One of the remaining problems that Microsoft has to deal with in order to catch up with Sony's lead in the next-gen console wars lies on its indie games.

The Xbox One has been criticized for having only mainstream games--though much-awaited AAA games, they tend to limit the choice for the gamers. And with the announcement they made at the E3 2013, which basically says that indie gamers can't publish for the Xbox One unless they have a noted publisher, they pretty much screened out all possibilities for indie gaming.

Until now. Rumors have circulated that Microsoft may introduce a self-publishing system--one that it also announced vaguely at the E3--come its Build Developer Conference.

According to Neogaf, there have been discussions all over Twitter pertaining to the possibility of the self-publishing system being announced as early as this week.

The official website of Build also has the Xbox logo, though specifications on whether this is the Xbox 360 or the next-gen Xbox One has not yet been confirmed. However, note that in the forums, Tom Warren's tweet was posted, saying:

"Heading to San Francisco at the weekend for Build. Mostly to hear about 8.1 and he Xbox One apps plan. I've heard they'll be interesting."

Build will be happening for three days starting June 26, at The Moscone Center in San Francisco.

A $700 million investment on cloud?

After the Xbox 180 policy reversal, there have been questions on where Microsoft will take its planned cloud gaming services, as well as its vision of the future of gaming. After all, with the need for the game disc in the tray to play used games and the reversal of an online check-in policy, there doesn't seem to be much activity in the cloud for the Xbox One.

Microsoft aims to change this, with a $700 million investment in a data center located in Iowa, reports GameSpot. This will become a center support or the Xbox Live and Office 365, potentially to support the 300,000 servers that it will now have, three times the power compared to the current-gen Xbox 360.

"The expansion supports the growing demand for Microsoft's cloud services," said Christian Belady, Microsoft general manager of data services, in a statement quoted by GameSpot.

ExtremeTech adds that this movement, dubbed as Project Mountain, is just the first in Microsoft's plans. With the goal of setting up powerful servers all over the world, Iowa may be the first thing needed to get there.

Microsoft headset clarified

Last week, the Xbox One's official headset was released, with great features such as a structure for long hours and hands-always-on gaming, with controls that can be accessed via the controller to keep your hands on the game.

VG 24/7 adds some other details, such as padding for the headset, and a wideband voice codec, so that you won't have to any trouble talking and understanding in those important co-op missions or when you're communicating via Skype.

However, the headset is not available in the package when you buy an Xbox One. The price has not yet been revealed, but Sony has revealed its PS4 headset to come with the console and controller at launch.

For those who don't want to buy a new headset, the report states that other headsets will be supported, such as Turtle Beach and Polks.

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