The keyboard would be good for messaging. I don't see how any (current) game could make use of it.

I'm not so sure those images are real. The headset port looks wrong on the first shot.

Combine this with the supposed instant messaging feature that might be coming and you get something pretty cool.

I think they're fake from a manufacturing perspective. Where the keyboard portion meets the controller portion there is a sharp channel along the divide. I think a part designed for actual production would make this edge smoother so the plastic would pop out of the mold more easily. The keypad does show some strong draft on the sides, so I could be wrong.

It would replace my laptop sitting beside me while I play, which would be cool, but I am unsure how it would feel.

Well, it would be more convenient to IM from the couch without a keyboard. I'm sure Microsoft knows this.

Updated original post to include new info. Looks like Major Nelson says it is real.

This will make coordinating gaming sessions really easy. Hopefully XBOX Live users will take the extra step to connect to MSN Messenger. This will bring free live text chat to the XBOX 360 and connect them to PC users.

Maybe some THX'er will become Trillian users before it's over. Trillian is an easy way to connect to MSN, Yahoo, AOL IM, Gtalk, ICQ, and other chat platforms.

Would be sweet if the device is backlit.

I wonder if it will come in black.

Just was sent news that it is backlit. Sweet.

Additionally, it will ship with it's own unique headset. Current headsets won't work with it.

Very cool. Glad I was wrong.

I'm definitely going to do that. As you mentioned, that will make it really easy to coordinate sessions.

It looked fake to me too. I thouhgt it was until I saw the IGN article.

And XBL just keeps getting better and better. So far, I'm not sad I've paid my 50 bucks this year.

All the more reason to get a wireless headset! :)

This is stupid. A thumb keyboard? Last time I checked XBL had this new technology called voice. You know using your vocal cords to produce sounds. But of course, using a THUMB KEYBOARD is so much easier.

I'm with JayWHY. I'm not convinced this is worth my money yet.

A thumb keyboard? Please. I can see how it would be superior to moving your high-lighted cursor across a keyboard on the screen, but I think that this game pad might be unergonomic and not that much of a big deal.

Better yet, why don't people decide to buy a USB keyboard and just type text faster with that?

Yeah, because EVERYBODY has a PC mic and actively uses it!

Testers have argued for its surprising ergonomics. We can agree about it not being a big deal, though. It's a big deal to some because it goes hand-in-hand with the excitement of the 360's dashboard update and the 360-to-PC messaging.

I don't want to plug a keyboard into my console and have that wire running to a keyboard sitting on my lap.

I don't see what market penetration of PC mic's has to do with this. I don't see a problem using voice chat. The person on a PC could still use a keyboard. My mic isn't preventing that.

Why should I have to downgrade to a thumb keyboard because they don't have a mic?

All the more reason to get a microsoft wireless keyboard: that drops connections constantly, types "psssssstttttttttttttt!" all the time, works from only two feet away, and constantly makes electronic noise as if the chorus from George Harrison's song "Wah-Wah" was stuck on repeat.

I'm surprised there's this much disagreement over this simple addon.

Here's where my opinion differs from jaywhy on the chat thing:
Chat is different than voice. There's a different dynamic to a chat session than to a voice session. I will hold multiple conversations with multiple people using chat. However I will only be able to do one 'voice session'. There's also a different edicate to chat. I am not offended, and neither is someone else when I leave them hanging for a few minutes in a chat session. I am also not offended when someone disconnects suddenly. But in a voice session, I would equate it to hanging up the phone.

Now it could be argued that voice could be done in the same manner, but I have never seen a voice chat session work this way. Now if someone created a similar interface where chat clips were QUICKLY and easily sent back and forth and stored in a queue like text chat, that'd be a different story. (jaywhy we should coordinate and write this if it doesn't exist ;)

Why is Microsoft making us pay for what is essentially another controller with an added gimmick (a useful one, at least)? I mean, this is just like the 360 Elite, where the Xbox team is dividing up the customers into their own tiers--Core, Premium, and now they're going to alienate us more with the Elite.

Keyboard + Controller = bad.

Who would have thought that texting on cell phone would be more popular than voice?

The keyboard part is detachable and sold separately...

Nobody makes you pay for anything. In a free market the consumer always gets to choose. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

However fanboish that may have sounded, I am still out to lunch on whether I want one. The thing text chat is really useful for on XBL, IMO, is spamming multiple friends who are doing different things in order to get them to all do the same thing. I can see myself sending messages to 6-7 THXers at a time trying to coordinate H3 multiplayer. However, I will not be using this feature to talk with one person. Private chat rules for that feature.

This changes everything. I may actually be interested in getting this device, then.