Calling this a “new era for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live”, Vancouver’s Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division revealed today (June 14) a new design for the company’s home entertainment console.

Shipping to stores now and available later this week for the same price ($299.99) as the current 120-gigabyte model, the glossy black Xbox 360 has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11n) and a 250-gigabyte hard drive. Mattrick described it as “whisper quiet”.

The announcement was made at Xbox’s media briefing at the Wiltern Theatre in L.A., where the video-game industry is assembling for the annual E3 trade show.

Also announced were some of the specifics for Kinect, the new hands-free and voice-activated interface known until yesterday as Project Natal. Kinect will be released in North America on November 4. Pricing for the controller, which is expected to work with Xbox 360s both new and old, was not detailed.

Six titles will be available for Kinect at launch: Kinectimals (a virtual pet experience), Kinect Sports, Kinect Joy Ride (being developed at Vancouver’s Big Park Games), Kinect Adventures, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (from Ubisoft), and Dance Central (from Harmonix and MTV Games). A Star Wars light sabre game and a new Forza Motorsport title, both Kinect-enabled, are expected in 2011.

Also covered in the press conference were the big Xbox exclusives, Gears of War 3, Fable 3 (October 26 release), and Halo: Reach (September release).