Today Microsoft has officially launched the highly rumored Xbox 360 Arcade console at a reasonable $279 bundled with games and trying to pick up on the “entire family” of gamers and bring some more attention to the Xbox Live Arcade games.

“As families gather together this holiday, it’s the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy,” said Jeff Bell, vice president of global marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “In addition to offering an incredible all-in-one package for families to get right into the fun, the Xbox 360 Arcade system features the industry-leading Family Settings, which allow parents to control what their kids are watching and playing — and we know how important that control is to families around the world.”

Microsoft is working hard to be competitive with its rivals Sony and Nintendo in Japan’s market which has proven so far to be fairly difficult for them. Despite a stellar month in September for US Xbox 360 sales, the company has not faired as well with the Japanese market over the past year in keeping up with the home town’s PS3 and Wii game consoles. As the holidays are nearing the company is keeping pace and making moves with its console trying to spur some additional sales with an announced price drop for the Xbox 360 core system and the 20GB bundle.

Starting on November 1 in Japan, the Xbox 360 20GB bundle will start retailing for ¥34,800 ($306) which is a $44 cut from its previous price. The 360 core system will start going for ¥27,800 ($245) which gives it an $18 cut. Microsoft is also putting out a limited Value Pack for the console for ¥34,800 ($306) which comes with Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport 2 titles but no HDMI cable.

After almost a year of trailing in console sales, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has finally pulled ahead of the widely popular Nintendo Wii marking the first time since the Wii’s launch last November that it hasn’t been number one. As anticipated by many, Microsoft pulled this off with a little help from the launch of Halo 3 which earned $170 million on its first day and $300 million its first week and ended up spurring a number of Xbox 360 sales along with it.

Those sales totaled 527,000 units of the console in the month of September which was a significant jump from the 276,700 sold the previous month. Nintendo was no slump for September either marking 501,000 Wii units and 495,800 handheld DS consoles. Both figures were also significantly more than in August.

It comes as no surprise to anyone that “Halo 3″ would be the best-selling game for the month of September. We also know that the game sold $170 million dollars worth of product on its launch day, but how well did it do in the days that followed? Today we learn the answer to that question thanks to the sales figures released by NPD Group which calculate that a whopping 3.3 million copies of “Halo 3″ were sold in the game’s first twelve days of release. That’s correct, the 3.3 million figure is not even for two solid full weeks let alone a whole month. To give you an idea of how staggering that figure is consider that the number two best-selling game on NPD’s list is Nintendo’s Wii Play with Wii Remote which sold 282,000 units, or roughly 3 million less than “Halo 3″ did.

Microsoft was also able to translate the “Halo 3″ hype into moving more of its Xbox 360 game units off of store shelves. The console leapt to the top of the sales charts with 528,000 360s sold in September, well over the Wii (with 501,000) and the PlayStation 3 (119,000). However Nintendo posted its best month ever selling Wiis for September and usually the company is in first place for console sales, so enjoy your one month of being at the top of the heap, Master Chief.

It seems that Microsoft is reacting to the increased competition from Sony and Nintendo for the upcoming holiday season. In anticipation to Sony’s forthcoming price reduction for its PS3 Microsoft will be releasing two Xbox 360 console and game bundles before the end of the month. The Pro Xbox 360 bundle pack ($349) will consist of an Xbox console (20 GB version) and copies of “Forza Motorsport” and “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance” while the 120 GB HDD Elite 360 pack ($449) will ship with the same two games. Essentially you will be getting two free games when you lay down your dollars for either one of these two systems. Microsoft also probably is hoping that the good will generated will in turn get you to open your wallet further and maybe pick up a copy of “Halo 3″ while you’re standing in line.

If you’ve been toying with the idea of making the plunge into an Xbox 360 but haven’t quite yet decided, Microsoft has put out a pretty sweet deal to entice more purchases of the console. If you’ve recently made a 360 purchase you may want to just stop reading here. As a promotion for this holiday season, starting at the end of October Microsoft will begin throwing in GameSpy’s award-winning Forza Motorsport 2, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for free when you buy an Xbox 360 Premium ($349.99) or Elite ($449.99). Rumors of this release have been circulating for a while and today in this case have been proven true. Another part of that same rumor which was not put to rest involves HDMI out and a disc with Xbox Live Arcade games on a $280 Core console, but it looks like we’ll have to keep waiting for that one.

Information on the release of the new “Rock Band” game from MTV has made its way into the blogosphere today flaunting a lower-than-expected price. The game is to be released for both the Sony PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 on November 23, both priced at $169.99. As an early surprise, Rock Star will also be available for the PS2 the following month on December 10, going for $10 less at $159.99.

The games will come bundled with a single guitar, microphone and a drum kit. Also, that guitar that comes bundled for the PS2 and PS3 won’t be tethered with any wires letting you rock out more freely but unfortunately the Xbox 360 will require you to plug it in, at least for a while. A wireless guitar model for the 360 is expected to come up sometime next year.

With billions of dollars up for grabs all based on the perception of who’s winning the next gen console war is it any wonder that representatives from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will use every chance they get to drop sales figures to the press? The latest salvo comes from the big M touting their Xbox 360 horn. According to gaming mag Next Generation Microsoft has sold 11.6 million consoles in 37 countries and more 360 games have been sold (24.3 million units) than all of the PlayStation 3 and Wii games combined (19.8 million units.) The company’s Xbox Live service is the largest social network in the living room with 2.6 million IM, text and voice messages sent over the service every day. To underscore their bragging rights, a new Xbox Live subscriber joins the network every 8 seconds.

Microsoft also provided the top ten most played Xbox Live games, the most downloaded demos and the most popular arcade downloads. We’ll show you the top ten most played Xbox Live games but to find out who made the top of the charts for the other two you will have to follow our link to the source site after the jump.

Once again, Nintendo appears to be the clear leader in game console sales for August beating out rivals Microsoft and Sony, according to the latest NPD numbers for United States sales in August.

The Kyoto-based company last month sold 403,600 Wii game consoles, along with 383,200 units of the Nintendo DS handheld game console. According to the Financial Times, the Nintendo Wii is now also the number one best selling “next-generation” game console in the world, pulling ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 despite it being released a full year before the Wii. Nintendo has sold over 9 million of the Wii units total, with the Xbox 360 trailing slightly but falling further behind with 8.9 million. The Playstation 3 has around 3.7 million total units sold in its lifetime.

To …

The Nintendo Wii again has lead the game console sales in Japan selling 245,653 units in the first four weeks with the Sony PS3 trailing at 81,541 units. That’s about a 3 to 1 lead that Nintendo has over Sony’s console sales which is actually good news for Sony as that ratio has been shrinking the past couple months.

In June Nintendo sold around 6 times as many Wii’s compared to the Playstation 3 in the Japanese market, and in July that ratio dropped to about 4 to 1. The PS3 with its Blu-ray player has been behind Nintendo in console sales since they were introduced last year, likely due the PS3’s higher price and lack of popular game titles, but Sony’s plans for the coming months may help keep this trend going. The company is planning to add a number of games towards this holiday shopping season to hopefully entice more PS3 sales, including the very popular Gran Turismo 5 which will go on sale in October.

Sticking to their plan they announced in July, the Chat Pad accessory for the Xbox 360 game controller is set to start shipping next Tuesday, September 4. The Chat Pad will come packaged as part of a Messenger Kit that will come bundled with a headset for $29.99 from Microsoft. Be sure to remember when ordering that this kit doesn’t include the controller, just the Chat Pad and the headset.

For gamers who have been waiting for the third and final chapter in Bungie Studios’ immensely popular FPS “Halo” series for the Xbox you can start counting the days left until it’s in your hands. Microsoft reports that “Halo 3″ has gone gold and the master copy is off to the manufacturing plant to be turned and burned into millions of Xbox 360 game discs. The release date for “Halo 3″ is slated for Tuesday September 25. Barring an act of God there is nothing that will stop Microsoft from reaching that release date and making tens of millions from game sales on launch day.

“This is a huge milestone for us and a big cause for celebration at Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios,” said Harold Ryan, the studio head at Bungie Studios. “This is the game …

After much speculation, rumors and a confirmed sighting Microsoft has finally made an official statement that the $350 Xbox 360 Premium will indeed be shipping with an HDMI port. Many reasoned that this would be the case since the HDMI output was available on the Elite version and it may be more cost effective for Microsoft to manufacture a single configuration. No news yet on the Core system getting the HDMI but maybe it will to once the current inventory without HDMI dwindles.

Microsoft’s official statement: “Yes, we are offering an HDMI port for Xbox 360 simply as another choice in Xbox 360 owners’ games and entertainment experience. Retailers are gradually introducing HDMI-enabled Xbox 360s into the channel to meet demand.”

According the Microsoft, the new Xbox 360’s that do have the HDMI output will be sporting a special HDMI logo on …

It’s finally official after all the rumors, speculations and retailers having a difficult time keeping the news under wraps. Microsoft has now officially announced a price drop for its Xbox 360 game console, which is the first since the consoles launch.

The announcement brings a $50 price cut off the Premium, 20GB system leaving it at $349.99. Microsoft is also taking the black, 120GB Elite system down $30 bringing its price to $449.99 and finally Xbox 360 Core system will be priced at $279.99 after a $20 drop.

You’ll be able to take advantage of these reduced prices at retailers starting August 8th. This price cut will be followed shortly after on August 14th with the launch of Madden NFL 08 for the Xbox, which Microsoft is likely hoping will entice additional console sales.

Xbox Announcement

Microsoft made an announcement today at Comic-Con International that they will be cutting the price of not the Xbox 360 itself, but the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. Effective August 1 the HD DVD player price will drop by $20 from $199 to $179. In additional to the $20 reduction Microsoft will be extended the “Perfect Offer” from Toshiba, the maker of the HD DVD player, which gives a mail-in offer for five free HD DVD movies.

Microsoft had a couple of other related announcements regarding the launch of “300″ and “Heroes: Season 1″, both on HD DVD. “300″ will be available on-demand through the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 14th and the Heroes pilot episode along with other promotional footage will also be available for download through the marketplace.