Rumors are bad, bad things. On the one hand, they make you interested and excited regarding supposed products which look like the Holy Grail of gaming, while on the other hand, they set you up for the almost inevitable disappointment which follows when the said products fail to become concrete gaming realities. But there are those rumors which seem so genuine that you have to take a closer look at them.

Now it seems that Microsoft might be planning a surprise release for this holiday season. In a nutshell, we're talking about a 199 dollar-Xbox 360 Arcade console which has a motion tracking controller included, along with a few demonstrative minigames.

The rumor is reported by Xbox360Fanboy, one of the most trustworthy sources when it comes to the Xbox 360 and, apparently, it's all coming from an anonymous source that is "close to Microsoft's marketing department".

The idea is that the new console variant will be positioned on the market as a direct competitor to the Nintendo Wii, sporting the same motion tracking capabilities while also having better graphics power and a bigger games library. It seems that the new controller, which is supposedly created by Rare, will also be sold separately and that most Xbox 360 games will be able to make good use of it.

If the new Xbox 360 Arcade console exists and with Microsoft managing to keep its marketing oriented mouth shut regarding it at both E3 and at the Leipzig Games Convention, the surprise and the novelty factors might really help it get very good sales, especially close to Christmas and with the help of a motion tracking controller, the Nintendo Wii, which is at the moment the best sold console on all major markets, might finally have some real competition.

But I am highly skeptical that Microsoft would choose to keep quiet about something as big as this. I am getting the feeling we're setting ourselves up for a new disappointment.