The first (but certainly not last) Dreamcast title to arrive on Xbox Live Arcade is, appropriately enough, the fastest. Major Nelson's latest schedule for the platform has revealed a September 15 release date for Sonic Adventure, which will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). No word yet on the release plans for Sega's other previously announced Dreamcast revival, Crazy Taxi.

We've contacted Sega to find out if the game will arrive on PSN on a similar timetable. We also sent them an email with the subject line "Give us Seaman," followed by a body of text which simply read, "SEEEEEAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAN.

It's the Xbox controller with a twist! As indicated by our source, Microsoft has announced a redesigned Xbox 360 wireless controller. The new gamepad will debut in a matte silver color with gray-toned face buttons and analog sticks with a more dramatic concave shape. Key to the new design is a "transforming" D-pad that changes from a semi-flush disc to a pop-out plus sign by twisting the D-pad clockwise. (Check out Major Nelson demonstrating the transformation in the video after the break.)

Microsoft offers this suggestion for how you might use the two D-pad configurations: "Select the traditional plus for distinct cardinal direction movement in games like Halo: Reach to change weapons and perform complicated combinations and deadly finishing moves in Street Fighter games, or rotate the D-pad to the disc format for sweeping motions in games such as Pro Evolution Soccer 2011."

The redesigned controller will only be available with the Play & Charge Kit. The bundle will launch on November 9 for $64.99.

Xbox Live Gold subscribers might want to renew before November 1, when the price of a yearly subscription to the service jumps $10 in North America.

According to a post on Major Nelson's blog, after eight years' of Xbox Live at the $50 a year price point, the service is finally seeing a price hike. Starting on November 1, a year Gold subscription to Xbox Live will run $59.99, versus the current price of $49.99. One month subscriptions will jump from $7.99 to $9.99, while three month subs will rise from $19.99 to $24.99.

Other regions will be seeing increases as well. In the UK the price of one month will jump from 4.99 GPB to 5.99 GPB. The price of a month in Canada rises a dollar to $9.99. Finally, a year subscription in Mexico rises from 499 to 599 pesos.

Microsoft is running a special deal right now for North American customers, allowing them to lock in a year at $39.99, $20 less than the new rate. For details, visit the deal website.

Jesse Divnich with industry analyst EEDAR sent out a statement accompanying the news, insuring consumers that $60 is still "an incredible value."

"When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers"

Whether or not $60 a year is an incredible value is ultimately up to consumers. What say you, consumers?

You know how sometimes people go "away" for the summer, and then when they come back they look ... totally different? Well, Major Nelson's Xbox Live Avatar didn't go anywhere but has seemingly undergone one such full body makeover -- as evidenced by the above comparison between the bobble-headed likeness (via Xbox Avatar Life) we had come to associate with the Xbox Live director of programming and his current Avatar. It would appear that Major's Avatar and perhaps other "VIP" Avatars are the (beta) test subjects in a forthcoming effort to transform the currently cartoonish Avatars into -- to put it candidly -- virtual figures that would look a lot less goofy in a motion-controlled sports game. Recently, Rare senior programmer Nick Burton told OXM UK that Xbox Live Avatars would be proportionally redesigned to better connect the physical movements of Kinect players to their on-screen Avatars. Presumably, this "Avatar 2.0" update would occur in time for Kinect's November 4 launch and possibly as part of the expected, annual fall update of the Xbox 360 UI. The new trimmer Avatars are visible in Rare's Kinect Sports screenshots below.