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Rumor: 360 price cuts in September

Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Ars

Early Sept price reduction on X360 hardware:

* Arcade (no hard drive) to $199
* Pro (60GB) to $299
* Elite (120GB) to $399

We should also expect hardware and game bundles for all hardware versions coming in the fourth quarter, just in time for the holidays.

In addition, the mole revealed that the upcoming release of Forza 2 Platinum Hits will include all the DLC tracks that were made for the title, which is a good way to add value to the game.

The last time the mole talked to me, before he became a super-villain, he told me the 60GB model of the hardware was coming, and he was right on the money with that one. Those prices should be considered rumors, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't accurate information. Very sexy pricing.
Click to expand...

The 60GB and Elite are still too high IMHO but the Arcade down to $199? That's definitely where it needs to be.

Update - VGChartz got a picture of someone's inventory system.

For reference, I cannot be credited with the picture, but nevertheless, I feel it's too important to just let go, as it's an amazing story to break - On VGC first!

This picture is confirmation of the earlier Ars Technica article from an informant stating that the Xbox 360 would drop it's price in September to $199.99 for the Core, $299.99 for the 60GB model, and $399.99 for the 120GB Elite model. This picture shows nearly irrefutable proof that those rumors are substantiated, and are set to happen in just over a month.

Calculating the Impact of the $199.99 Price Point

Microsoft has been no stranger to the $199.99 price point. In interviews, high brass officials from Microsoft have stated they are 'very aware' that the $199.99 is the sweet spot for console sales. Earlier this year, a weakening Xbox 360 had it's price re-vamped to the 199 Euro price point in February. According to VGChartz.com tracking information, this price drop has allowed the Xbox 360 to gain traction, and sell 100% more units in the February-July timeframe - From an estimated 750,00 to 1,750,000 units in the 6 month timeframe.

Could a similar boost happen in the United States? It is entirely possible: Such a price point will leave the Xbox 360 as the lowest priced Next-Gen console on the market ($50 below the Wii's $249.99 price point), and digging ever-closer to the Playstation 2's pricepoint of $129.99

Not only is the impact of the $199.99 going to of large importance, the scheduling of the drop is telling as well. It takes place 1 week after Square Enix's 'Infinite Undiscovery' and 2 weeks before Harmonix/EA's 'Rock Band 2' - Both exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform at the time of release and pricedrop (obviously, Rock Band 2 will ship in November for the other platforms).

Could Microsoft be making a true power-play for the Holidays? I think so. At a $199.99 price point, and Microsoft's continued dedication to steal away both Sony's hardcore user base through gobbling up former exclusives such as Tales of Vesperia, and Star Ocean, and attempting to woo casual gamers away from Nintendo with such offerings as Your In the Movies and Lips, it would seem that the price drop could act as a suitable catalyst for higher sales.
Click to expand...
 
$299 for the standard model isn't bad.
$399 for the Elite is too high. What does that get you now? 60 GB more disk space, black plastic and the HDMI & A/V cable? There shouldn't be a $100 price difference for that.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
$299 for the standard model isn't bad.
$399 for the Elite is too high. What does that get you now? 60 GB more disk space, black plastic and the HDMI & A/V cable? There shouldn't be a $100 price difference for that.
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Especially considering that when they start selling the 60GB separately, it will be $100 and the 120GB will be $150....a mere $50 difference. The Elite definitely needs something extra to make it worth the $100 spread.
 
Originally posted by: CasioTech
what is the difference between the standard 20 and 60gb except for the hdd space?
Click to expand...

Just the HDD space. All 360s are essentially the same. The only difference is the memory.
 
I doubt this. There was a post a few days back about how the next-gen isn't expected for at least 3 more years, probably more. If they are ever going to make this price cut, it would be 2 years from now. It doesn't make sense for them to drop the price down to $300 for the 60gb when it will sell just fine at $350. Unless they are still going to make a pretty nice profit off the console at $300 then I could maybe see this.

But think about years from now when everybody has a 360 cause MS kept giving them price drops, MS will be trying to roll out its next-gen and it probably won't sell good in its first 3 years or so (unless it is the holy grail of consoles, which it won't be). Only the so-called "hardcore" gamers will buy the next-gen at release because everybody else and their dog who already have a 360 will be more than content with just keeping their 360.


edit:I should have elaborated.
 
Originally posted by: YoungGun21
I doubt this. There was a post a few days back about how the next-gen isn't expected for at least 3 more years, probably more. If they are ever going to make this price cut, it would be 2 years from now. It doesn't make sense for them to drop the price down to $300 for the 60gb when it will sell just fine at $350. Unless they are still going to make a pretty nice profit off the console at $300 then I could maybe see this.

But think about years from now when everybody has a 360 cause MS kept giving them price drops, MS will be trying to roll out its next-gen and it probably won't sell good in its first 3 years or so (unless it is the holy grail of consoles, which it won't be). Only the so-called "hardcore" gamers will buy the next-gen at release because everybody else and their dog who already have a 360 will be more than content with just keeping their 360.


edit:I should have elaborated.
Click to expand...

It depends, if it has full backwards compatibility with the XBOX 360, Blue Ray Drive, a GFX chipset capable of dishing out the hurt (imagine the 360 w/ something like an ATI 4850 - w/ 512MB of VRAM), and 1 gig of Main memory, built in WiFi, Maybe a QuadCore instead of the current Triple Core, Standard HDD

+ a proper browser built-in would sell quite a bit of hardware <-- this is important (that's feature compatible w/ IE7, or Firefox).

One can build a PC nowadays with those specs for around 500$, so I'm sure Microsoft can sell an XBOX 720 w/ those specs.


 
Originally posted by: YoungGun21
I doubt this. There was a post a few days back about how the next-gen isn't expected for at least 3 more years, probably more. If they are ever going to make this price cut, it would be 2 years from now. It doesn't make sense for them to drop the price down to $300 for the 60gb when it will sell just fine at $350. Unless they are still going to make a pretty nice profit off the console at $300 then I could maybe see this.

But think about years from now when everybody has a 360 cause MS kept giving them price drops, MS will be trying to roll out its next-gen and it probably won't sell good in its first 3 years or so (unless it is the holy grail of consoles, which it won't be). Only the so-called "hardcore" gamers will buy the next-gen at release because everybody else and their dog who already have a 360 will be more than content with just keeping their 360.


edit:I should have elaborated.
Click to expand...

360 sales have been slowing at the $350 price point. I don't think 40GB of more space will change that appreciably. With Sony coming out with a 80GB PS3 at $400, MS has to move their prices down.
 
I bought one of those MGS4 PS3's and I don't think MS will have any issues 🙂 The XBOX 360 definitely has a much better gaming library than Sony. Moreover, developing games on the PS3 just plain sucks because the development tools are not as good as MS.

Sony needs to work on their PS3 development kit, maybe write some plugins to get something integrated with Ecilpse. Too bad the hypervisor blocks access to the RSX under Linux.

a PS3 w/ 2 gigs of RAM (development hardware), Linux, Eclipse, Cell Library, proper RSX Linux Binary Drivers w/ Full OpenGL ES acceleration would make a pretty good development workstation.
 
Wow... what a complete non-shocker. I think the Arcade actually becomes a good deal at $200, especially since finding cheapie 360 HDDs has never been that hard.
 
The biggest change to the 360 that would matter the most is more memory in the console itself. I'm hearing more and more from developers that are complaining they don't have enough ram in the console to work with.

But then that would alienate all the previous owners.
 
I'm still not excited about the 360 HDDs being priced the way they are... if I could swap out any HDD it'd be a different story. At this rate, I'm between the 60 and Elite.
 
Originally posted by: Modelworks
The biggest change to the 360 that would matter the most is more memory in the console itself. I'm hearing more and more from developers that are complaining they don't have enough ram in the console to work with.

But then that would alienate all the previous owners.
Click to expand...

Well, that's never going to change...for any of the consoles of this generation. 360 has 512MB of unified memory to split between the CPU and GPU. PS3 has 256MB for the CPU and 256MB for the GPU. The Wii has something like just under 90MB of memory total.
 
Originally posted by: RS8
I'm still not excited about the 360 HDDs being priced the way they are... if I could swap out any HDD it'd be a different story. At this rate, I'm between the 60 and Elite.
Click to expand...

From stuff that was leaked before, the 60GB HDD will be priced at $100 and come with a headset, an ethernet cord, and 3 months of Live. The 120GB HDD is supposed to drop down to $150GB.

Still overpriced but I'll be tempted to get the 60GB if I ever find a good deal.
 
What will the Netflix streaming require on the 360? Will it run without a Gold Live account, and will a hard drive be needed?

Was thinking about a Roku box, but at $199 I would rather get the 360 Arcade.
 
Update - VGChartz got a picture of someone's inventory system.

For reference, I cannot be credited with the picture, but nevertheless, I feel it's too important to just let go, as it's an amazing story to break - On VGC first!

This picture is confirmation of the earlier Ars Technica article from an informant stating that the Xbox 360 would drop it's price in September to $199.99 for the Core, $299.99 for the 60GB model, and $399.99 for the 120GB Elite model. This picture shows nearly irrefutable proof that those rumors are substantiated, and are set to happen in just over a month.

Calculating the Impact of the $199.99 Price Point

Microsoft has been no stranger to the $199.99 price point. In interviews, high brass officials from Microsoft have stated they are 'very aware' that the $199.99 is the sweet spot for console sales. Earlier this year, a weakening Xbox 360 had it's price re-vamped to the 199 Euro price point in February. According to VGChartz.com tracking information, this price drop has allowed the Xbox 360 to gain traction, and sell 100% more units in the February-July timeframe - From an estimated 750,00 to 1,750,000 units in the 6 month timeframe.

Could a similar boost happen in the United States? It is entirely possible: Such a price point will leave the Xbox 360 as the lowest priced Next-Gen console on the market ($50 below the Wii's $249.99 price point), and digging ever-closer to the Playstation 2's pricepoint of $129.99

Not only is the impact of the $199.99 going to of large importance, the scheduling of the drop is telling as well. It takes place 1 week after Square Enix's 'Infinite Undiscovery' and 2 weeks before Harmonix/EA's 'Rock Band 2' - Both exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform at the time of release and pricedrop (obviously, Rock Band 2 will ship in November for the other platforms).

Could Microsoft be making a true power-play for the Holidays? I think so. At a $199.99 price point, and Microsoft's continued dedication to steal away both Sony's hardcore user base through gobbling up former exclusives such as Tales of Vesperia, and Star Ocean, and attempting to woo casual gamers away from Nintendo with such offerings as Your In the Movies and Lips, it would seem that the price drop could act as a suitable catalyst for higher sales.
Click to expand...
 
The writing at VGchartz is so horrible... they really ought to just stick to posting facts and not bother with their crappy analysis.
 
Why don't they just swallow their pride and put a hard drive in the Arcade version? Pimping Live and having one of your most attractive models gimped isn't a smart business move.
 
Originally posted by: Dari
Why don't they just swallow their pride and put a hard drive in the Arcade version? Pimping Live and having one of your most attractive models gimped isn't a smart business move.
Click to expand...

It's a lower cost option. Nothing wrong with options. There are many people who either have no interest in Xbox Live or no ability to use it (some areas of this country have no broadband Internet).
 
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