As if it wasn’t already enough that Microsoft recently dropped the price of the 360 Elite from $399 to $299, and then from now until October 5 offered a $50.00 rebate on all 360 Elite consoles purchase – they now give us something else to cheer about. The Xbox 360 holiday bundle is here, and it includes not one but two games (Pure, LEGO Batman). Microsoft has opened the flood gates for holiday savings and seems to be in no rush to close them up.

With all these great deals happening, could there possibly be a downside? Unfortunately there is. Microsoft still has a problem with their consoles malfunctioning – the once Red Rings of Death (RROD) breakdown has been replaced by the E-74 error, so there is a chance you may be one of the 13 out of 100 people that get a bad system when purchasing this. But Microsoft is still doing very well in regards to replacing these consoles that break down.

Going back to the happy news, if you purchase this Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle before October 5, 2009 , then you can still use the $50.00 rebate and get it all for $249.99. This bundle was already a great deal at $299, but this rebate that you can use from now until Tuesday just sweetens things up even more. If your family doesn’t yet own an Xbox 360 and you were thinking about getting one for the holidays – this is the time to do it.

Capcom has announced an all new Street Fighter game set for release in Spring 2010 called Super Street Fighter IV. This game is not an expansion nor is it a download-able content for the existing game – but rather it is an entirely new game that will be released on it’s own disc for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

Details are scarce at this point, but we do know the game will have up to 10 new characters and various new features/tweaks improving on what we have seen from Street Fighter 4. Two of the new confirmed characters are T.Hawk and Juri, but nothing is known of the potential eight others at this time.

The exact release date is still up in the air, but Capcom has stated it’s aiming for a Spring 2010 release. The price of this game is unknown, although it is believed to be a budget release – meaning it won’t hit shelves with an MSRP of $59.99. Stay tuned for more information on this game as it becomes available.

Nintendo has reported today that their upcoming highly anticipated 4-player Mario franchise title New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be released in the United States on November 15, 2009 – just in time for the holidays.

With the recent Wii Console price drop to $199.99 coming in just a few days, this could become a hard game to get your hands on if you don’t pre-order it now and guarantee yourself a copy.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the first game from the Mario series with simultaneous multiplayer cooperation, and is available exclusively on the Wii. It is sure to bring a new age of fun to your family living room.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii has an MSRP of $49.99 but is available at gameandsave.com for only $47.99.

Microsoft released a bomb of a press release on us yesterday – citing that from now until October 5, 2009 there is a $50.00 rebate available when you purchase an Xbox 360 Elite console, bringing the price from $299.99 down to $249.99.

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft matched Sony’s PS3 price cut by dropping the price of the 120GB Xbox 360 elite from $399.99 to $299.99.

However, rumors have been swirling and yesterday were confirmed that Nintendo will be dropping the price of their Wii console from $249.99 to $199.99 starting September 27th, 2009.

So what does this mean for gamers? Means that 3-way competition is great. To have a $100.00 price cut and then an additional $50.00 rebate within a couple of weeks of each other is unprecedented. I wouldn’t expect Sony to try something like this, as they already claim that they lose a substantial amount of money for each of their PS3 consoles sold.

If you have been waiting to buy yourself an Xbox 360 console, this is the time to do it. For only $50.00 more than the Arcade version, you get a 120gb hard drive instead of the 512mb one included with the Arcade. I can’t wait to see what else happens as we draw closer to Christmas.

Less than a month after Sony and Microsoft slashed prices on their consoles (PS3 dropping $100.00 to $299.99 and the Elite dropping $100.00 to $299.99), Nintendo has decided to join the party by cutting the price of the Nintendo Wii Console from $249.99 to $199.99 – a decrease of $50.00.

This makes perfect sense. The Wii has been the best selling console around, but in terms of overall functionality both the PS3 (blu-ray) and Xbox 360 (dvd’s, netflix), have much more to offer for just $50.00 more than the old Wii price. Microsoft also has the Xbox 360 Arcade version with 512mb of storage space which you can purchase for $199.99. Now in an effort to stay ahead of it’s competition, Nintendo will reduce the price of the Wii console effective September 27, 2009.

I can’t even pretend to be shocked over this news. I remember when I was waiting for the first Starcraft game to be released. The game was delayed several times, over the course of at least a year. At the time it felt like an eternity. But you know what, it was worth the wait, because Starcraft still remains to this day the most balanced video game ever created when it comes to playing against other people head to head. Activision Blizzard had this to say in the press release:

“Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.”

So basically they are blaming Battle.net not being ready for the delay, but the press release also went on to say that they will delay the game for as long as they feel necessary to ensure that they release a perfect game.

This is one delay that I don’t mind. When it comes to creating the best real-time strategic game possible, Blizzard has a resume beaming with success. So don’t be angry that it’s being delayed.

It was only a matter of time before Sony had to make a move. PS3 consoles have been at the bottom of the big 3 in sales for quite some time now, and Sony has been losing it’s grip on the video game market. Nintendo dominates both the hand-held and the console markets with the Wii and DS. And despite releasing a system prematurely with a 30% defective rate, Microsoft has continually surpassed Sony in sales since the time of it’s release.

So with that said, Sony finally woke up and took action. And we are so glad they did. This new Playstation 3 console not only had a $100.00 price drop, but it’s a completely new piece of hardware – that’s 33% lighter and much more appealing to the eye. On top of that, the old 80gb model has been replaced with a new 120gb hard drive. This PS3 console still has all the capabilities as it’s predecessor – blu-ray, multimedia, playstation network, etc – it’s just much slimmer and sleeker. We’re impressed.

This improved PS3 has an MSRP of $299.99 – and we feel is finally priced at a number we can live with. I am still amazed that people actually spent over $600.00 on one of these when they first came out – but hey, economy was good back then and people had cash burning in their pockets. If you were waiting to buy yourself a PS3 console, now is the time.

Well as if we didn’t see this one coming. Folks, this is how these companies do things. They release a console. Then after however long it takes before sales slow down, they releasing a console with a couple new features (hence the DS Lite to DSi), a console that is better suited in size (Regular DS to DS Lite), or they change the color on it a hundred times. The reason? So that your children go crazy over the new color and beg you to buy it for them for Christmas, after you just bought one the year before (same exact thing, just a different color).

Nothing new here – just some of your average marketing tricks. If you are hoping for either a green or maybe a purple DSi console, then my advice is to just wait a few more months because chances are they are going to have them. Give companies like Nintendo credit – they make good quality hardware, and they know how to trickle it out just a little bit at a time to keep their product always making you feel like it’s the “newest latest thing” but really it’s just a remake of the old. Anyway this puppy has an MSRP of $169.99. At gameandsave.com you can get a pre-owned DS Lite console in pristine condition with minor difference (no camera, slightly smaller screen – however it does play GBA games and DSi doesn’t) for $69.99. In my personal opinion, the huge increase in price isn’t worth the couple of new features that you get.

Ten years ago today, on a cold September morning in 1999, Sega gave birth to it’s 2nd disc-reading platform: the Dreamcast. We’ve watched this system grow up throughout it’s early years, and although game production for this console has been extinct for quite some time now – we still can’t help but think of the fond memories we shared with Sega’s hoorah before they went under. So here’s a recap of the Dreamcast’s best-selling video games:

• Sonic Adventure (2.5 million copies sold)
• Soulcalibur (1.3 million copies sold)
• Crazy Taxi (1.225 million copies sold)
• Shenmue (1.2 million copies sold)
• Resident Evil Code: Veronica (1.14 million copies sold)
• NFL 2k (1.13 million copies sold)
• NFL 2k1 (1.1 million copies sold)

RIP Sega Dreamcast!