Xbox 360 Fanboy

If you've got a spare PSP lying around -- and who doesn't -- then we've stumbled upon a nifty little hack that lets you utilize a 360 controller to play it. Why on earth you would want to control a PSP with an Xbox 360 controller is another story. Documented by Jay on the MaxConsole forums, the hack involves the Xbox 360 wireless receiver for PC and a decent amount of software trickery. While the hack is certainly novel and the Xbox 360 controller is more comfortable than the PSP controls, we'd like to see someone attach the two devices together. After all, it's not like you can sit too far away from a PSP and still enjoy the wireless experience.

Get to it, Fanboy Nation!

[Via Engadget]

The lovable and somewhat forgotten Xbox poster child J Allard is back, sporting a new dreadful hairstyle with PSP in hand. So, what's this all about? Well, back in early 2005 J Allard and Newsweek's N'Gai Croal made a bet about the PSP's sales figures. Allard bet that the PSP wouldn't reach the PS2's sales success and N'Gai thought the opposite. Whoever lost the bet would have to don the other's hairstyle the the following E3, N'Gai would have to shave his head and Allard would get dreadlocks. And, you can see, N'Gai won the bet.

But that was back in 2005 when the PSP surpassed the 10 million sales mark faster than the PS2, so why sport the dreadlocks now? Well, Allard soon left the Xbox team, jumped on board the Zune ship and sort of (conveniently) forgot about the little bet. That is until N'Gai reminded Allard 360 days later about their bet and so Allard made good on his promise by posting the story and his new "look" on his company bio page. Full size J Allard picture posted after the break. Take it in folks, dreads will be so "in" this Summer.

[Via TeamXbox]

Sharp-eyed reader DA360 noticed that Lumines Live for XBLA and Lumines 2 PSP are the same game -- except for the price:

If you look at game play videos and screenshots, you will notice one huge striking similarity between Lumines Live and Lumines 2 for PSP, their actually the SAME EXACT GAME, only the name is different. From the interface, to the music, to the features (the Lumines 2 for PSP will have downloadable videos like Lumines Live), and even the little face character on the bottom right. It might almost be best for them to just call it Lumines 2 on XBLA.

Lumines Live will ironically more than likely cost less than its PSP counterpart, since more than likely it will cost between $30-$40, maybe even $50 on PSP, and we will be paying roughly around $15 (or 1,200 MS points). This will also make it the first modern Xbox Live Arcade game to have a full retail version on another platform.

Ouch. At least PSP owners have that vibrant library of UMD movies to ease the sting (ha!). Remember their plight next time you're complaining about the price of XBLA games.

Microsoft had a little trouble getting the sound working on their Lumines kiosk, but once they got it up and running, I was immediatley struck not by the gameplay, which is familiar to anyone who played thisTetris-like game on the PSP, but by the Madonna video blaring in the background. That's because skin support for the Xbox Live Arcade version  includes the ability to run videos behind the puzzle grid. Interestingly, Microsoft told me they have yet to make a decision as whether we'll be able to use any content for this feature, or if it will only work with specific videos downloaded off XBLM. I'm guessing the latter, because positioning little squares with anime porn running in the background would just be too distracting. Lumines hits XBLA around the holidays.

Microsoft is no stranger to portable electronics; they've been providing software that runs many of them for years, only to see their offerings trounced by Apple's unstoppable iPod and now Sony's multimedia maven, the PSP. BusinessWeek is reporting that Microsoft is now considering entering the arena themselves, with a multimedia device that would incorporate gaming. Peter Moore, though not confirming that they are planning such a product, saying that "any Microsoft media device would have to leverage the company's most significant consumer strength, video gaming."

Would the portable device be an Xbox and not just a PocketPC PDA with enhanced gaming functionality. Moore says about the Xbox brand, "It can't just be our version of the iPod... I think the brand is an opportunity."

There are risks in this approach however: they risk falling into the same niche that the PSP occupies, which is finding consumers to be far less accepting of its broad range of features, instead seeing it only as a gaming device; or of alienating their current hardware partners who may view Microsoft, with complete control over the software, as unfair competition.

[Thanks, Neural]