Ever wonder why Sony and Microsoft don't have the 'traditional' D-pads on their consoles? Microsoft has (had) the infamous disc and Sony has just the four buttons arranged like a D-Pad. Nintendo actually has the traditional cross-shaped D-Pad patented. (See US Patent 4,687,200). That's why Nintendo products use it and others don't.

So, everybody hates the "disc" D-Pad that the Xbox 360 controller uses. And video game hardware is such a low-margin segment of the industry to begin with, so licensing the patent from Nintendo is out of the question. So they come up with this brilliant rotating disc thing that lets you use a "traditional" D-Pad without infringing on the Nintendo patent. Major Nelson confirmed in his online YouTube video that Microsoft has this "hybrid" D-Pad patented, so don't expect others to use it.
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/09/05/the-new-xbox-360-controller-is-really-about-patents-microsoft-introduces-a-new-xbox-360-controller-with-a-new-d-pad-that-scoots-around-nintendo-patents/

Very clever.

Patenting a rotating pad? Isn't there a 30 years old prior art in Intellivision's controllers? Why terrorists never try to do the right thing at least once in their lifetime and don't they bomb the USPTO?

That's a nice looking controller. I still don't understand what a 'rotating' D-Pad means. It'll most likely be $90 in Australia....