Major Nelson has announced that by next week, all Xbox Live users will be able to start enjoying the new social networking apps being added to the Dashboard. More after the jump.

More reports are coming in, which all seem to verify the unconfirmed word we received yesterday regarding Microsoft's standing order of 1 million banned Xbox  consoles on XBL. InformationWeek has now reported that Microsoft has in fact already effectively locked out as much as one million Xbox 360 owners. MS, for their end, has finally released an official statement regarding the bannings.

The Xbox 360 is keeping those third party devices at bay and those who intend to make any would literally need Microsoft's seal of approval. X-Gaming does not have such a seal. So instead of knocking on Steve Ballmer's door to get a "yes" and later find Major Nelson clarifying it as a "no", X-Gaming found a way to bypass security to enable the use of their X-Arcade stick for the Xbox 360. The irony of it all? It uses a PS2 adapter.

It's been a while, and a lot of things definitely happened this week for the green blog. We have here some buzz pertaining to the supposed inclusion of Blu-ray into the Xbox 360, an expected subsequent denial, and piqued interest as to this possibility and more. On the games front, we've got a slew of add-ons and new releases, as well as record-making/ record-breaking game sessions. Catch up on things you might have missed this week on the Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior.

Xbox Live director of programming Major Nelson (also known as Larry Hryb) has clarified Steve Ballmer's statement yesterday regarding the apparent confirmation of a Blu-ray drive accessory for the Xbox 360.

Halo Waypoint will be included in the 360 Dashboard update preview program. This great news for all Halo fans was relayed by Major Nelson himself, but then again is also kinda expected given the sheer magnitude of the release.

Over the weekend, news came out that Microsoft will now be removing unauthorized storage devices on your Xbox 360 via a system update. A lot of people didn't look too kindly upon this initiative, and apparently, Datel is on the side of gamers on this one, too.

If you're a Preview Program member and you've been saving backup files from your Xbox 360 on an another storage device, read this now. This is important. An Xbox 360 system update is coming next week, and one of the changes is that all storage devices that are not officially-licensed for the Xbox 360 will no longer work with the console.


Thanks Gurka R!

Major Nelson posted a short and sweet shout out over at his blog to inform all you Mass Effect fans that they have just added new Avatar items on the XBL Marketplace.

Major Nelson has posted a stern warning to those who cheat to win in Shadow Complex. In his message to the Shadow Complex community, he said that in an effort to enrich the gaming experience of players, they will be enacting strict measures, even if it means "deleting leaderboard information generated by those who try to compromise our game."