Report States Microsoft Pulled Price Drop Announcement


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We all know about the long-awaited PlayStation 3 price cuts at yesterday's GamesCom press conference, but a report from MCV states Microsoft had similar plans that were pulled at the last minute. According to sources, Microsoft was to announce a price cut to the Xbox 360 Elite, and may have replaced the Pro unit with it. However, one electronics retailer claims that Microsoft decided to delay the announcement while waiting for Arcade and Elite units to clear up more from shelves.

Though the Microsoft conference this morning was absent of any such announcement, the news means we could see one coming soon. Microsoft tends to make its retail pushes with pack-in games near the holiday season, so we may see this announcement still coming in the near future.

News Source: 1UP

You may have seen a post or three (or eleventy) over the past few days about Sony's newer, skinnier, cheaper PS3 Slim. Microsoft apparently did, and that might be partly why it chose to delay its own re-pricing announcement, a move it was apparently set to reveal yesterday at GamesCom -- but opted not to. Big Redmond is said to be killing off the Xbox 360 Pro and replacing it with the Elite at the $299 price point, a move it will want to make quickly because, for the first time, it's now the most expensive gaming console on store shelves. Whether the supposed delay was to let the dust settle on Sony's big news or was just to clear out some additional Pro inventory remains to be seen, but either way MS had better get a move on -- and maybe think about knocking an extra couple bucks off for good measure.

News Source: Engadget

This is a smart move, get rid of excess stock and then pull the price drop out to $299.

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This is a smart move, get rid of excess stock and then pull the price drop out to $299.

Yeah, it is. No would would want the Pro if the elite was the same price.

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Yeah, it is. No would would want the Pro if the elite was the same price.

Or they can pull a Sony. :p PS3 60GB went down $100 ($399) to get rid of the stock and brought in the 80GB ($499) at the same old 60GB price with no price drop. :p

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Looks like I should wait a while until getting my Elite, although if I hand in my old 20GB Pro I don't think I am going to get stuff all for it...!

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Leaving the elite at $399 really isn't going to help shift this extra stock with the PS3 at $299, they should just of cut the Elite to $299, people would still buy the Pro at $299 if they wanted a white console. Or even slice $50's off it.

Surely there isn't THAT much stock in retail? Won't be a great idea waiting long on this one, you guys in the USA seem to get a bit of a raw deal on the Elite compared to us in the UK. The 360 has always been cheaper than the PS3 here, not the same price or more expensive, even with our PS3 price cut, the 360 is still cheaper.

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Leaving the elite at $399 really isn't going to help shift this extra stock with the PS3 at $299, they should just of cut the Elite to $299, people would still buy the Pro at $299 if they wanted a white console. Or even slice $50's off it.

Surely there isn't THAT much stock in retail? Won't be a great idea waiting long on this one, you guys in the USA seem to get a bit of a raw deal on the Elite compared to us in the UK. The 360 has always been cheaper than the PS3 here, not the same price or more expensive, even with our PS3 price cut, the 360 is still cheaper.

Yes but if they came and announced that they were dropping the price of the Elite to the Pro's price, neither would sell as much until the price drop, especially the Pro's. They're trying to get rid of the Pro's, not the Elite's.

-Spenser

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I reckon, rather I hope, that Microsoft is actually about to drop the price even further. With the PS3 at $300, you can't have the 360's main SKU retailing at the same price, it needs to be cheaper or the whole "value" thing doesn't fly, since the PS3's games look as good AND you get a blu-ray player. I hope MS drops the price to $250 or less.

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I think that Microsoft needs to revise price now to $149 for Arcade, $199 for 60gb and $249 for Xbox 360 Elite. There is no more place for $299 Xbox with PS3 being $299 now.. they have to nail down Sony with $50 lower highest end console version. $299 for Blu-ray player, game console and media extender is very tempting now to an extent that I'm thinking of getting another one for my other room (the slim one).

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funny.. the day has finally come when the 360 is more expensive than the ps3...

It won't be for long, especially with the Christmas holiday just around the corner.

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I think that Microsoft needs to revise price now to $149 for Arcade, $199 for 60gb and $249 for Xbox 360 Elite. There is no more place for $299 Xbox with PS3 being $299 now.. they have to nail down Sony with $50 lower highest end console version. $299 for Blu-ray player, game console and media extender is very tempting now to an extent that I'm thinking of getting another one for my other room (the slim one).

Microsoft is never going to go as low as $150. They know that people see $199 as a cheap price for a console (when every other console is in the $200-$300 range). IMO, they should have dropped Pro to $249, left Arcade at $199, and dropped Elite to $299. But, I?m no marketing expert, so I?m assuming they felt people would just ignore the Pro at this price point and pay $50 more for an Elite.

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I think that Microsoft needs to revise price now to $149 for Arcade, $199 for 60gb and $249 for Xbox 360 Elite. There is no more place for $299 Xbox with PS3 being $299 now.. they have to nail down Sony with $50 lower highest end console version. $299 for Blu-ray player, game console and media extender is very tempting now to an extent that I'm thinking of getting another one for my other room (the slim one).

Never going to happen, sorry. The 60GB is being removed, so no price point for that (retailers will now choose what to price them, like the discontinued PS3 20GB, 40GB, and 60GB stock to be moved out the door). The arcade will not be lower anymore than $200 with Microsoft knowing that it is cheaper than the Wii. The Elite will also not go down more than $299 simply because it would be too big a loss for them to make money. Unless they are willing to go out on a limb and make it $250, then they would have be at the same price point as the Wii. The thing is, Microsoft won't do that knowing that they have a bigger market share than Sony and they don't need to do anything drastic as they are fairly ahead.

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Never going to happen, sorry. The 60GB is being removed, so no price point for that (retailers will now choose what to price them, like the discontinued PS3 20GB, 40GB, and 60GB stock to be moved out the door). The arcade will not be lower anymore than $200 with Microsoft knowing that it is cheaper than the Wii. The Elite will also not go down more than $299 simply because it would be too big a loss for them to make money. Unless they are willing to go out on a limb and make it $250, then they would have be at the same price point as the Wii. The thing is, Microsoft won't do that knowing that they have a bigger market share than Sony and they don't need to do anything drastic as they are fairly ahead.

speaking ?'s here

microsoft is not really competing with the wii, that will happen when natal is released. but by that time, if nintendo box clever, the wii should retail at ?100 or lower... however they are greedy, all they have is a gamecube with a different controller, even if they sell at ?50 right now i bet they are still not loosing out, they are selling the wii for ?180 right now and sales are slowing down, to compare... the xbox 60 gig is selling for ?170, thats just crazy. nintendo dont really need to pricedrop just yet as they are still selling the most but its evident that sales are drying up, if nintendo do a nice pricedrop they will accelerate once again

as for the ps3 slim... ?250 is still quite expensive for a gaming console which is sold to the casuals (most hardcore console gamers have purchased their consoles already), the fat ps3 could be had for ?270 here so a ?20 price cut for a more ugly and less feature filled ps3 isnt really something earth shattering. if i understand correctly, the elite will replace the xbox 60 gig (?170)... if this is true then thats a big difference between the elite and the ps3 slim

microsoft need to be aggresive now... sony is still relying heavily off its brand name

?100 arcade

?170 elite

that sounds very reasonable to me, ?70 extra for the elite... all u are paying for is the 120 gig hardrive

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