From the "News to Me" department, apparently there are a fair number of 360 players out there who think that the current controller's D-pad is for shit. While I myself have never had any issues or problems with the current configuration, it would seem that a large percentage of the population has found the current pad to be unresponsive and problematic. In fact, enough people have complained about it that Microsoft has gone back to the drawing board and come up with a whole new controller, one that has a transforming D-pad.

As seen above, the new controller's D-pad will be able to switch from the existing near-flush configuration to the new, 90-degree rotated popped-out look. As explained on the official Microsoft website, you'll use the new pad in the "plus" format for cardinal directional moves, and the "disc" format is for sweeping moves. Again, since I've never had any real issues one way or the other, I'm not sure how much of a fix this is, but I'm probably the wrong guy to ask.

You may also notice that the color pallette for the new controller is different from the standard. For the first time, the face buttons on an official Xbox controller will not be in the standard red, blue, yellow and green. Rather, the whole thing has a grey matte appearance to it, making the face buttons silver and black. Additionally, the analog sticks have a concave design to them, which is also new. The new controller will go on sale beginning November 9th as part of a Play & Charge Kit for $64.99.

If the above pictures weren't explanatory enough, check out this video of Major Nelson demonstrating the new controller.