Microsoft’s new Xbox One is billed as a gaming console. But the ability to play games seems incidental to many of the features – and hoopla – about the new device.

If you watched the unveiling closely on Tuesday, the tech company was keen to tout how well the Xbox One will work with your TV in the living room – whether you’re watching live sports or the latest episode of Mad Men.

Gamers, meanwhile, seem a little disappointed about some features.

Fancy being famous for 30 minutes? Well, if you play online space game Eve Online, now's your chance. The Icelandic company that bought us the Eve massively multiplayer game is about to make a TV series based on things that have happened to players in the make-believe intergalactic world.

A cop turned his own son into the police because he wanted to avoid paying thousands of dollars of in app purchases.

According to a report, Const. Doug Crosson accused his 13-year-old son of fraud. This way, the 48-year-old would be let off the hook for a hefty credit card bill that was the result of in-game purchases.

How sexist is videogame culture? Canadian–American feminist and video blogger Anita Sarkeesian published the first in a series of Kickstarter-funded videos on the subject this month. Called Damsel in Distress: Tropes Versus Women, it looks at how women have been represented in videogame culture throughout the years.

Modern video game engines sometimes let you create your own user-generated content. But if one gamer's experience is anything to go by, you'll want to be careful what you design.

If you enjoy playing used or borrowed games on your gaming console – such as the Xbox 360 – prepare to pay all the time.

According to a gaming website, Microsoft's next iteration of the Xbox won't let you play borrowed or second-hand games.

Back in 1984, A small British company called Acorn launched a computer game called Elite. Now, the original creators of the game want to bring it back, better than ever. They've launched a campaign on the crowd funding site Kickstarter, but they only have  a couple of weeks left to raise the money. It's a race against time to resurrect a computing classic.

Fancy getting your game on while walking down the street? Google has released its first alternate reality game: Ingress. 

Had you heard of this before? DayZ is a massively multiplayer game set in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. The game, built atop the super-realistic ARMA II PC-based combat simulator, takes place in a 225 square kilometre world, complete with zombies, bandits and teams of players that trade with each other while trying to stay alive. 

When you hear the words “asymmetrical gameplay,” it’s hard not to think of the U.S. military. For the better part of the past decade, the Pentagon has been focusing on “asymmetrical warfare,” which is fancy speak for battling terrorists and insurgents.

Fighting other nations – the sort of warfare that had existed for centuries – usually involved a certain amount of symmetry. You generally knew who the enemies were and how they might hit you. Asymmetrical warfare is a relatively new, imbalanced kind of battle where the enemy doesn’t have the same resources and therefore doesn’t play by the same rules as you do. It’s essentially a rebranded version of guerrila warfare.

Funnily enough, the term is starting to apply to video games – a technology that was invented by the military back in the 1960s – and is proving to be a major trend at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

Leading the charge is Nintendo, which has coined the term “asymmetrical gameplay” to describe its new Wii U console. The idea has been around for years but it’s only now becoming mainstream with the company focusing on it as the console’s central selling point.

The Wii U, which will be released this fall, plays video games much like a regular console. There’s a handheld controller with buttons and thumbsticks that direct the action on the television screen. However, the controller – known as a GamePad – also has a touch screen, as well as a gyroscopic tilt sensor, camera and microphone, which introduces several new elements to games.