Canadian Playstation 3 gamers are getting a price drop on Playstation Network downloadable content by tomorrow due to the strengthening Canadian dollar, Sony Computer Entertainment of America said today.
Microsoft, apparently having some difficulty infiltrating Asian markets, has reduced prices of the Xbox 360 in many areas. The biggest price reduction (20 per cent to $400) happened in Singapore, though Taiwan’s price drop wasn’t far behind (17 per cent to $370). Hong Kong and Korea both received smaller price reductions as well.
I’m not positive that increasing Xbox sales in Asia is as predictable as the rest of the world where the drop price, grow sales technique reigns supreme. But, you know, it probably won’t hurt.
Microsoft Cuts Xbox 360 Prices in Four Asian Markets [Bloomberg via Gamasutra] [image]
While I’m completely sceptical here, Ars Technica’s mole, who previously tipped them off on HDMI for the 360 and wired Xbox 360 Rock Band controllers is now telling them that Sony will be releasing yet another version of the PS3 for the holidays. This time it is a 40GB system for only $US400 with a possible Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray pack-in. Also in the cards is a supposed price drop to $US99 for the PS2. Here’s what the mole says the holiday season will look like for Sony consoles:
As the holiday season approaches, video game analysts’ thoughts go to their holiday bonuses, and there’s no better way to get a bonus than to be an internet famous analyst like Michael Pachter, which is exactly what Michael Pachter has done. This is why we listen to him when he predicts a price cut for the 80GB PS3 in time for the holidays.
While Microsoft lowered the Xbox 360 Premium by $50 in the US, Canadians will see a $100 (CDN) price drop on both the Premium and Core systems.
Oh, but that’s inflated Canadian money, you say? Not the real, green, American, smells-like-Wendy’s money like we have here? But actually, $100 CND equals $97 USD by current exchange rates. Yeah, the difference isn’t anywhere near that miles vs. kilometers standard that always makes their speed limits sound so high.
So why the price drop? Canadians had been paying almost $100 more for each SKU. Their Premium is actually running $378 USD after the drop. No worries, America still rules!
Thanks Steve!
The rampant speculation, the endless images of circulars, the bogs of “insider emails” are all correct: The Xbox 360 is getting a $US50 price drop starting this Wednesday, Microsoft announced tonight.
As of Wednesday the Elite will be $US449, the Halo Limited Edition Xbox 360 (when it hits) will be $US399, the standard will be $US349 and the core will be $US279.
The price drop is meant to be timed to the upcoming release of Madden 08, said Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, as a way to grab up all of those Playstation 2 Madden fans who haven’t yet upgraded to the Playstation 3.
“Madden is the number one selling game, and we felt like that was the right title to lead with,” he said. “We know Madden will bring a lot of PS2 owners into the store and that’s a specific reason for this timing. We feel we have the showcase platform for Madden this year and with this drop we hope to be the home for those gamers this season.”
Greenberg said that the decision to time the price drop with the release of Madden has been in the works for a very long time and that the 360 price drop has nothing to do with the recent PS3 pricing flux.
“We’ve had this on our plans for a long time, an extremely long time,” he said. “We did not make this decision even heading into E3, this is all based on before hand. We had the first media briefing (at E3) so we could have been the first to announce it, but it was never on our calendar. The benefit of pre-planning, of having this time, outweighed being one-upped, perhaps, at E3.”
Greenberg pointed out that the 360 has been the same price for 21 months, the longest any console has maintained their launch price.
Too bad Microsoft didn’t drop the core down a bit more and make it competitive with the Wii. I think $US249 would have made things very interesting for Nintendo.
