Xbox 360 Fanboy

Going back to their traditional roots of only awarding one Artist of the Month (darn you May and your four award honors!), Xbox.com has given July's prestigious monthly artist honors to the latin rockers Circo. Solely based on the band picture above and not hearing a lyric or note from their album, we think they're pretty okay fine. Anyone who has a cranium tattoo is semi-cool in our book. So, as with all AotM announcements, you can grab a few Circo music video downloads off the Xbox Live Marketplace at your convenience. Circo, kinda like circle, but not really.

Next weekend will officially be a Command and Conquer: Kane's Wrath Live weekend, only because the Xbox.com folks say so. (What can we say, they do they want.) Celebrating the release of Kane's Wrath, next weekend you can expect to participate in a Play and Win giveaway where hourly prizes will be awarded, a Game with Fame session with the voice of Kane Mr. Joseph D. Kucan on Saturday, July 12th and even a Game With Developers event on Friday, June 11th with nine members of the Kane's Wrath dev team. Yup, it'll be a busy weekend full of commanding, conquering, Kane and wrath. Good times will be had.

Update: Joystiq received an official statement regarding this rumor, "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation." Meanwhile at 4chan, posters are claiming the images were created as an intentional joke. While verification is difficult because of the Anonymous posting method of the site we're going to have to reiterate our feeling that My GamerPad looks too fake (and crappy) to be legit. Photoshopped image looks photoshopped.

A rumor that began on the 4chan message boards is lighting up the internet this evening. The rumor is fueled by two images of what is supposedly the Xbox 360's answer to the PS3 Home service. Utilizing the already rumored Avatars, My GamerPad appears to be a virtual home for the cartoon-like characters. While in a perfect world we'd like to think every rumor is true, this one seems a little too out of left field. Firstly, and let's be honest, it looks terrible. Secondly, Home has yet to release -- let alone establish itself as a viable online service. Why copy a concept that has seen more delays than Duke Nukem Forever (of course we're kidding)? If it happens to be true, and we assume it's a gag from the Photoshopping aficionados from 4Chan, we're going to go ahead and Opt Out now. Check out the My GamerPad logo after the jump.

Note: Just so we're clear, 4chan is not a trustworthy source hence our apprehension to believe this rumor. Nevertheless, it's our job to report these rumors.

[Thanks, Newson]

With the new DRM tool finally available on Xbox.com, we're sure that everyone has plenty of questions. Thankfully, Joystiq has the answers you need. What can you transfer? How many consoles can you transfer to and from? And then there are questions you may not have though about like: can you sell your licenses to someone else? What about moving licenses to the next Xbox. Head over to Joystiq for their Q&A with Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live.

It's finally here! Microsoft's promised tool to transfer game and video content licenses from an old console to your new Xbox 360 is now available. In other words, this little online doodad will fix the DRM issues everyone has experienced after either upgrading their Xbox 360 or after dealing with a RROD. To get your DRM issues fixed, simply head over to Xbox.com and begin the license transfer process. It smartly (almost too smartly) knows which content is associated with which of your Xbox 360s and will guide you through the transfer process. We're told you need to have access to Xbox.com as well as having your Xbox 360 connected to Xbox Live. Just watch the video above and Major Nelson will guide you through the process. OH HAPPY DAY!

Interesting side note: The license transferring process can only be completed once every twelve months and that you have to re-download each piece of old content back onto your Xbox 360 to get the updated license. Icky.

In an effort to take some of the Inside Xbox workload off of Major Nelson (that man is a video content machine!), Microsoft and IGN have teamed up to offer a weekly dose of IGN's Strategize via the Xbox 360's Inside Xbox. What's Strategize? Well, it's a video game strategy segment hosted by the smiley-happy (and uh, party girl'ish?) Jessica Chobot where she discusses various game tips, tricks and cheats. You can check out the first Inside Xbox edition of Strategize tomorrow, June 27th via the handy Inside Xbox link on your 360's dashboard.

Hey fanboys, did you know that we're smack dab in the middle of a SpongeBob SquarePants Live Weekend? We were oblivious to that fact until about twenty minutes ago when a pink jellyfish knocked on our door and told us the news. No joke either, jellyfish really do talk if you're willing to listen. So, with it being a SpongeBob Live Weekend, we're encouraged to download a the free episode "Blackened Sponge / Mermaid Man vs. SpongeBob" off the XBVM, purchase other episodes, try the trial of SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam!, purchase new spongy gamer pictures / themes and give the retail SpongeBob games a whirl. For those who can't stand SpongeBob, his laugh or the mind control he has on tweens, then feel free to vent in the comments section. Personally, we don't mind him. Our dishes have never been so clean.

Well, well, well, what have we here? Looks like we're finally getting some real evidence that Microsoft really does have some sort of response to Nintendo's Miis on the way. It's been rumored for some time now and the above shot of the linked flash page seems to portend the end of the rumors. Giving the rumor more credibility is that the information contained in the image, supposedly taken from an online survey, conforms to details recently given to Joystiq by a trusted source. These "Xbox Avatars" certainly look to do everything that Miis do and more.

Taking into account that Microsoft doesn't seem too troubled by the rest of the year, this, along with the rumored "Newton" controller, could possibly be what they're betting the farm on.

Hmm ... E3 should sure be interesting this year ...

[Thanks Mighty Healthy]

If you aren't doing too much this Sunday, then you may want to sit yourself down on the sofa, turn on your 360 (as if you weren't going to do that anyway) and play some Halo 3 with Wanted movie star James McAvoy, because he'll be online as part of Xbox.com's Game With Fame. And while sticking spiker grenades in his melon or filling his chest full of pink needles, you may be able to chat it up and talk about how Wanted co-star Angelina Jolie keeps her unnaturally supple lips so plump. Or you could question him about his supposed involvement in The Hobbit. Or you could just play Halo 3 and refrain from badgering him with annoying questions. But that's no fun. We demand our Jolie lip questions be answered!

In his regular video feature, Sessler's Soapbox, G4TV personality Adam Sessler tackles one of the fastest growing and despicable trends in Xbox Live history; bigotry. In short, Sessler challenges Xbox Live users who feel the need to spew racist and homophobic remarks in order to convey their emotions during gaming to actually think about what they're saying. We encountered a similar experience while playing Uno during our last X3F LIVE event, where a kid--who couldn't have been older than 10, thought it was important to express all of the new slurs he had learned (from the schoolyard and probably also from his Xbox Live sessions).

The issue is huge and disgusting. Sessler couldn't be more accurate when he says that we fight so hard to remove the negative stigma's attributed to gamers while ignoring the fact that we're becoming one of the biggest, and organized, bigotry groups in the world. Listen up because we're only saying this once. Yelling racial and homophobic remarks doesn't make you cool and it isn't funny to anyone else in the room, so ditch those comments and get more creative.

Quit being the reason why we hate the service we pay for, it only makes us all look bad and removes all arguments that gaming is the revolution in connected entertainment. As now former Microsoft marketing exec Jeff Bell once said, "Your contribution to society is ... what?"

The video can be found after the jump.

Hopefully you've perfected your ninja skills playing the Ninja Gaiden II demo, because the ninja lessons you've learned will be tested come Friday when Xbox Live hosts a Weekend of Vengeance.

Celebrating the release of Ninja Gaiden II, this Weekend of Vengeance which runs from June 13th through June 15th will feature an Achieve and Win sweepstakes where a few NGII themed Xbox 360s will be up for grabs as well as three XBVM ninja movies (Ninja Hunter, A Life of Ninja and Ninja in the Deadly Trap) will be available for download. For free! Finally, if you haven't been keeping track, all seven Live exclusive Ask a Ninja episodes will be downloadable as well. This weekend, be vengeful, be a ninja and be deadly ...

Microsoft and Xbox Live's Music Showcase program is producing some new exclusive video content next week. It's a music video debut from non other than alternative metal band Trapt.

On Tuesday, June 10th at 11:00PM eastern, Trapt will utilize the awesomeness that is the Xbox Live Marketplace to debut the music video for "Who's Going Home With You Tonight?" off their Only Through The Pain album that's set to release on August 5th. We presume the video will be a free download (this is a promotion after all, right?), but don't come back here and yell at us if they charge for it. Trapt. XBLM. Music. Good.

Getting all the video game love lately with some newly released Rock Band DLC, Disturbed and their new Indestructible album have caught Microsoft's eye resulting in Disturbed being June's Xbox Live Artist of the Month. Hip hip hooray! And, as with all AoTM artists, U.S. fanboys can hit up the Xbox Live Marketplace for a free video download to listen to, take in and enjoy. Also, after playing "Inside the Fire" on Rock Band for the first time last night, we 100% agree with Disturbed's AoTM honors, because that song is crazy good. Crazy, crazy good.

To celebrate the release of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to the Xbox 360, the Xbox Live gods are sponsoring a Quake Wars Live Weekend where prizes can be won, developers can be fragged and competition will be encouraged.

As part of the Live Weekend fun that starts next Friday, June 6th, there will be a special Quake Wars Play & Win where hourly prizes will be awarded and Xbox 360 Elites will be given away. Also, a few of the id developers will be online Friday evening to participate in a Game with Developers event and show Quake Wars fans how to really play the game. Finally, there will be a weekend long Leaderboard Tournament where even more prizes will be awarded including an all expense paid trip to QUAKECON this July. Now go sign up and be prepared for the Quake funnery that'll be going down next weekend.

Since the news that the Live Arcade would be having its under-performing titles de-listed, the tubes have discussed at length many of the implications. In a response that seems absolutely inevitable with hindsight, someone has put together a list of XBLA titles that conform to two of the three criteria outlined by MS for a de-listing (Metacritic score of less than 65% and at least six months old).

The third criteria isn't accessible outside of Microsoft, and is the conversion rate, i.e. the percentage of demo downloaders who end up buying the full game. As we don't know what games have good conversion rates, the games on the list are therefore not absolutely guaranteed to be in danger. But if there are any on the list that tickle your fancy, now is the time to try them, as they're the most likely ones to leave the Marketplace.

Full list after the break.