It's Easter Sunday, and all over the country children will be set loose in their backyards, hunting for colorful treats hidden away by mischievous and sometimes sadistic adults. I'm speaking, of course, about Easter eggs, and while here at Kotaku tower we prefer to shop for our Easter treats in bulk after the holiday is over and the prices get slashed, we can still share with our fluffy bunny readers some of the best video game Easter eggs we've come across in our travels. To start us off on our egg hunting adventure, we give you - well...

Adventure - Atari 2600
In the beginning...
In the early days of Atari, programmers weren't given credit for the games they designed for fear of other companies trying to steal them away, but Adventure designer Warren Robinett felt that credit was due. He included a hidden object in the game that lead to a secret room that displayed the words, ""Created by Warren Robinett," which was the first known video game Easter egg. Not exactly the most exciting example, but the first deserves credit.

Robbie Bach says that the continuing success of the Xbox 360 is "another indication of the power of digital technology to transform the way people access and experience entertainment of all kinds."

Bach says that Microsoft sold 17.7 million consoles this season, surpassing their expectations and putting the 360 on track for the biggest year in video game history.

"With its continued momentum in games, accessories and digital entertainment via our leading online service Xbox LIVE, and record-setting games and accessory attach rates, evidence is everywhere that Xbox 360 is thriving," Bach said.

CES press release [Microsoft]

In yet another press release today, Sony announced that they sold over 3.9 million hardware units over the 2007 holiday season. This number of course, is an accumulation of all gaming hardware sold including the PS2, PSP and PS3 in the time from Black Friday, November 23 to December 31. Here's the breakdown:

• PSP: 1.4 Million Units
• PS2: 1.3 Million Units
• PS3: 1.2 Million Units

It's interesting to note that the PS3 sold less units than both the PSP and the PS2. Not only that but the PS2 sold almost as many units as the PSP and is making up a third of Sony's total sales. Not too shabby for a seven year old system.

In a post on the Rock Band Forums, Harmonix Developer hmxsean reaveals that there will be Rock Band DLC next week over the holiday. No announcement what the tracks will be yet, but we do know one thing: PS3 owners will have to wait.

There will be DLC next week. An announcement will go out today or Monday.

Sony's offices are closed next week and the DLC will be postponed for a week until they come back (but they'll be back on schedule the following week when they get a double-dose of DLC awesomeness). It will go up in the Xbox Marketplace as regularly scheduled.

Nothing like waking up the day after Christmas to find yet another gift under your tree, especially one that will keep you rockin' through the new year. If you have the 360 version that is....

I know a lot of you read my story last week about the Big Texan Steak Ranch waitress in Amarillo, Texas who wanted a Wii for her son so I just wanted to give you all an update on what is happening with it. A terrific guy named Scott Rays stepped forward and donated a brand new Wii and as I write this I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival so I can wrap it and send it down. After being sure I had acquired the Wii I started a round of phone calls to my contacts at the various publishers to see if I could track down some games. EA, Namco/Bandai, Capcom and a few others who have requested to remain anonymous have all donated some games so this lucky guy and his mom should have a lot to open on Christmas morning.

To everyone who wrote in with offers of systems and games, etc: I received so many responses that it would have been impossible to write everyone back personally, so I'll take this opportunity to tell everyone thank you. Due to the huge response they will be well taken care of on the games front. But if you still want to help out this holiday (or any time for that matter), please consider donating to Child's Play or another of the many well deserving charities out there.

I spoke with Rachel (the waitress) personally this morning and she wanted me to thank everyone for all their kindness and well wishes. She said she will be sending some pictures from Christmas morning that I will be sure to post as soon as I get them.

Happy Holidays, all!

Classy, I kinda like the subtlety of Sony Computer Entertainment of America's holiday card. Maybe they should hire these people to do their commercials. The card also included a $20 PSN gift card, very cool. More pics after the jump.

A Highlands Ranch, Colorado retirement community recently banded together to track down a Wii for a 13-year-old girl and her father, the recent victim of a stroke.

Breanna Splawn, 13, spends most of her time at home taking care of her dad. Recently a physical therapist told her that playing Wii was great exercise for stroke patients, so she's been trying to find one, unsuccessfully. Breanna and her class recently visited Wind Crest, a Wiii-loving Erickson retirement community that happens to be less than a mile from my house, where she discovered that some of the folks living their like to play Wii.

"When we started talking about the Wii, Breanna told me her story," says Sharon Prouse, community resources manager at Wind Crest, "and I promised I'd find a Wii for her somehow."

Prouse ended up standing in line on Black Friday at the local Sam's Club for two hours and was the last person to land a Wii, which she presented to Breanna and her family earlier this week.

I love these stories.

In many ways, many, many ways eBay is an albatross around the necks' of gamers. This is most evident around the holidays when the demand for consoles and games goes through the roof.

Over the weekend there appeared to be another sell out of Wii consoles. On Friday, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced that seven retailers-Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us and Circuit City- would be throwing a lot of Wii consoles out on their shelves over the weekend to try and sate the appetite of games and their families.

But judging by the obvious spike in eBay listings of Wii consoles, I think it's fair to say the only thing sated was greed. From 9 a.m. Eastern Sunday to 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday alone more than 13,500 Wii consoles were listed for sale in the U.S. on eBay. Coincidence? I can't imagine.

Note: These numbers might deviate a little from 100% complete authentic scientific goodness, but the trend is still relevant.

Nintendo: Wiis Hit Shelves This Weekend

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed today what we first broke earlier this week, Best Buy and six other national retailers will be stocking Wii this weekend. And by stocking I mean they will be advertising the console in their weekly circulars (except Wal-Mart) and then throwing the consoles up on the shelves come the weekend and then running away.

Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us and Circuit City are all stocking the Wii this weekend for those still on the hunt. We had several tips after our rumor story ran about the stock issue.

According to Best Buy tipsters it sounds like all stores will have at least 21 of the consoles with some carrying as many as 100. I've also heard that Best Buy is expecting a second shipment next week which is supposed to go straight to shelves. Most stores will get them sometimes before noon. The bad news is that rumor has it that that will be the last pre-Christmas shipment for Best Buy, though they expect more in early January.

Target, another tipster tells me, has a big stockpile as well, some stores have more than 100. So this weekend sounds like your best chance to pick up a Wii, unless you don't mind buying a raincheck.

Oxfam Says "Give Sheep, Not Wiis" This Holiday Season

In an (admittedly somewhat successful) attempt to coast on the holiday popularity of the Nintendo Wii, Oxfam America is urging consumers to "Give wool, not Wii" this season. Like fellow non-profit Greenpeace, the international relief organization is attempting to appeal to consumer guilt, asking Americans in a press release to "put down potentially dangerous Wii remotes", instead devoting that $250 (or more) to giving "the gift that keeps on giving: fluffy sheep."

We're almost positive wool enthusiast and Space Giraffe developer Jeff Minter is already on board with this idea. For those who also might be in a worldwide giving mood, purchases of sheep, school uniforms, trees or cans of worms are available at the official Oxfam America store and will go to aid one of 26 developing or in need countries.

As part of their annual MyWishList deal, American Express will be selling a limited number of Xbox 360 Elites starting next month for $300 with five games includes.

The deal, for AmEx cardholders only, will include the Elite plus copies of Ultimate Alliance, Project Gotham Racing 3, Madden NFL 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 and Forza 2. Only 150 of the bundles will be available on Dec. 11 at 3 pm. and 7 p.m. I'm not quite sure if that means a total of 150 or 300 of the packs.

At noon on the same day, MyWishList will feature 100 Rock Band special editions for the 36o at $50 a pop. Not bad, not bad at all.

Every year the holidays roll around and every year I promise myself, the rest of Kotaku Tower and sometimes even the readers that we're going to get off our collective asses and actually write up a gift guide. But the thing is, I hate gift guides. The hate, I think, comes from spending 12 years of my life working at newspapers where the list, the gift guide, the annual must-write-story was a thing to dread and hate. This was because as a newspaper writer you weren't allowed to buck any trends or come up with neat ideas for things like gifts, instead you had to roll out the list of things people already knew about and polish them up to make them sound new and interesting.

While I suppose you could say the same about this, our first real gift guide, I'd like to think that it holds some surprises and delights. Personally, I've already started bugging everyone I know to pool their money together and buy me Pigeon Island (Fahey's find) for my next 50 Christmases and Birthdays rolled into one.

If a $400,000 private island in the Caribbean isn't your cup of tea (and it better not be because it's MINE, ALL MINE), you're still bound to find something that tickles your fancy among this list of goodies complies by all of Kotaku's writers, be it a Japanese Gesture book or a life-sized Gundam.

Earlier this week we posted our first ever, sorta, Gaming Gift Guide. While the G3 was packed full of all sorts of goodies, mostly game related, but not totally, it was completely missing any actual games. That's because we had a different idea for listing out which video games would make good gifts and why.

This year, the problem isn't finding a game to give, it's figuring out which of the more than 50 or so top-tier titles you should pick to hand out or ask for. So instead of compiling a list of the 50 games and saying, go make up your own mind, we decided to mix things up a bit. Each of the Kotaku writers were given $300 in fictitious Kotaku Kash to spend on themselves. We figured that way the writers would be completely honest about which games they would buy or ask for if they were limited to a still rather high budget.

Hit the jump to see the lists and explanations, then feel free to join in with how you'd spend a $300 gaming gift card.

Place Your Bets On Holiday Bestsellers...Literally

Irish gambling site Paddy Power is taking bets on which video game will come out on top the week before Christmas (ending November 22nd). While most Kotaku readers surely know gaming so well that it's almost cheating, betting is off limits to US residents. Still, we had a good time looking through the odds.

Sure Super Smash Bros Brawl has been pushed back into 2008, but there's still going to be a ton of games to choose from for the Wii and DS. Check out the full list of release titles on the jump and keep an eye of for Link's Crossbow Training on the Wii and Assassin's Creed on the DS to name a few.

"Because of Wii and Nintendo DS momentum, third-party publishers are supporting our systems like never before," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Their lineup of diverse games is testament to how we make the population of gamers a little bigger every day."

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Yesterday I got an email from a fellow who said he had found an image of a holiday bundle for the 360 and as there wasn't much more information available, I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and got to work. After some rummaging about, I was able to turn up not only the Elite Bundle, but one for the Pro system as well marked as eventually being available in the US. The bundle will include the system and it's accessories plus two games, Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. These images were discovered on a website Microsoft uses to market their products and while there was no pricing information available, the Elite image was clearly marked as "Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Value Bundle." Judging by the name, one can assume that this will be the Xbox's bundles available for the upcoming Thanksgiving/Christmas shopping season. Unless of course they are saving it for Flag Day, which means we won't see it till spring of next year.

Chacun son pack [Gamick]

Boku no Natsuyasumi Squashes Bugs & Anger