free is always good, but i dont know if it is aggressive enough.

I would have liked to have seen nintendo partner with ubi and offer pop 2 free: ubi seems very worried about this game getting the sales it deserves and nintendo would get a 3rd party boost (even if its multiplatform) that it has lacked

PoP 2 for free seems pretty extreme. Maybe PoP 1 but there's no logic in including a brand new title. I think including Mario Kart is fine. It's still better than what MS is including with the Xbox. I don't remember exactly what titles are included with this year's Xbox bundle but I think like last year they're nothing titles that no one really cares about. Mario Kart is a legitimate hit and is one of the Cube's most popular games so including it is actually quite generous. However I think the Metroid Prime bundle is better and it seems kind of unnecessary to replace it.

Personally I would include Ikaruga. That way a classic but largely unknown third party title would get some exposure. MS managed to make JSRF into a minor hit by doing the same thing. Have an annual Christmas bundle that always includes the overlooked third party title of the year. Third parties would likely appreciate the ability to get a second chance each year and it's a good way to "train" the userbase into buying more than the big first party titles.

The free Xbox games are NCAA '05 and Top Spin with their 2 months free Xbox !eviL. Atleast their better than the Tetris Worlds and Clone Wars offered by last year but sport Titles MEH even though I heard good things about Top Spin still meh.

Ian: Do you have any idea what Ikaruga will do to those unsuspecting casual gamers? Their "I can beat every game, I'm 1337!" ego is going to be strangled, raped and sliced into little cubes!

vherub: Please call the game PoP:WW, PoP 2 wouldbe acronym overloading (and I hate overloaded acronyms, try PS2, for example: Ancient computer, interface AND games console!). PoP2's biggest feature were VGA graphics.

tho ubi has only been involved in one pop 2, right?

and yes, it is extreme, which is exactly what the cube needs for a big holiday season. My reasoning was I could make an educated guess that Ubi is quite worried that pop2 will not see the sales it deserves because so many impact titles are hitting in the next month. They can play around with the release date all they want, but I would think they could benefit from a deal to bundle with the cube.