EA CEO laments annual football sim's slower-than-last-year opening, despite 1.9-million-unit start.

Today, the NPD Group released its US retail sales figures for August, reporting a sixth straight month of year-over-year sales declines. Software sales slipped to $470 million, down 15 percent from last year, with EA's Madden NFL 10 on the Xbox 360 topping the chart with 928,000 units sold. According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, Madden 10 sold nearly 1.9 million units total during the month, a figure that also includes the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Wii editions.

Some people have found Kurt Cobain's posthumous appearance in Guitar Hero 5 a little unsettling -- including his widow, Courtney Love.

In a Twitter tirade for the ages, the former Hole frontwoman announced plans to sue Guitar Hero 5 publisher Activision over the way her late husband was represented in the game, reports The Guardian.

"For the record this Guitar Hero [expletive] is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction," she posted on her Twitter account. "WE are going to sue the [expletive] out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises. ... Read more »

Yes, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but Sony came a-knockin' at our door today, and we were more than willing to answer. The PlayStation 3 Slim is now official in-house, and it's a matte-laden beaut. Enough chitchat -- live vicariously through our unboxing!

Update: Some details for clarification. The buttons in the front are now physical and actually "click" in to function. The PS logo above the disc drive does not rotate for vertical use, and yes, the hard drive is swappable -- as you can see from the pictures, there's a screw on the bottom, hidden by a panel, that lets you take off part of the front for access. We've also lined it up against our standard, fatty PS3, and we gotta say, it's noticeably lighter.

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Pachter, Divnich, Sebastian, and Schachter weigh in on Microsoft's move, projecting additional discount within next year, Nintendo response.

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Microsoft confirms $100 price cut of 120GB console begins Friday, 60GB model $249 "while supplies last"; 31 million 360s sold; HD cables no longer packed in; avatar store "exceeding wildest expectations."

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"Extremely limited stock" selling out at brick-and-mortar stores; online retailers currently shipping units; hardware hackers get how-to guide.

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When it was first announced last week at GamesCom in Germany, the PlayStation 3 Slim was given a September 1 release date. That appears to have fallen by the wayside, though, with both brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers already offering the $299 120GB console.