Cube.ign.com is running a story saying that Nintendo is claiming about $100 million worth of GameCube sales on their launch day:

Kevin Jones at ConsoleDomain is reporting that sales of Nintendo GameCube games, consoles and accessories totalled $98 million its first weekend:

guS at Drunkgamers.com, a site I didn't even know existed until right now (although the niche it fits is obvious) has reviewed Halo. While upset at the lack of Internet play, occasional framerate drops, and the opinion that the Needler is slightly less useful than a few sharp rocks, there wasn't much bad they could say about it:

Tim Stevens at ConsoleDomain has reviewed Halo, giving it a full 5 out of 5 rating, calling it a must-have game. There wasn't anything about the game he didn't like, but he focused more on gameplay balance, AI, and other elements, not just graphics:

Slashdot has a couple of stories today on interesting Xbox and XDK hacks.

One's a bit old, originally written in June and updated on July 20th-- it's a version of the MAME console emulator running on an XDK along with several photos and screenshots.

Blockbuster announced on November 15 that it would offer one free five-day game rental to anyone presenting a receipt for a game console between December 1 and January 31.

CoreMagazine has reported that Canadian game rental chain VHQ will be offering free game rentals:

Cesar at TeamXbox has reported that this week the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing 15 indivduals, including 11 Nvidia employees, for alleged insider trading in shares of the graphics chipmaker based on advance information that it would win a lucrative contract with Microsoft Corp. Five are being charged criminally.

From the TXB story:

Jedi at Xbox365 managed to pull himself away from his new Xbox long enough to write a piece on how much fun he's having with his new toy now that's he's got it. And a lot of that fun is courtesy of Bungie's Halo:

Cesar at TeamXbox is running a story that several readers have informed them that the Xbox has already sold out in several cities in North America. In some cases, this even includes second shipments to stores. There are reports from Futureshop, Best Buy, Circuit City, WalMart, Target and Toys'R'Us.

Citing only some fussiness in the vehicle controls, GamePro's (rather short) review of Halo is otherwise positive, rating the game a full 5 out of 5 for Graphics, Sound, and Fun Factor with only a half-point off for Controls.

Serena at Xbox365 has reported that some places have been charging as much as one or two hundred dollars more than the MSRP for the Xbox, even in bundles with only one game, or none at all.

Xbox365 has posted links to several images from a Japanese site, where they've dissected their Xbox and taken a few pictures.

FunXbox has posted a positively glowing review of Halo on their site. Here's an excerpt:

Voting for Game of the Year in 11 categories, including Xbox Game of the Year, starts now and runs through December 23 at GameSpy. Signing up for a GameSpy IDis required.

We missed TechTV's (very positive) review of the Xbox, posted back on Launch Day: