Game Consoles Sucking Up $1 Billion in Energy Costs Per Year

According to a study by the National Resources Defense Council, Americans use up about $1 billion worth of energy per year powering video game consoles, enough to power the entire city of San Diego.

Could Hulu Be Coming to Xbox 360?

In a talk with Bits about what Xbox "want[s] to be when we grow up,” Microsoft's Shane Kim clearly has video on the brain. With Netflix, he says, they're "just beginning to scratch the surface.”

Rock Band M.I.C. Combines Microphone, Xbox Controller in One

Kotaku gave the new Mad Catz M.I.C. Rock Band mic a spin, and they really liked the added functionality it brings to the game. The price, on the other hand, got them less excited.

What Hath God Wrought: The Tubgirl Xbox 360 Faceplate

Behind the jump, there are photos of a Tubgirl Xbox 360 faceplate. I am warning you, it's horrible and, obviously, NSFW. You don't want to see it. If you don't know what Tubgirl is, believe me when I say that in this case, ignorance really is bliss. But if you really must see the faceplate, which was a gift made by request for Cliffy B., the brains behind Gears of War 2 (and 1 for that matter), I'll show it to you. OK, well, there isn't much else to say, so here it is, you sickos. More »

Guitar Hero: World Tour Gets Deluxe $240 Version, Rips You Off

If you're looking to pick up Guitar Hero: World tour when it comes out on October 26th, you'll have a choice between the wussy regular edition and the awesome deluxe edition. While yes, we may be headed for an economic depression, you'll still want to spend the extra $50 on the deluxe edition. It comes with a keychain! More »

An Xbox 360 Controller Crammed into a PS3 Dual Shock Controller's Body

A clever modder on the Ben Heck forums managed to cram an Xbox 360 controller into the shell of a PS3 Dual Shock controller. What resulted is an unholy union of the two consoles, bringing a controller for people with smaller hands to Microsoft's great grey beast. There's no headphone jack, although it may be added in the next go-around, but it looks pretty awesome to me. [Ben Heck Forums]

Blackwater to Drop Xbox 360s Out of Planes as a Mercenary Recruitment Tool

You're probably familiar with Blackwater Worldwide, the mercenary group that works in warzones and doesn't allow itself to be held back by silly things like ethics or respect for human life. Well, they're looking to hire some new mercenaries, and they know that they want people with wartime experience. That means troops. How do you get on current troops' good side? How about dropping free Xbox 360s with Guitar Hero out of planes for them in Afghanistan? More »

Xbox 360 Price Cut Rumor Round-Up: 20GB Cheaper to Make Room for 60GB Model

First, there was the leaked K-Mart circular revealing a sweet $50 price cut to the Xbox 360 Premium. Since then, the possibility has gotten firmer. Notably the Hollywood Reporter says that a "major retailer" and industry sources have informed them the cut will happen before E3 (though they call it the Pro). And usually reliable Ars Technica says the 20GB model is getting cheaped out to be replaced by that rumored 60GB model. More »

The Nintendo DS and Xbox 360 ALMOST Hooked Up

Many of our readers may not necessarily be all that interested in a title called Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise. We get that. But did you know that the game almost got the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS working together? Blasphemy! No, just a simple trick, actually. More »

Netflix Working With Three Secret Hardware Partners: No Names, Just Hints

We already know that Netflix has partnered up with LG, but a recent conference quarterly call has revealed that there are three other players in the mix:

At this point, I can tell you we have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products. Three of the four partners are major companies which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in Q4 of this year. The fourth partner is a small company with which — which will likely launch sooner than Q4.

So which companies could they be talking about? More »

Experience the Joys of Constant Lag With Xbox Live on Dial-Up

For you poor, poor souls who own an Xbox 360 but still rely on dial-up for your internet, an intrepid Instructables member has written up a great "How To" on using your phone line to log onto Xbox Live. All you need is a PC running Windows with a working dial-up connection, an ethernet cable and an Xbox 360 (duh). Yes! Now even those of us still riding along the 56.6K information dirt trail will be able to download new Rock Band tracks! [Instructables]

Xbox-Selling Mom Gets Rewarded with Free Vacuum for Solid Parenting

Remember the badass mom who put her son's Xbox 360 up on eBay after he broke the vacuum to get out of playing chores and was busted surfing for porn on the web? Well, it looks like being a tough parent pays: Dyson is sending her a $500 DC25 vacuum cleaner free of charge. So remember this lesson, kids: if you're going to be a little brat, make sure your mom is creative and you get punished in a way that garners publicity. That way, she'll profit and you can claim that was your plan from the beginning. The system works!

Are Consoles on the Short Track to Extinction?

Former Xbox Europe exec Sandy Duncan recently declared that consoles were a dying breed, due to disappear in a mere 5 to 10 years. At first, it's a laughable remark. I mean, consoles are insanely popular moneymakers, why would they disappear? Sure, physical media will be gone by the next generation, but don't you need a standardized set of hardware and controllers for developers to create games for? More »

Microsoft Branding Xbox Live Cheaters for Life, Like Sex Offenders

Microsoft justice is cold but apt. If you tried to goose your Xbox Live Gamerscore to match Chen's (he's an achievement demon, but I still rock his face at Halo) with game save hacks, the long arm of Microsoft is squeezing your nuts right about now. To start, they're nuking your Gamerscore, and you can't go back and re-earn zapped achievements, no matter how many times you kill 50,000 zombies. But here's the real burn: Your account is forever branded as a cheater, so everyone instantly knows that you're a horrible human being. You can't scrub that shame off, no matter how much shit you talk. [Major Nelson]

Netflix Movie Streaming on Xbox 360 Actually Coming Soon?

The rumor about Netflix surveying the scene, prepping a possible streaming movie solution to Xbox 360 and PS3 seems to be on the verge of coming true, according to Netflix themselves. They just released a statement that says they've surveyed subscribers to see how interested they were in streaming movies over Xbox 360 (PS3 was not mentioned), but didn't say whether a partnership was coming between them and Microsoft. More »

Microsoft Never Loved HD DVD Like Sony Loved Blu

Microsoft said back in January HD DVD is only "over when Toshiba says they're not doing HD DVD." Well, Toshiba hasn't even officially officially killed HD DVD yet and the Xbox team is already dropping an official statement on the sitch. The fact that they're even addressing it doesn't look good then, right? Well, just read the statement. You'll know why HD DVD lost. More »

Xbox 360 Shortages in the U.S.?

Until Microsoft's Jeff Bell said there was a frickin' drought of Xbox 360s in the U.S. ("literally out of stock in many stores") I totally had no idea. I mean, my local Best Buy and Circuit City's shelves are practically overflowing with 360s whenever I drop by (especially the Halo 3 editions). Has anyone tried to buy a 360 in the last couple weeks and actually been SOL? More »

Major Nelson Xbox Live Status Updates Silenced by BS Lawsuit

Alright, so even though Microsoft is giving everyone a free Xbox Live Arcade game because they feel bad about the outages—or want to stem a bubbling revolt—a trio of Texan greedmongers sued over it. Result: No more Xbox Live status updates from Major Nelson, whose mouth has now been covered with legal red tape. Guess we'll know it's fixed when it's fixed now. Thanks, assholes, we hope it's worth the fat pot of nothing you'll get out of it. [Major Nelson via Kotaku]

Microsoft Says "I'm Sorry" for Xbox Live Outages With Free Live Arcade Game

Okay, hackers with Cheez Whiz in their veins apparently aren't behind the Xbox Live outages. We are. Record signups and numbers of people are online, so "as a result of this massive increase in usage," the service got all wonky, sez Live's General Manager Marc Whitten. But they're super sorry, and to make up for it they're "offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge." More »

Rumors: Microsoft to Offer Refunds Over Xbox Live Downtime?

It's just a rumor, but bitbag got an unofficial quote from a Microsoft rep stating "...we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren't able to get online over the last week." [Kotaku]

Microsoft Launches Microsoft Point Gifting at the Last Possible Holiday Shopping Moment

Good news procrastinators and slackasses! Have you still not bought The Orange Box or another appropriately awesome game for your best bud with an Xbox 360? No worries, just give them a shitload of Microsoft Points from the comfort of your lonely computer chair. As of yesterday, you can gift points from the Microsoft Points site, but you've gotta know their Windows Live ID—Gamer Tag transactions are on the way early next year. More »

PS3 Owners Rock More HD Systems, Surround Sound Than Any Other Console

Nielsen's survey of the state of console gamer HD setups reveals nothing too shocking, though I suspect the numbers are slightly inflated since participants were from the top 20 U.S. markets, over 18 and played at least one hour a week, skewing it toward more affluent, older and less casual gamers. More »

DirectTV-Enabled Media Centers Still Coming, Says Microsoft Job Listing

Chris Lanier, Media Center fan, has just found a couple job postings by Microsoft that point to an long-delayed introduction of DirecTV support in their Media Centers. The job postings point to Pay-Per-View access, HD in H.264, two-way communications to and from the satellite, and integration with both US and European satellite systems. The one note that Chris adds is that the Xbox 360 Extender will need to get another H.264 update in order to comply with the DTV's standards before this whole tuner business ships. [Chris Lanier's Blog]

Just How White Does Tide Get Your Consoles?

Our friends over at Kotaku did an interesting whiteness comparison between the Wii, 360 and the newest PS3. Reminding us of one of those teeth-whitening before and afters you see around midnight on every channel, the PS3 dominates the (competition?) with absolutely stunning, pearly whiteness. The Wii holds its own with a solid, "standard" white. But the Xbox 360? That one's a smoker. Because next to the other consoles, it's looking gray...which is odd, because I'd describe their "black" Elite as a bit gray as well. [kotaku]

EA Chief Says Black Friday Completed Next-Gen Console Transition

Two years after the Xbox 360 kick-started the next-gen console race on a Black Friday week, EA chief John Riccitello says this year's Black Friday completed the transition to the (now) current-gen consoles:

"It's been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry...Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something's changed...Around the world, based on the data I've got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.

More »

Rock Band Leads to Eviction: Know Your Rocking Limitations

In case you haven't heard, some poor bastard on the Rock Band community forum has been served with a pre-eviction eviction notice for rocking out way, way too hard with Rock Band. Actually, I'm surprised this sort of thing hasn't happened more often given how rowdy Rock Band and Guitar Hero sessions can get. At any rate, if you live in an apartment it might be a good idea to keep the volume in check. The only question is, will our fearless leader be next? [Rock Band Forums]

Stupid Guy Sues Microsoft for $5 Million Because Halo 3 Crashed His Xbox 360

Randy Nunez's Xbox 360 is being beaten to death by Halo 3, so that it "routinely, consistently, and systematically 'froze,' 'crashed,' or 'locked up.'" Naturally, this "disrupted game play." For his pain and suffering of having to reset his console to resume getting teabagged, he wants $5 million and class action status, 'cause "many consumers" are having these issues. Sorry. My bad. I take full responsibility for shooting people in the face that hard. I thought I was just knocking them off the internet, but apparently it's crashing their 360s too. I apologize. But seriously. More »

Halo 3 Legendary Edition $60 Shipped at Amazon

At only $60 with free shipping, you too can afford to toss around the helmet from the Halo 3 Legendary Edition and not feel (too) bad about it. It's Amazon's deal of the day, so make haste before they sell out. [Amazon]

Allard on Zune 1 Failing, Hitching Zune to Xbox, and the Phone Yet To Come

What J. Allard reveals when he talks about Microsoft's (and his) plans for conquering all media isn't surprising—an integrated, single network for all of its entertainment products and services. NYT's Bits sums up his spiel in three sentences:

Even though the Zune and Xbox product brands are separate, they are ultimately meant to connect to the same central network. The online services for Xbox, Zune and future products will merge. Video will be a key part of this service.

Allard also shared his feelings about the first Zune—what he calls "failing fast"—and the potentially true rumors of a Zune phone. More »

Xbox Downloads on Xbox 360, And More! (But Not Much)

The contents of the Xbox 360's fall update have been revealed to the world. Great! So do we get IPTV now? Uhh, no. Maybe the new Zunes are doing something cool with the console? Not that we've heard. How about downloading old games? Yes! More »