We first told you about Microsoft’s plans at Wii emulation back in April. Here’s some new info on their own version of Nintendo’s Miis. Xbox 360 Fanboy found the above Flash document on Intellisponse’s servers. (an online research and web-survey platform)

Is it just for survey purposes or not? I’m thinking it’s beyond the survey stage as it fits with what we’ve been hearing. That Microsoft will be rolling their Miis out by the end of the year, hopefully with their own Wii-mote that has all the bugs worked out.

Xbox 360 owners can now make their Xbox glow like depleted uranium, without setting off the geiger counter. In the light of day, the XCM Pearl Glow is translucent so you can see the insides. Turn out the lights and it glows a bright X-Files green.

It replaces the case entirely. You’ll think it’s the 80’s all over again and it will let you know where your console is at all times. If this is your thing and you can’t get enough glow in the dark toys, you can find one at Extreme Mods.

Microsoft is touting some new statistics trying to gain some additional momentum for the Xbox 360 game console, stating that in the U.S. they have sold 10 million units. There is no refuting that this is quite an accomplishment, but Microsoft is trying to add some more significance to the 10 million unit mark.

“History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry, ” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

It’s never as much fun to write an article to report on things that aren’t going to happen, but in this case we think this is something that should happen and we still expect it to, despite Microsoft’s denials.

What we do know is that Microsoft had an HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 which they put a stop to producing. We also know that rumors keep cropping up that Microsoft is going to work something out with Sony to bring a Blu-ray player to the 360, and Microsoft continues to squash them.

Recently Microsoft announced a new partnership with the non-profit organization Companions in Courage, an organization dedicated to supporting families with children who are dealing with life-threatening medical conditions. As partners, Microsoft will be supplying hundreds of single Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across the nation.

Some have already been installed at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, the Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. The kiosks won’t just feature games, but TV shows and movies as well, plus they’ll be connected to each other with a special version of the Xbox LIVE network. That will allow kids from one hospital to interact and play games with kids from another. If you like, you can be a part of the project too. Help bring more 360 kiosks to other hospitals by visiting the Companions in Courage website at http://cic16.org and making a donation. It’s a great way to help these kids out.

While everyone’s waiting for X-Box’s new Wii controller, another wireless controller is coming our way for the Xbox 360. The only difference is that you’ll be using your feet, not your hands. Qmotions will be developing a version of their skateboard controller for Microsoft’s game console.

The company already makes controllers for various sports games and plans to release it’s “Big Air” board for the Xbox in the second half of 2008, with more Microsoft-endorsed products to follow. I’m guessing one of those products will have the name Tont Hawk in it. Call it a wild guess.

Grand Theft Auto IV went on sale worldwide today and many retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop opened their doors at midnight last night to meet fans across the country who created long lines to be one of the first to get their hands on a copy and spend the rest of the night playing. The GTA 4 launch from Take Two is expected to see sales that will rival that of last year’s Halo 3 release, with numbers nearing $400 million for around 6 million copies sold around the world.

The Grand Theft Auto 4 game is available for both the Sony Playstation 3 and the XBox 360 which greatly broadens the audience. Some speculate that the launch delay from last October also allowed more people to have time to buy the latest generation of game console and built more anticipation for the launch. Take Two says the delay was due to technical hurdles that needed to be overcome.

The studios won’t like this device one bit. The MZK-NAS02SG1T network attached storage device from Planex. The $524 1TB Gigabit Ethernet block claims “universal access” for all your devices, courtesy of its DigiJuke browser, searching and tagging BitTorrent and YouTube content you want downloaded in the appropriate PSP and iPod (MPEG-4), Wii (FLV), or TV (MPEG-2) format for in-home or portable viewing.

The NAS will also stream audio and video to your iTunes laptops or desktops, DLNA TV, Xbox 360, or other compliant device in the home. A USB 2.0 jack offers one-touch dubbing of USB sticks while a second around back offers storage expansion. It ships with a pair of 3.5-inch 500GB drives, which you may want to swap out for higher capacity drives at a later date.

Look who’s getting into the Wii action. Microsoft’s been working on a Wiimote type controller and it’s due to come out later this year. They actually began development way back in Summer ‘07. But the process has had it’s share of problems. According to MTV news and their exclusive source, this is what it looks like.

The familiar looking Wiimote has a speaker, microphone, four LED lights, A/B/X/Y face buttons, an analog stick and an underside trigger. The Nintendo Wiimote doesn’t have a Microphone and has a D-pad instead of an analog stick. Rare is the company working on it and they reportedly are trying to come up with a “unified interface and look for the controller.” The problems are between marketers and designers. The marketers basically want a replica of Nintendo’s Wiimote so game developers will want to port Wii games onto the 360. The designers want it more feature-rich and they have an interesting description “Halo, Gears and Forza in waggle form.”

Netflix has officially confirmed rumors that they are indeed looking into streaming video content through Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console. Spokesman Steve Swasey did not confirm that Netflix and Microsoft have any partnership currently in the works, but Netflix has started surveying existing customers to gauge their interest in a new, additional offering through the game console.

Netflix’ business model has traditionally been to provide a subscription of physical DVDs that are shipped to customer’s homes, but has been working diligently to keep up with new technologies and customer demands for streaming video. The company created a partnership with LG earlier this year for a set top box to stream video content into its customers living rooms, and last year started offering online video through computers which recently increased to unlimited content for $17 per month subscribers.

Shortly after the fall of the HD DVD format Microsoft officially announced that they were ending production of the HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 and we, along with a number of others, figured they would be jumping on board with Blu-ray in short order.

According to Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for the Xbox 360, the company appears to have no plans to move in the direction of a Blu-ray player, or any high-def player for that matter, for their game console. “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,” Greenberg said. He followed up that comment with “We’re the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content,” which leads us to believe that Microsoft may have taken this opportunity to rid the console of physical disc media all together.

Forget about those cheap steering wheel video game accessories if you have some serious cash to spend - the folks over at The Gamers Cockpit have your virtual racing desires covered if you have the money put down. Meet the GT3, priced at around $3,250.

The Gamers Cockpit GT3 will work with select racing games on your PlayStation 2 or Xbox 360. It consists of an all steel chassis, advanced racing seat, steering wheel, pedals, a Logitech surround sound system, your choice of video game console, your choice of video racing game and a 19-inch Samsung LCD television.

We knew it would happen sometime soon and yesterday Microsoft officially discontinued the production of the HD DVD player add-on for the Xbox 360 game console. If you’re one of the estimated 300,000 folks that already own the player Microsoft said they will still continue to support it and uphold the warranty that came with it, but they won’t be selling any new ones. Now that all of the big studios have gone Blu-ray it’s unlikely you’ll be wearing it out anyway without any new movies to play on it.

Microsoft says it doesn’t feel that dumping the HD DVD format will affect its game console sales, but we’re thinking that adding a Blu-ray player like the PS3 has just might help. Microsoft was previously one of the major backers of Toshiba and the HD DVD format before Warner announced they were Blu-ray exclusive and the whole HD DVD camp came tumbling down shortly after.

This news should make both Guitar Hero fans and Aerosmith fans very happy. Activision announced plans to base an installment in the Guitar Hero series around America’s best selling hard rock band Aerosmith. The new title is scheduled for a June release and will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2.

Players will be able to play as the band’s guitarists Joe Perry, Brad Whitford and bassist Tom Hamilton. Just like other versions of the hit game, players will progress from an unknown band to rock legends, this time following the story of the band, with some Aerosmith concerts and venues. Interestingly, Activision has promised Aerosmith’s extensive back catalog, as well as other songs from other artists that inspired the group.

HG Controllers want you to have an edge in your gaming. They’re selling custom modded Xbox 360 controllers that feature duplicate buttons on the underside. The extra buttons can be pressed by the same fingers that hold the controller. That should give you at least a split second advantage over your opponents who are still using a regular Xbox 360 controller. Timing is everything, after all.

The buttons can come in a variety of combinations that will compliment different games better. If you’re a Halo 3 fan, you can get the 4-Button modded controller for $89.99. Or you can just settle for a 2-Button version at only$69.99.