firehose

Following an agreement with Microsoft, Harebrained Schemes' will be releasing DRM-free versions of its Kickstarted tactical role-playing game, Shadowrun Returns, and its future DLC, according to an update on the game's Kickstarter page.

"Thanks to a new agreement we were able to negotiate with our partners at Microsoft, Harebrained Schemes is pleased to announce that we are now able to release fully DRM-free versions of Shadowrun Returns and future expansions such as Berlin," the update stated.

According to the announcement, players can use the game's editor, download all game patches, as well as download and play user-generated content from third-party sites such as Nexus. Harebrained will provide ongoing support to the DRM-free versions of Shadowrun Returns and Berlin DLC.

Shadowrun Returns for Windows PC and Mac was released July 25 on Steam for $19.99 and Linux support was rolled out with patch 1.1. last month. iOS and Android tablet versions launched in September. Hairbrained revealed today that it is currently working on bringing Shadowrun Returns to GOG.com.

MacRumors

MacRumors user forums have been breached by hackers who may have acquired cryptographically protected passwords belonging to all 860,000 users, one of the top editors of the news website said Tuesday evening.

"In situations like this, it's best to assume that your MacRumors Forum username, e-mail address and (hashed) password is now known," Editorial Director Arnold Kim wrote in a short advisory. He went on to advise users to change their passwords for their MacRumors accounts and any other website accounts that were protected by the same passcode.

The MacRumors intrusion involved "a moderator account being logged into by the hacker who then was able to escalate their privileges with the goals of stealing user login credentials," Kim said. The company is still investigating how the attacker managed to compromise the privileged account.

Submitted by: Unknown

Submitted by: Unknown

Batman: Arkham Origins players can dress up the Dark Knight with the Millennium Skins Pack, which was released today.

The six-skin bundle retails for $3.99 on the Nintendo eShop and $4.99 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Steam. Those who purchased the game's $19.99 season pass will receive the pack free of charge.

Comics-based outfits in the Millennium Skins Pack include:

• Red Son Batman
• Blackest Night Batman
• 1st Appearance Batman
• New 52 Graphic Batman
• Batman: Noel
• One Year Later Robin (for multiplayer modes on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC)

You can check out each costume below. For more on Warner Bros. Games Montreal's first game in the Arkham universe, be sure to read and watch Polygon's Batman: Arkham Origins review.

Imangi Studios' endless runner Temple Run is getting the big screen treatment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Warner Bros. is reportedly in negotiations to adapt the franchise into a major motion picture with producer David Heyman attached to the project.

Heyman has served as producer on Warner's Harry Potter film series and Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.

The Temple Run movie would tell the story of "an explorer who, having stolen an idol from a temple, is chased by demonic forces," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Temple Run was first released on iOS in 2011, with versions later coming to Android and Windows Phone. The game has seen multiple movie tie-ins, with versions of the game based on Disney's Brave and Oz the Great and Powerful. The franchise has seen more than 100 million downloads across its many versions.

Imangi's game isn't the only mobile success getting a movie adaptation. Sony Pictures plans to release an animated movie based on Angry Birds in 2016.

Hulu officially appointed its new CEO last month, and it appears the company may now be pursuing a new business strategy as well. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the streaming video service is in talks with several high-profile television providers about potential bundling deals that could see the Hulu Plus subscription tier wrapped into pay-TV packages. According to the report, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox, AT&T, and Verizon have been among the companies in the talks. Piping Hulu in directly through customers' set-top boxes is said to have been discussed, along with an AT&T bundle that would pair Hulu Plus with wireless broadband service.

Hulu is essentially pitching itself as a turnkey solution for cable and satellite providers looking to provide online content for their users. Rather than building out their own services, companies like Time Warner could just direct their users to Hulu; Hulu, on the other hand, would get an almost instant bump in subscriber base and heavy promotion through bundled cable television packages. However, those goals would seem to be in opposition to the goals of the various networks themselves, many of whom already offer their own online video options. The talks are said be in the relatively early stages, with any final deal still months away.

It's difficult to overstate how high hopes were for the Moto X ahead of its launch. The mythical customizable Google X phone commanded fevered speculation that with Motorola under its wing, Google could finally produce an Android device to rival the global popularity of the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy lineups. Alas, while the Moto X has proven to be a commendable device in terms of overall hardware and software quality, the phone's reach with consumers appears to have fallen short: only 500,000 Moto X smartphones have been sold since the device was released in August, according to a new report this week from Strategy Analytics, a market research firm (via The Wall Street Journal).

The figure has sparked renewed handwringing from tech writers over the utility of Google's purchase of Motorola, which remains an oddball pairing, given Google's continued reliance on other hardware manufacturers to produce its flagship Nexus lineup and losses incurred from the Motorola division. But it's also sparked hopes that Motorola's next device, the Moto G, due out tomorrow and widely-anticipated to be cheaper than the Moto X, could do better. The recent expansion of the Moto Maker online customization service for the Moto X beyond AT&T, to other major US carriers, could also help move more devices, though some are suggesting it is too little too late. For a device that was marketed by highlighting its assembly in America, the fact that America doesn't seem to have embraced it back is a dark irony indeed. We've reached out to Motorola for comment on the numbers and will update when we hear back.

Microsoft is killing off its controversial stack ranking system today. While it could be viewed as an internal change that won’t affect consumers directly, it will have a broad effect on current and future Microsoft employees that may just shape the future of the company. For years Microsoft has used a technique, stack ranking, that affectively encourages workers to compete against each other rather than a collaborative Microsoft that CEO Steve Ballmer is trying to push ahead of his retirement.

Stack ranking is a process where each business unit's management team has to review employees performance and rank a certain percentage of them as top performers or average and poor performing. Former Microsoft employees have claimed it leads to colleagues competing with each other, especially when a some employees in a group of individuals that are performing need to be given poor reviews to match the method. It’s a system that’s similar to Yahoo’s new alleged internal process of ranking employees.

Could this end a cannibalistic culture?

In a closer look at Microsoft’s turbulent history and mixed management decisions, Vanity Fair contributing editor Kurt Eichenwald blamed a combination of Microsoft’s obsessive focus on Windows and Office and the company’s internal stack ranking system for a "lost decade" and cannibalistic culture. Eichenwald interviewed a number of current and former Microsoft employees who all cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside the software giant.

According to an internal memo sent to Microsoft staff today, the process is being axed. Microsoft HR chief Lisa Brummel issued the memo, according to sources who spoke with The Verge.

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