Microsoft recently put out a call to all Xbox 360 owners (based in the US) to help the publisher test the next system update for the console, in the annual “Xbox 360 System Update Preview program.”

Because the company has probably already received all of the testers that they can handle (and the fact that the preview is limited to the US), this isn’t the real news.

The real news is that this update is set to include a new disc format for Xbox 360, and the preview programme will help Microsoft test and prepare for this new functionality.

Whatever could this new disc format be? A new, higher capacity DVD would be great, no? While Crytek was able to cram all of Crysis 2 onto one Xbox 360 disc, Visceral Games recently had to split up Dead Space 2 over two discs for this version of the game.

The real question, however, is this: Will id Software’s RAGE be able to fit onto a higher capacity DVD?

But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here! We don’t even know what the new disc format is!

“This is an important update as we continually strive to improve our products and we could not do so without the help of our great Xbox community,” wrote Xbox frontman Major Nelson on his blog. “As part of the preview program, you will receive a copy of Halo: Reach along with other possible rewards.”

If you’d still like to take a chance and try to get into the preview programme for the next Xbox 360 update, you can head on over to Major Nelson’s blog post and follow the steps there. Don’t get your hopes up, though…