Bungie has stated that it new IP that we have all heard whispers about is not tied to Microsoft, and even better, it is not tied to the Xbox360. This means the game is likely a non-Halo project, but Bungie admitted they have not even decided on a primary platform yet. Stay tuned.

"No, we're not [tied into a specific platform for new IP]," said community and PR director Brian Jarrard, "We haven't gotten that far yet to be totally honest.

DailyGamesNews is reporting that another lawsuit has been filed again MS for the large number of Xbox360 hardware failures. The suit, being brought in Sacramento, California Superior Court, is a class action suit which admonishes MS for the poor quality of the 360 hardware. It claims MS knew about the problems but released the hardware anyway to beat the Wii and PS3 to market.

This is certainly rumor mill fodder for now. According to XboxEvolved, their sources have told them that the next Xbox console from Microsoft will be "forward compatible." This means that current Xbox360 games will be enhanced when played on the next hardware system. This happens to a small degree now, but apparently it will be on a totally different scale this time around. Increased draw distance, better frame rates, and more anti-aliasing, are just a few of the things the new hardware will add to older games, according to the XBE source. Hopefully this is true, but we likely have a long time to wait to confirm or deny this, and even if it is true now, it very well may change.

Microsoft is offering a free memory upgrade to anyone who purchased an Arcade Xbox360 system. If you are eligible, you can get a 20GB HDD for $19.99 or a free 512mb memory unit. Click over to the website and see if you can claim your offer. (Thanks, nXt)

The new Xbox Experience will allow you to log in to your account on a PC, and pre-purchase marketplace items. Once you do, as soon as you power on your XBox360 console, it will begin downloading and installing the items you purchased. (Thanks, Slinger)

Another bit of info in that Major Nelson Aaron Greenberg audio interview has come to light. Greenbarg totally dismisses the report that there is a Blu-Ray add on for the Xbox360 in the works. The latest report, from a few days ago, came directly from the supposed tech company commissioned to make the add on. Greenberg even goes so far as to say that Blu-Ray may be the next UMD, aka, dead format.

Aaron Greenberg, the MS director of product management, spoke with Major Nelson at TGS. He said he believes there has been a shift from the Playstation brand to the Xbox brand. Of course, he is biased, but with the latest ex-PS-exclusive franchise now on Xbox360 (Tekken), along with games like Final Fantasy XIII, this may be partially true. Major Nelson has the entire audio interview posted at his site.

Remember when MS told us that they would be de-listing many of the XBLA games that did not sell very well, in preparation for the OS upgrade? Well, now MS has revealed that the de-listing plan ahas been deferred, and may even be canceled altogether. For the same reason it was being done, believe it or not! MS claims that with the new, shiny, OS, they may sell more XBLA games, so they are leaving them on there for a while.

Sony's president of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, stated in an interview with Eurogamer that he does want Microsoft's Xbox360 to succeed in Japan. He says it will help push the concepts of HD gaming to the mass gamer. He would like both the PS3 and Xbox360 to sell well, in fact, in order to convince Japanese gamers that a more sophisticated take on games is preferable over the Wii, he says. The Wii is currently beating both consoles in Japan, with the PS3 and Xbox360 trading higher spots in the sales list, but always lagging behind Nintendo.

"Quite honestly, the real number being sold - we haven't seen real acceptance of the platform here in the Japanese market. The Nintendo Wii is still by far the biggest platform in Japan,"

Bungie has revealed that the upcoming Halo 3 Recon will be the last game in the Halo Trilogy series. Bungie is working on two other titles though, so they are keeping busy, but Recon is it for now for the Halo storyline. We think it is better to retire when you are on top anyway. Pull a Seinfeld, if you will.

"But I think when this project wraps up in a couple of months that will be the time when that team moves on to something else - part of that team will move on to something else and part of them will probably be absorbed into one of the other projects that are already on the way."