Judging from the trailer, Call of Duty: Ghosts will be packed with all of the action Call of Duty fans are used to. Though no multiplayer gameplay was shown at the event, it’s a given that Infinity Ward has tweaked the combat in ways that will both delight and infuriate Call of Duty veterans.

Aside from the trailer itself, one of the big reveals of the Xbox One conference was that Call of Duty Ghosts will feature dog soldiers. Other new features include the ability to lean around corners and slide.

Microsoft encouraged fans to continue the discussion on Twitter with #XboxOne and they did. People were talking about everything from the console’s TV functions to the still confusing used games policy.

I will say, the best thing that’s come out of today is that I more excited than ever for Killzone: Shadow Fall. #XboxOne

— Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) May 21, 2013

The instant switching on the #xboxone looks really good. Not really sure how TV will work outside of US. As our TVs have integrated Tuners.

— Muhammad Skaka (@productfeedback) May 22, 2013

Games locked to 1 account = other household members can’t play a game registered to someone else’s account. That’s a huge problem. #xboxone

— GameJournos (@GameJournos) May 22, 2013

I’m nerding out over the #xboxone and the amazing features. Split screen like my @surface pro? With Madden and an @nfl game? Yes please!

— Mike Ross (@IAmMikeRoss) May 22, 2013

Is it just me of did today’s #xboxone press conference target the ‘Bro Gamer’ almost exclusively?

— Zak Grim (@ZakGrim) May 22, 2013

Microsoft seems so confused and unsure on the used game issue because until this afternoon it actually forgot what videogames are. #XboxOne

— Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) May 21, 2013

At least Microsoft made the controller matte black #xboxone #aSmallvictory

— Michael Gallarello (@mjgconcepts) May 22, 2013

Can #xboxone wipe my ass for me?

— Bee (@itssbee_) May 22, 2013

If you want to follow all the Xbox One madness on Twitter, hit up the widget below:

Tweets about “#xboxone”

The Xbox One will kind of block used games from being played on the console. Now, what does that mean? It means that every game must be installed on the system. The game disc you buy in the store is merely a means of getting that information installed on the hard drive. Of course, what’s to stop from multiple friends all sharing the same disc, and getting the same game?

Wired explains:

“…each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner.

Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc.”

Of course, it seems that Microsoft itself is confused as to the extent of its own used game policy. On the official Xbox site, a QA page (which has since been removed) says the following about used games on the Xbox One (courtesy of NeoGAF):

We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.

Adding more layers to the confusion, John Hicks, Editor of Official Xbox 360 Magazine, tweeted out a few details regarding the policy:

On second hand games: you buy disc, it installs, you play from HD. Sell disc, it installs to new console and deactivates your install.

— Jon Hicks (@MrJonty) May 21, 2013

Again, at no point when I was talking to MS did they say there was a fee for used games. They said used games were important and supported.

— Jon Hicks (@MrJonty) May 21, 2013

So, what does this all mean? What we can pull from this mess of misinformation and confusing statements is that Microsoft will indeed have a policy regarding the use of used games on its console. It’s not going to be as simple as buying a used game and popping it in.

Now, the statements from the Microsoft itself and Hicks suggest that the next Xbox won’t be entirely anti-used games. Instead, the next Xbox may only charge a fee if you have no intention of sellin the game.

For example, you may be charged a small fee if you lend the disc to a friend and they install it on their system. You still get to play the game, but they get to as well after paying said fee. Now, that fee may not be present when buying used games because the person who sold the game previously forfeited the original license and had the game uninstalled from their system.

It should be noted that the above example is pure speculation based upon what we’re seeing from a variety of sources. We won’t know anything for sure until Microsoft clarifies the situation itself. The official QA said that we would hear more about Microsoft’s used games policy soon, but it may want to address it sooner rather than later to dispel all the confusion surrounding the Xbox One and its used game policy.

UPDATE: And the plot thickens. An official Xbox Support twitter account is now saying that there are no fees associated with used games on the Xbox One.

@modronfixer No fee, correct – and they just got that information wrong. As soon as we saw, we contacted them to correct it. ^EM

— Xbox Support 3 (@XboxSupport3) May 21, 2013

The Xbox One is being designed to improve a living room that Microsoft sees as fragmented. With the next console, Microsoft hopes to bring games, TV and entertainment into one place with you as the center.

Instead of showing games first, Microsoft decided to show how the next Xbox is going change entertainment and television. The first major change is that everything is controlled via voice or gestures. The voice commands have also become more conversational.

The Xbox One will also be bringing a bit of Windows 8 to it with Snap Mode – the multitasking feature in Windows 8 that allows users to have two applications open at once. With the Xbox One, a user can be watching a movie and open Internet Explorer on the side. The side view can then be controlled with a tablet or phone via Smartglass.

Speaking of television, ESPN on the Xbox One has received a substantial improvement. Fans will now be able to access their fantasy leagues while watching games. Microsoft has also entered into an exclusive contract with the NFL to provide live updates to fantasy football rosters during games.

Microsoft has also teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce a live action Halo TV series that will be a premium series only on Xbox One.

The final addition to the overall Xbox experience is Skype. With it, users can make video calls with the 1080p camera that’s in the new Kinect. It also supports Snap mode so users can make calls while watching movies, and presumably while playing games.

So, what’s powering all of this? Microsoft said that the next Xbox will sport an 8-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, a Blu-Ray Drive and USB 3.0. It’s also claimed that the machine will be cool and silent.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft says that the Xbox One will also be powered by three separate operating systems combined into one. The regular Xbox OS will be used by game developers while all other applications will use the Windows kernel. The other OS combines the two together for when you want to instantly switch back and forth between games and applications.

The new Kinect sensor sports a 1080p camera and more advanced tracking algorithms. Microsoft says that the new Kinect can even read your heartbeat.

As for the proper Xbox One controller, Microsoft says it has implemented over 40 changes to the design. One of which is impulse triggers that will deliver more feedback. The company also claims to have redesigned the d-pad.

Xbox Live is by far the most exciting part of the new system, and Microsoft seems to have noticed this. It has upgraded the Xbox Live server count to 300,000 so that players can do more. The first turns every Xbox One into a dedicated DVR capture device that lets players capture game footage and edit the footage on the console itself. Achievements will be revamped to be more about how much you play, and multiplayer games will search for matches while you play other games or watch TV.

After all of this, Microsoft finally decided to talk about some games. First up was EA Sports with an “unprecedented partnership” that will see four franchises being released on Xbox One – FIFA, Madden, NBA Live and UFC. For FIFA 14, the game’s popular Ultimate Team mode will be exclusive to Xbox.

Microsoft also announced Forza Motorsport 5 and Quantum Break as titles it’s publishing. The first speaks for itself, but the latter is the latest title from Remedy. It sounds like the guys at Remedy are trying to create a game that ties in with an in-game TV series. Both will influence the other or something. We’ll probably find out more at E3.

To end the show, Activision showed off the first footage of Call of Duty: Ghosts running on the Xbox One hardware. Of course, all DLC for Call of Duty: Ghosts will still launch first on Xbox.

As for other games, Microsoft says that there will be 15 exclusive titles for Xbox One in its first year with eight of them being new IPs. We will probably find out more about those titles at Microsoft’s E3 show in early June.

Paul Thurrot reports that Microsoft has ditched its plans for a subsidized Xbox. The news comes from a recent tweet that also said Microsoft would be showing off its IllumiRoom technology at tomorrow’s next Xbox reveal:

A couple of Xbox news tidbits ahead of the launch… Illumiroom will be part of Tues event, subsidized Xbox v.Next model has been scrapped.

— Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) May 20, 2013

For those unfamiliar with the rumor, it was said that Microsoft would be selling the next Xbox for $499 with a subsidized version going for $299. The latter would be subsidized with a two-year Xbox Live subscription at $15 a month.

Now, this might be a good or bad move on the part of Microsoft. As Thurrot later speculates, Microsoft might just offer the next Xbox at a straight up lower price than the competition. Game consoles are generally sold at a loss anyway, but it’s hard to imagine Microsoft taking a massive hit early on just to undercut Sony.

The more likely scenario is that Microsoft will just go ahead with its plans to sell the next Xbox for $499. That would mean the company is confident that its machine will have enough exclusive content to warrant a purchase. That was at least the line being fed to gamers over the weekend during the Major Nelson podcast in which Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said that E3 would feature “tons of exclusives and world premiers” for the new console.

Still, many, including myself, think it’s unwise for Microsoft to ditch its subsidization plan entirely. The rise of smartphones have warped consumers’ perception of value and how much technology actually costs. The $350 price tag on the Wii U is evidence enough that consumers just aren’t up for paying that much for what many still consider a toy anymore. A subsidized model, even if it wasn’t “cheap” per se, would still perform better as people would think they were getting a deal.

All of this is nothing but rumor and speculation for now, but Thurrot does have a solid track record when it comes to Microsoft rumors. He reported the May 21 date for the next Xbox reveal two weeks before the official announcement from Microsoft. Even if Microsoft was ditching its plans for a subsidized Xbox, we probably won’t hear about it tomorrow. According to Greenberg, tomorrow’s next Xbox reveal will be about “the team, the people” behind the next Xbox.

Of course, we’ll be covering the next Xbox reveal tomorrow. It starts at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.

[h/t: Neowin]

The Verge reports that Microsoft is planning to get rid of Microsoft Points with the launch of its new game console. Instead, Microsoft will focus on selling gift cards that allow consumers to purchase content across the Windows Store, the Windows Phone Store and Xbox Live Marketplace.

For those who don’t like gift cards, Microsoft will thankfully also support cash transactions via credit and debit cards. Now we can only hope that Microsoft will support transactions of any amount without having to load a minimum amount upfront. It’s pretty annoying that I have to pay $10 on Nintendo’s 3DS eShop to buy a $5 game. Microsoft would be wise to avoid that scenario at all costs.

It seems that Microsoft is planning on unveiling its new gift card system around E3. It won’t be implemented at that point, however, as Microsoft will apparently start using the new system when the next Xbox launches. We might even see the official launch of Windows 8.1 at that time. If that’s the case, Microsoft may go all out in promoting apps and the new gift cards on both the next Xbox and Windows 8.1 machines.

This one attacks Chrome, saying that it tracks you everywhere and whatnot.

It’s unclear why Microsoft would bother to put together a Scroogled ad for the benefit of its own employees, but a spokesperson told The Verge, it’s “an internal video that was leaked.”

Good thing Avinash Kumpati has it available on YouTube:

Apparently Microsoft has also been running its “Bing it On” challenge across from Google I/O as well.

In the letter, Google explains, “It appears that the application: (1) allows users to download videos from YouTube; (2) prevents the display of advertisements in YouTube video playbacks; and (3) plays videos that our partners have restricted from playback on certain platforms (e.g. mobile devices with limited feature sets). These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service.”

Here’s the letter in its entirety (via The Verge):

Microsoft has responded to the situation. The Verge quotes a spokesperson as saying: “We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.”

You can hear Page’s comments near the end of the Google I/O keynote here.

Google has so far given Microsoft until May 22nd to remove the app. It launched last week.

At the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Windows boss Tami Reller announced that Windows Blue is now Windows 8.1. Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc later said in a blog post that the new update will “help us to deliver the next generation of PCs and tablets with our OEM partners.” He also says that Windows 8.1 will “deliver the experiences customers – both consumers and businesses alike – need and will expect moving forward.”

What does that mean? Microsoft isn’t saying yet. Prior rumors have said that Windows 8.1 will include some highly requested features, like the return of the Start button and a boot to desktop option. Both would be welcomed in business environments where employees have expressed confusion over having to learn new systems of control in the Metro UI.

A leaked copy of Windows 8.1 from March also confirmed that Microsoft would be adding some improvements to its Metro interface, including better multitasking. Internet Explorer 11 is apparently going to debut on Windows 8.1 as well.

During the original announcement of Windows Blue, Reller said that a public preview would be coming to consumers in June. At today’s conference, Reller narrowed down the date to June 26. On that date, consumers currently on Windows 8 or Windows RT will be able to download the Windows 8.1 update for free from the Windows Store.

Bing is reportedly adding the Klingon language to Bing Translator as part of a marketing deal between Microsoft and Paramount, as the studio prepares to release Star Trek Into Darkness.

While we’ve been unable to bring up the language in Bing Translator so far, The LA Times (via Engadget) reports that it is coming today:

The Bing service will translate text written in any one of 41 supported languages — including English, French, Hebrew and Urdu — into Klingon. Fear not, native Klingon speakers: words or phrases written in that language can be translated into the more than three dozen available tongues.

According to the report, Microsoft engineer helped develop the feature, has he apparently speaks Klingon. The LA Times shares a quote from Bing’s Craig Beilinson: “We have people who understand the deep science of linguistics and we also have people who are passionate about the ‘Star Trek’ franchise. This was a labor of love from a lot of different avenues.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Klingon Language utilized by a major search engine. You can still see the Google Klingon homepage here.

Star Trek Into Darkness releases in the U.S. on May 17th.

Image: StarTrek.com