Check out the following new screens and trailers from Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show 2008 lineup:

• 'Fable II' (X360) - New Screens
• 'Halo Wars' (X360) - New Screens & Trailer
• 'Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' (X360) - 16 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Ninja Blade' (X360) - Facts, Features, Screens & Trailer
• 'Arkanoid Live!' (X360) Announced - Facts, Features & Screens
• 'R-Type Dimensions' (XBLA) Announced - Facts, Features & Screens
• 'Space Invaders Extreme' (XBLA) Announced - Facts, Features & Screens
• 'Meteos Wars' (XBLA) - Screens
• 'Tenchu: Shadow Assault' (XBLA) - 11 New Screens
• 'Halo 3: Recon' (X360) Announced - Screens & Trailer

Microsoft unveiled details about a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional gaming research alliance that will provide the fundamental scientific evidence to support games as learning tools for math and science subjects among middle-school students.

Microsoft has created a Children’s Miracle Network Family Game pack for X360 that will be available by Oct. 15. The $29.99 pack includes Viva Piñata Party Animals, Sonic The Hedgehog and Shrek The Third, of which all the proceeds will go to support one of the 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.

In the last few weeks Microsoft has been ramping up its internal development teams, even though it will be closing Ensemble Studio soon, as not only did it recently recruit Bungie's Frank O'Connor, and Gearbox's tech programmer Corrinne Yu, but also former MGS 4 producer Ryan Payton. In a recent interview MGS head Phil Spencer revealed that all this is not just for one particular title or other, but that MGS has "more than two or three teams building Halo things right now."

Microsoft announced the new lower ERP for its Xbox 360 family of consoles in Europe. From Friday, 19th September, the 60Gb Xbox 360 model will have an ERP of £169.99/€239.99, while the 120GB Elite version will have an ERP of £229.99/€299.99, and the HD-less will have an ERP of £129.99/€179.99.

Following rumors from earlier today, Microsoft confirmed it has decided to close Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. After the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.

It has been rumored for months, retail chains have been hinting at it the past few weeks, a few days ago Microsoft Japan confirmed it would be slashing its price, and now Microsoft finally confirmation that as of Sept. 5 it will reduce the HD-less Arcade edition to $199, the 60GB edition to $299, and the 120GB Elite model will cost $399.

While the weekend is being dominated by PAX, Microsoft Japan held its 4th annual press conference in Tokyo, where it ran through its fall lineup of titles. Starting off with showing that hardware sales have spiked, especially since the Tales of Vesperia launch last month, Microsoft revealed it is bringing over Fable 2, Fallout 3, HAWX, Mass Effect, Oblivion and Winning Eleven. New titles revealed are Namco-Bandai/KOEI's mecha game Dynasty Warriors GUNDAM 2 and From Software's cinematic action game Ninja Blade, produced by Lost Planet's designer Keiji Nakoka. Microsoft also announced it is cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade model by 8,000 yen ($73.92) to 19,800 yen (making it cheaper than the Wii), as well as the 2 hard drive-enabled models by 5,000-8,000 yen.

Announced way back in 2003, Microsoft Train Simulator 2 provides the opportunity to command a 200-ton modern diesel locomotive or operate a steam-breathing behemoth from the past.

Remember that rumble lawsuit that went on between Sony and Immersion? Everybody wondered why Microsoft did not get sued as well, but the software giant cleverly and quietly settled. There was more to it than met the eye: In the 2003 settlement, an odd clause offered Microsoft $15 million if Immersion sued Sony and obtained a settlement, which, they did in 2007. However, Immersion never paid Microsoft, which led to another lawsuit; Immersion agreed to pay Microsoft $20.75 million and enroll in Microsoft's Certified Partner Program.

Yesterday SCEA's Director of Publisher Relations Michael Shorrock stated that PS3 guitars and drum sets will all feature a basic level of gameplay compatibility, and today Microsoft chimed in saying that this is also the case for the Xbox 360 editions, meaning Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution software.

Check out the following new screens & trailers from Microsoft's E3 2008 lineup:

• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (X360) - 10 New Screens & Trailer
• Fable 2 (X360) - 13 New Screens & Trailer
• Gears of War 2 (X360) - 5 New Screens & Trailer
• Halo Wars (X360) - 10 New Screens & Trailer
• Lips (X360) - 8 New Screens & Trailer
• Scene It? Box Office Smash (X360) - 5 New Screens & Trailer
• UNO Rush (X360) - 7 New Screens & Trailer
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (X360) - 5 New Screens & Trailer
• You're in the Movies (X360) - 11 New Screens

Last month Microsoft revealed that it was reducing the price of its 20GB unit to $300 while at the same time introducing a 60GB edition for $380. According to Ars Technica there might be more as its sources revealed Microsoft might hack off another $50 off the entire model lineup, the HD less Xbox 360 Arcade would go from $279 to $199, while the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro gets reduced from $ 350 to $299, and the high end 120GB Xbox 360 Elite would be sold for $399 instead of its original $449 price.

Shortly after a similar Sony announcement, Microsoft revealed at Gamefest 2008 that it will allow anyone to turn the hobby of game-making into a full-fledged career by allowing members of the XNA Creators Club to create, sell and share in the profits generated by their unique creations.

Microsoft's pre-E3 briefing began with a roundup of some of their upcoming triple-A titles, and moved on to discuss their new dashboard and several new functionalities for Xbox Live. If one thing was emphasized over the course of the briefing, it was a renewed focus on cooperative play. Many of the games that were shown were either party games meant for multiple players or otherwise introduced an unexpected cooperative element for an upcoming title.

Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck, as it announced an X360 with triple the storage space of the original, but for the old price of $349 (U.S.), at the same time dropping the previous 20GB model's price to $299 (while supplies last).

Microsoft is bringing E3 home to its Xbox LIVE members across the globe by providing breaking Xbox 360 news directly from the event to their TVs, including the surprising announcements at the Microsoft E3 keynote, as well as various demos such as for Silicon Knights' Too Human.

On June 27, 2008, Bill Gates transitions from his day-to-day role at Microsoft to focus more time on his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates will remain Microsoft’s chairman and will be involved in select projects based on direction from Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and the leadership team.

Got a new X360 console or had one repaired, but maybe you downloaded games or other content from Xbox Live Marketplace onto an older X360 console, and now you want all that content on your new system. With the license transfer tool, you can transfer the licenses of all your previously downloaded content from your old console to the new one.

Microsoft announced that marketing veteran Michael Delman has been named corporate vice president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

Microsoft announced its corp. VP of Global Marketing Jeff Bell will resign to pursue other opportunities while Shane Kim will assume the newly created role of corp. VP of Strategy and Business Development. Current GM of Microsoft Game Studios Europe, Phil Spencer, will return to Redmond from the U.K. to take on his new role as GM of the global Microsoft Game Studios business.

Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten revealed to Next-Gen that Microsoft is going to give its Xbox Live Arcade service a makeover by "delisting" unpopular XBLA titles (6+ months old, less than 6% sell through, less than 65% score average). On top of the recent size limit hike, Microsoft will also tackle the DRM issue (couldn't move over purchased titles when the X360 died) by releasing a tool that will let people consolidate their titles to a new unit. Last, but not least, the software giant will also start up a first-party studio that will solely develop Xbox Live Arcade titles. Unfortunately, this means there will be no Spring dashboard update.

Xbox Live Arcade's worldwide games portfolio planner David Edery revealed that Microsoft is planning on raising the limit for XBLA titles to 350mb, saying "We've been listening to our partners, listening to our customers to try and get a feel for what's right. We don't want the size limit to hit the roof because we think there's some value in promoting small pick and play experiences that don't cost USD 20 million, it's good for the ecosystem."

Check out the following new screens and trailers from Microsoft's Gamers Day 2008 lineup:

• 'Gears of War 2' (X360) - Facts, Features & Screens
• ''Penny Arcade Adventures: Ep. 1' (X360/PC) Gets Release Date - Screens
• 'Fable 2' (X360) Coming This Holiday - 14 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Too Human' (X360) Coming in August - 20 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise' (X360) Announced - Facts, Features, Screens & Trailer
• 'Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' (X360) Announced - Facts, Features, Screens & Trailer
• 'Ninja Gaiden II' (X360) - 15 New Screens & Trailer

Rumored since Microsoft's X06 event, and confirmed last year when it partnered up with Peter Jackson to form Wingnut Interactive, a new Halo title is in the works, but not "at" Bungie. Microsoft Game Studios is currently recruiting a Creative Director, Producer, Game Engineers and more to “help develop a new experience in the Halo universe,” and "partner with key Hollywood talent." Once that cat was out of the bag Microsoft confirmed these positions are to work with Lord of the Rings producer Peter Jackson and Bungie.