The official PS3 Tekken 6 wireless fight stick.

The sticks will retail for USD$150 (AUD$190) and will come with the art book pictured in the right of the images above and below.

Tekken 6 will release in Australia during the fourth quarter of 2009 – a specific date has not yet been announced. No news on these official sticks making their way down under but fingers crossed – if all else fails, you can always import (or use those expensive Mad Catz Street Fighter IV sticks you splashed out on earlier this year).

The official Xbox 360 Tekken 6 wireless fight stick.

In other Tekken 6 news, it’s been confirmed that Penny Arcade’s famous Cardboard Tube Samurai will feature in Tekken 6 as a downloadable costume for Yoshimitsu. No word yet on pricing or availability outside of North America where the DLC will be offered as a pre-order bonus at retailer GameStop.

The original Goro model used in the first Mortal Kombat.

Ridiculously cool, right? While the characters from the first Mortal Kombat were actually actors in costume photographed in various positions, second last boss Goro was apparently this miniature model photographed against a makeshift blue screen – note the desk lamp ducktaped to a cookie tin! We’ve certainly come a long way. I can’t believe this guy tormented me for years…

Goro, as seen in the original Mortal Kombat.

If you are a Mortal Kombat fan, Ed is definitely worth following. He’s tweeting regularly about the upcoming Mortal Kombat 9 which, rising from the ashes of financially challenged publisher Midway, promises yet another return to the grittier, serious side of Mortal Kombat. Ed’s team is happily ditching the DC lycra – let’s just promise to forget about the babalities and friendships, okay?

Original story: Joystiq is reporting that US Silver Xbox Live members are being offered one month of Gold membership for one dollar – that’s pretty hard to pass up. No word yet on a similar promotion for Australian silver members. Currently, only 50% of the 630,000-odd Xbox 360s sold in Australia are connected to Xbox Live in any form.

Aside from the business sense of launching a smaller Xbox 360 with a brand designed specifically to dent Nintendi’s marketshare, there are signs that point to plausability. Those who follow hardware rumours in the games industry will likely have heard of the Xbox 360 Valhalla chipset – while not exactly confirmed, the chipset is rumoured to combine the existing 65nm CPU and 65nm GPU chipsets, reducing not just the cost of Xbox 360 production but potentially the amount of space required inside the console’s housing. Valhalla is pegged for availability in 2010.

1UP also mention that the console will see a rebrand – Xbox Natal obviously springs to mind – but this raises other questions. If Microsoft chose to slimline the console, rebrand the unit and bundle it with Natal, it could be a significant marketing win, but there’s some speculation that the console would include new hardware architecture. If Microsoft splinters the Xbox 360 install base without making a true technological leap we’d expect in a traditional console cycle, that feels like a mistake. Mind you, new hardware architecture doesn’t seem to gel with the way Microsoft has spoken about platform lonjevity in recent months, and it’s important to remember Xbox Natal will be available for all existing Xbox 360s.

Interesting times – the question is, will Nintendo beat Microsoft to the punch with the long-rumoured, oft-denied Wii HD? Remember, Nintendo famously denied the existence of the DS Lite days before its unveiling…

For old time’s sake, here’s the original bonus round.

A brief press release confirmed that all games will feature customised control schemes and all the trappings of a GFW release (including achivements). Presumably Street Fighter IV will come bundled with a MadCatz pad – I don’t fancy throwing fireballs with arrow keys.

Capcom's Street Fighter IV, coming to Games for Windows.

Most notably, Capcom’s confirmed that Resident Evil 5 will include support for of NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision technology (silly glasses sold separately). Are zombies jumping out of your laptop enough to coax you into a second purchase?

It’s interesting to see significant support for the awkwardly-named Games for Windows service from Capcom – there’s obviously a huge install base if a publisher can find the right price point and approach. That said, any platform without strong parent support will continue to struggle, and Microsoft hasn’t paid much attention lately.