You know what’s not a bad way to start a new year? How bout announcing that your latest title has sold more than a billion dollars worth. Yes, Modern Warfare 2 has reached that rare milestone among industry developments, and it’s still going strong.

“There are only a handful of entertainment properties that have ever reached the $1 billion mark,” said Activision CEO Bob Kotick, “which illustrates the power of the Call of Duty franchise and mass appeal of this game.” In case you’ve forgotten the baffling sales statistics, more than half of that billion was made in the first five days the game was available. Utterly insane.

In other new, Avatar (the movie, not the game) broke the billion dollar mark not too long ago, putting the two in a race to beat out Titanic’s $1.8 billion gross and Guitar Hero III‘s $2 billion.

Just a week after the 250GB PS3 Slim was announced, that Modern Warfare 2 bundle, the one with a similarly sized hard drive, got a release date. Yesterday both Amazon and Costco posted November 10th for the release date on the bundle.

For $399.99 you’ll get a console with a 250GB hard drive, two wireless controllers in black, and, of course, the game. In keeping with recent SKU changes, the console only comes with standard def. cables, a big letdown for what is otherwise a premium setup. If you’re looking to get your hands on one, please please please don’t overpay for your HDMI cable. You can find them online for less than most value meals.

Microsoft has announced another 250GB bundle for the Xbox 360. This one includes Forza 3 though without a customized console like we found in the Modern Warfare 2 bundle. Unfortunately for you US types, the bundle will only be available in the UK and South Africa.

This is the third in a pretty sweet lineup of 360 bundles over the past few days, obviously designed to compete with the 250GB PS3 bundles Sony has been showing. The bundles have some strange differences, though, and not just with regard to region.

The Halo bundle, for instance, forgoes the 250GB hard drive, something that would be great for all those Bungie Pro users looking to save additional game content locally, for a copy of Halo 3. The Modern Warfare 2 bundle seems to be the only one with a customized console, but it doesn’t include customized controllers. And of course there is the region issue. Why some and not others? Why not standardize these things across the board? And for god’s sake, why won’t they sell the 250GB unit as a separate periph?

As the holidays loom closer I’ll be interested to see what else comes out of Redmond. More bundles, or just more tweaks to the existing SKUs?

Remember that 250GB Xbox 360 that’s been floating through the rumor mill? At a press event today, Microsoft announced a Limited Edition Xbox 360 Elite bundle for Modern Warfare 2, which includes the massive hard drive.

The bundle, which retails for a measly $399.99, is available for pre-order today and includes a customized console, two black wireless controllers, a copy of the standard edition Modern Warfare 2, and that whopping 250GB hard drive. As with all new Elite packages, the console only ships with a composite cable. Regardless, this is an incredible deal. For an extra hundred bucks you get a controller, more than double the hard drive space of the regular elite, and a copy of one of this year’s most anticipated games.

You can check out the full bundle and pre-order now at Amazon.