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According to gamesindustry.biz, Microsoft is confirming a slight revision to its Xbox 360 controller design. Apparently, the new iteration of the gamepad includes enhancements to its d-pad, which admittedly has always been somewhat lacking. In Microsoft’s words: “The new limited edition green wireless controller offers enhancements to d-pad functionality, which will add to the experience of playing games where the d-pad is the primary control mechanism.” We’d like to think that this d-pad tweak will finally give us an opportunity to level up in COD4 from Corporal to Lieutenant General in no time.

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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A few 60GB Xbox 360s may have already slipped out to retailers (as evidenced above), but if you’re not interested in running around trying to track one down, you can now snag one from Amazon and rest assured that it’ll ship out post haste. If you’ve been following this SKU’s every move, you’ll notice that’s a few days ahead of the August 4th date that Amazon once listed, and the August 6th date that Circuit City still does — but hey, we’re not complaining.

[Thanks, Michael]

Update: Microsoft’s Major Nelson has now confirmed that there is no official street date for the new 60GB model, “they’ll just appear in the retail channels.” Is this what happens when Bill G is out of the picture? Next thing we know Microsoft will start showing up late for parties and asking to sleep on our couch.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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We pretty much knew it was coming, but Microsoft just officially announced the Lips karaoke game official. Just like we’d heard, the singalong title will come with a motion-sensitive mic that lights up in time to your voice. The game interface is somewhat similar to Rock Band or Singstar, where you have to hit various pitches accurately to rack up points — but in addition to the game content, you’ll be able to sing along to your own music off a Zune or iPod.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Gaming

There’s certainly been no shortage of sad stories involving Xboxes, but when it comes to attempts to get the console repaired, this latest tale from a gamer known only as Nathaniel might have to take the cake. As you can see above, his console (one of the first to hit the market) boasted a good deal of personalization, including signatures from folks at Bungie and the Xbox 360 team, and a spiffy illustration by Rooster Teeth Comics artist Luke McKay. As with many other Xbox users, however, Nathaniel’s console eventually packed it in, and he was forced to send it to Microsoft for repairs. Needless to say, that’s when things took a turn for the worse. Despite calling ahead of time and getting assurances that his prized console would be sent back intact, and including a letter reiterating how much the console meant to him, Microsoft apparently took it upon themselves to clean it as best they could before returning it, leaving only a few faint smudges of permanent marker to ensure that it was, in fact, the same Xbox. There’s no word as to what Nathaniel plans to do next (other than weep), but given that Microsoft gave the royal treatment to someone that did nothing more than get a Zune tattoo, you’d think they could at least give the guy a few free points or something.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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It wasn’t all Zune gaming at Microsoft’s GDC keynote this morning — a lot of time was spent discussing Community Games, the new official name for XNA-based games. Amateur devs will get “creator identities” along with their gamertags, and Live members can rate, grade, and discuss your efforts. Of course, as we’ve heard, games can move from the 360 to PCs to second-gen Zunes, which is definitely pretty cool, but it’ll be interesting to see what that means for devs who want to try and take advantage of the 360’s horsepower — will they be restrict their code to a specific platform? While we wait for those answers, it looks like we’ll be able to get a taste of what Community Games have to offer right away — Microsoft announced that the first seven XNA-based games are available immediately, with an open beta to begin in spring and full-on launch by the end of the year. List of games after the jump — but what are you doing reading this when you could be playing?

Update: We just tried downloading RocketBall and the process is totally different than you’d expect. First you have to download the XNA Launcher, which is under New Arrivals in the Marketplace blade — but you don’t need a membership, so skip that, and the XNA ad that displays points you to the wrong thing, so ignore that as well. Then head over to the Games blade and select Games Library, but don’t open the Launcher, cause it’ll just kick you out. Instead, press Y to view the list of games and download one. So far the “YouTube of games” seems a bit convoluted — hopefully the next Dashboard update makes this all a bit simpler.Continue reading First Xbox 360 Community Games to hit Live “immediately”

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Although word on the street is that Microsoft is planning to release the successor to the Xbox 360 in 2010, the company is still apparently planning on updating the 360 design several more times in the next couple years. Just like the “Falcon” motherboard now on shelves updated the original 360 design with a 65nm CPU, the upcoming “Jasper” revision should take the GPU to 65nm as well — but that’s more or less common knowledge. What we’re hearing now is that all those RRoDed 360s sitting in warehouses are going to be retrofitted with the same 65 / 90nm CPU / GPU combo as Falcon, but on a mobo design called “Opus” that fits the original Xbox case molds. That means no HDMI, since pre-Falcon cases didn’t have the openings — but apparently MS is only planning on sending these out as warranty replacements. The real action, however, appears to be “Valhalla,” a supposed final rev of the 360 that integrates the GPU and CPU into a single “superchip.” Details on that are more than sketchy, and we’re definitely skeptical — especially since we’d been hearing chatter about 45nm CPUs, but nothing about a unified architecture. We’ll see when we see — as long as all these boxes play CoD4, we’ll be happy.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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According to tipsters, a little bird, and our crack team of cybernetically-enhanced super-searchers, the Xbox 360 Elite is suddenly very hard to come by. From what we can tell, the console configuration is missing from the stockrooms of a number of shops, both online and off, making it rather difficult for new buyers to begin wasting their life playing Bioshock with the top of the line 360. We’re making some calls and trying to get to the bottom of the situation, but let us know if you’re seeing units on your local store shelves — or not.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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