Sony lowered the bar with its $299.99 PlayStation 3 slim, and Microsoftfollowed up with a $100 price cut (and now a $50 rebate on top of that)on its Xbox 360 Elite. And with the holiday season quickly approaching,Nintendo knew it had to do something. In an effort to not be leftbehind in the latest round of console price cuts, Nintendo has decidedto drop the MSRP of the hot selling Wii by $50.

For nearly three full years, the Wii has sold (like crazy) for $249.99.Most stores couldn't even keep them in stock at that point, so up untilnow, Nintendo really hasn't seen a need to lower the barrier to entry.But when you consider that a Blu-ray supporting PS3 is now just $50more than a non-HD Wii system, it's obvious that the time had come forNintendo to swing its own axe. Starting on September 27th, consumerswill be able to snag a Wii for its new price, so in other words,today's the day if you've intentionally holding off for nearly 36months.