According to DailyGamesNews, Microsoft is the target of a class action lawsuit in California, alleging that not only have too many Xbox 360s failed, but that the company concealed the fact to "compete with the pending launch of Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's Wii gaming systems." If it loses the suit, Microsoft would have to "disgorge" all the cash it made on the 360 and implement a refund program in California.

... Ladies and gentlemen, our economy is hurting. Now is the time for us to rally around our gigantic corporations, not try to tear them down! Did you know that Bill Gates is only the planet's third richest man now? Can you imagine how that must feel, being a hair's breadth from being surpassed by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal? No. No, we bet you can't.

You know that part of the beach where there's only one set of bald-eagle-skin loafer footprints? That's where he carried you.

Folks, it's the end of an era. As of last Friday, June 27, Microsoft founder Bill Gates had officially left the company, although he's staying on as non-executive chairman. Engadget spent all day celebrating the man whose company was responsible Windows, Xbox and Flight Simulator. If you're interested, be sure to check out his top ten hits (and misses); Xbox and Xbox 360 make the list (in the hits category), while Games for Windows - Live earns a cameo in the other list.

Let's face it, the Xbox 360 is hardly the most reliable console on the block. Seemingly destroyed by so much as a stiff breeze, older models weren't exactly made to last. Thus, 360 owners everywhere are intimately familiar with the replacement process that begins with a call to Xbox customer service. The Consumerist is reporting a new twist on that process: emailing Bill Gates directly. When the 360 originally launched, a Consumerist reader named Jon spent weeks dealing with Microsoft customer service before finally being handed to the escalation department which finally fixed his problem. Two years later (i.e now) Jon is experiencing 360 problems again. However, instead of calling customer service, Jon dug up Bill Gates' email address and wrote him an email. Within a day he was called by the escalation department and informed that his new console had been shipped.

We'd like to know exactly what Jon's problem was though. After all, Microsoft replaces Red Ring of Death consoles with no questions asked these days. Still, Jon's story is impressive, but it would have be even more impressive if he had gotten Bill to throw in a free Surface.

If you saw our coverage -- don't click yet if you didn't -- you know the Guitar Hero-related jokes from the final* Bill Gates CES keynote. But even if you know the premise, these videos are worth watching as a study in tradeshow comedy. Is humor in the timing or the delivery?

See the keynote comedy after the break.


*As Microsoft chairman, that is.

If there was one highlight from last night's CES keynote we'd have to say Bill Gates and Robbie Bach's Guitar Hero III-off was pretty entertaining. Actually, neither actually played the game as they each had their own "ringer" to play for them, but that's half the fun. We'll agree that it's a bit scripted, a bit awkward at times and a tad of a stretch, but seeing Bill Gates bringing Slash on stage and watching the over-production of it all is simply priceless. Not to mention the fact that we have Les Paul faceplate envy and hope Microsoft hooks us up with the one they used on stage. Relax, watch and enjoy.

Closing out this year's CES keynote, Microsoft's Robbie Bach invited Guitar Hero champion Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone on stage to play Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" on Guitar Hero 3. Not willing to be outdone, keynote speaker Bill Gates brings out Slash - of Guns n' Roses fame - to play "Welcome to the Jungle" on a real guitar. We'll leave the real vs. virtual guitar debate to you and South Park. Instead, we'll just spend our time wishing for this performance - and The Office parody from earlier in the keynote - show up as online video soon.

Having previously announced its intentions to have the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (STB) at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates told the audience at this year's keynote that British telecommunications company BT Group will be the first company to use the console as a set-top box, whose interface was most recently seen by accident in a repaired console.

Said Gates, "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. Buy a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV." No other details are given (what about DVR?), but we're hoping to hear some more soon. Check out our hands-on with the service from last year's show.

So what's Bill Gates going to do now that he's retiring? As noted at in Engadget's liveblog of his CES keynote, Gates produced a video showing his final day in office. Said U2 singer Bono to Gates, "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero."

Bono is seen talking in a confessional akin to NBC's The Office. "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that." So much for that. How about setting your sights a little lower - say, Coldplay?

We're less than a half hour away from Bill Gates' 12th and reportedly final keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (at least as Chairman of Microsoft). Hoping for some Xbox announcements? So are we. Our friends at Engadget are liveblogging the presentation and we'll keep you up to date on any pertinent (i.e. game-related) announcements. Stay tuned.

Update: Major Nelson is set to live blog the keynote and is posting pictures to his Flickr account. Also, if any exciting 360 news goes down you can guarantee we'll be blogging about it.

Just a reminder fellow fanboys that you (yes you!) will be able to watch a live broadcast of Bill Gates' 2008 CES keynote tonight at 9:30PM eastern (6:30PM pacific). Tonight we may hear about the rumored Ultimate Xbox 360, maybe some new Marketplace partnerships or even learn that Microsoft will start offering a Blu-ray player peripheral (don't bank on that one). No matter what is announced, we'll get some Xbox 360 news and a first glimpse of what is planned for the 360 in 2008. To watch, simply make your way over to the Microsoft at CES website for a live feed of the keynote and be sure to have either Windows Media Player or Silverlight to watch (insert sad face for non-Microsoft fanboys). Gates walks on stage at 9:30PM eastern tonight, get pumped and watch live! Dahhh!

This Sunday Bill Gates will walk across the CES 2008 stage one last time for his final keynote speech. And just like years before, Mr. Gates will be touching on hot technology topics, Windows news, Zune facts and possibly some Xbox 360 HD DVD details as well. Or so thinks the Seattle Times. They're speculating that Billy will go out with a bang at this year's CES revealing a partnership with Toshiba to release an "Ultimate" Xbox 360 that packs HD DVD and DVR functionality. Not only that, but they also think Microsoft will announce other 360 partnerships as well.

A new HD DVD enabled Xbox 360 would be pretty cool and would help defend against the Blu-ray takeover while at the same time proving that Michael Bay was correct all along. But our other half says we already have enough variety when it comes to Xbox 360 models and an Ultimate version would be kind of overkill. No matter what Billy talks about during the keynote all we really want is any Xbox 360 news that is more exciting than last year's IPTV functionality (of which hasn't come to fruition anyway). Can we at least get that much?

This Sunday will mark the end of an era: Bill Gates is going to deliver his final CES keynote in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, the rumor mill continues to churn, unwilling or unable to pause briefly and reflect on the legac ...

... whoa, sorry about that. On to the rumor du jour: Seattle Times staff columnist Brier Dudley speculates that Microsoft "may be preparing to license the Xbox gaming platform to consumer-electronics companies." While you look up 3DO on Wikipedia (we'll help you out), we'll continue with the specifics of this speculation. Dudley envisions a Toshiba-built 'box bundling "a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive and Xbox gaming capabilities." Alternatively, Microsoft could forgo the licensing and bundle that HD DVD drive themselves "putting it on par with Sony's PlayStation 3 that has a built-in Blu-ray drive."

The rumors regarding an integrated HD DVD drive have been swirling about for some time (Toshiba says "no comment"), so Dudley could be basing his speculation on the old "where there's smoke, there's fire" adage. Guess we'll know soon enough.