According to an email a Microsoft tech support employee sent to Joystiq, the Microsoft Spring 2011 Dashboard update will launch on May 19, adding PayPal support to the console's growing list of online features. PayPal support for Xbox Live was added (in the U.S.) a while back, but the Spring update will add it as a Dashboard feature.

While PayPal support is the only user-facing feature of the May 19 update, support is also being incorporated for Microsoft's new disc format, which greatly streamlines on-disc protection measures to free up about an extra gigabyte of usable space. Read more »

An Xbox Live Arcade release of the splendid Torchlight and the opportunity to hold eerie chat shows with your friends Live Avatars via Kinect are amongst the goodies revealed yesterday by Microsoft at the ongoing 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Torchlight will arrive as part of Microsoft's 'House Party' event on Xbox Live Arcade, which will see five big releases over five weeks. The others will be Ubisoft's revamped Beyond Good & Evil HD, Contra prequel Hard Corps: Uprising, Microsoft's Full House Poker and PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz Live. It all kicks off on February 16 with Hard Corps. Read more »