The Wii’s $6 profit margin suddenly doesn’t seem so amazing because Sony has cut the PS3′s manufacturing costs by about $250. Evidently investors were impressed, because the software and hardware giant’s market value rose by over a percent once the announcement had been made.

Although Sony has not yet announced a corresponding price drop, it’s not unreasonable to hope the console will fall into the $400 range.

It looks like Nintendo is getting a case of the ‘me toos’. Gamasutra reports that the casual console maker is following suit with Microsoft and Sony’s Netflix partnerships.

Of course, Nintendo still marches to its own drummer, and it appears that the new partnership will actially be with an advertising company, Dentsu, to provide original streaming content instead of the Netflix video rental model. Although this announcement only applies to japan for the time being, Nintendo hopes to extend the service to the west in 2009.

This announcement follows an earlier one that the Wii would soon see a theater channel. Whether this means that Nintendo plans to offer both movies and television remains to be seen. How long can it be before the Omni-Leisure 5000 graces our living rooms?

World of Goo is one of those bite-sized games you can consume before it gets stale. The tower-building puzzle gameplay offers a level of accessibility that should appeal to casual gamers and deep innovative puzzles that should appeal to just about everyone. There’s not too much incentive to replay the game, but at $20, you get what you pay for and more.

Ok, so the holidays have started to wane, and it has come time to reflect on the past year: your achievements (and related gamer score), and more immediately, whether you got the gifts you wanted. The importance of this question cannot be overstated–you’re probably broke after your shopping and you won’t be paid until January. If you didn’t get a game you really wanted to play, you’ll need something cheap to tide you over to the new year.

Fortunately 1up has come to the rescue with a cheap holiday buyer’s guide. It’s organized by console, which is handy, but here’s a subset of those games we’ve actually played, organized more practically. Go check out 1up for the complete list.

For the Hardcore:
Kameo: Elements of Power
Resident Evil 4
GTA 3: Liberty City Stories
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

For the Genre Fan:
Resident Evil 4 (Survival Horror)
Trauma Center: Under the Knife (Portable Sim)
Cooking Mama: Cook Off (Sim)
GTA 3: Liberty City Stories (Action Adventure)
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (Strategy)

For the Casual:
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Viva Piñata
Cooking Mama
Trauma Center: Under the Knife

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I sure do like fire, but I wish I could get it without that pesky heat,” Microsoft has released a virtual fireplace for the 360. This incredible technological marvel burns so clean that its only emissions are produced at your local power plant. It’s also child safe and is unlikely to burn your house down. Screw peace on earth and goodwill toward men and make your christmas wish help prevent the heat death of the universe.

Oh wait, it costs 400 Microsoft points ($5)? Never mind.

Happy holidays! Have a present from all of us here at pixelsocks.com. Ok, so it was technically from NCsoft, but we aren’t above regifting.

You may recall Lord British’s abdication of his NCsoft throne or have heard that Tabula Rasa was in its final hours, but it’s finally completely free to play. Either way, the sci-fi MMORPG with FPS overtones is on its way out and the profit is all yours. If you’re willing to submit your credit card number to a MMORPG in its death throes, you can download the client for free and play without charge until the last server closes its ports forever.

Even if you’re not particularly excited by the gameplay, this is a chance to see how a MMORPG closes up shop. Will there be epic griefing now that there’s no banhammer to fear? Will there be any recognition in the game of the inevitable end? Will the servers fill to the brim with curious onlookers, or will Tabula Rasa pass unmarked? No matter what happens, you can always play armchair analyst and try to figure out what went wrong.

Fallout 3 inherited a great deal from its developer’s last successful game: Oblivion. Although this means that Fallout 3 may not be the gameplay sequel some fans had hoped for, the final product is somewhat more accessible without losing that post-apocalyptic flavor.

With the economy in the tank, it seems that beggars can be choosers. According to gamesindustry.biz, some employers are now filtering out World of Warcraft players from their eligible ranks. The rationale is simple: WoW eats up sleep and mindshare that could otherwise be devoted to the job at hand. So, with such an abundance of desperate employees in the job market, why settle for the ones who aren’t obsessed with the job?

The news bit started down in the message board trenches, so take it with the grain of salt it deserves, but the corporate reasoning has a certain verisimilitude. This, along with the fact that the blog that originally hosted this story has been suspended does raise some questions. However, it is too early at this juncture to rule out accusations of libel or simple excessive traffic as explanations for the blog’s disappearance.

Hoary old gamers (read: anyone around since The Orange Box) may recall that it shipped with Peggle Extreme, a standalone Half-Life-themed bundle of levels for casual megahit Peggle. If you’ve ever been curious but haven’t wanted to shell out the cash, Valve is now offering it for free via Steam. For those unfamiliar, Peggle is a gravity-driven puzzle game where the objective is to destroy every peg on a game board by bouncing a ball among them. It’s sort of like pinball without flippers, and has a habit of depriving otherwise productive members of society of their duly-earned sleep. Go have a crack at it.

Mirror’s Edge takes the strengths of Sonic the Hedgehog and Prince of Persia, but it mixes them poorly and harms both for it. That said, the game makes an uncommonly skillful foray into platforming in a first person perspective that’s a joy to play. Mirror’s Edge isn’t always good, but when it is, it’s great.