Quarterback Brett Favre will be available to play as a New York Jet on the day “Madden NFL ‘09” is released next week. We just got word from EA that the game will still ship with Favre on the cover in his old Green Bay Packers uniform, but the following updates will make him a Jet.

Fast work on EA’s part, given that the Favre deal only made the news several hours ago.

Here are the details we got from EA, in the words of a company spokesperson:

**Madden NFL 09 will hit stores on Aug 12 with Brett Favre on the cover in his Green Bay Packers uniform.

**We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09.

**We’ll have a roster update available on August 11 with Brett Favre on the NY Jets. The game ships with Brett on an all-time greats team, but with the roster update that will be downloadable when product is available at retail, Brett Favre will be the starting QB for the New York Jets. The roster update is not mandatory - unless you are planning an online head to head game, or online league.

Nintendo continues to have a hit with the Wii gaming console.

Consumers bought 519,000 Wii systems in October, according to monthly figures released by The NPD Group, helping Nintendo to regain the top-selling spot among next generation consoles. That brings total U.S. sales of the Wii to 5 million.

“Demand actually continues to increase,” says Nintendo’s Perrin Kaplan. “People just can’t seem to get enough of it.”

Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which usurped the top sales spot in September fueled by the release of Halo 3, sold 366,000 — a drop from the previous month’s tally of 527,800, but still higher than the spring and summer months.

In mid-October, Microsoft released an Xbox 360 Arcade model ($280) aimed at casual gamers and families which helped buoy sales, says Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg.

Halo 3 remained the top-selling video game in October with 433,800 copies sold, bringing the total to 3.7

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with enclosed guitar, $90-$100) took the next three spots, with the Xbox 360 version selling the most (383,200), followed by the Wii version (286,300) and Sony PlayStation 2 version (271,100). “For us to see that title selling the best on our platform speaks to the fact that we are really broadening our market to that mainstream consumer,” Greenberg says.

A game-only PS2 version of GH III ($50) finished at No. 8, selling 231,700. In total, GH III sold 1.4 million copies (including a version for the PS3, as well as other versions that come with soundtrack CDs).

“Guitar Hero has certainly established itself among the elite video games properties,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier. “Very few games sell in excess of 1 million units in their first month in market, but Guitar Hero III did easily with combined sales of 1.4 million units in only six days. Since it has broad appeal, it’s also the type of game that should continue to do very well throughout the holidays.”

Sales of various guitar controllers also increased monthly accessory sales, she said.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 sales increased slightly in October to 121,000, increasing the system’s installed based to nearly 2 million. On Wednesday, Sony chairman and chief executive Howard Stringer said that an Oct. 29 price reduction of $100 of the 80 gigabyte PS3 (to $499) and a new $399 40GB model had boosted sales.

However, the PS3 price cut’s effect won’t be seen in the monthly sales figures until next month, Frazier says, “so we’ll have to wait until our data comes out next month to see the effect of that cut on retail sell-through of the hardware.”