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According to Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, Xbox 360 sales saw a serious increase thanks to the post-Thanksgiving shopping madness known as Black Friday. While Greenberg doesn't disclose specific numbers, he notes in a recent tweet that Black Friday granted the Xbox 360 its "biggest sales week of the year," with Microsoft selling over twice as many units than the previous week. That certainly sounds like a lot, though the average weekly sales in October -- based on NPD figures -- were slightly above 60,000 units.

Assuming November's weekly average was similar, Microsoft certainly didn't come close to topping Sony's impressive Black Friday total of 440,000 PS3 consoles. And let's not forget Nintendo's Black Friday success: 550,000 Wii consoles and DS / DSi sales in excess of one million units. Rest assured we will break down the exact November numbers once the NPDs shake out later this month.

[Via Gamasutra]

NPD, known in the video game world for its US sales charts, has released its first study of the Black Friday phenomenon. "The Anatomy of Black Friday 2009" is based on a survey of 1,700 shoppers about their Black Friday shopping activities. Why, exactly, did shoppers wake up at ridiculous times and stand out in the cold just for the privilege of being crammed into Best Buy or wherever like sardines? For 35% of Black Friday shoppers, it was a specific item. "I saw an item I wanted advertised on sale" was the top response, followed by "I was just curious to see what was out there."

The top reason for not subjecting themselves to the crowds and queues to buy anything on Black Friday? No, it wasn't "I'm not crazy," it was "no money."

Just a few hours after Nintendo, Sony has prepared a Black Friday sales statement of its own. SCEA's Patrick Seybold wrote in a press release: "PlayStation 3 demand was at an all time high with the system selling more than 440,000 units for the week ending 11/29/09." While shy of Wii's numbers, the figure is quite impressive, considering that's more than the number of systems sold in the entire month of October -- the same month that the PS3-exclusive Uncharted 2 came out.

Retailers offered a number of PS3 bundles during the holiday weekend, adding a number of free games and movies to the system's standard $299 price tag. That, coupled with an ad campaign that totally doesn't creep us out, certainly helped Sony's fortunes this year.

To quote the immortal words of the musical revolutionaries known as Widelife, "all things just keep getting better!" For the purpose of this post, "all things" include Steam's post-Thanksgiving deals, which seem to have hit critical value mass today. Resident Evil 5 for $24.99? Borderlands for $33.49? Ghostbusters for $9.99? Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition for $7.49? Daddy like.

Once again, if you don't like the games which have had their prices temporarily torn in twain, tune in tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. PST for the next batch of deals.

The second day of Steam's five-day-long "Early Holiday Sale" has arrived, bringing with it another batch of wallet-friendly prices on a few excellent titles. The highlight from today's offers is, of course, Left 4 Dead 2, which you can now purchase for just $37.49.

A few older titles have also undergone a bit of cost reduction surgery, including Dead Space, which is $14.99 for today only, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is just $2.49. None of these float your boat? Swing back by tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. PST for the next round of cheapenings.

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EA's online store is running an exciting Black Friday sale, with downloadable PC games getting 30 percent off from now until Monday. We're talking about discounts on a bunch of games here, with standouts such as Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box for a cool $21 and Mass Effect for a very reasonable $14.

Not everything is on sale, however -- some of the newer titles like Left 4 Dead 2 and the Dragon Age Collector's Edition don't qualify (though the regular version of the latter is on sale for $35). If you're determined to get good deals on some of these newer games, we have a feeling you'll be able to find 'em somewhere.

[Via Big Download]

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After reviewing Steam's Black Friday offerings, we can't help but find the post-Thanksgiving sales offered by other retailers kind of adorable. Aww, you're knocking $10 off the price of Red Faction: Guerrilla? That's cute. Steam is selling that game, and almost every other game by THQ in an enormous, $49.99 bundle. You've got a buy-one-get-one-free deal on LucasArts adventure games? How quaint. Steam is selling like, every LucasArts PC game ever in yet another $49.99 bundle.

On top of those two preposterous offers, Steam will be slashing prices on a handful of games every day for the next five days. Today's sales include Batman: Arkham Asylum for $24.99, Far Cry 2 Fortune's Edition for $9.99 and Dragon Age: Origins for $37.49. In short, you should spend as much time downloading things from Steam as you possibly can this weekend -- with prices like these, we're guessing they'll be filing for bankruptcy some time before Christmas.

We hope you've been putting off purchasing that that new fleece jacket you've had your eye on, because Old Navy will be running one hell of a video game deal this coming Black Friday. As suggested by a supposedly leaked circular earlier this month, anyone who spends $20 on the store's merchandise will receive Lego Rock Band for free on the platform of their choice.

The rumored deal was recently confirmed by a television spot (which unfortunately has yet to find its way online). We contacted a handful of locations in Texas, Ohio and Illinois, all of which said the offer would be valid at their stores. However, both the advertisement and the store representatives we spoke to mentioned that copies of the game will be "extremely limited," so we suggest getting to your nearest store as close to its 3 a.m. opening time as your tryptophan-infused body will permit.

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Update 2: And now the second round for 12PM PST/3PM EST has been added as well.

Update 1: We've added the 9AM PST/12PM EST games below. Get 'em while they're hot, folks!

Everyone's favorite Amazonian retailer (after leafcladmailorderbrides.com, of course) has revealed a handful of hints for its pre-Black Friday selection of "Lightning Deals." Starting today at 9AM PST, Amazon will be offering games ranging from ... well, we don't really know, now do we? CheapAssGamer believes the first hint to indicate New Play Control Pikmin. Check out the hints for yourself below and feel free to speculate away in the comment section, you big speculator you. We'll update the deals as the day goes on.

9AM PST/12PM EST – All titles 50% off

• New Play Control Pikmin – $14.98
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game of the Year edition for PlayStation 3 – $25.00
• Rock Band 2: Special Edition for Xbox 360 – $70.00
• Rock Band 2: Special Edition for PlayStation 3 – $70.00
• Big Beach Sports – $10.00
• UFC: Undisputed for Xbox 360 – $25.00

12PM PST/3PM EST

• Call of Duty: World at War for Nintendo Wii – $27.00 (46% off)
• Black & Crimson Nintendo DS Lite – $97.98 (25% off)

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Don't want to grow up or pay full price for video games? A list of purported Black Friday game deals for Toys R Us has shown up online, with a few temporary price drops that may justify a late night or early morning trip to TRU on November 27.

Most of the great deals are "5AM Doorbusters," which means that if you have yet to pick up Halo 3: ODST, Need for Speed Shift, or Forza 3, they'll all be $34.99 ... at 5AM. Good luck! Also marked down at that obscenely early hour: Dead Space Extraction, which most of you have yet to pick up. It'll be just $24.99. Whether any of that is worth getting up at ridiculous o'clock to fight each other over is your call. See the full list of deals here.

[Thanks Pete!]

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According to Gear Live, Best Buy's Black Friday 2009 ad circular has been leaked, and all the deals have been revealed. Gamers have quite a bit to look forward to, specifically some decent hardware bundles and heavily discounted games. The console deals include a PS3 with Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time and LittleBigPlanet Game of the Year Edition for $299, as well as a 120GB Xbox 360 Elite bundle with four (thus far unidentified) games for $299. Also up for grabs will be Brain Age or Mario DSi bundles for $169.99 with a free $20 gift card.

Several recent Xbox 360 and PS3 releases will be on sale for $34.99, including Brütal Legend, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age. Many older titles will be $20 or less. Meanwhile, several Wii titles will be reduced to $14.99, while certain DS titles will drop to $9.99 or less. Hit the source link for the full (and still rumored) set of deals. We've contacted Best Buy to verify the ad.

Update: Best Buy has responded to Joystiq about the ad, saying, "As a matter of company policy, Best Buy does not comment on rumor and speculation and so we are unable to confirm if our Black Friday insert has leaked."

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And there it is. The first shot across the bow. The first salvo of sweet – yet brief! – holiday sales offers. The first indication that, yes, the day after Thanksgiving is going to be Hell for retailers once more. Behold: The video game-related Black Friday sales selections of Kmart and Sears, which we've posted after the jump. Please avoid trampling one another as you make your way down there.

Here's a few big ticket items: Kmart's offering a free copy of Halo 3: ODST with the purchase of every Xbox 360 Elite, and both stores are cutting prices on a ton of big-ticket games (L4D2, Dragon Age, Brutal Legend) by $20. November 27 is going to be a long, long day, friends.

[Via GamerDeals]

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Black Friday isn't the only day in November where prices are eviscerated and sweet deals are distributed like confetti at a Flaming Lips concert. Wal-Mart has begun posting ads for a batch of sales being offered this coming Saturday morning -- one of which will be particularly intriguing to the prospective holiday console buyers among you. While supplies last (and we assume they won't last long), anyone who purchases a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade bundle will receive a $100 gift card to boot.

A free Benjamin's worth of Wal-Mart products? That's enough to buy a couple of games for your new system! And it's only $35 short of the price of an Xbox 360 120GB hard drive! Or, you could buy two Xbox 360 Arcade bundles, and then have enough in gift card money to get a third one -- plus another $100 gift card -- for free! It seems we've beaten the system, as it were. Wal-Mart, consider yourself outfoxed.

[Via Engadget]

In October, the Wii was the top-selling console in the US, with 800,000 systems sold. Then in November, Nintendo sold 2.04 million Wii systems. No, wait, that's not right -- it needs italics, bolding, and underlining.

2.04 million Wiis. In one month. This is what happens when Black Friday and adequate stock meet. It's a record for November, obviously. Is this the turning point for the Wii? Is this when it starts to eclipse the mighty DS Lite for good? Who knows? We're too dazzled by big numbers to analyze.

Unsurprisingly, the surge in Wii sales meant great numbers for Wii Play, because people tend to like having multiple controllers. Much more unexpected is the appearance of Wii Music in the software top 10. It's not a Wii Fit or Wii Play-caliber hit by any means, but some people bought it. Also on the subject of Wii music, the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour was the only version to make it into the top 10. No Animal Crossing, though. Check after the break for the top 10 list.

- Wii: 2.04m 1.237m (154%)
- DS: 1.57m 1.079m (220%)
- Xbox 360: 836K 465K (125%)
- PSP: 421K 228K (118%)
- PS3: 378K 188K (99%)
- PS2: 206K 70K (51%)