Microsoft may be happy with the position they’re in—current counts have the Xbox 360 at about 5 million consoles sold, and the PlayStation 3 seems to be a bad press magnet recently—but that doesn’t mean they’re not taking the competition seriously. While up until this point Microsoft has denied that they will drop prices to compete with the PS3, speculation and rumors have been circulating that the 360 might start coming with bundled games and/or Xbox Live credits at the same $299/$399 price point.

Ars Technica, one of the more trustworthy blogs, points to “reliable sources” saying that a new 360 bundle may include Project Gotham Racing 3, a free 3-month Xbox Live Gold account, and 1250 Live Marketplace credits along with the current $399 Xbox 360. The value of the add-ons would total roughly $85 retail, but in the end this probably costs Microsoft very little (especially since PGR 3 is published by MS). If true, it’s probably quite a smart move by Microsoft - by introducing more folks to their online features for free, MS stands to make a lot more off of Xbox 360 owners. Plus they’ll be able to brag about a > 60% connect rate to Xbox Live.