Pictured above is the Target Chalet [tar-zhay sha-ley], the swanky home of Winter X Games athletes doing business in Aspen and just one of many couture extras to be found in the special "Target edition" of Shaun White Snowboarding for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. This cozy lodge really hits the bright red bull's eye after a long day shredding slopes on -- you guessed it -- "Target Mountain."

We're not sure how much more blaring product placement can get, but then we haven't seen the new jibs, scenes and characters exclusive to this brand, uh, edition of the game. While we don't expect the ads to hike up the price (indeed, the Target version should be cheaper, no?), the press release neglects to specify. But if you'd like to put five on it, you can now purchase a "pre-sell card" that ensures you a copy on launch day (also not specified).

EA Sports announced today that Madden NFL 09 Pink will be sold at Target, with a portion of the proceeds from the sale going to the Deanna Favre HOPE Foundation. The box will be available during the month of October (National Breast Cancer Awareness Month) and can also be purchased at Target.com and NFLShop.com.

We called EA Sports to find out how this "new" art still has Favre in his Packers uniform. Turns out the pink ribbon design is actually part of a clear overlay inside the cover. Meaning, consumers can completely remove it if they want, or place the Favre Jets cover in behind it. Behold, the freedom of choice.

Target is offering up pre-sale cards for LittleBigPlanet that claim an October 21st release date for this eagerly awaited game. We've known it would be coming (hopefully, keep your cute little fingers crossed) in October of this year, and hopefully this date won't be changing. Plus we're still itching to get our hands on a demo before then so we can practice our sponge-collecting skills.

There's still no definitive word if Sony will be offering this up for download as well as the retail Blu-ray version. In this Gamespot video at about three minutes in, they say "We're hoping to have it on the Playstation Network Store as well." Maybe Sony's planning on releasing a trimmed-down version of the game for download, and opening up the full game to retail customers, similar to what EA has done by putting out the Spore Creature Creator as a free download in advance of the full Spore game coming later? Either way, October can't get here fast enough. Free candy and LittleBigPlanet? Sold.

[Thanks, Eric!]

That leaked Target circular was dead-on: beginning July 13th (today!) the mega retailer is offering the 20GB Xbox 360 console for $299.99 (a $50 price drop) along with a free $25 Target gift card. That's great news and all but we've been confidant about that price drop for weeks now; what we weren't sure about was whether or not the Xbox 360 Arcade or Xbox 360 Elite would see similar drops, or if the $50 discount on the 20GB console is simply a clearance sale to make room for the rumored-to-be-introduced-shortly 60GB console.

According to a real-enough looking Circuit City ad for the week of July 27th (note: Soul Calibur IV listed as "in store Tuesday") the Xbox 360 Arcade will still be $280. Depending on how you factor in that $25 Target gift card, the 20GB Pro system could actually be cheaper than the hard drive-less Arcade, at least while it's still on store shelves (note: the Target ad clearly states "Quantity limited"). So, permanent $50 price cut or clearance sale on the soon-to-be outmoded 20GB model?

Update: Microsoft confirms.

The latest evidence of a $50 price drop for the 20GB Xbox 360 to $299 this Sunday comes courtesy of mega-retailer Target. The fine gentlemen over at X3F received a scan of what will allegedly be printed in next week's flyer. As a nice bonus, with the purchase of the Xbox 360, Target shoppers will also receive a $25 gift card.

It's time Microsoft just came out with it.

[Thanks to everyone in the retail world helping with these stories!]

This week's Target sales paper has a special gift for those who want relatively cheaper Xbox Live content: a 1600 Microsoft Points for $14.99 (plus applicable sales tax), a great price given the currency conversion of $20. So unless your state has a 34% sales tax (which would thus negate the sale), we'd suggest stocking up while you can. Go now and enjoy, the deal ends May 31.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Next time you're running around your local Target, keep an eye out for some indie gaming love. The Experimental Gameplay Project has recently launched its own clothing line: EGPApparel. The shirts are appearing in Targets all across the United States, each featuring a particular independently-developed title. As if that wasn't filled with enough awesome on its own, each shirt includes the full version of the indie game. That's an awesome t-shirt, and an awesome game, for only $12 USD.

There are currently eight shirts in production, featuring indie titles like Tower of Goo, Big Vine, Gravity Head, Gish, and more. According to Tower of Goo developer Kyle Gabler, the shirts are appearing in Target stores nationwide, but have not yet reached every last chain location. Of course, the more people who run out and feverishly buy all eight designs, the more likely Target will be to ramp up distribution. We're just saying.

Check out a full list of participating Targets in California after the break.

Gibson seems to be poking its straw into any hole it can find these days, trying to desperately suck up some of that gooey Guitar Hero money before it's all gone. On Monday, the guitar maker filed a federal lawsuit against major retailers that sell Guitar Hero games, including GameStop, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon, and Toys "R" Us, seeking to prohibit sales of the games. In a statement released Thursday, the company claimed it took "this action reluctantly, but is required to protect its intellectual property."

Though Gibson has yet to file suit against Guitar Hero owner Activision, the guitar company has made a legal claim alleging that the games (when played with the guitar controllers) violate Gibson's patent for a type of virtual music performance. Subsequently, Activision filed a preemptive lawsuit against Gibson last week, and then publicly dismissed Gibson's patent infringement claim. Most recently, Gibson targeted Guitar Hero creator and former developer Harmonix, its daddy's daddy Viacom and Rock Band co-publisher Electronic Arts for allegedly violating the same patent ... Yeah, our head's spinning too.

[Via Engadget]

If the price is the only thing holding you back from Rock Band, then you might want to swing buy your local Target sometime this week. Starting today, Target's offering the PS3 and 360 versions of the special edition bundle for $149 USD, $20 off the normal price.

The offer's only good from the 17th to the 23rd, and sadly doesn't apply to the PS2 version. Despite those setbacks, it's still the cheapest we've seen the Rock Band bundle thus far. If you've already purchased the game, maybe this is a sign to buy it for a friend (or your favorite blogger who might have a birthday coming up...)

[Thanks, Jon B]

Last night we got a handful of tips concerning a rumor (that originated from this Playfuls post) claiming that super-retailer Target was removing Mass Effect from its shelves following last month's ridiculous Fox News situation. After making some calls to local Targets, none of which had a problem ringing the game up on their registers, we followed up with Target Corporate Communications.

A Target spokesperson got back to us this afternoon after double checking with all the right folks and told us unequivocally, "This is just a rumor. There are no plans to remove this game, it's available at Target stores and Target.com." We just wanted to nip this one in the bud before it spread too far and, having just done that, we now return you to your regularly scheduled Joystiq posts.

Rumors have been circulating for a while that Target, prompted by the discovery of Manhunt 2's hidden dirty, dirty filthy content on the PSP version of the game, had pulled the title from its shelves. Now, GameSpot has received the official word that, indeed, those hunting (get it?) for a hyper-violent, hyper-mediocre action-stealth game will have to look for a store without red ring decor.

Is this maybe, just maybe, more a move to avoid a media firestorm than an actual concern about keeping young'ns from buying objectionable material at Target? ... We have no idea why you'd think that.

The last thing any street date's parents want to see is their kid hanging around with Target. No matter what sweet talking the red rings make, the street date's only going to end up one way: Broken. Just ask the Xbox 360 Arcade, or the Xbox 360 Elite, if the store's not selling items before their time, they're advertising them. The streak continues with this listing for the 40 GB PS3 captured at a Target price check kiosk.

It's all information that we expected though: 40 GBs, $400, late October. Now, if only Sony would announce it so the leakiest system in history can come ashore.

[Via Engadget]

Although not mentioned as part of today's Xbox 360 price drop announcement, more evidence is coming in that the Xbox 360 Core model may be finished. An employee of a Target store took multiple images (sadly the clearest one is above) of the store's PDA showing the Core model as "discontinued" in the "status" bar at the top right.

This follows last week's Best Buy information that the Core model was finished there as well. The stories are starting to stack up. We've been told by numerous sources that their various stores haven't stocked Core units in a while, this all feels identical to the way the PS3 20GB death occurred earlier this year.

[Thanks Anonymous]

For those hoping that the expected $50 Xbox 360 price cut would bring the Core model down to the Wii-diculously great price of $250, we got some bad news. According to a source at Best Buy who sent Joystiq these images, the Xbox 360 Core model is dead and remaining stocks are all that's left of the system.

The sheet, according to our source, shows the description of the Xbox 360 Core hardware and underneath it is the word "deleted, meaning it is being taken out of the system." The out of stock date reads 7-29-07 and the larger image (found after the break) shows the pref code "y." According to the source, "This means replenishment of this item is not expected."

In a statement from July 16, when we originally heard rumblings that the Xbox 360 Core was over, a Microsoft spokesperson told us in regards to it being discontinued, "No. Xbox 360 Core remains an important member of the Xbox 360 family." Well, if the Best Buy papers end up being true, an important part of the family is about to swim with the fishes. Like Fredo from The Godfather, it breaks our hearts. We've contacted Microsoft to see if they'd like to revise their "important member" statement.

[Thanks Anonymous]

Update: We heard back from a Microsoft representative who said, "Nothing's changed since last week."