For gamers who've griped about the Xbox 360's leveled down d-pad, Microsoft's telling old-school controller fans 'have it your way'. In fact: Have it both ways. On November 9, the company says you'll be able to buy a version of the Xbox 360 gamepad with a twistable d-pad, one where the 'cross' portion can be either flush with the surrounding circle, like the current gamepad, or raised, where the cross lifts several millimeters above the disc. That's most of all to please fighter fans, weaned on simpler button styles, like the Super Nintendo's firmly embedded and more directionally predictable d-pad. Fighting games in particular benefit from deterministic controls, allowing players to gauge, practice, and then depend on subtle thumb twists and jabs that oscillate between perpendicular and diagonal movements or involve stringing together complex sequences of d-pad slides and taps.

Beginning Nov. 1, an annual Gold membership will cost $60, up from $50. A three-month subscription will cost $25, up from $20. And a one-month subscription will be $10, up from $8. Xbox owners mainly use the service to play multiplayer games such as "Call of Duty" online.

U.S. sales of video games fell 6 percent in June to $1.1 billion after the strong appeal of Nintendo Co., Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. consoles failed to offset weak game purchases. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales gained 88 percent to 451,700 units after it introduced a slimmer version of its console with a larger hard drive. It was the second-largest non-holiday month of sales for the Redmond, Washington-based company’s Xbox 360, behind the September 2007 release of the game Halo 3, research firm NPD Group said today in a statement.

If you missed it, 1 vs. 100 was a trivia show in which one contestant would try to outlast a “mob” of 100 others, each of whom face elimination with wrong answers. Players who weren’t competing could still answer questions from the sidelines, with a chance to rotate into the main game. Semiweekly live shows, hosted by comedian Chris Cashman, offered prizes to the winners. The game was included with an Xbox Live Gold subscription, and at one point attracted more than 60,000 players to the live show. Microsoft didn’t say why it canned the show, only noting that the development team will move on to other projects. It’s rumored that the original 1 vs. 100 television show, hosted by Bob Saget for two seasons on NBC, could return, so maybe that was an issue for Microsoft.

It's smaller, shinier, and back in black: Microsoft's new Xbox 360 took many by surprise at last month's E3, though some of us had speculated for months that a 'slim' model was in the works. More than just a component and size shrink, Microsoft added 802.11n wireless (previously a $100 external USB adapter) and packed in its premier 250GB hard drive without adjusting the standard system's $300 price tag.

Alan Wake’s North American month one sales of 145,000 copies is not a particularly strong start for a long-awaited triple-A release. Regardless, developer Remedy believes the game to have long legs and benefit from what head of franchise development Oskari Häkkinen says is “very apparent” word of mouth. “This breath of fresh air for gamers seems to now be working to our advantage, as those that have already enjoyed Wake are clearly inspired to talk more about the game and tell their fellow gamers to try it also,” Häkkinen tells VG247.

Yesterday was Friday, and that means only one thing to Halo-heads: the arrival of the Bungie Weekly Update. This week’s entry doesn’t gush the hard-hitting details fans are longing for, but it does reveal all 49 Halo: Reach Achievements, and if you’re like me, and will be steadfastly working towards collecting all of them, this is certainly exciting news. Here’s how the Achievement allotment breaks down. Campaign (23), FireFight (7), Multiplayer (4), Training (6), and Player Experience (9). You’re checking my math now, right? I would if I were you.

“Project S,” a pretty unassuming name attached to a secret strategy game surfaced this past Wednesday. It has since been speculated as Microsoft’s new crack at Halo Wars. These gropings have been put to rest, however, with more information coming in tying the game to former Age of Empires developers. Well they’ve at least been given something else to consider.

Following the demise of Ensemble Studios, a new incarnation with previous staffers arose with Robot Entertainment, the studio apparently responsible for the new game. The studio’s website, conveniently up and running just around the release of this information, also points to working on a new game for Microsoft Game Studios.

I wanted to let you know that the Destination Arcade release date has been moved to next Wednesday to kick off the launch of the Summer of Arcade. We’ll start on July 21st with Limbo, followed by Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Castlevania Harmony of Despair, Monday Night Combat and we finish it off with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Also remember that if you purchase all five titles, and you’ll receive 1200 Points back. Complete schedule and details here. As I mentioned in my original post, Destination Arcade will only be available in the US. If I learn of any plans for other regions, I'll be sure to let you know.

Edit: I have learned that the Destination Arcade app will only be available for the duration of the Summer of Arcade promotion which ends August 18th.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox Live online video-game service probably broke the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time in the year that just ended, helped by sales of movies, avatar accessories and extra game levels. Microsoft says about half the service’s 25 million users paid an annual fee to play games online like “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” in the year ended June 30. That would be about $600 million. Sales of products like movie and TV show downloads topped subscription revenue for the first time, Dennis Durkin, Xbox’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer will be returning to the Consumer Electronics Show next year, opening the show with a January 5 keynote, the Consumer Electronics Association confirmed Thursday. "As leader of one of the world's most innovative technology companies, a keynote address from Steve Ballmer is the perfect way to kick off the 2011 International CES," Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA, said in a statement. "Microsoft's entrepreneurial spirit and drive have been major forces behind the success of the company and its impact on the global consumer technology industry. We look forward to hearing Steve's strategic vision for the future of Microsoft and our industry." The 2011 CES will take place from Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. Ballmer's presentation will be held at 6:30pm at the Las Vegas Hilton Center. Additional keynote speakers have not yet been announced.

The moody tunes of Alan Wake will soon be purchasable, Sumthing Else Music Works has announced. The 18 tracks that make up the Petri Alanko-composed score will be made available at both retail and as a download from sumthingdigital.com and iTunes. Alanko describes the undertaking as “about finding the motives of the characters and what forces them onwards,” and gives a tip of the hat to Remedy for letting him move forward with the perhaps-not-so-obvious choice of composing a romantic score for a psychothriller. Look for it starting July 20th.

Crytek’s mysterious Xbox exclusive, Codename Kingdoms, is a game shrouded in mystery. The live action trailer it was announced with at Microsoft’s E3 press briefing last month (above) only managed to raise questions, questions Microsoft Game Studios’ corporate vice president Phil Spencer has now added to. According to the executive, the non-Kinect title is “unique to what [Xbox is] as a platform” — which is about the biggest tease one could come up with — and a project Crytek’s “extremely excited about building”.

Despite its shy nature though, the game’s been in the works “for a while” now, Spencer also says. And, of course, great things should be expected: “They’re just such a top-tier developer. Graphically, they’re on a par with anybody else in the industry - and I think it’s a great addition to our line-up.”

We know Dead Space-dev Visceral Games has had its eye on the downloadable space -- along with the rest of EA -- for some time now with the oft-rumored Jack the Ripper title and something else. Well, that something else is Dead Space Ignition, "the first of many exciting game extensions we have planned for the launch of Dead Space 2," says Dead Space franchise exec producer Steve Papoutsis.

From what we can gather from the press release (embedded after the break), Ignition is a "Choose Your Own Adventure," comic-style story with "three unique hacking mini games." Ignition will provide a "unique perspective leading up to Dead Space 2" and fill in new players on all the backstory they need to shoot monsters' limbs off. Depending on which adventure you choose, you'll earn one of four endings (replayability!) and those endings will reward you with in-game trinkets for Dead Space 2, "including an exclusive suit."

For those of you who have to keep your Spartan dressed in the latest styles, GameStop is offering exclusive armor and helmet configurations with pre-orders of Halo: Reach. Those who reserve the game will receive tokens for a Spartan Recon Helmet with Visor/Blast Shield and a UA Multi-Threat Mjolnir Mark V(B) Armor, which features a unique chestplate design and a grenade belt. Can't you hear it? "Hey, (your name here)! Looking good in that UAMTMMVBA!" You and your Multi-Threat, Blast Shield-sporting friends can mock the Spartans who dare to show up wearing default armor.

The next instalment in the Castlevania series is set to hit Xbox Live on 4th August. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is a side-scrolling adventure from legendary producer Koji Igarashi. Levels are inspired by environments in Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. Up to six players can enjoy a bit of online co-op, or battle it out in survival mode. There's a combo attack system and a ghost mode that allows you to upload and download player data.

LucasArts are considering bringing SNES classic Super Star Wars to Xbox 360. Executive producer Haden Blackman also told CVG that LucasArts have “kicked around” ideas for more games based on the original (good) Star Wars trilogy, but are also looking to take the universe in “new directions”.

“There are certainly some ideas we’ve kicked around [with the original trilogy] and we’re always trying to capture the spirit of some of those big moments from the films,” said Blackman. "We’re also interested - and this is something that comes from George [Lucas] - in taking Star Wars in new directions, not just always going back and re-hashing what has been done before,” he added.

With a number of Xbox 360’s 2010 exclusives already available, it appears that the likes of Gears of War 3, Halo:Reach, Fable III – all huge titles, granted — and Crytek’s Codename Kingdoms are among the few exclusives Microsoft has left. Going by Aaron Greenberg’s assurances, however, there’s no reason to worry. The Xbox product director has told OXM that the “pipeline is full” and that next year’s E3 will bring more hardcore exclusives to the Xbox masses.

“I think you’ve seen what we’re doing with exclusives like Crackdown 2, Alan Wake, Mass Effect, adding what’s different to what’s already there, and we’ll continue to invest and grow our core game line-up,” Greenberg commented. ”We know that that is the heart of our business, that is what allows us to fund and grow and innovate in new ways, and so that’ll be important in 2011 just as it was for us in 2010.”

The next Splinter Cell game may include Uncharted 2-like ‘abduction moves’. That’s “where you’re in cover and you grab the guy and drag him out of view” then, as creative director Maxime Beland explains. Speaking to Xbox World 360, Beland says it was a planned feature for Splinter Cell: Conviction but one they “had to cut out.”

Also included in Sam Fisher’s new outing may be the option to drag bodies, a feature he wishes they would’ve included but was missing from the last game due to time constraints. “There’s quite a bit we left out,” game director Patrick Redding adds, “but we may use those ideas in Splinter Cell 6.”

Crackdown 2 is due to come out next week (July 6 in North America, July 9 in Europe) and with it will come a tiny tidbit of glee, if you have a copy of Perfect Dark XBLA that is. Buried within Rare’s March release is code for a playable character known as Agent 4. Upon reading a Crackdown 2 save file, Agent 4, a “feisty black-suited gun nut”, will be yours to control in Perfect Dark’s multiplayer mode. Agent 4 will be available to owners of the two games with no additional cost, and with no need to find an ice key or any colorful eggs either. How sweet is that?!

In the two weeks following its May 18th release in North America, Finnish developer Remedy’s Xbox 360 exclusive psychological action thriller Alan Wake managed to sell under 200,000 copies. That’s according to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter who’s — since NPD doesn’t tend to publicly release numbers beyond the top five software sellers (AW was nr8 in May) — shined some light on the matter. The analyst’s information is similar to data the number crunchers at VGChartz have collected; just over 200,000 copies in the Americas for the two week period (521,000 worldwide life-to-date).

I haven’t been following the figures much closely but the news about the 360 “slim” model success is common from here in the US and even to Japan. Can the redesign be the sole purpose for the spike? Are people getting ready for Kinect? The built in WI-FI? Microsoft is claiming the new model is receiving “unprecedented demand” so far. Their claims may not be so far fetched because Industry Gamers even reports a surprising spike in Japan...

Retailer Play.com has published new specifications for the final Kinect hardware. While the information is unconfirmed via official channels, Play said that the details are direct from the manufacturer, while specs collected by Digital Foundry but not published to date tie in extremely closely with the new data. The smart money is on this being the real deal. Perhaps the most interesting information we can glean from this is in how the final production Kinect camera differs from the reference technology designed by Microsoft partner PrimeSense.

Peter Molyneux, the king around Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games Studios' European creative director, told GI.biz that the company is "driving" for Fable 3 to sell more than 5 million copies and make profit "in excess" of $150 million. Molyneux expressed the reasoning behind the parameter: "We have to do that because if a franchise doesn't reach that level it will inevitably wither." Hmmm, "wither" sounds like a long process. Can we still get Fable 4 even if it doesn't hit that mark?

Peter Molyneux has spoken out about Milo & Kate following yesterday's comments from senior Microsoft staff suggesting that the impressive tech was at this stage a demo not planned for public release. Aaron Greenberg said in an interview over the weekend that "[Milo] is a technology demo that continues to exist, but right now it's not a game that we're planning to bring to market," comments he later went on to refine.

Molyneux has since responded in his address at the UK's GameHorizon conference. "Poor Aaron Greenberg," he said in a talk attended by Gamesindustry.biz, "he's on the PR team, he hasn't seen it since last year, so he came up with this stock answer that Milo is alive and well and living in Guildford but it's still a tech demo." Click link for more.