, will be granted a free pass to Xbox Live Gold allowing all users to play online multiplayer without any restrictions.

Most multiplayer games are restricted to Gold accounts if you didn’t know, requiring a monthly or annual subscription to play games online that Sony offers for free on the other side of the pond. If you are a PS3 gamer, but also have an Xbox 360 as a secondary console in the UK, this weekend will be the perfect opportunity to see what Xbox Live Gold can offer as a comparison.

All games will be unlocked for the event, which includes the likes of Tomb Raider which has just come out and of course Black Ops 2, for those that want to enjoy a full zombies session over the weekend. As confirmed by Microsoft, Xbox Live Gold will be unlocked at 12pm on Friday May 3 and will run through until Sunday night at 12am – UK times.

If free Gold access wasn’t enough, we can also tell you that three games will be on the receiving end of Double XP. It’s not just Black Ops 2 that has this mode enabled, as Microsoft has said that players will be able to get Double XP on Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Gears Of War 3 Judgement over the weekend as well.

How about that for a great weekend then? Only if you live in the UK of course, which is why we said it’s a rare joy since US gamers seem to have all of the fun every other time. Let us know if you are in the bracket of being a PS3 gamer predominantly, but have an Xbox 360 on the side to take advantage of events like this.

PlayStation Plus may be going from strength to strength in recent months, but it appears that Microsoft are hot on Sony’s tail with a new incentive that they hope will attract some attention from current Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Xbox Live Play to Earn will launch on April 1, offering gamers the chance to earn some Microsoft Points back by completing various criteria.

While everyone had doubts on PlayStation Plus at the start, Sony’s premium PSN program has gone on to flourish, with PS Plus owners very happy with the free games they are receiving each month as part of their membership. We hear the argument all the time on how these are only ‘rented’ titles, but PS Plus members do not seem too bothered by this, especially when Sony are including big name titles for free.

This week, Major Nelson has detailed a new Xbox incentive called Play to Earn. There are three reward tiers for the new offer and they are as follows: 1: Play 20 hours of any combination of arcade games, receive a free avatar item. 2: Purchase any four arcade games for 400 Microsoft Points or more from Xbox LIVE, receive a one month Xbox LIVE Gold membership, and finally 3: Spend 3200 Microsoft Points on arcade games, receive 800 Microsoft Points in return.

The first tier seems like a great new target for that free avatar, but some of you may feel that the last tier isn’t too generous on the whole. It essentially means that if you purchase $40 worth of Microsoft Points, you’ll be given $10 back in return. At the end of the day though, it is free Microsoft Points for those that really like splashing the cash, so we’re sure a lot of you will stil be interested in this.

One important note to add to this, is that if you complete all three tiers, you’ll qualify for the Xbox Live ‘VIP Exclusives’. Details on what is included in this hasn’t been revealed though, so we’ll have to wait and see if this includes free games. You can read full details on Play to Earn at Major Nelson’s Blog here.

For those who have tried both Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus, which incentive program do you think is the best? PlayStation Plus offers free games, but Play to Earn is offering some free MS points back for big spenders.

You might have heard that the new Xbox 360 dashboard update is live, although the release time won’t be the same for everyone considering this is a rollout that Microsoft said could take a couple of weeks. The Xbox 360 system update for Fall, 2012, will reach around 3 million consoles right away, so if you are one of the lucky ones we’d love to hear from you in the comments with your first impression.

We’ve got three Xbox 360 consoles here in our office for testing games and checked one system in the UK for the new Xbox 360 dashboard update, which resulted in a message stating, “update in progress“, so we thought our luck had been in. After the update we found the dashboard and Xbox Live looking like the photo below, and checking settings and then system information showed that this software had been an update from months ago.

The problem had been with this particular Xbox 360 that hasn’t been used in a while, so it was an Xbox 360 dashboard update from earlier in 2012. We’ll be checking throughout today and over the next couple of weeks for the Fall 2012 system update, and we have a few work colleagues in a number of areas around the UK and United States, so we’ll be able to report when these systems go live in the coming days.

Have you spotted the new Xbox 360 dashboard update, if so share the release time for you and the part of the world you’re in? We’d love to hear from PR readers when you see the new dashboard launch, so hit the comments with the details. The dashboard should look like the image seen below when it’s live on your system, although you can check system settings to see if you have the latest version.

This update shows that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is targeting much more than just games, and while this has been the case for a while the Fall 2012 dashboard update reflects this more than ever. You’ll find a number of web services and entertainment options put together, to make content much easier to find.

The image above also shows the well-known logo for Internet Explorer, which is a very noticeable addition to this update. With the web browser being integrated in this way it will be much easier to find content online, and the support of HTML5 videos is also welcomed greatly considering this is the so-called future of markup language. What do you love and hate about the new Xbox 360 dashboard, and is there anything missing from this update? If you’re hands-on then we’d love to know if you spot any problems or bugs, which you can share in the comments below.

If you are an Xbox 360 owner then you’ll know every year a major upgrade arrives for your software, and beta testing started for the Xbox Live fall update earlier in 2012 when users had to sign up via Microsoft Connect. The interest had been overwhelming and the ability to participate was stopped almost as soon as it started, so for those that didn’t manage to get into the early testing, the Xbox Live update for fall couldn’t come soon enough.

Today we’ve received an official email from Microsoft explaining important changes are on the way to Xbox Live, which is directly talking about the fall update but lacks the crucial release date we all want to know. We can pretty much guarantee the Xbox live software update will see a release date in October, which is thanks to several rumors pointing to that fact and this email being sent from Microsoft within the last 24 hours making users aware that it’s “coming soon“.

We’ve included the email in the image below just for those that don’t have an Xbox 360, or in case you’ve not received it for some reason. In a nutshell the email explains a few of the key features for the Xbox Live fall update for 2012. These include highlights for Voice Search, other Search refinements, and Recommendations and Pinning.

Microsoft also mention a few other new features marked as coming soon, which include Xbox SmartGlass and Internet Explorer. Once you download the SmartGlass app it will give Xbox 360 gamers extra entertainment abilities, and this means users using a compatible tablet and smartphone will gain enhanced features. The focus of this Xbox Live fall update will be on making it easier for you to find and access content, which is provided with a better search experience, SmartGlass, and other improvements.

What do you want to see improved with the major Xbox Live update for fall 2012? It is also worth pointing out that recent rumors state Microsoft are moving away from Points and towards real cash in your local currency, although this has been strongly denied by Microsoft. Considering the fall Xbox Live update is almost upon us, we’ll all know very soon.

It couldn’t have happened on a more inconvenient day, but right now Xbox Live is down at the exact Skyrim Hearthfire release time, which is not confirmed to be related but also has not been denied either. Early downloaders managed to sign in on their Xbox 360 and start the Skyrim Hearthfire download, which weighed in at just 75MB with a similarly small price of just 400MP.

We have just tried to sign in and get downloading, only to find out that we couldn’t connect to Xbox Live. After a quick look at the official Xbox Live status page you’ll notice problems being reported. You can see a screenshot below that shows that Microsoft are aware of the problem and working to correct the issue, which hasn’t been named.

You won’t be able to sign into Xbox Live from the online website or your console, although we’ll update you as soon as Xbox Live is back up and with any response we get from officials.

Is Xbox Live down for you, and if so what country are you trying to sign in from? We’ve tried in the UK, and have work colleagues in France and the US, all confirming problems signing in.

If you want to know a little more about the story behind Skyrim Hearthfire, then you should see our earlier article that takes a look at this. The lack of Dawnguard on PS3, the first Skyrim DLC, and also the possibility of the second DLC not making it to the PS3 has been explored in this article. There has been mixed reactions, which include some people understanding that there are a number of teams working on different projects, but others just want all the focus to be on fixing the PS3 issue. Feel free to share your thoughts on this.

The biggest problem PS3 owners have is the lack of feedback from Bethesda, and when they did finally give more details hearing that the “PS3 is powerful” and that there could never be a fix, well these words speak volumes. We are sure you’ve seen the official Skyrim Hearthfire trailer, but if not then you can see it here. Have you managed to download the second Skyrim DLC yet, or are you still having problems signing in to Xbox Live?

Over the last 4 hours we have been reviewing Skyrim Dawnguard on the Xbox 360 and while this game doesn’t need online we have been signing into Xbox Live, which had been for a number of reasons over the last few hours. This led us to be totally surprised to hear news about Xbox Live being down for gamers, which we can see in the last few hours is an issue affecting selected users and services.

We can confirm Microsoft has certainly had problems with keeping Xbox Live online for everyone and there are also a lack of status updates on social channels, which started around 3 hours ago with confirmation via the official Twitter account for Xbox Support. They confirmed the Xbox Live outage with a simple tweet that explained Microsoft were aware of the issues, and they said the problem is being investigated actively. The tweet had been followed with another just an hour after, which told gamers to “hang in there” although that Twitter page has been silent over the last 3 hours.

The outage did not affect everyone and that included our connection, although Microsoft has not confirmed how many people are affected or how long it will be before the service is fully fixed? Considering there has been no more tweets stating everything is back up and running, we have to believe there are still issues being resolved.

How has your Xbox Live connection been today? Are you experiencing any outages? It’s worth noting we are currently using Xbox Live in the UK and the status is fine, so if you have problems please let us know what area of the world you’re in and we’ll try and find out more from Microsoft.

It has been announced by EA Sports that they have released the demo for the Xbox 360, and the demo is available to download right away but only for gamers who are Gold members of Xbox Live. The demo is around 1.9GB in size and will give gamers a taste of what is to come when the full title is released next month.

Previously we reported that no other than Lionel Messi had defected from the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise to head over to the team at EA Sports and the FIFA titles. The latest title in the FIFA Street franchise will be the first for the best part of four years, and is being developed by the same team who were responsible for the hugely successful FIFA 12.

The new game will also use the same engine as FIFA 12, and will be available to early adopters of the EA Sports Season Ticket. The just released demo will feature both Italy’s AC Milan, and the English Premier Leagues Manchester City. The latest installment in the franchise has been promised by the developer to be more authentic looking compared to previous releases.

As was reported before EA Sports has added the new Street Network feature, which basically adds a social competition to the game. Meanwhile it is being reported by Strategy Informer that EA is thinking of using some of the moves and mechanics in FIFA 13. FIFA Street will feature a new dibbling system that may find its way onto this year’s FIFA title.

To recap FIFA Street 2012 is set to be released in the US on March 13th with Europe getting the game on the 16th. Will you be getting FIFA Street?

Microsoft has been enjoying some strong sales of the Xbox 360 especially last year when it was the highest selling console. The device has achieved sales of over 66 million since it was first launched, with the Kinect also selling strongly with 18 million units shipped.

The company also receives a large amount of revenue from its Xbox Live service, but currently Xbox Live games are only compatible with the Windows Phone platform. It now seems though that Microsoft is looking to change this soon.

According to Forbes a spokesman from the company has stated that while Xbox Live experiences may work better on the Windows platform, “we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices”. In consideration of this the company is “working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms”.

Android and iOS are by far the two biggest mobile platforms currently available so it would make perfect sense for Microsoft to bring something to them first. The company already has the Xbox Live iOS application available that allows some minor messaging on devices, which has already seen quite a few users downloading it.

This news comes shortly after we told you about the possible plans by Microsoft to phase out the Xbox Live points system. Would you like to see full Xbox Live support come to Android and iOS?

An article on Inside Mobile Apps is reporting a source is claiming that the virtual currency system will be discontinued by the end of 2012. This will affect developers and users of Xbox Live, Windows Phone, and the Zune Marketplace.

It will be replaced by transactions that will use real money and based on each regions currency for all Windows Phone content. This will bring the mobile platform in line with rivals such as the Android Market and the App Store.

When Microsoft were asked about the rumors the company refused to comment, and stated they never do on rumors or speculation. Mobile developers that have agreements with the company have been warned to plan ahead for their upcoming DLC and in-app purchase with the change in mind.

After the changes takes place users with existing Microsoft Points left over will see them changed into their local currency. The points are also used to purchase media content and games via Xbox Live, PC and Windows Phone, and the Zune Marketplace but this system is not used universally.

With Xbox Live the prices for the full games are listed in dollars, but users purchase DLC content with Microsoft Points. Meanwhile on Windows Phone applications are also priced in a similar way, but users can make in-app purchases with the Points. Users can also use the Points to purchase accessories for their Xbox Live avatars, and these points can also be purchased direct from the handset.

This move may surprise some users but the company has been slowly bringing in cash purchases to Xbox Live, which is where the most points are used. With a cash based system it will bring it into line with rival platforms, and the points to cash conversion can be confusing for some users, and often leads them to purchase points they don’t need.

Would you prefer a cash based system?

The good news is that the Xbox Live programmers are currently working on a fix, no ETA has been given, but at least those of you who are experiencing the color space problems know that it has at least been acknowledged and should be fixed in the near future.

You can see Major Nelson’s tweet which revealed this news 16 hours ago below:

We’re aware of the colorspace issue w/ some Xbox video apps & are working on a fix. No ETA yet but we hope to have an update soon.

Having not experienced the issue ourselves we thought we would carry out a little research into the matter, there’s an interesting thread over at the Xbox forums which fully details the color space problem, someone claims that this issue is system wide and all 360′s which connect to a TV using HDMI or the component cable, here’s how you can replicate the problem:

Simply turn on your 360 and ensure that you are viewing the dashboard aka Xbox Home, then go across to the video tab and enter My Video Apps, now play any video and notice how bright the video is, if you exit the video player by just using the ‘B’ button you will notice that the screen is much darker – this is the color space issue which Major Nelson is reporting.

If you then go into the video and carry on watching it it’s much darker than before, below we have embedded two photos showing the brightness before and after – as you can see the difference is quite substantial.

We would love to hear from you if this annoying issue has affected you, later today we may upload a video showing the problem in more detail (that’s if it occurs on our 360), we will keep you posted when we hear more information on the fix.

Have you spotted any other bugs with the new dashboard?