RSSMicrosoft extends Xbox 360 price cut to the US
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 3, 2008, 11:28 PM
With the unmistakable thunder of another shoe dropping, Microsoft announced Wednesday evening that it is dropping the prices of its three Xbox 360 bundles -- the Arcade, "Console," and Elite -- in the US.
The basic 256 MB "Arcade" game console package drops to the $199.99 mark, in a new pricing initiative that begins this Friday. The 20 GB hard drive unit sinks in price to $299.99, and the Elite 120 GB model drops to $399.99.
The move comes in response to Sony's price realignment for its PlayStation 3, announced last month. Rather than an outright price drop, Sony chose to endow its marketing tiers with higher capacity and more bundling features. PS3 bundles currently sell in the US for $399 and $499; and Microsoft's high-end bundle now sells for the price of Sony's low-end bundle.
Contrary to reports, free subscriptions to Xbox Live service are not being bundled with Microsoft's three tiers, although the wording of this evening's press release could easily be misinterpreted to give that impression.
One important excerpt from that statement is this: "Xbox 360 Arcade plus a 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership and a Netflix subscription costs $100 less than 12 months of digital cable."
Historically over time, console systems are eventually slashed in price. This is common over time in a highly competitive market.
On a different note, David Gerard said, "Microsoft Japan is already actually paying people to take the machines, with little success." My question is what is Microsoft paying the people in Japan to take the systems?
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|Sure it means they are priced on what the cost to build it. It would not be the first time for Microsoft to sell their Machine for less then they spend to make it.
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|I have almost bought an Xbox 360 three times but have backed out every single time. I love my original Xbox (bought in February 05) but all of these reports of the red ring of death on the Arcade and Premium model make me wary of buying one, and I don't need the 120GB of storage so why should I have to buy the Elite? Please, Microsoft, make the 360 as good as the original.
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|The new systems are fine buy one and enjoy the huge library of games.
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|If you did get a red ring of death on a 360 within the first 3 years MS will send you a box, pay for shipping, and repair/give you a working one in a 2-3 week period for free. Outside of that 3 year period it would cost you. If you were outside that 3 year period i bet a place like Costco or Walmart would just let you swap it for a working one if you bought it from there and still had the receipt and original box.
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|Microsoft Japan is already actually paying people to take the machines, with little success."We hope more people will be able to enjoy Xbox 360," said marketing marketer Takashi Sensui, "and we can stop enjoying quite so many of them. We also have this fine pile of HD-DVD drives ... Wait! Come back!" http://notnews.today.com/?p=63
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|Seriously? What the hell kind of pathetic fanboy rant was that? Then to link it to a "news" article, you ps3 fanboys are really getting desperate.
Its sold out in Japan moron. There were lines to get Tales of Vasperia; MS has the rpg market at this time, they don't need to force anyone to buy it.
Also, your ps3 is mainly being bought as its the only surefire blu-ray player that will continue to work, you can check that against the games sold for it.
All of the current systems offer quality games I don't get why you fanboys can't see that all three systems can co-exist with each other...
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|What a pathetic attempt at trolling. You are almost funny.
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|Hilarious :)
Nice price tag though. Now it's becoming interesting (except for the games, that is).
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|Cool, I need a 360 for my hot tub. Does anyone make a wireless waterproof controller?
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|I might consider a console if it was about $100, supported mice and keyboards out of the box and didn't require inserting discs to play games stored on the hard drive. How anyone can enjoy a slow PC that only works with those godawful controllers is beyond me. No wonder the Wii took over, at least it has some novelty value.
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|You are one cheap loser psycros.
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|You've obviously never used a 360 controller, which is arguably the best controller ever made. I despise the Sony controllers, especially since they've never really done anything about the utter lack of ergonomics since they were first introduced.
For what it's worth, I own a PS3, so I can speak ill of its controllers. I'm picking up a DualShock 3 this afternoon because my kids broke one of my original PS3 controllers; the flimsy plastic doesn't stand up to being dropped on a hardwood floor very well.
Also, how anyone can still enjoy the perpetual upgrade cycle of overpriced video cards and unstable drivers every six months is beyond me. At the end of the day, I just want to turn it on and play.
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|Microsoft has created an internal account, funded with more than one billion dollars, dedicated to addressing overheating problems. With a price drop, they better reset that number... they're gonna need it!
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|Nice try the new units support the dye shrink so heat is no longer an issue. Keep trying
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|First to comment!! PS3 Rules!!!!
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|I'll tell you right now PS3 does not rule. Microsoft intention are to become number one and they are on the road to be number one with the price cut. Sony will not be able to keep up. Microsoft has deeper pockets then Sony to make sure they'll be number one. Also I did own a PS3 but it got hot and shut down to many times so I got rid of it and bought an Xbox 360 with 60 gig HD. The future is down loading movies not blu ray.
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|Sony has the advantage because it online gaming is free. FREE. FREE. Did I say FREE. While Microsoft charges for XBox Live.
XBox will be able to compete with Sony once they make XBox Live Free until then Sony will always have the advantage no matter how many price drops Microsoft makes.
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|Yeah but you are missing the point just because something is free it does not mean it is of high quality.. there are over 11 million people paying for Xbox Live for a reason... because of the quality of the service.. the features and matchmaking.. these are all things that Sony's online service just can't touch.. And how can Sony have the advantage when it's well known knowledge that Xbox's online service works better.. it's not any big secret.... The little things like when GTA 4 released you could not even play online for like the first few days because the matchmaking was so messed up with the PS3.. while with Xbox Live nobody had any issues..
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|Godshumor,You are right.Had xbox live for years never had any problems,Sony online play stinks,I have had so many problems connecting to servers and no one will give you a straight answer
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|Did no one else catch the fact that cjaramillo1988 was clearly TROLLing out of amusement and boredom concerning console news?
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|Realize also that the XBox Live service subsidizes the low price of the XBox360. For gamers who don't care for online gaming, they win win win. For gamers who do want the online service, they then get to space out the price different between the XBox360 and PS3.
It's smart.
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|Who cares if PS3's online gaming is free it still sucks that's why they can't charge for it. Plus for 12 months of Gold for under 60 bucks that 5 bucks a month if you can't afford 5 bucks a month what the heck are you doing buying a next gen console in the first place. Sure it would be cool if it was free but come on 5 bucks....
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|hey moron (gochargers),
If you owned both consoles and had them online, you would quickly see why Sony's service is free and MS charges a whopping $4 a month.
Half the time, my PS3 won't even connect to PSN. It's god awful but you can't complain to anybody when you arent paying for it.
Another idiot fanboy who knows nothing of the 360. I own all 3 consoles by the way, and the Wii is better than the PS3 when it comes to online speed and reliability.
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|The PS3 does rule as the best and only BD player which is infinitely upgradeable (so far). It's also the best upscaler I've seen and the black levels are now second to none.
As you can tell, my PS3 is not for gaming as much as it is permanently hooked up to my projector for watching movies.
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|Live does rock and my second year is free as MS sent me a 12+1 card with my newly replaced Elite and a black wireless controller after it went RROD.
Four days without a console and I get over $100 worth of free s*** from MS. Owning a 360 doesn't suck.
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|Consider yourself very lucky. I went through five 360's since launch and the most I ever got out of MS was a free month of Live each time, which didn't even cover the time they had my 360. Mind you, this was with their "extended warranty", whereby every time you sent in a busted 360, you got a replacement from the refurb dead pool.
Knock on wood though, this fifth one's lasted almost a year and a half now. The others last six months or less, and one was DOA from their service center.
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|Xbox 360 silver is free did i say free yeas i did.
I used silver and it is much better online gaming then PS3.
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|OMG NOT $4 *SCREAMS BLOODY MURDER*
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|All the sony trolls have entered the room I see.
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|It needs to be free since it is a poor excuse for an online experience.
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|Yipes. I'll keep letting them replace it as long as it breaks though.
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|DUDE! who gives a damn about the blow-me ray? everything no blu-ray with a HDMI port can and will upscale DVDs to 1080p pisado de mierda
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