Today,
making a major follow-up to its recent
slashing of the price of Xbox 360 models in Japan, Mcrosoft went
one step further and announced that starting this Friday, September
5th, the price of all Xbox 360 models will be cut, leaving
the cheapest model, the Xbox 360 Arcade, priced at a tantalizing $199
USD/CAD.
“
We
are thrilled to be the first next-generation console on the market to
reach $199, a price that invites everyone to enjoy Xbox 360,” said
Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment
Business at Microsoft. “Xbox 360 delivers amazing performance at an
extraordinary value with the leading online service and best lineup
of games and downloadable movies available from a console. The
majority of consumers make the decision to buy consoles once the
price falls to this mark, making this an important milestone for
consumers and the industry.”
Microsoft
says that history shows over 75% of all console sales happen after a
unit's price falls below the $200 mark. If that's correct, we could
begin seeing the sales of the Xbox 360 Arcade taking a massive leap,
but what about the other models? The Xbox 360 Premium/Pro will now be
priced at $299 USD/CAD while the Xbox 360 Elite will go for $399
USD/CAD. If the company's history is correct, that means the most
popular Xbox 360 model, the Premium/Pro, which is picked most often
because of its “total package” bundling, would only be slightly
more appealing.
Either
way, this puts the Xbox 360 Elite in a very competitive position
against the Playstation 3, as the lowest/only current model of the
Playstation 3, the 80GB model, costs $399 USD/CAD, and the Xbox 360
Elite is the “top of the line” Xbox 360 model, and the new 80GB
is not backwards compatible with Playstation 2 or original
Playstation software. Even with rumours still circling about a new
120GB PS3, the likelihood is that it would cost $499 USD/CAD at this
point, so, as far as pricing goes, Microsoft has quite the advantage.
If only it could get the reliability
thing down.