Mega-chain Best Buy is sending $50 gift cards to customers who bought HD DVD players or attachments from its US stores prior to Feb. 23 (coincidentally, for our readership, the date Microsoft declared the format dead to the company). CNN reports most customers won't have to do a thing to receive the card as they'll be identified through the Reward Zone program, service plans or online purchases. If you're a customer who won't be identified in this manner, just grab a receipt (you do keep those, right?) or provide your credit card info to the company for proof of purchase. Gift cards will be sent out by May 1.

Circuit City provided a similar deal earlier this month to recent HD DVD adopters by allowing them to return the product if it had been purchased within 90 days. Both Best Buy and Circuit City's online trade-in programs (run by the same company) will allow you to unload your player beginning March 21. Before anyone thinks they're being witty, only HD DVD players can be returned for store credit, you're not getting $50 per movie disc purchased. Although this format war was in no way these retailer's fault, it's very nice to see them taking care of customers left out in the cold.

[Via Gizmodo]

[Update: It's official. More information and higher resolution pics of the rendering here.]

With Gamespot and other sites leaking details about the upcoming Dashboard updates to the 360, you've gotta wonder how text messaging between the 360 and Windows users will work. Typing out even the briefest of messages using the 360 Controller is a lesson in patience; it's easier to record and send a voice message than it is to hammer out "LOL WRU?" on that thing. Enter this Xbox 360 snap-on qwerty keyboard attachment -- conveniently also leaked (and now pulled) by Gamespot -- which will be available in the summer for an unknown price. Luckily Engadget snagged some shots before they disappeared into the ether. One more after the break.

We mused about the subject a few months back, and now PEGA's delivering with a set of cheap plastic Wiimote attachments. For ¥2,780 (about $23), suckers can preorder the set, which includes a mock golf club, baseball bat, and tennis racket (all measuring approximately 16 inches in length). At that length (and without much weight), the attachments won't add much to the sense of realism; though they will increase the risk of actually striking someone or something while playing Wii Sports. No thanks.

See also: Wii-eel attachment looks rather un-wii-ldy

Mercury Meltdown Revolution, the only Wii title so far to hint at its former nickname, has dropped support for the GameCube controller as previously planned; however, using the classic controller is still just fine and dandy.

Ed Bradley, studio manager for MMR developer Ignition Entertainment, told Eurogamer that "we've had to drop support for the GameCube controller as it's a very much 'at developers own risk' proposition and we're not masochists!" The context is not entirely clear, but our best guess is that, while a library of code for the classic controller may be provided by Nintendo, the burden of programming for GCN ports is on the developer and Bradley didn't feel like expending the resources.

Here's our worry: remember when Smash Bros. Brawl producer Masahiro Sakurai revealed that GameCube controllers would be compatible, so as not to alienate those who prefer the traditional -- dare we say classic -- control scheme? What if Nintendo's beat-em-up only supports the classic controller attachment? The cynic in us fears Nintendo would nix GCN controller support in order to sell a few more attachments. Not that it's a bad attachment, mind you, but we already have so many GCN controllers lying around that we don't want them to go to waste.

Not that this Hyrulian sword and shield combo is an authentic retail item, but the apparent mock-up could be foreshadowing an impending flood of first-party, third-party, and homebrewed attachments targeting Wii. What's to stop a campaign of branded plastic snap-on Link swords and Samus arm cannons from saturating the market; or Nerf-style racket and bat heads endorsed by superstar athletes?

Cheap to produce, and when marketed correctly (e.g., exclusive 'Collector's Edition' material), the sort of trinkets the kiddies (and diehards) gotta have.

[Via Aeropause]