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Nothing livens up the dog days of summer like a rumor and Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica has a good one about Microsoft cutting Xbox 360 prices in September. The net is that the rumored price cuts are:
- Arcade (no hard drive) cut from $279 to $199
- Pro (60GB) from $349 to $299
- Elite (120GB) from $449 to $399
Last month, Microsoft replaced the 20GB Xbox 360 with the current 60GB model at the same price and Kuchera says his source more or less called that one correctly. Meanwhile, VGChartz claims to have separate confirmation of the Arcade price cut so maybe it will all come to pass in time to inspire visions of Xboxs dancing in the heads of gamers for the holiday season.
Assuming the price cuts happen, there is speculation as to whether Xbox 360 hardware cost reductions prompted the cuts, but Microsoft isn’t saying and that is not really a supportable reason for the perennially penurious Entertainment and Devices division to leave money on the table. I’m sure the currently weak sales of the Xbox 360 are a much better motivation.
While we are on the subject of the Xbox, Microsoft announced a mini-coup at the E3 gaming conference with the revelation that Final Fantasy, the longtime stalwart Sony PlayStation series, was coming to the Xbox 360 with the release of Final Fantasy XIII. That’s true enough, but now it turns out that work hasn’t even started since developer Square Enix hasn’t received Xbox development kits and in any case, the PS3 version will ship at the same time.
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September 7th, 2008 at 9:46 AM
[...] The rumors of September Xbox 360 price cuts in the USA came in right on the money when Microsoft formally announced them on Wednesday. Check out the lead paragraph in the press release: Imagine if friends and families had the ability to instantly watch movies from Netflix, live out their musical fantasies through Rock Band 2 and Lips, star in their own Hollywood classics with You’re in the Movies, or have the power to never miss the latest episode of Heroes—all from one device, starting at $199.* [...]