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Microsoft's taken steps to appeal to the casual crowd, sure. The first was NXE, which brought us all things like Avatars and Netflix, with subsequent updates adding Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm. These are experiences meant to broaden the appeal of the Xbox 360 to casual gamers, a group that Microsoft spokesperson David Dennis told GI.biz is pretty tricky to hook.

Project Natal will play a big part in Microsoft's continuing goal to interest more casual players, Dennis said. He compared the interactive, controller-less experience to having the broad appeal of a title like Wii Fit -- something Dennis calls "an experience done right" that goes beyond the core yet still manages to "capture the imagination of the core." It's this dual-catering that Dennis thinks Natal excel at, as he predicts the hardware will enable experiences that the core will look forward to, as well as "casual game experiences that are easy to jump in and play."

In the interim, we offer Microsoft this ProTip for appealing to more casual players: Make more games with "Party" in the title. Who doesn't like a party?

The man known as Major Nelson has been so kind as to remind us all that child accounts for Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm have now been enabled for US Xbox 360 users. Once granted parental permission, Xbox Live child account holders over the age of 13 will be able to access these applications. The Major reminds everyone to make sure to select automatic logins for all the applications, otherwise you will be prompted for parental permission every time an app is launched. We'd have to agree with his advice. After all, Mom coming in to give you and your friends Tang and lemon squares: Cool. Mom coming in to log you into Facebook: Not cool.

As promised, Spike's 2009 Video Game Awards delivered the first footage (in-game, 'natch) of Halo: Reach to the masses. More Spartans? Check! Female Spartans? Check check! A skullfaced Spartan? Wait ... what?! Since the show just aired, we've got a low-res version of the trailer for you after the break and will have a prettied up version as soon as it's available.

-DS: 1.7M1.2M (+262%)
-Wii: 1.26M753K (+149%)
-360: 820K570K (+228%)
-PS3: 710K389K (+121%)
-PSP: 294K119K (+76%)
-PS2: 203K85K (72%)

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

Flatly rejecting the holiday spirit of giving, Microsoft has released a new collection of premium Avatar items. As you may have guessed, the items have a holiday theme. The collection encompasses a large range of items from New Year's hats to dashikis to dreidels. Microsoft has even released the traditional ugly Christmas sweater, even going so far as to title it "Ugly Sweater." That's right, you can spend real money on a digital version of the worst possible present you could receive.

The only thing more depressing is knowing that people will actually buy it.

When Microsoft rolled out Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm support for the Xbox 360, a number of users were less than impressed. Specifically, those with child Xbox Live accounts were not allowed to use any of the new applications. Outside the US, Microsoft has now released an update that allows child accounts to access these features, so long as parental permission is given. Major Nelson advises users to set each application to log in automatically upon first activation. Otherwise, those with child accounts will be prompted for parental permission every time the application is launched.

Fear not, US gamers, the update will hit American shores on December 15.

Say what you will about Rare, it certainly knows us. The company announced via its Twitter account that the XBLA version of Perfect Dark was officially slated for early 2010 and not winter like it promised, and before we could even work ourselves into the hint of a lather, Rare chided that the window "is still 'winter', stop moaning."

To help smooth things over a little more the company dropped the fresh screenshot you can see above. OK, Rare, you're forgiven ... this time.

After promising to reveal the December Lips DLC last week, we finally manged to wrangle a list from Microsoft. As is usually the case with Lips, the collection is runs everywhere from pop to Motown to ... wait, They Might Be Giants? And Violent Femmes? Truly, the Lips programming schedule is a mysterious thing.

The entire list is located after the break, though we'll save you some suspense: Paula Abdul and The Temptations fans have a lot to be excited about. In fact, the Temptations tracks, as well as Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer's "Baby It's Cold Outside" are available now.

If you read the first installment in the latest installment of "Pachter Predixx," you already know that the analyst's new report praises the PS3 for its resilience during these troubled times. According to the report, the PS3 saw an 85-percent year-over-year sales increase in November, while the Wii and Xbox 360 suffered sales declines. This reversal in fortune leads Pachter and his Wedbush associates to a surprising conclusion: "We think that the PS3 will again outsell the Xbox 360 in November and December, prompting a price cut some time early next year."

Pachter adds that while Microsoft "has the ability to lower price yet again," it probably won't do so until "it begins to lose significant market share to Sony." As with all conjecture -- even when delivered by professional conjecture conjurers -- we suggest considering Pachter's educated guess as just that: a guess.

Last year's free Xbox Live Arcade game from the Unlock Xbox contest, Dash of Destruction, may not have been the best game we ever played, but it was certainly far from the worst. Also, it had that whole costing nothing thing going for it, so that helped our opinions considerably. This year, our chances of getting a fun game have doubled, with the contest's 1,500 competitors vying for two spots rather than one.

The final eight contestants have been culled from the initial submissions (listed after the break), and are now available to be voted on over at the contest's website, ultimately determining three game ideas to be given final pitches at Microsoft. From there, we get two XBLA games full of Doritos' "bold, intense" branding -- and at the very least some free Achievements.

Games on Demand, a.k.a. full game downloads, is one of the more recent additions to Xbox Live -- and today Microsoft has announced that it's bringing the service to its Games For Windows Live platform beginning December 15. GFWL creative director Chuck Osieja calls the initiative "Microsoft's return to delivering Windows games built on unique LIVE experiences." The service has a rocky history of sporadic supported releases and last summer ditched its subscription fees in the face of competition from the likes of Steam.

The move puts Microsoft up against Valve's digi-distribution service, which similarly offers community features and its own Achievements system, but boasts a much larger catalog at present. The GFWL Games on Demand initial lineup will include Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Battlestations Pacific along with new GFWL-enabled versions of 2D Boy's excellent World of Goo and Hemisphere Games' Osmos -- all titles currently offered by Steam, with some available via Stardock's Impulse service. Microsoft hasn't divulged pricing for titles offered via GFWL Games on Demand.

A reworked version of the former Windows Vista Ultimate Extra Tinker will be made available free to GFWL users when the Games on Demand service launches a week from next Tuesday.

Oh, you think it's funny, making your virtual soldier explode with the force of a small supernova every time he gets killed? Yeah, we suppose it is. Know what else is funny? Getting banned from Xbox Live. Oh, wait, did we say funny? We meant really unpleasant. However, according to Xbox Live's Director of Policy and Enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, using Modern Warfare 2's Javelin glitch (an unsavory practice demoed in this video) is cheating, as defined by the service's Terms of Use. According to Toulouse, anyone caught self-detonating will be banned for 24 hours, or if caught repeatedly, two weeks.

For us honest folk, it seems the wait for a patch, which will cull the kamikaze epidemic, will be short. Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweeted yesterday that a fix is currently being tested, and, "once it's cleared, we'll be urging it through Microsoft & Sony certification as fast as possible." Keep the fire, troops. We can make it through this thing together.

German Borderlands players who just had to import the gory, uncensored version of the title from another region are getting their comeuppance. According to a lengthy thread on the Gearbox forums, players who purchase the Zombie Island of Doctor Ned expansion from the German Xbox Live Marketplace can't access the new content from their imported copies of the game.

We've contacted Gearbox to find out if anything is being done to refund the DLC's 800 cost to these depraved, violence-crazed importers. They certainly don't seem like the type of crowd you'd want to upset.