firehose

Windows PC owners can pick up digital downloads, priced at $19.99, for four Square Enix games and one DLC pack through Amazon's Square Enix Gamer's Bundle.

The bundle includes downloads for Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Augmented Edition, Hitman Absolution: Professional Edition, Just Cause 2, Just Cause 2: Black Market Aerial Pack DLC and Sleeping Dogs.

The total for each game at its normal price is $104.58. To activate each title, buyers will need a Steam account.

Jun 19th 2013 By: Andy Khouri

Fortunately, Williams elaborated on the process behind his most recent Batwoman cover, issue #21. As it turns out, it's remarkably simple, as you can see below.

Stage 1: Make a laughably rough pencil sketch to give Batwoman editors an impression of the cover concept.

Stage 2: Simply turn that sketch into an extremely gorgeous, tightly rendered and shaded black and white drawing full of mood, action and drama.

Stage 3: Add color.

For more on this issue, including a developed storyline that will never be, head over to Williams' blog.

Featuring guest artwork by another one of our faves, Francesco Francavilla, Batwoman #21 is on sale now digitally and from your local comics shop.

Today's surprise announcement, a nearly complete reversal of a set of policies almost universally hated by gamers, comes with a price, said Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live in an interview with Polygon today.

Those unpopular policies that required online checks, limited the resale and use of used games, were tied to what Whitten called Microsoft's vision of the future, a future the console won't exactly be able to embrace with these changes.

The new Xbox One secondhand game policy is identical to that of the Xbox 360, and users won't have to check in over the internet at all in order to play offline single-player games. Microsoft also said today that all Xbox One games will be region-free, a reversal of its policy on Xbox 360. Physical copies of games will behave exactly as they do now with the 360, but without a region lock.

But gone now is the ability to share a game library among up to ten family members, Whitten said. Gone too is the ability to roam, popping into a friend's house without a copy of your game and simply downloading it from the cloud to play. While games will still have to be installed, the disc will have to be in the tray for the game to function, a system which verifies a gamer owns the title they're playing.

Despite the pull back on Microsoft's take on the future of gaming, the company is still working to lean into both digital and cloud-based gaming, he said.

For instance, when you go to a friend's house to play a game, you'll have to install the game on their console. If they decide they want to buy the game after you leave, they'll just have to pay for it online. The previous installed copy will function immediately like a digital copy, but without the need for another download. All games will still be released as download copies day and date with retails stores, Whitten said.

"While we are adding in the ability to use physical discs, we still believe in the power of a digital and cloud-powered future played out at launch and rolled out over time," Whitten said. "You are going to see us invest a ton in all of the ways digital builds experiences."

In making those favorable changes, Microsoft also removed the previously announced ability for users to play games without the disc in the console's drive. Under the old policy, that would have been possible once the game had been installed to the system's hard drive. Microsoft had also outlined a family sharing plan that would have allowed each user to share their library of Xbox One games with up to 10 family members. Users also would have been able to log in to their account on any Xbox One console and instantly have their library available to them.

Another feature drawn into question with the policy change is the Xbox One's use of cloud-based processing. During E3, Microsoft officials touted the cloud's ability to amp up a game's look and feel. The policy change means that console's will no longer have to check in online, meaning that an online requirement for the console, beyond the set-up, isn't required.

Whitten said that Microsoft still plans to make full use of cloud processing for appropriate experiences.

"You have to be connected [for cloud processing to work]," he said. "All of the things that require the internet will require the console to connect. We want and expect most people to take advantage of those things, but we also want to give people the choice that they can play offline."

Whitten said it will be up to third-party publishers to decide whether they will require an online connection for their games, either because it has an online experience or because it needs to utilize cloud-based processing.

With a sudden and drastic change in policy, I asked Whitten how sure gamers can be that Microsoft won't change things again before launch this fall.

"There are our policies and we are really excited about them," he said. "By adding them we have shown that we are definitly listening."

Now that the Xbox One policies more closely match those of the PlayStation 4, is it possible that the price will also see a match, dropping from $499 to $399?

"On the price we feel strongly that we are delivering an immense value in gaming and entertainment," he said.

It's clear that this was a move made in reaction to the blow-back from gamers, but why was it so long in coming? The E3 reaction was just a continuation of the reaction to the console's unveiling.

Whitten agreed, but said they wanted to finish explaining themselves before changing their policy.

"What we wanted to do was tell our complete story," he said. "We knew our complete story was partially told at the Xbox One unveil and partially told at E3. We wanted to put our story out there and show the great games we have coming. We did that and people gave us a ton of feedback."

A new campaign has been launched by anti-slavery organization Walk Free that aims to persuade Nintendo to tighten up its supply chain and avoid the use of 'conflict minerals' mined by slave labor.

Walk Free has launched a video lampooning Nintendo characters Mario and Luigi, which states that Nintendo has yet to respond to a forceful campaign to join an electronics industry audit program for conflict-free mineral supplies. The video points out that minerals sourced from some suppliers come from slavery operations in conflict regions, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, where miners are often forced to work at gunpoint.

Walk Free's website states that the campaign aims to tell Nintendo that "slavery is not a game." It adds, "We've sent 430,558 emails calling on Nintendo to take concrete steps to ensure slave-mined conflict minerals are not in its gaming consoles, and we have heard nothing back."

Electronics devices like games consoles make use of minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, often sourced from conflict zones. "Government troops and militias fight for control of the mines," states Walk Free. "They often terrorize communities using forced labour, debt bondage, sexual slavery, the use of children by armed groups, and other forms of child slavery. Child slaves are often used for the worst types of labour such as diggers at the mine sites, or porters assisting in the transport of conflict minerals."

A protest day is being planned to coincide with Nintendo's Annual General Meeting on June 27. Supporters are being encouraged to cosplay and demonstrate outside retail outlets selling Nintendo consoles. Anyone who signs up receives a downloadable kit explaining protest plans.

Nintendo has previously stated to Polygon that it provides "specific directions to our production partners regarding socially responsible procurement practices," based on "relevant laws, international standards and guidelines that focus on protecting human rights, ensuring workplace safety, promoting corporate ethics, and safeguarding the environment."

Walk Free counters that this is not enough. It points out that many companies, including Intel, Apple, Sony and Microsoft, have signed up for full audits of their supply chains to root out minerals sourced from slave-mines. Its literature states, "Nintendo ranked dead last among 24 major consumer electronics companies on efforts to examine and end the use of conflict minerals. Nintendo has yet to join the electronics industry audit program for conflict-free smelters nor has it required its suppliers to use only conflict-free smelters, the bare minimum requirement for taking action on conflict minerals."

Polygon has contacted Nintendo for comment.