In a refreshing move, Toys R Us revealed some November video game deals for Sunday, November 22 through Thursday, November 26, available both in-store and online. Therefore, they won't require you to stand outside in the middle of the night or battle other deal-seekers for possession of a "doorbuster" (which Toys R Us is also reportedly doing). Even better, Toys R Us is the only retailer we know of handing out Cold Stone gift cards with purchases.

Starting on Sunday:

• all DS and PSP games will be buy one, get one half off.
• Wii and Xbox 360 Arcade hardware purchases will be bundled with (seriously) a $15 gift card for Wendy's, Subway, or Cold Stone Creamery -- deal available in-store only
• "Select video games" will be bundled with a $25 iTunes gift card -- deal available in-store only
• The Beatles: Rock Band standalone software will be $49.99.
• The Beatles: Rock Band "Special Value Edition" will be $134.99.
• "Select video game storage units" will be $34.99.

From Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22, both TRU stores and Toysrus.com will offer a "Ready to Play DS Lite Pack" for $157.95, containing a DS Lite, a case, various accessories, and two DS games from an "edited assortment." TRU says that, when purchased as part of this set, the DS comes out to $64.99.

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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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[Update: Sorry, but it looks like I got this one horribly wrong, folks -- the WSJ was in fact referring to November sales. Thanks, Jay!]

Big surprise: early reports from the NPD indicate that the Wii utterly owned December, "doubling" its sales from December 2007. As it shifted 1.35 million units a year ago, that means this December saw approximately 2.7 million Wiis sold. For those who care, PS3 December sales dipped 19% from 2007, while the Xbox 360 got an 8% year-on-year lift.

More precise data concerning the Wii won't be released until the middle of January, but this could mean the Wii breaks the all-time record for U.S. hardware sales in a single month. Currently, the PlayStation 2 holds that honor, with -- aha! -- 2.7 million sales in December 2002. It's going to be close, in other words.

[Via SlipperyBrick]

Man, some people's kids. A couple from Portsmouth, New Hampshire got themselves arrested on Christmas Day for exchanging punches over an unwanted gift -- a Wii, of all things. Heath Blom and Randi Young , aged 8 26 and 6 24 respectively, repeatedly punched one another, pulled hair, and ended up tumbling down two flights of stairs together. Joys be thine!

Things started turning sour when poor Heathy-Weathy didn't get the $1,000 RC airplane he had asked his grandparents for. When his girlfriend produced a Wii, he "got really upset," Young told The Boston Herald. Blom admitted he had "disparaged" the Wii (and somehow we don't think he was offering a sober criticism of third-party support), which understandably peeved Young.

The argument mushroomed from there, with Young packing her bags and some punches being thrown, mainly in the direction of the deserving Blom. It all finished with the pair falling down the stairs together, and the police arresting the loons shortly thereafter.

[Via Shacknews]

Steam is having a rather tantalizing holiday sale from now until January 2, with everything in the store 10% to 75% off. In case you missed it the first time, Team Fortress 2 is back down to $10. We recommend picking up BioShock if you've never played it, now only $5. The Valve Complete package is 25% off, now only $75, and the id Super Pack -- which nets you every single id title before Quake Wars -- is just $35. Our holiday money is officially spoken for.

Amazon has sent us over this preview of its "15 Days, 15 Video Games Deal" series for the weekend and Monday:

• Saturday, 13 Dec: World of Warcraft Battlechest is the headliner. If the past days are any indication, the other deals for Saturday will be somewhat related.
• Sunday, 14 Dec: Kickoff of a special deal on Ubisoft's successful (no, really) Petz, Imagine and Ener-G titles.
• Monday, 15 Dec: Saints Row 2 is the headliner.
  

Additionally, on Thursday, December 18, Amazon's Goldbox deal will be PlayStation 3-centric. We'll have the Lightning Deal clues for you before then.

The results of the first-ever Xbox 360 Hispanic Holiday Entertainment Survey are in! And wouldn't you know, Xbox 360 is the perfect fit for the Hispanic persuasion¹. Did you know:

• More Hispanics want a gift that brings their family together (89% vs. 64% of general population)
• More Hispanics are looking for gifts that people can enjoy throughout the year (95% vs. 85% of general population)
• More Hispanics are looking for affordable ways to entertain their family over the holidays (85% vs. 81% of general population)
• Many more Hispanics would rather buy one gift for their whole family than spend money on lots of individual gifts (83 % vs. 52% of general population)
• Lips en Español features 17 songs in Spanish by artists such as Alejandro Sanz, Belanova, Fanny Lu, La Factoria, Luis Miguel, Pimpinela and Selena (42.5% less songs than the all-English version!)
  

How do these compelling figures all add up? We're glad you asked! You see, Xbox 360 is the one, affordable gift that brings the family together throughout the year. In short, not buying an Xbox 360 this holiday season is simply Un-Hispanic.

Black Friday 2008 will be remembered as a slight, but pleasant bump in a rocky road for retail this holiday. Fitting, then, that Wii and its equally scarce sidekick, Wii Fit, were the top search items on the day. As it turns out, folks wanted to shop (172 million to be exact!), they just couldn't always buy what they were searching for. With Wii in short supply at retail, eBay merchants continued to turn profits on resales of the console with an average selling price of $349. Overall, online shopping totals grew modestly relative to last year.

Meanwhile, a stack of Xbox 360s caused a brawl at Walmart, and, in a macabre turn of events, an employee was trampled to death by a frenzied mob at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York. In California, two men killed each other in a gunfight that erupted at the Palm Desert Toys R Us. All convincing examples of why we prefer to pay it safe from our keyboards: Hellooo Cyber Monday!

[Image credit: Bruce On Games, Dec. 2007 -- same tune again this year, eh?]

Nothing quite like being packed into a frenzied shopping mob, is there? It's why we wait for hours in the cold dark with nothing more than the lingering memory of ... wait a second, it's Cyber Monday! Now we can spend money on reduced-price games without leaving the comforts of our keyboards! Here's our picks for the best deals out there today.

Amazon	Toys 'R' Us	GameStop	Wal-Mart
Best Buy	Newegg	Target	Dell
	Sears	Buy.com

In case your wallet isn't hurting enough from this weekend (or you simply decided to take the frugal route with Black Friday shopping), Amazon has unveiled their Cyber Monday deals, which starts tomorrow at 3:00AM ET. While no way as exhaustive as its weekend specials (which, like the new deals, last until Tuesday, December 2 at 2:59AM ET), there are a few steep discounts worth noting. Fable 2 and LittleBigPlanet are $40 each, and Spore is being offered for only $20.

We've posted the full list after the break. Be sure to also keep an eye on GameStop, who has its own specials starting at midnight ET tonight.