Over the bast couple weeks, rather convincing scans from some popular retail circulars such as K-Mart and Circuit City were posted on the web suggesting an impending Xbox 360 price drop. Microsoft initially refused to confirm or deny these rumors. Many thought Microsoft would wait until its E3 press conference to tell the world the good news.

Instead, the hype machine has moved in its favor and Microsoft finally confirmed via press release what everyone suspected. (Sort of.)

The Premium Xbox 360 console will receive a price drop. As of yesterday (July 12, 2008) the Premium bundle sold for $349 but, beginning today…

I’m now officially tired of Halo merchandise. First, lame novels. Then, a few small figures, larger action figures, an MP3 player, comic books and now a painted game system. Even so, I bet Halomaniacs around the globe peed a little when they heard that Microsoft is releasing a Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 videogame console September 2007.

The biggest bummer about the setup, however, is that the game will not ship with the system. It will include a (wired = lame) and a pretty green shell orange highlights and with a tiny Halo logo on a pretty standard Xbox 360.

Here is a list of the contents according to Microsoft…