If you were one of the lucky ones with a list direct to Santa, it looks like it’s gonna have to be Holiday Season 2012 that you’ll see the Star Wars R2-D2 edition Xbox 360 bundle under the tree as the gaming console has sadly been delayed.

The highly-anticipated Star Wars inspired gaming console delay has been confirmed by none other than a Microsoft spokesperson and the word on the street is that the delay was caused by the Star Wars Kinect game not being as polished as Microsoft and LucasArts were hoping for.  Siggghhhhh.

Well, of course we don’t want to have a craptastic Star Wars Xbox 360 but then again we were really looking forward to unwrapping that baby this year.  Also, sadly, there is still no official word on when we will actually see the release of this console but at least we know the steep price, $450.  Shouldn’t there be a discount after all of this?!

In the next few weeks Microsoft will start phasing out the 250GB Xbox 360’s outer glossy shell in favor of the ubercool matte finish that can be found on the 4GB models.  So, start saying goodbye to glossy fingerprints and hello to your new friend matte.

Major Nelson recently took to his blog announcing the news amid apparent speculation that the pricier variant would actually be offered in both flavors. If you’re a fan of shiny things — and a lover of fingerprints — Major says you’ll still have time to pick one up as stock is shuffled, and also noted there’ll probably be glossy limited editions in the future.

RIP glossy Xbox 360 shell, our fingerprints shall never be the same!

Microsoft has priced the new Kinect and it looks like you can get the Xbox 360 add-on for $150 or for $150 more you can get a brand new 4-GB Xbox 360 with cameras and voice recognition for the ultimate Kinect experience.  Yeah, you can definitely see which way we’re leaning, can’t you?

Microsoft also said it will introduce a $200 version of its newly redesigned Xbox 360 Aug. 3. This entry-level console is identical to the $300 model except for its matte finish and storage capacity. Instead of a 250-GB hard drive, it comes with 4 GB of onboard flash storage. A Kinect bundle with the 4-GB Xbox, the new motion controller and the Kinect Adventures game will cost $300.

“$150 is an appropriate price for the Kinect,” said Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich in an e-mail. “Kinect should not be viewed as a typical videogame peripheral that is retired from one’s active playlist after 90 days, but rather a consumer-enabling device that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with all forms of media on a daily basis.”

Similar to the PS3 and PS2 offerings, Logitech’s Xbox 360 Guitar Hero controller features the same rosewood fingerboard, metal frets, strum bar, neck slider and wood neck, except the more then vibrant orange makes up for the same-ole-same-ole effect.

GameStop has revealed the release date for Tony Hawk’s Ride game and skateboard peripheral as October 13.  For $119.99 you will be able to skate to your heart’s content on the Wii, Xbox 360 and of course, the PS3. 

The cost has come down quite a bit from the original reported price of $199, so consider yourself lucky and pre-order now!

The new G-Box will offer you new and previously released video games for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii.  Titles will go for $2.50 per day, and all you will need to do is just swpie that credit card of yours.

I have to say though, at $2.50 per day, I might still hit up Blockbuster.

The Classic Controller Pro is much more affordable than the Club Nintendo Edition Super Famicom Controller and doesn’t lose points for the more standard and old school design approach.

With spaced-out thumbsticks and extra shoulder buttons, this controller does what you need at a price you can afford.

Those of you that have been eagerly awaiting the Apple/Wii inspired refresh of the Xbox 360 dashboard don’t have much longer to wait. Microsoft announced today at the Tokyo Game Show that they will be releasing the updated Dashboard on November 19th.

A new interface for the system is a great idea. Not only does it look nice, it also refreshed the entire 360. It’s a like a new site design, or the new interface of a new system. It really has the potential to rejuvenate the system and increase it’s overall longevity – and I don’t know about you, but I’d love it if my Xbox 360 was around for another few years.

There is a fishing scam going around Xbox Live right now. Basically its just a message that promises free Microsoft points if you visit a website. After you do so and enter your Live account info into the website it sends the same message to everyone on your friends list.

You, on the other hand, get nothing. They’re just stealing your login info.

We’re not sure what they’re going to do with said info just yet – maybe nothing…but that’s no reason to actually give them your info for no reason.

I know you may be temped when you get that message in your inbox to try it – but TRUST US – this is a scam. Steer clear.

via crunchgear

Microsoft today made some major announcements at their E3 presentation. First was the brand new Xbox 360 dashboard. This new interface (which you can see above thanks to pics from Engadget) will feature characters that remind me strongly of the Nintendo Wii “Mii” avatars, and a sliding interface very similar to iTunes coverflow.

The new dashboard experience also takes element of the upcoming Playstation Home feature, and Facebook, and marries it all together in an interesting mash-up of sorts. It looks very interesting, and will give your Xbox 360 a facelift, which will hopefully make the system feel new all over again.

On top of that, Microsoft showed some great trailers including Gears of War 2 and revealed that the next Final Fantasy game WILL be making its way to the 360!

Finally, the keynote ended with “one more thing…” the announcement that Netflix and Microsoft were patterning to bring the Netflix “watch now” feature to an Xbox near you. This won’t give you access to new releases, but there are 10,000 + titles that you can watch on your Xbox 360 for free anytime you want, as part of your Netflix subscription (providing you are an Xbox Live Gold member as well).

All in all, a very impressive keynote from Microsoft that shows us that the Xbox360 clearly is full of life and ready to provide new experiences throughout 2008 and 2009. Here’s hoping this console is around for many more years to come. With updates like these there’s no reason for it not to be.