@Onouris:
Because thanks to the £:$ conversion for the last couple of years they've been making more money per unit sold in the UK than per unit sold in the US. So a price cut will merely bring a bit more parity between the regions.

CodeGrrl

You know what would go brilliantly with a price cut in Europe?

Freaking Rock Band already!!

TeaBean

@CodeGrrl: What's that got to do with the price of fish?

Onouris

The Xbox 360 Arcade is already cheaper than the Wii in New Zealand lolz.

psychobadger

so umm; to add some fuel to the fire I'd like to add this: (re Arcade vs Premium).

I live in Australia; so all I can get from Video Marketplace is some episodes of Viva Pinata (the cartoon.) yaaay!!! ... *ahem*.

So My dad came to me the other day and said: "how much would a 360 be to be our media center extender".

What 360 should I recommend to him? a Pro? so he can buy a hard disk he will not use for 12months (AT LEAST MS and other companies are very slow to work out the licensing deals here.) because the majority of the time he is going to be in the Extender interface (which doesnt use the 360 hard disk at all - its all remote desktop to the MCE machine).

I give this to you as a fact. I quoted him the price of an Arcade box. Cost of component cables is 10 dollars (theres a Console chipping place nearby that has STACKS of cables and accessories in baskets for 5 and 10 dollars each depending on the item - basically reselling stuff from consoles they open and chip before selling - I got a MCE remote for my halol edition 360 for $5).

He wont play games on it; at best my Sisters Boyfriend might - but he doesn't need a Hard Disk in it (cause He'd be playing my games and I don't own burn-out paradise so no worries there!).

We have Wired Ethernet *everywhere* (and would have to buy the wifi adaptor anyway if we bought a pro).

So basically; I have found you exactly the person the Arcade is aimed at. Someone that doesn't play games 24/7 doesnt use the video marketplace (in my case because its unavailable but the reason will be different for other regions) and doesn't want to spend the money if they don't *have* to.

The Arcade pack is NOT aimed at the Premium pack owner/buyer. Stop judging its value by what YOU want; and judge it by what the person who it is aimed at wants.

MeateaW

They need it, The Ps3 is coming ahead!

Soyerz

Good news, could speed up my picking up a system and finally stepping into the new generation (only a Wii at the moment) though I will be more interested in a new SKU with built-in wireless.

Azrael

@DARTH_TIGRIS: Oh I think it will happen soon in the US. MS needs to gain some ground with the euro market and see if people will pay @ this price. The Wii is still in high demand and the leader of the casual market. Sony's PS3 is now the bluray player to buy. So MS has to make its mark too. Which now looks like the hardcore gamer and homebrew system. Exclusive DLC & games, XBL/XNA/Arcade and a marketplace that delivers to its main demographic. These are all selling points MS needs to hammer into the buyers heads. 2008 should be about rebuilding trust in their brand and its a good thing in my eyes hddvd lost cause now MS has to be very aware of its "perceived value".

BTW I think there's enough used 20gig hdd's out there for developers to start making the online part of 360 games require a HDD soon. GTA IV might sell alot of hdd's alone beacause of its DLC but a casual gamer just doesn't need it. I also wouldn't be suprized if we see MS pack inside new HDD boxes a year subscription of XBL.

GUNLOC_MORIYM

@JediMaster: Amen.

Kovitlac

@DARTH_TIGRIS: Yeah, I know what you're saying.

I don't know ... the PS2 was this crazy *juggernaut* during it's life. It owned, mercilessly no less, the Americas, all of Europe and Japan. Not just from a consumer standpoint, but a developer one as well.

MS does have "The Games (tm)" this time around, but it just feels different somehow. I feel like MS isn't "hungry enough" .. like a 2nd place boxer fighting for the title should be.

Honestly though, I think at the end of the day the #1 thing that's going to hurt MS is the quality problem. If the 360 reeked of awesome fail proof "future-ness" things would be different, I think. If MS comes out with a "super box" (not a new SKU, mind you, just better normal xboxes) with a high-end whisper quiet DVD drive, and high end whisper quiet (and effective) cooling that'd be the best thing they could do. PS3 is going to get lots of games soon too (much like the PS2 did after the dreamcast was killing it with [still] awesome games).

cello

Things are gonna get real interesting as the 360 and PS3 start to impinge on the Wii Price Range.......

GoonieGooGoo

@DARTH_TIGRIS: No, I couldn't imagine that. Microsoft would never be that generous.

djsyndrome

@cello:
Hmmm. Well the Xbox was the better value last gen (it was pretty much always priced the same as the PS2), yet that made no difference in the end because the PS2 had THE GAMES.

Who has them this time so far?

DARTH_TIGRIS

I find MS a tiny bit extra-greedy this generation.

The PS3, and I say this as a 360 owner, does seem to be the better value.

Considering the 360 1) lacks built-in hi def movie playback 2)lacks built-in Wifi 3) requires proprietary parts (HDD, vision cam, charge cables) 4) has a pay-to-play online model (not to mention paid themes and pics) and 5) just isn't as sexy (loud, runs hot, big power brick, bad rep for quality), charging near the same price as a PS3 is a little out of control.

MS would be smart to slash the price (The Arcade pack should be the same price as the wii, imho) and start advertising the hell out of this box. Otherwise, they may end up in third place this time -- down from second place last time.

I doubted Sony in the beginning, but now I think they may outsell MS ... sooner than later, no less.

My 2c.

cello

For the record, if it hasn't been mentioned, based on current conversion rates, this would equivalent to a $99 price cut in the US.

Seriously, could you imagine an $179 Arcade, $249 Pro and a $349 Elite all right before 3 months of GTA IV, Too Human and Ninja Gaiden 2? The industry would explode.

DARTH_TIGRIS

@EdwinJ85: Nintendo said they didn't do HD because most people don't have it (which was, possibly, bollocks), not because their system was relatively cheap (which was, probably, the real reason).

Given the constraint of actually making money on a console, it's clear that Nintendo couldn't have offered an HD-capable console at launch. Both other manufacturers lost money heavily on consoles at launch and I doubt they're making much money now either. (Certainly 360 hardware will never make a profit overall if you take into account the cost of replacements etc.)

But Nintendo didn't really claim that price was an issue. Which makes sense, as if they had said that it would highlight the fact that they make money on every console sold, while the other manufacturers subsidise their consoles (or did at launch), essentially giving users a massive, free, hardware boost. Nintendo users get what they pay for, minus a bit for profit - the same as if you buy any other piece of electronics. Sony and Microsoft users get (or got, at launch) much more than they paid for.

It'll be interesting to see if Nintendo follow this move. They can clearly afford to cut the price significantly but unless MS's price cut actually makes a difference, i.e. people stop buying Wii and get 360 instead, they probably won't.

quen

Weak price cut imo.

scarlet

I'm sure they can afford the price cut when the currency exchange rate has been nearly $2:£1 for over a year, whereas when the 360 was released it was closer to $1.50:£1.

CodeGrrl

I've been preaching this for almost 2 months and people kept blowing me off. MS had a plan for its next strategically timed price cut and GTA IV is it. I truly imagine the US will follow shortly. Great news.

DARTH_TIGRIS

@dunlop: You missed the point. Entirely. It wasn't that a HD is required to play Burnout Paradise, it was that you can do very little with a 360 Arcade out-of-the-box - and that the Premium is the lowest acceptable 360 system for most people.

And you're right, I don't own a 360 - because I refuse to give Microsoft my money until they provide wi-fi in the box, something my PS3 and my kids' Wii both offered for free.

djsyndrome

@lost_in_hollywood:

Or people who already have a Hard drive and want the HDMI goodness of the newer models? I traded my old core in for an arcade for that reason and it didn't cost me squat.

That said, £150 would be a ridiculous price and would put paid to nintendo's whole we cant do HD because our machine is cheap for the kids bollocks.

EdwinJ85

But will teh Elite come down i price by the end of the month, when i have saved enough by then!

Fuck the 'Arcade' only freaking morons would buy that, i want to know about the Elite!!

lost_in_hollywood

The Xbox 360 Arcade SKU is a crime against humanity.

Pinhead

@usfslacker: I have a premium BTW. Why you keep throwing fanboy around is beyond me, I'm not emotional (as you seem to be) and could really care which you or anyone purchased. I was arguing what I perceived your first post to be (Arcade vs. Wii) and throwing words like "gimped" around. Is the arcade as good as a premium? Obviously not. For the same price as a Wii? Hell yes it is a better value (notice in my original posts I also mentioned personal preference, generally another term that fanboys do not use).

As I do own both, I was able to make a comparison.

dunlop

@Naif:
Maybe but the fact it doesn't have the hard drive doesn't seem to fall on deaf ears for even the casual market so I doubt it will help much. Everyone buys Premiums or Elites anyway.

Grey_Fox

@dunlop: Actually, reading his first post, he found it funny that it was put up as an alternative to the Wii. As in, he probably disagreed with it being compared. But, yeah, thanks. You two kids go take this out to the playground, mmmkay?

Ampillion, now with the hair stylings of TVs Frank

I don't see why Europe, particularly the UK, needs a price cut. They would easily be able to afford it if they just stop using their tuppence to feed the birds.

+ Watch video

Vincent060

@dunlop:

In my first post, I only compared it in the sense that one plays 100% of its own games and the other does NOT. If you can argue with that,either in its validity or the benefits of one over the other, then you're delusional. The Core pack is not a better value than anything; you fail. Oh, I'm sorry, when I make an ass out of myself to defend a glaring flaw in something, I usually actually LIKE the thing I'm defending. You being a flaming fanboy was the only thing that made sense. Then again, not even the biggest fanboy defends the Arcade pack though, so I guess I shouldn't insult them by lumping your idiocy in with theirs.

And the fact that you like the 360 core over the Wii is just your (delusional) personal preference, in no way does it make the arcade pack not shitty.

usfslacker

\o/ cheaper than Wii - where it needs to be.

There's a demographic out there that still believe in memory cards and straight from disc gaming that won't be interested in the HDD requirements (as long as gta4 is hdd free.. which i don't care for) and if it's cheaper than teh Wii which they may have gotten and decided that gaming is actually fun then they could plump for this and pick up some of the higher profile titles like bioshock and h3.

Not to mention all the cheaper titles from a couple of years back.

edhe (xbl)

@usfslacker: Read your first post, you are directly comparing it to the Wii.

Obviously the Arcade is less than the Premium and I would not purchase one either. But it is a much better deal for the same price as a Wii (If I had to choose).

Who said I loved the 360? This is all you retard, I was doing a comparison.

My 360 is much better than my Wii but it is definately not perfect

dunlop

@dunlop:

I was not comparing the 360 Core to a Wii, I was comparing it to a THREE SIXTY. The reasons you LOVE that damned box SOOOO much apparently is because of those features. Let's be more specific. If the Core model was the only one that existed, I guarantee no one here would own one. And there would probably be no games for it. I'm also not comparing it to a PS3, whose lack of an in box HD cable of some sort is also widely criticized. I would also never buy a 40gig, for the record. I can tell you're a fanboy because you're taking my criticism of the most gimped SKU of anything EVER and taking it as an insult to the only thing that's apparently ever loved you.

Since you're attention span is apparently very short:
Xbox 360- Great console (although it has a case of the gremlins sometimes) with a great library.

360 Core- takes 90% of the great things about the 360, and flushes them down the toilet. Was obsolete at launch due to overpriced proprietary upgrades.

@JediMaster:

...wow. What is Witzbold doing today? He should have taken care of this guy already. Also, as stated before, the 360 core is NOT capable of HD graphix0rz, you have to buy an additional set of cables. Go watch a movie, the graphics are incredible, tool.

usfslacker

£150 for Xbox360 with GTA4 coming up?
Y hello thar sales.

CanaryWundaboy

@usfslacker:

Dude I rather have a console capable of HD graphics and a suberb game catalog than a stupid over clocked gamecube with fancy controllers and one or two decent games.

JediMaster

Microsoft really need to do something to reclaim back their portion of the console market in Europe as they are losing ground rapidly.
The PS3 is only 1.5million units behind Xbox 360 and its European total of 5.6 million units. Not bad Sony, for only 1 year's sales.

The sales drop may help shift more Xbox 360s, or people may see it the same way as the HD-DVD price drop just after Warner's defection, as more of a fire sale to get rid of the RROD prone stock.
Again will GTAIV appeal to the non hardcore gamer, which in the long term is where the most new sales will come from.

CartBlanche

@usfslacker: You can think I'm a fanboy (even though my posts stress personal preference), I own both but your argument is retarded. The Wii does not have HD at ALL (40GB PS3 is also RCA cables). The What DLC does the Wii have? The BC is a choice that would be made (like the PS3) but can actually be added after if anyone upgraded to the HDD (yes it is a rip off but the option is there).

The Wii's "strength" is in it's control scheme and the Nintendo fist party. Arguing anywhere else is silly, pound for pound online/hardware power the 360 will smoke it.

dunlop

We all know that mainland Europe is Sony territory.If they seriously want to target that market €50 is not enough of a price cut for a faulty console.And who cares about the core version anyway?
Personally i think MS has already lost the battle for the current generation of consoles in Europe,and they lost it because of themselves.I hope they don't repeat the same mistakes for the next gen as well.

badmoogle

@djsyndrome: Please tell me you are not going to even compare a "gimped" online experience to what the Wii offers. I have Mario Strikers (how many online games now...3?) and between friends codes and lack of any for of chat, I now play offline only.

The point is you can still play almost all games online (I think Burnout is the only exception so far). So if I can play 60 360 games or 3 on the Wii (but hey 100% of Wii's can play those 3 games.....). I'm not even factoring graphics.

Again personal pref, but you are just trying to bash one system to make you feel good about the system you own.

dunlop

@peacefuloutrage:

First of all, I said near the end of this generation, not right now. And if all you like is Dead Rising and sports games, you're not on this site, so I'm not arguing with someone who doesn't exist. The Arcade is gimped, there's no other way to put it, and its bad for the industry as well as the development environment for the 360 itself.

@dunlop:

I'm currently a Wii60 owner. It doesn't take a fanboy to realize that a majority of the super great features of the 360 are completely unavailable on the Arcade edition (HD resolutions? Better buy a component cable. Want BC? NO. Want DLC? Barely.). It is gimped, and all the 360s games will be gimped unless developers go "Screw you core owners, we're requiring hard drives." I like the fact that when I throw a game in the Wii, it will play. In the future, Core gamers will not be able to guarantee that, hell, some games don't play now.

I swear, you can really pick the 360 fanboys out from the crowd without fail when you find people that actually defend the train wreck that is the 360 Arcade.

usfslacker

@Old-school Sonic fanboy:

Bye bye troll. Brain-dead americans...really?

Gray665

Well, I was going to go out and purchase a 360 before GTAIV hits so this is good news to me. And my wallet.

theTOMSTA666

Remember to read the linked article:

"This effectively means that the cost of the Xbox 360 Elite system on Amazon will be in the region of £240 and the basic Arcade system (without a hard drive) will cost in the region of £150."

Tepoz

It makes sense that Microsoft will have to do some sort of major move in the European market. If you look at VG Chartz for the months where the 360 sold more worldwide compared to where the PS3 sold more worldwide, you will see that it's the American market that's propping up the 360 sales while the European market props up the PS3.

Months--------360, PS3
08/12/07--10.9M, 4.3M
11/11/07--13.2M, 5.9M
3 months----2.3M, 1.6M

(11/12/07-12/22/07 were almost a dead heat.)

12/23/07--15.8M, 8.5M
03/02/08--17.3M, 10.5M
2.3 months-1.5M, 2M

The American market may not see a 360 price drop for a very long time unless Sony decides to drop first. For the European market though, it makes sense for the 360 to have a price drop to put a stop on Sony's push in the European market. However, marketing may still be a problem so a change in that area may still be necessary.

Tepoz

@GOD: The 360 can cache to the hard drive when it's available. This was proven with Oblivion and then openly discussed by developers.

Developers need Microsoft's consent for it, though, and have to fight over how much space they can take.

There's also the precedent of Final Fantasy XI, which shows that if they REALLY want to, a developer could make a game hard-drive only.

Guizzy

"PS3: YEAR OF POWER!!!"

GameraTheGreat

@Old-school Sonic fanboy:

What a strange thing to say.

kiigan

Hmm a £40 price cut on the Arcade, buy yourself a HDMI/VGA/component cable plus a harddrive (£30 or less for the harddrive from Curry's/PC World, using a combination of pricematch + moneyback etc offers - hotukdeals occasionally lists them).

You now have a full Pro system for the same old price as the Arcade and a memory card in case your harddrive tries to die and take your game saves with it leaving you up shit creek. Seems good to me, since I was one of the mugs lol who bought the 64MB memory card to backup his Oblivion saves... Now even the Arcade has one which is 4x bigger.

FatherTed

Well timed. I know a few non-gamers that will definitely get a 360 for GTAIV, simply because it is the cheaper option.

kiigan

@Old-school Sonic fanboy:

Wow. Yeah, considering that most of the editors here are American, and ALL of them own 360's...

Hope you enjoyed your stay.

PapaBear434

@Old-school Sonic fanboy: I know, its almost like trying to get you to care about your horrible grammar.

Luuey

@peacefuloutrage: It's not good if it causes games developers much stress and hinder the production of their games. Taking away the ability to cache memory to a hard drive sereously restricts the capability of the console. Try running any PC without virtual memory. It's sad to think what the 360 games could have turned out like if the console came with a HDD as standard.

GOD

@peacefuloutrage: That last paragraph is for the PS3, it may not have bben clear since I was referring to the xbox 360 earlier.

peacefuloutrage

@usfslacker: Sorry buddy, you are welcome to your opinion, but the speculation and false accusations are crazy. I have a wireless router and don't use that function.. not even for the laptop. But if I wanted to use it, I could buy a wireless ethernet bridge for $20, and not have to shell out $100. Out of all of the 360 games out, maybe a handful have limited functionality and an even smaller number of those actually require a HDD. So if I want to play Dead Rising, or am a big sports fan, what do I need the HDD for?

Having the available option to save cash is great. That doesn't cripple MS. The crippling decision would be to limit the developers to what kind of game they want to market. Giving the consumer the decision is smart, because if anyone is at fault, it would be the consumer, not MS that made the decision.

Kind of like any network game or FFXI for PS2, if you want to play those games, you need to get the right accessory. That's like the people who chided the 20GB buyers because it didn't have a card reader or wi-fi. I bought a Nyko card reader and USB hub for $10. I don't use wi-fi, so spending and extra $100 would be a waste of money for me.

peacefuloutrage

The Arcade/Core pack came and ruined all the fun! Like a dull boy at a birthday party...

GOD

@dunlop:

Have fun playing Burnout Paradise online and saving Halo 3 films on your Arcade model.

The price of a usable XBox 360 is still $349 (add $99 if you need wi-fi). The Arcade is a joke and should have been aborted back when it was still called the Core.

djsyndrome

@Old-school Sonic fanboy: sense make not you...

GOD

Please lord let this be true. I've kept out of this generatoin so far, having only ever paid £60 for a console ever... (Dreamcast £25, Cube £55, Xbox £60, PS2 £90 with 4 games, SNES £20 with 4 games, Mega Drive £25)((Bought in that order)) Anyway, if I can pick up a Premium for £190, I think I will. YAY!

Krondonian

@usfslacker: Yeah, the arcade model is terrible. It's not compatible with all Xbox 360 features. I can actually imagine a class action suit coming out of the things if a big 3rd party developed game ends up requiring the HDD.

notalkjustrock

If the Pro drops by £40, that's enough to make me head out and buy one.

Dragonzigg

We have known for a while that the cost of production has more than halved for the 360 since it's initial release. and microsoft is selling the 360 at a profit. Why is it taking so long to pass on the savings to us?

Oh yeah!

The several billion $s loss they have made so far needs to be recouped somehow.

GOD

@usfslacker: hmmm...Wii owner by chance? I own both and while it is all personal preference I would take a Arcade over a Wii at the same price any day of the week. Try to keep the FUD to a minimum mmmmkay?

dunlop

Yay for the arcade. Then you get to buy a proprietary 20GB HD for $100 or a proprietary 512MB memory card for $42. Microsoft has to cut this proprietary shit right now. Even Nintendo opted for generic SD cards.

greeble

Trying to make someone other the brain-dead Americans care about that stupid radiator? Good luck.

Old-school Sonic fanboy

Sony will have to fire back if this happens... I really don't know why they haven't exploited the worldwide demand they have.

I mean, they are outselling 360 in every territory but only give the deals to the US. If they priced it the same everywhere it would be even better for them.

Well, it's what I get for being in club PAL.

Astrofox

mysterious disappearing article FTW.

thejakeman: probably disagrees with you

Good news for the industry

bird1988

I love how the Arcade model is actually put up in these posts as if it is some form of an alternative to a Wii. I would rather buy a whole console with weak online and less graphical prowess than half a console that probably won't be able to play half of the games that come out later this gen because of the HDD issue. Well, not without having to pay for some ridiculously overpriced hard drive ($100 for 20GB? GTFO) and a wireless adaptor that should be free (not an additional $100 ((GTFO))) by now.

usfslacker

I wonder when US will get another price drop. I'm hoping that when MS drops the price again, Sony will follow. I already have a 360..I just need a PS3 now.

romBox

all i can say is buy the highest model you can so you won't have to worry about upgrade issues down the road..

JerrD74: hates the media

not that you can buy a Wii for £180 in the UK, all the retailers are still doing the £300+ bundles only.

optimusprym8

Smart move if it's true.

Tuxy79

so this for the core/arcade model or will the price cut affect all the models...including the elite (if you can find it)?

jun581

It's nice to see microsoft paying at least some attention to Europe for a change

Morgoth

150 for a console is still actually INSANE for over here,
thats close to the ps2 price....

this is SO going to win over GTAIV adopters for M$!

Naif

They wanna compete in the European market, they will haveto

Kyle81