Club Nintendo, Nintendo’s reward program, is wrapping up what it calls its “year” in terms of Gold and Platinum Status rewards.

In order to earn the 2010 reward, Club Nintendo members must earn either 300 Coins (Gold Status) or 600 Coins (Platinum Status) by June 30, 2010. The nice part about these annual freebies is that they are in addition to any other Club Nintendo item you might have already claimed in the past 12 months.

From Japan to North America, the IREM Bon Festival has arrived. The IREM Bon Festival is a small community festival with so many freebies you’ll pass out with excitement. Just check the site daily for new items, this is definitely a space to keep an eye on in the coming weeks. NPC Vendors have their own stores lining the walls of the area with free balloons, cotton candy, masks, food and a complete white Yakuta-style kimono for both male and female avatars.

The newest personal space available at the Real Estate Store located on the first and second floor of the mall is the Wizard’s Den for $2.99.

Everybody’s Golf space just opened, this golf themed lounge area for Hot Shots Golf game fans comes to us from Japan, visitors to the space can participate in an in-world survey to unlock a reward item for their personal space.

Since the announcement of a major Home overhaul at the Gamescon 2009 in Cologne, Germany, the PS Home community have been buzzing the forums eager to try the new items promised. Well. It’s here now and Home is buzzing with avatars trying out the new emotes, dance moves, poses, games and unlocking new reward items on Home. Here is what was updated on Home…

This week on Sony Home there are several new places to visit starting with the inFAMOUS space now open. Players can explore the Abandoned Docks of Empire City where they can spray paint graffiti on the walls or play Reaper Shock. In this shooting gallery style game, players can shoot bolts of electricity at Reaper targets that pop-up or move across the screen for reward items for avatars and living personal spaces.

Also look for EA’s Sports Complex, a few patches and fixes, more stuff at the mall, dance-off Items and other freebies, patriotic outfits and items for 4th of July and the return of Xi!

Day two of the E3 2009 conference brings more trailers featuring sneak peeks of upcoming games and news players may have missed while taking a break from watching E3. In addition to the free trailers, conference videos and other goodies, the PlayStation Store is offering free pilot episodes of Showtime’s Dexter and Toei’s Voltron now until June 8, 2009.

As mentioned in the previous Sony Home Update, Electronic Arts wowed gamers with the new Godfather II Home space packed with two levels of card tables and mentioned working on a Sports Complex for gamers. Well, that complex finally opened Thursday, April 23, 2009, with two levels to explore.

Also in this update, new puzzles have appeared in Xi: The Hub, the mysterious manhole opens to reveal a maintenance area in Home’s central plaza and there are freebies at the mall…

Way back when I worked at Gamestop, I noticed that a lot of the new games coming out came with this extra junk that came bundled with the game as an incentive for reserving it. It would range from free in-game items or weapons to a Call of Duty dog tag.

Sometimes it seems like a wasted effort. If you reserved a copy of Harvest Moon for Gamecube, for example, you got a free stuffed cow. That’s cute but the only people who are going to reserve that game are people who wanted to buy that game in the first place. It’s doubtful some newcomer is going to walk into the store and think, “Well, I had absolutely no interest in this game but a free cow? How can I pass it up?!..”