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[JoshuaJSlone]

unless the arcade will now be $250, which makes it identical to the wii when you look at the features.

Identical features? Hardly. X360 playing DVDs and Wii having motion controls and WiFi are the first that come to mind.

 

[dammitmattt]

Interesting timing. I thought they'd do it before GTA IV, and when it didn't happen I assumed they were holding off until the holidays. The timing here probably means they'll do another holiday bundle rather than a second round of cuts.

And Microsoft said last year, when Sony cut the PS3 price at E3, that it doesn't make sense to cut in the middle of the summer like that, unless you're forced to.

Mmmm.

Also curious how the other SKUs get cut. A $50 accross the board would be nice, but I doubt that's coming. Dropping the price on the $100 and $180 HDD would be nice too. And also, a pony.

I think it's smart to get a price cut out in front of NCAA and Madden. It's the next best alternative to cutting the price out in front of GTA4.

 

[ThatHurt]

for the people saying 50 is not enough.

For now I believe they are happy with the amount of people they are getting.. If they are neck and neck with sony in the US and behind by a little in EU they are still going to be gaining market share from last gen.

If I made a post 4 years ago that the new xbox would outsell the ps3 20 out of 24 months I would have been branded a heritic.

This + the fact that MS made money on its console while Sony keeps bleeding money trying to get back the people it screwed over by including bluray and putting the price so far out of normal peoples reach that they did not buy it, is what I believe is called a win. Even if they end up 2nd (sorry still dont see the wii as this gen and I own one).

 

[ShinAmano]

Given how the removable fascia on the 360 never took off (anyone use them here? Thought not )

I do...granted I have never bought one, but a friend gave me one for christmas (Halo 3 one) and I slapped it on...

 

[RetroMG]

I say sweet. I was planning to buy a 360 in the next month or so, and that price drop will probably mean I'll buy the premium, instead of buying the Arcade and then sticking in a Hard Drive later, which was my original plan.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

I'll "Jump In" when Jasper arrives, and not before.

Yup, same here.

I was waiting for the GPU shrinkage, any price cut is just a bonus.

 

[AndresON777]

not bad, I'm waiting for the arcade to be around 200 so I can get a new one with hdmi.

 

[Guy Legend]

Looks like this ad and the price drop is happening around E3, weekend of July 13th. The K-Mart ad is actually for then. Ads for the weekend of 7/6 show the old pricing.

 

[duk]

drop drop drop!

price drops are GREAT

 

[RBH]

Price drop occurring during the weekend of 7/13.

 

[minx]

So MS is going to announce this at E3? And what exactly from the MS conference hasn't been leaked already? :lol I hope for some suprises.

 

[bloody pirate]

50 bucks is better then no price drop at all.. but still i dont see this drop shifting alot of hardware in the comming months similar to europe

 

[Moray]

And to think I was expecting it to be $299 back in November 2005... they've successfully conditioned us.

 

[Pojo]

Even if they dropped it $100, games are still $60. I try to tell myself this when I get excited about a drop. :\

 

[FIREBABY]

2nd 360 here I come. Say what you will of the reliability and noise level but it still is the most fun I've had on 1 console. And I own all 3 right now. And $100 price-drop over the past 3 yrs must mean there are doing better than they are reporting profit wise.

 

[szaromir]

Interesting timing.

The end of financial year is the obvious reason for it.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Even if they dropped it $100, games are still $60. I try to tell myself this when I get excited about a drop. :\

They're only $10 more.

And that won't change.

Who cares?

 

[PhatSaqs]

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/07/e3-interview--1.html

I think July is a terrible time to announce a price cut. Forget about E3. There's no business that gets done. Consumers are not buying a lot of consoles in July, or in August for that matter. The bulk of the business gets done in the holiday, the last three months of the year. Spring is the other big "season." A price cut in July is very, very odd

:lol :lol

 

[Guy Legend]

Even if they dropped it $100, games are still $60. I try to tell myself this when I get excited about a drop. :\

$60 is a lot if you buy a lot of games. Good to look for deals and wait for price drops for games, instead of buying everything right when it comes out.

 

[mr_bishiuk]

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/07/e3-interview--1.html


:lol :lol

He was proved right though last year, the 360 beat the PS3 in every month.

Personally I think this price cut is quite clever, if in 3 months Sony cut the price $50 to try to match then MS can do another which would make it tricky for Sony to do the same before Christmas

 

[RBH]

Even if they dropped it $100, games are still $60. I try to tell myself this when I get excited about a drop. :\

If you know where to look, you can easily get games for less than $60, even sometimes on release date.

CAG <3

 

[Karma]

50 bucks is better then no price drop at all.. but still i dont see this drop shifting alot of hardware in the comming months similar to europe

Didn`t sales double in Europe after the price drop?

 

[Tmac]

Even if they dropped it $100, games are still $60. I try to tell myself this when I get excited about a drop. :\

By the time it reach the $100 markup, a huge percentage of games, compared to now, will retail for a lot less (old/used/platinum games).

 

[Nester]

I skimmed the thread to see if this has been posted, but Stootsi has Refurb 360 Pro's for $189.99, $6 shipping today only.

I've bought from them once or twice before so I know they've shipped out fast every time I have ordered from them.

http://www.stootsi.com/?refer=20080627

 

[Chris R]

About fucking time

 

[RetroMG]

I skimmed the thread to see if this has been posted, but Stootsi has Refurb 360 Pro's for $189.99, $6 shipping today only.

I've bought from them once or twice before so I know they've shipped out fast every time I have ordered from them.

http://www.stootsi.com/?refer=20080627

That is very tempting. But what about the Red Ring of Death? Wouldn't it be more likely on a Refrubed console?

 

[Mooreberg]

I'm glad I got a refurb for $259.99 when BioShock came out. This generation has been a snail race for price drops.

 

[Nester]

That is very tempting. But what about the Red Ring of Death? Wouldn't it be more likely on a Refrubed console?

I would think that it would still be covered under the regular 3 year Red Ring warranty.

 

[Blader]

I'm glad I got a refurb for $259.99 when BioShock came out. This generation has been a snail race for price drops.

IIRC, the PS2 didn't drop in price until 2003.

 

[Odysseus]

IIRC, the PS2 didn't drop in price until 2003.

may 2002

 

[FrankT]

Very nice price cut on the most popular SKU and the best bang for your buck. I thought they may throw a price cut around this time as I stated after the no price cut with GTA IV. They waited it out through GTA IV and now MGS4 bump. With a price cut going into E3 this will only add into momentium before the next Madden. I would suspect that the 60gig model should be out before Madden maybe. I also think MS has room for another price cut this year right before black Friday on at least the other SKUs, but bundles will probably be the way to go perhaps again.

 

[Mooreberg]

IIRC, the PS2 didn't drop in price until 2003.

May 2002: PS2 - $199, Xbox - $199, Gamecube - $149

People really have forgotten how much of a better deal you could get on games and hardware last gen.

 

[artredis1980]

a price drop of only 50 suggests 2 things

1. MS is still trying to recoup losses from RROD
2. 360 Premium still costs MS around $250 to manufacture

 

[Mooreberg]

a price drop of only 50 suggests 2 things

1. MS is still trying to recoup losses from RROD
2. 360 Premium still costs MS around $250 to manufacture

3. They think it's enough to get back ahead of PS3 for monthly sales and they realize it's way too late to do anything about selling even half as much as Wii

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

a price drop of only 50 suggests 2 things

1. MS is still trying to recoup losses from RROD
2. 360 Premium still costs MS around $250 to manufacture

I really don't find it surprising that after a first drop of $50, the second one isn't even more. Drops usually stay the same or get smaller, with one exception being the 20 drop followed by 30 drop PS2 and Xbox did: 200 -> 180 -> 150.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

3. They think it's enough to get back ahead of PS3 for monthly sales and they realize it's way too late to do anything about selling even half as much as Wii

4. And while doing so they can still just skitch through and maintain profitability.

 

[MechDX]

a price drop of only 50 suggests 2 things

1. MS is still trying to recoup losses from RROD
2. 360 Premium still costs MS around $250 to manufacture

No. There was just no need to.

They didnt consider the Wii a "threat" or their competition. They were staying well ahead of Sony. Sony starts to gain small pieces of ground, now they drop the price. This gen was all about making a profit in the H&E division at MS.

 

[Kitschkraft]

Honestly, what was the point of not dropping the price before GTA4? I think a nice price drop along with that title might have helped the lack of a sales bump. Why drop it like 2 months later? Just to have an E3 announcement?

 

[bigmakstudios]

I thought they wanted to trudge along without a price drop for as long as possible, and they felt that games like GTA4 would push consoles without one. But maybe they were disappointed by their hardware sales in April and May, and this is their reaction?

 

[Moray]

Honestly, what was the point of not dropping the price before GTA4? I think a nice price drop along with that title might have helped the lack of a sales bump. Why drop it like 2 months later? Just to have an E3 announcement?

There are a lot of financial considerations, like posting enough profit for a specific quarter/fiscal year.

 

[Odysseus]

There are a lot of financial considerations, like posting enough profit for a specific quarter/fiscal year.

and they listened to a lot of morons (gaf posters, analysts, etc.) that said "why drop the price before a big game? consoles will fly off the shelves!"

 

[npm0925]

I'm waiting until after E3 for any gaming hardware purchases.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I thought they wanted to trudge along without a price drop for as long as possible, and they felt that games like GTA4 would push consoles without one. But maybe they were disappointed by their hardware sales in April and May, and this is their reaction?

Basically same thing that happened last year; the price drop came following several months of mediocre sales and everyone and their mother realizing that they were reaching saturation for that price point.