If the Guitar Hero franchise comes to the 360, could we be seeing not only downloadable tracks and guitars via the marketplace, but perhaps also online play over XBox Live? Perhaps even "Ultimate Guitar Hero" tourneys? The possibilities are endless and the very idea has me (I'm one song away from completing GH on Expert) giddy at the possibility of schooling Hawkes with my wireless guitar controller.

Even so, this is unconfirmed by anybody outside our source and so should be taken with a grain of salt.

JOYSTIQ.COM - See how happy those people are? That happiness does not come from the knowledge they are paid to get excited -- okay, so it does, but let's suspend reality and pretend they are actual playtesters. David Weller, the community manager at Microsoft's Game Technology Group, is putting out the call on his blog for participants under age 18, preferably between six and 12-years-old, to playtest some upcoming games.

If you do decide to participate, do Microsoft a favor and come into the program with a critical mind and not just as a chance to be the first kid on your block to try Project X. Weller (gamertag: LetsKillDave) and his group will probably need you to check every nook and cranny and give earnest feedback on the progress of the game, so that it does not get released as buggy and un-fun piece of software that will never sell.

If you are interested, you (and your parent) can fill out this form. You can tell them LetsKillDave sent you, but that might upset Mom and Pop.

HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM - In his latest podcast, Microsoft Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hyrb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) spoke with Amir Majidimehr, vp of the company's Consumer Media Technology Group, all about HD DVD and Microsoft's decision to back that format and not Blu-ray (Sony's competing next-gen DVD format).

Majidimehr said Microsoft was actually "quite active" with both formats before choosing to back HD DVD exclusively. The primary reason for that was to get Microsoft's compression technology VC1 adopted by both formats. The more Microsoft looked at both formats, however, the more convinced the company became that Blu-ray wouldn't be the best technology to support.

"As time went by we started to get concerned about a few things on Blu-ray," he said. "Number 1 was viability of being able to manufacture that disc. Blu-ray moves the recording surface very close to the top of the disc, the top layer of the disc, and as you do that it gets harder and harder to manufacture those discs with high reliability. And indeed if you look at the marketplace today, Blu-ray has launched at half their capacity, at 25 gigabytes and are having difficulty ramping up to 50 gigabytes."

1UP.COM - More details on Microsoft's worst-kept-secret continue to filter out through the blogosphere. Both Engadget and Gizmodo have updates on the device from their sources, details further cementing the idea that Zune, at least in its initial release, will not have anything to do with games. That doesn't, however, mean there won't be Xbox 360 hooks.

He didn’t say how much it would cost, but the Xbox 360 gesture recognition depends on two the Xbox Live Visions, so they shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive.

Other aspects we’re looking forward to: putting your face into characters in games (hasn’t been announced but there’s been talk forever), and using your face as your gamerpic. We hope there’s some filtering on that, or else there’s going to be a lot of hairy testicle gamerpics on Live. – Jason Chen

Show #176 The one about the dash update [Major Nelson via Games Industry]