Posted Sep 12th 2008 3:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
The gadgety folks over at Engadget just posted a scan of UK retailer Woolworths' holiday catalog where it shows some new cheapified Xbox 360 prices. The holiday catalog lists Arcades for £129, Pros for £169 and Elites for £229 which is quite the nice savings from the current £159, £199 and £259 pricing.
Currently, Woolworths is in a heated retail battle to gain gaming marketshare, so for the time being we're attributing these cheaper console prices to a Woolworth driven price cut rather than an official European price cut from Microsoft. That said, North America just saw a price reduction and it seems to be paying off. Maybe MS should think about a 360 price adjustment for our friends in Europe this holiday season.
With Microsoft's official confirmation of the Xbox 360 price cuts that puts Arcades at $199, 60GB Pros at $299 and 120GB Elites at $399, it looks like retailers are moving quickly to get the old Xbox 360 20GB models off their shelves by resorting to some old fashioned clearance pricing.
The recently discounted to $299 20GB Xbox 360 models are now showing up at retailers across North America at even lower price points due to the fact that the 60GB model also dropped its price to $299. Essentially making the 20GB a bad deal. As a result, Best Buy and Amazon.com are currently selling the 20GB 360 model for $259 while Futureshop in Canada has discounted the 20GB model to $199 and is bundling it with Gears of War and DOA: Xtreme 2. Happy shopping!
After months and months of rumors, speculation, leaked adscans and insider whispers, Microsoft just announced that the Xbox 360 price cut rumors are, in fact, true. Beginning this Friday, September 5th the retail pricing for Xbox 360 consoles in the US will drop to all time lows. The new console pricing puts the Xbox 360 Arcade at $199 (cheaper than the Wii!), the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro at $299 and the Xbox 360 Elite at $399. Remember though, this is only for the US as any other territories (Europe, Australia, etc.) have yet to announce any console price cuts. We can now also pretty much debunk that motion controlled Arcade bundle rumor. Happy shopping!
Adding to our mountain of September Xbox 360 price cut proof that we've constructed over the past few weeks, today we bring you yet another piece of adscan evidence. Pictured to the right (sorry, it's a tiny lil' image) is a supposed Kmart retail adscan from the week of September 7th that lists the rumored Xbox 360 console price cuts: $199 for an Arcade, $299 for a Pro and $399 for an Elite. Yes sir, we're now 97.45% sure a hardware price cut is going to happen in a few weeks ... so get excited or something.
The rumor that wouldn't die has once again reared its ugly head as a new advertisement hints at Xbox 360 price-drops across the board. According to an ad from Radio Shack the Xbox 360 Pro (60GB) and Elite units will receive a $50 price drop by the week of the Sept. 7, making the 60GB model $299 and the Elite $399 while the Arcade bundle will drop $80 to $199. Source spies within the retail industry have given Joystiq similar intel from other retailers hinting at the same rumor. Check out the flyer in the gallery below.
[via Joystiq]
Gallery: Radio Shack Xbox 360 Elite/Arcade price drop
Posted Aug 5th 2008 10:30AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
As if we haven't already been smacked in the face withenoughproof that there's going to be an Xbox 360 price cut coming this September, we just came across even more retailer proof that on September 7th, $199 Xbox 360 Arcades will be the norm. Xbox-Scene posted the picture proof you see above that comes from another retailer's inventory database and what more can be said? $199 Arcade consoles equals very good times!
Now, we're nearly certain some sort of Xbox 360 pricing shake up will be happening in September, but we're beginning to wonder what role the Pro and Elite consoles have in it. All the retailer leaks have been surrounding a $199 Arcade console as we have yet to see any Pro or Elite price drop proof. It's all interesting price cut stuff that gets all the more interesting as the days go by.
Adding proof to Ars Technia's report that sometime this September Microsoft will be price cutting all Xbox 360 SKUs, the VGChartz.com crew posted their own insider price cut evidence. VGChartz.com was sent the image above which was taken from a retailer's computer data base showing that, come this September 7th, a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade price point will be in full effect. Delicious!
So, more proof that the first week of September we'll be treated to $199 Arcades, $299 Pros and $399 Elites or just a mean hoax? We say there's a good price cutting chance, but we'll have to practice our patience skills for one more month.
Gather round children and scoot in close, because it's time for another edition of Xbox 360 price cut rumor talk where we inform you about the latest, craziest and somewhat possible 360 price cuts that may or may not happen. And today, friends, we aren't about to let you down.
According to ars technica's Microsoft insider, all Xbox 360 hardware across all console SKUs will be seeing some major price cuts even including the recently introduced 60GB model. Their insider informs us that sometime this September, the Xbox 360 Arcade (no HDD) will drop from $279 all the way down to $199, the new Xbox 360 Pro (60GB HDD) will go from $349 down to $299 and the Xbox 360 Elite (120GB HDD) will fall from $449 down to a more reasonable $399. If true, high fives all around. If false, we become depressed.
Prior to E3, when Microsoft announced the liquidation price cutting of the Xbox 360 20GB HDD models and the introduction of the 60GB HDD console, they made it clear that the changes would only affect North American territories. But now, thanks to UK retailer Play.com's £30.00 Xbox 360 20GB price cut, rumors are swirling that Microsoft will be making the same price cut and 60GB Xbox 360 announcements for European territories. An announcement that is speculated to happen during the Leipzig Game Convention this August.
Even though MS has already addressed this European price cut rumor saying that the Play.com's pricing has "nothing to do with us," we're optimistic our European fanboys will join in on the North American console restructuring. Because receiving cheaper 20GB HDD models and some newer 60GB HDD Xbox 360s is way, way cool.
Posted Jul 22nd 2008 8:00AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Hot on the heels of Microsoft's "mock" price cut where they slashed the price of the 20GB HDD Xbox 360s to $299, only to replace the $349 SKU with a 60GB HDD, Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald is demanding a true 360 price cut to stay competitive with the Playstation 3.
"We remain very sceptical [sic] of Microsoft's pricing strategy and competitive positioning versus the PlayStation 3", Greenwald recently told investors saying that "at USD 349, with a 60GB hard drive, we just don't think it is a compelling product compared with the PS3 at USD 399 with an 80GB hard drive (along with more processing horsepower, Blu-ray, Wifi, HDMI, and going forward, more exclusive content)." Greenwald further picked apart Microsoft's E3 strategy mentioning that "Sony's biggest announcement was a strong counter-punch to Microsoft's USD 50 price cut on the 360", adding that "beyond Gears of War 2, Microsoft doesn't seem to have the same library of exclusive, must-have titles."
While we don't agree with Greenwald when it comes to the Xbox 360 lacking "must-have titles" or being less of a gaming powerhouse, we tend to agree that Microsoft missed an opportunity with their console pricing. Clearancing out the 20GB HDD models is fine by us, but we truly think a price drop across all models would have helped team Microsoft stay competitive with Sony and Nintendo. Especially in Europe. What say you fellow fanboys? Will a 360 price drop be necessary going into the holidays or will the 360's games library and content partnerships be enough to win the 2008 console war?
Since it's been pretty much confirmed that the 20GB 360 is going to be getting a price cut down to $299.95, we hoped that the Arcade SKU would be getting a similar price cut. In light of the rumors of a 60GB HDD SKU though, we did speculate the price drop was simply to clear shelves of the older 20GB units and that the future 60GB unit wouldn't debut at $299.99.
While that could all still be proven wrong, as more info comes in it seems to be the most likely scenario. Thanks to a tip from our good buddies over at ps3fanboy we've got an advertisement from Circut City that seems to confirm that by the weekend of July 27 the Arcade unit will not have gotten a price cut. Makes you think about why someone would buy that over an HDD equipped unit at $299.99; unless of course they'll all be off the shelves by then ....
Only time will tell, but look for E3 to clear up a lot of these uncertainties.
While we generally operate on the principle that all rumors about Microsoft are true, we still get a thrill when we start to dig up real proof. What could be more thrilling than proof? How about a whole gallery of it? Our compatriots over at Joystiq have assembled just such a gallery, a veritable mosaic of "$299," the supposed new price of the Xbox 360 Pro system. Check out the images and believe.
Seeing that we're 99.89% sure an Xbox 360 Pro price cut isheadedourway this weekend thanks to a flood of leaked retail ads smacking us in the face, one wouldn't be all that surprised to hear that Target is planning on selling the Xbox 360 Pro for $299. But one would be surprised to hear that Target is also throwing in a FREE $25 gift card on top of the deal, and that's exactly what they're doing.
According to an "alleged" ad-scan that was sent our way, beginning this Sunday, Target stores nationwide will be selling Xbox 360 20GB Pro consoles for $299 and tossing in a $25 Target gift card to sweeten the deal. So, if you, a friend or family member are in the market for a 360 and don't care about getting a 60GB HDD, then hit up Target next week. A cheap console and a free gift card sounds like major "good times" to us.
As you can see, you shouldn't know about this until Sunday. After all the other leaks surrounding the issue, one wouldn't think it'd be such a big screaming deal. Still, the phone cam shot above looks to confirm what we've already known. However, we shouldn't forget that the majority of gamers don't exactly comb the internet for this stuff, and "window signs," "Pop-ons" (whatever those are) and a gigantic stack of boxes with "oversized price labels" will likely be the first many folks hear of the price drop.
Well as E3 approaches, it looks Microsoft just can't keep a lid on their announcements. The lowered price on the 20GB unit has been rumored for a while now, and the idea has even been bandied about that its purpose was to clear the shelves to make room for a 60GB unit. While this of course is still waiting on some sort of official word (likely coming around or at MS's E3 press conference), a leaked email supposedly sent out to GameStop and Blockbuster company buyers seems to confirm both the new 60GB SKU as well as a "Live Starter Pack" for Arcade owners, which consists of a 60GB HDD, 3 Months of Live, a Headset, and an ethernet cable, all for $99.99.
Additionally, the email states the 20GB HDD is being phased out altogether and that the 120GB stand alone drive will receive a price cut to $149.99 (HA!). Word is that the 60GB Pro Unit will hit before the month is out and the Live Starter Pack will hit late October or early November. Whether or not the new 60GB SKU will be subject to the new price drop is unknown, but doubtful. Likely the 20GBs at $299.99 are a fire sale, and the 60GBs will still be $349.99.
The full text of the email can be found after the break.
With Microsoft's 
Adding to our mountain of September Xbox 360 
Gather round children and scoot in close, because it's time for another edition of Xbox 360 
Prior to E3, when Microsoft 
Hot on the heels of Microsoft's 
