We knew this had been coming for a long time but it’s still cool to finally see it. The new Xbox 360 was unveiled by Microsoft during its keynote presentation at E3 and the new console features a 250GB hard drive, built-in wireless capabilities and is compatible with Microsoft’s new motion control system, Kinect.

Shiny and quiet, yippee!

As expected, the new Xbox 360 (and there’s no real official title besides for ‘the new Xbox 360′, though some are calling it the ‘Xbox 360 250GB’)  is slimmer and sleeker in its design and is “significantly quieter” than its predecessor. It also boasts a smaller power supply than the original Xbox 360 and features three USB ports on the back panel and two at the front. The hard-drive of the device is also smaller and, as The Telegraph points it, this has prompted questions about how owners of the current Xbox 360 will migrate their saved data to the new console.

Microsoft Senior Vice President of interactive entertainment, Don Mattrick made the announcement at the end of Microsoft’s E3 briefing, saying that the new console would be sold for exactly the same recommended retail price as the Xbox Elite console and would ship to US retail outlets this week. Consumers in Ireland and Britain will have to wait until mid-July to get our hands on it though.

In addition, the E3 briefing saw the annoucnment of some upcoming titles of note such as ‘Gears Of War 3’, ‘Fable III’ and ‘Halo Reach’. This goes alongside the games announced for the Kinect at its shiny, happy, glitzy launch during an MTV event the other night.