RSSMicrosoft officially announces cheaper Xbox 360s
By Tim Conneally | Published July 14, 2008, 11:51 AM
On Sunday, Microsoft officially announced the $50 price reduction to the 20 GB Xbox 360 for the US, as well as the introduction of a 60 GB model at the $349 price position.
Employees of several consumer electronics retailers provided corroborative leaks last week, showing sales circulars advertising the Microsoft console's price reduction.
Game Crazy, a retailer who didn't have any information leak prematurely, announced today its promotional tie-in to Microsoft's announcement. On July 19, it will be giving away 299 free Xbox 360s at its various store locations. To let customers know where they can get one, the retailer has set up a room in Google's new Lively 3D virtual world.
By improving the per-dollar value of the 360, Microsoft stands to capitalize on the system's record high software attach rate. The Xbox 360 has consistently led in this category, which has only increased with subsequent software releases. In 2005, four 360 games were sold for every console, and in 2006 it reached five, in 2007 it hovered at just about five and-a-half.
This year, the software attach rate jumped to seven, and by April had already gone up to 7.5. Nintendo's top-selling Wii console has only just reached an attach rate of 5.3, a rank that Microsoft's console had at the beginning of last year; Sony's PlayStation 3 has around 4.6.
Availability of the "improved" 360s is slated for early August in the United States and Canada. Similar price cuts were instituted in Australia weeks before they were expected in the US, but related sales figures have not yet been published.
They can afford to give these away for free. They make a fortune on the games sold, extra hardware, etc.
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|They probably would make a lot more money if they'd drop the price of the 360 to something everyone could afford. They could make up the difference in software sales in no time, those games are expensive.
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|I really hope MS will open up the system and allow hard drive replacements like on the PS3. I ran out of space on my xbox with download games, add-ons and movies. Come on allow a 500 gig drive in the system already.
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|I agree but they're too paranoid about piracy. The price of the proprietary 360 hard drives is insane though. You can use an external USB hard drive for your own files but they won't let you save downloaded content to it.
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|I think the opening paragraph should have been this....
"Microsoft may have let something slip that American consumers weren't supposed to know: there really is no "price cut" for the XBOX 360."
Sounds familiar Ed? Some of the older BN readers know what I'm talking about.
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|I know exactly what you are talking about. Just like the PS3 "price cut" this is not really a price cut at all either. They are just clearing out the 20GB models just like Sony did with the 20/60GB models.
Unlike the Sony fanboys I am not going to try and deny the obvious...
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|Nice.
So you agree that that there's a difference in reporting news between the two companies on this site. Spin, spin, spin.
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|"So you agree that that there's a difference in reporting news between the two companies on this site. Spin, spin, spin."
BAWWWWWWWWWW BAWWWWWWWWWWW BAWWWWWWWWW
I love how you focused on nothing except the headline. You can "spin" it any way you like, $50 saved is still $50 saved if you don't care about the smaller hard drive. The bottom half of the article really does put things int perspective though. Microsoft is leading the pack in software attach rate and Sony is dead last in that area. Everyone knows the big bucks are made on software, not on the hardware. You can lose some money on the hardware even if your competition doesn't (like Nintendo for example) and still make way more than them if your software attach rate is much higher.
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|sh!t i saved $50 with a xbox 360 elite bundle... two games for free... everything @ $449.99 at best buy
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|"Sony Drops PS3 Price by $100"
http://www.betanews.com/...Price_by_100/1183990033
Looks like they reported it the same to me. *shrug*
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|Try this one mate...
http://www.betanews.com/...ly_Temporary/1184341133
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|They announced it the way I posted first. Also this article doesn't say anything except what "Microsoft" announced.
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|"attach rate"... just another stat to tout growing sales in related categories.
Personally, if you've purchased a new base system for the 400 - 600 price tag, then you should be easily able to afford another $300 in games, right?
XBox and PS/3 games are priced at $50 or higher each. If you ask me, ALL of the "current generation" of game systems and games are priced beyond the normal buyer's price range. I think it's a miracle that the consumers can afford the latest platforms and games.
Peace
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|"By improving the per-dollar value of the 360, Microsoft stands to capitalize on the system's record high software attach rate."
Sure they are!
And this will provide them with a strategic marketing advantage over Sony who is losing money on every console.
Smart marketing.
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