backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 88 comment(s) - last by Icelight.. on Jul 15 at 11:42 AM

Best Buy Sunday ad scan.

Target Sunday ad scan.
Microsoft prepares to drop the price on its mid-range Xbox 360 model

There have been rumors swirling around the internet for the past week that Microsoft would drop the price of its Xbox 360 Pro system from $349.99 to $299.99. The speculation was fueled by leaked ad scans from various brick and mortar retailers.

The price cut is all but confirmed by new GameStop signage which was forwarded to Engadget and Joystiq. The internal store memo shows that the price of the Xbox 360 Pro will fall to $299.99 on Sunday, July 13.

Further confirmation came today from a leaked Best Buy Sunday ad which also shows the new $299.99 price as a "$50 Price Drop". Target is going even further by not only mirroring the $299.99 price tag, but also tossing in a $25 Target gift card instantly with the purchase of an Xbox 360 Pro.

Interestingly enough, there is no word on a price cut for the current low-end Xbox 360 Core system which is priced at $279. With only $20 separating two consoles, sales of the Core are likely to take a huge dive unless Microsoft makes complementary price cuts to the system.

Microsoft last cut the price on the Xbox 360 Pro back in early August, 2007. At that time, the price was cut from $399.99 to $349.99.

Updated 7/13/2008
Microsoft made the official announcement today that the 20GB Xbox 360 will now be priced at $299.99 while supplies last. A new, 60GB model will be introduced in early August to occupy the previous $349.99 price point.

Once all supplies of the 20GB model are depleted, the Xbox 360 family will consists of the $299.99 Xbox 360 Arcade, $349.99 60GB Xbox 360, and the $449 120GB Xbox 360 Elite.

 

 

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By knitecrow on 7/9/2008 4:36:12 PM , Rating: 3
What Microsoft really needs is a redesigned xbox 360 that is smaller, quieter, and more reliable. It would be a plus if they made wi-fi standard. I love my xbox 360 but had 3 die on me. I hate how my xbox sounds like a jet engine. I buy a new unit if they can fix the problems with the current unit. Like a xbox 360 slim.

It makes sense to keep the arcade around and have it go against the wii. Rumors are MS will introduce a new motion controller. They need a Xii, low end SKU for $199 that comes with 1GB of flash memory standard for storage, plus motion controller, plus some party game.




By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 4:44:16 PM , Rating: 4
Why does it need to be smaller? Its the same size if not smaller than the PS3. And the PS3 is freakin heavy too for a console.

As far as the noise of my 360. No complaints here.


By Brandon Hill (blog) on 7/9/2008 4:50:48 PM , Rating: 2
My Xbox 360 was LOUD. Especially with disc spinning up. My 40GB PS3 is nearly silent.

My Xbox 360 also RROD'd twice (making me have to pack it up and ship it back to MS), so I got rid of it -- too much of a hassle.


By bighairycamel on 7/9/2008 5:03:28 PM , Rating: 5
Same boat here. I'm on my 2nd 360 and it is nearly dead (no RROD, but constant disc read errors on every disc after 5 mins of play).

With free online play, wireless ethernet, and better reliablity, the extra cost to get a PS3 is looking very negligable at this point. I would be happy to pay extra not to deal with another dead system in 12 months.


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By ioKain on 7/9/08, Rating: -1
RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By daftrok on 7/9/2008 5:15:00 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah it sucks now he has to play online for FREE. What a loss!


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By SiN on 7/10/2008 2:23:02 PM , Rating: 1
Yeah... What you said. He gets to play online, for free, with 1 game.
Screw Xbox360 :P


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By Bigjee on 7/13/2008 10:53:57 PM , Rating: 1
That too and the fact that the Ps3 has Wifi and you don't have to pay an additional $100 to get WiFi adapter just so that you can go online wireless.


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By BansheeX on 7/9/08, Rating: -1
RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By Hiawa23 on 7/9/2008 6:47:45 PM , Rating: 3
I am sorry as I own both consoles, & own maybe 5 PS3 games & damn near 30 Xbox 360 games so the libraries are nowhere near close, especially since I buy all multiplatform games on the 360, since in most cases they are better than the PS3 offerings.


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By BansheeX on 7/9/2008 7:42:56 PM , Rating: 1
I'm looking at a list of cross-platform titles right now. GTA IV, Oblivion, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5, FEAR, Soul Calibur IV, Civilization Revolutions, Orange Box, Unreal Tournament III, Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero, BioShock (eventually), Rock Band, all sports games, etc, etc... Point out where I went wrong in my last post, I'm not seeing what you are. In the above titles, I believe reviewers gave the PS3 nods over the 360 for Oblivion , DMC4, GTA IV, and UT3. 360 got nods over the PS3 for Orange Box, Assassin's Creed, and FEAR.


By StevoLincolnite on 7/10/2008 2:52:02 AM , Rating: 4
GTA IV has shown to look better on the 360 than the PS3 Version. (I have it on both consoles, the lighting and shadows look better on the 360).

Oblivion is much better on the PC in my opinion because of the stupidly large amounts of Mods, and OldOblivion basically allows any PC with Shader Model 1.0/1.1 to run the game, Plus with the Multi-Player mod your laughing.

The reason why the 360 has better Graphics than the PS3 is because the GPU is capable of more advanced effects, however the PS3 has shown to have a little bit better texture quality in some cases.

Both consoles are great (I have both) but I must admit I do watch movies on the PS3 more than I play the games, I have found that picking up Xbox 360 games is easier and more available than that of the PS3, as most stores are still selling PS2 games thus eating up the shelf space, might be a bit different else where but that's what I noticed here.


RE: Need a smaller, quiter and more reliable unit
By afkrotch on 7/10/2008 4:17:01 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
GTA IV has shown to look better on the 360 than the PS3 Version. (I have it on both consoles, the lighting and shadows look better on the 360).


According to review sites, both are good. PS3 has a blurring effect, so that objects aren't jagged. The 360 doesn't really do this as much so things are clear and crisp. At the same time though, can also be jagged.

Review sites lean towards the 360 or the PS3. That's really all user preference though.

quote:
Oblivion is much better on the PC in my opinion because of the stupidly large amounts of Mods, and OldOblivion basically allows any PC with Shader Model 1.0/1.1 to run the game, Plus with the Multi-Player mod your laughing.


I think it's better on PC also and not even cause of the mods. It was the stupid FPS spikes on the 360. It'd happen often when you run out into the woods, which I did a whole lot of.

Just horrible coding I guess, as it ran fine on the PC and PS3.

Me, I have US PS2, Japanese PS2, Japanese PS3, Japanese 360, and US 360. J-PS3 doesn't accept PS2 controllers and those adapters don't work, so gotta keep my old one around. Keeping old US PS2 for my US games as J-PS3 doesn't play them. 360 has region encoded games so I need both of them.

I order all my games online and I find PS3 has more games to my liking than 360. Still more of a PC gamer than console though. So if an FPS, RTS, RPG, etc is on all systems, I get the PC version. Then PS3, then 360. I try not to put stress onto my 360s, as they break a lot it seems. My current J-360 is my 3rd one. 1st 2 broke.