My favorite Frodo hosted a big MTV unveil for the new videogame console from Microsoft, the Xbox 360. And if you look at the photos, you’ll see Elijah looks positively angelic as he basks in the glow of what The House of Bill has wrought.

The folks over at Gamespot have a big feature all about the new toy, and it does indeed look like Microsoft is doing more things right this time, starting with the most obvious – the design of the system. The original Xbox has all grace and charm of a heat sink, so cosmetically things are already looking like a big improvement. Wireless controllers, USB ports (want a custom soundtrack for your racing game? hook up your iPod and it streams to the game. sweet!), widescreen HD and surround support, a detachable hard drive, and a beefed up version of Xbox Live – all very nice.

What’s unknown is how much the 360 will cost. Will MS sell this thing for only $300, like the first Xbox? I think they’ll have to if they want to truly take advantage of getting to the market ahead of Sony.

The other problem is that there haven’t been many games announced yet, which seems odd given the impending November release. But E3, the videogame industry’s big tradeshow, is fast approaching. Look for game announcements, and possibly the system’s price, to be disclosed at that time.

E3 is also reported to feature next-generation announcements from both Sony and Nintendo, so here’s their chance to steal Microsoft’s thunder before the 360 is even in stores. It’s widely believed that Nintendo will release their new entry in the Legend of Zelda series (the most-anticipated game of 2005) on the same day that Microsoft launches 360.

Btw, why Xbox 360? Microsoft is all but admitting that Xbox 2 would make the system sound inferior to the Playstation 3 when Sony releases their new machine sometime in mid-late 2006. (Nevermind that with an extra year of development, Sony’s next console probably WILL be technologically superior).

Maybe Sony will decide to name their system something like the Playstation 4000. That’d really burn Bill’s toast.