Microsoft will be trying to curb the amount of PS3s being sold by offering an additional $50 rebate on the Xbox 360 Elite that was recently slashed to $299. The catch is that the additional $50 rebate will be for a limited time, which happens to be only 14 days.

The promotion will run between now and October 5th. The rebate is of the mail-in variety, so you have to buy your console, follow the instructions, and send away for your $50 check. Of course, you can expect to have to wait 6 to 8 weeks for your check to finally arrive, and hope that you don’t mistake it for junk mail and accidentally throw it in the trash.

One other interesting note about the promotion is that it seems that Netflix is helping to sponsor this promotion, but it does not appear that you have to join Netflix to take advantage of the rebate offer. All rebate requests have to be in before November 20th, but the actual purchase does have to be made prior to October 5th.

While we hate mail-in rebates, a deal is a deal, and this is about as good as it is likely to get this holiday season on the Xbox 360 Elite, other than the expected holiday promotional titles that are expected to arrive soon. It has been suggested by one of our sources that this is an effort to move out inventory quickly prior to the holiday bundle consoles being released; and in addition, the sales could help combat the sales of the PS3 slim which have been trending upward since its release.

You can get more details on the rebate at: http://www.xbox.com/eliterebate