Microsoft to cut the price of Xbox 360 to $299
Microsoft will soon cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 model, according to a published report. The company will reduce the retail price for the 20-GB Xbox 360 Pro by $50, to $299 “in the coming weeks,” according the Hollywood Reporter. The magazine’s report cited anonymous sources in the retail industry. Microsoft officials did not immediately return a call from InformationWeek seeking comment. Microsoft is looking to maintain recent Xbox sales’ momentum in the face of stiff competition from Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii unit. The 40-GB PlayStation 3 sells for $399, while the Nintendo Wii sells for $250.
In its most recent quarter, Microsoft reported that Xbox 360 total console sales surpassed 19 million during the period, up 74% from the previous year. Recent releases of hot-selling game titles, including Halo 3″and Grand Theft Auto IV, have helped spur Xbox 360 sales. Halo 3, an Xbox 360 exclusive, smashed numerous gaming industry sales records when it debuted late last year — including most launch-day sales. Among the upcoming titles that Microsoft is counting to further grow Xbox 360 sales is Rock Band 2, which is slated for release in September. The game lets players perform popular songs by using an array of virtual instruments.
Source: Info Week
Comments(34)
1st!
jk
proof in radioshack ad
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/30/360-price-cut-shows-up-in-radio-shack-ad/
(shock)
£25 = nothing
Good news but im still not going to pay for online play when I can do it for free on the PS3
Online experience much better on 360 than ps3.. You pay for quality.
http://360mods.net
badass site
You pay for MSN Messenger as that’s pretty all the 360 has over the PS3 now in terms of functionality. In-game XMB is much quicker than what’s available on the 360 too.
The PSN isn’t as bad as people like to make it out to be. How’s Bad Company on XBL? I guarantee you that it’s nowhere near as good as PS3 users are experiencing.
Might pick up a second one soon to mod. I haven’t modded my 360 yet because I still like to play on Xbox Live and would prefer not to get my account disabled.
FUK SPIDERMAN!
These 360’s they’re releasing at this price are ‘refurbished’ items, for anyone who didn’t know. Though the ones in stores might well be the same with all the returns they already got from RROD, who knows…
http://kotaku.com/397402/299-price-drop-xbox-360-is-refurbish-bwah-updated
I’m finally getting one, yay me!
@8 Atari
You can usually use modded games on live without problems, but if youre sketchy you can just use retail games only for live and youre 100% safe with a modded console.
no need to pick a second up just for playing modded games….
@10 Fat
They are going to drop it for new consoles soon the kotaku story is just some retailer clearing stock before the price drops at E3 in 2 weeks.
@12 grep
I have had 2 xbox360 without hdmi and one with and unless you are using hdmi there isn’t much of a difference….they are both loud, i do find the hdmi model reads discs better (benq drive)
also though the fan is just as loud i haven’t had the hdmi one flash all red and turn off due to overheating in the summer.
complaining about paying 2 bucks a month for xbox live must mean you need a job. stop begging mommy and daddy for things and get to work u lazy bums.
also xbox live is much better. you would know if u tried both. why do u think the playstation online is copying it.
how much will a 360 elite cost in the US?
screw you microsoft i just bought an xbox last week…
I work for Microsoft customer service… I still wouldn’t own an Xbox not would I pay to play online. If they gave me one, I would take it out and exchange it for something else – probably more PS3 games.
I might jump on the band wagon now that is down to $300. I would probablu mod the xbox just to use it for good single player games and continue to use my PC for online.. gta4 online sucks compared to tf2, cod4, cs..
i have a modded X360 and i play on live. microsoft doesnt know jack about the firmware in our xboxes dvd drives, they cant because its protected by firmguard
. the backups is how they find out. simple 
all you need to do to play on live safely:
-check stealth
-check security sector
-don’t flash the 8x firmware
all of this can be done with xdvdmulleter
couple day old news if you read xbox-scene regularly
Wow, that’s a load of cash they removed from the price!
(not really)
Kinda weird, seeing as I wanted to buy a XBOX360 recently. 188 euros, rejoice!
Greece’s prices suck…
@ 15
2 bucks a month so about $25 a year so about £13 a year…not bad as us brits have to pay £60 a year…well it was when i first had my 360, i have a PS3 and Xbox 360 and i favour the PS3 over the 360 due to current games and future games, i am looking forard to GOW 2 in a couple of months time but will not renew my XBL account just for that as the GOW online was just cr@p IMO
I just got a 360 last month.
Not that I really believe them…but I was assured by not only the store’s sales rep…but an M$ rep as well, that there would be no new models or price cuts this year.
I predict an exchange soon after the price drop.
about time its an aging system and its about to die… as the xbox before it, kill it when its peaking and people will dish out more money just for the next halo game… Ill get one for free just like my xbox one of my friends will not want their 360 anymore when they pick up the 720, even though the PS3 will still destroy that!
@ 25@ £60 a year what the hell are you on, crack? You can get 13 months for £25 from http://www.jasper1675.com/
I hate people like you, you just spout utter unfounded rubbish without any evidence and if you ARE paying £60 for Xbox Live then you are a total MUG.
@27: And for the lame PS3 idiots who bang on about free online, your console is crap it has nothing worth owning, all the big games that have come out have been overhyped crap, but you carry on supporting $ony like the sheep you are.
@10,
Check the site’s updates now and then, it states this:
Update: Several Gamestop employees have alerted us that the retailer has been running this refurb deal for the past month or so, thus negating anything it has to do with the rumored price-drop Xbox 360. Nothing to see here! Move along, move along.
@ Everyone that reads this:
Buy one already (BenQ drive) and modify it.
If you don’t like it some simpleton at the retail store you
bought it from will return it!!!
@ 28
can you read ?? I said “…not bad as us brits have to pay £60 a year…well it was when i first had my 360″ which was about 3 years ago now, im not saying it’s still that price. In regards to current games / future games, i think you will find MGS 4 is now out and owns any other game out there at the moment…at least Sony dont have to pay $$$$ in order to get extra content in the game like microsoft did in GTA so so they would hope to sell more copies, im not saying Xbox 360 is rubbish becuase i like the system, just waiting for GOW 2 now. You C0ck
the 360 wasnt 299 already? wtf? i thought they were selling for less then that… i know if you want one you can definetly get one for less then that.
Wtf is up with that old hardware… the next console they make needs to spend the extra amount to have replace-able upgrade-able graphics card and maybe other features.
you know what they could do as a stop-gap, offer free bigger hard drives and let games that require have an install disc. They install 1-8gigs on the hd and then run off the system disc (or compress the information onto one system/play disc and uncompress it onto the hd for install)
The games would run faster off the hd and it would be a minor annoyance IF the hard drives were big enough to accommodate having 10-20 games installed at once so you dont need to constantly uninstall the games. Defragging software would be a must.. or good file placement software.
@31-32
I agree installing stuff on HD is a good idea, the Ps3 version of GTA 4 had much less pop-up because the textures were installed and didn’t have to be read from the disc.
That should be an option.
As for upgradeable components like graphics cards, nope you won’t see that on the next xbox or playstation, doesn’t make sense to have the same console with different specifications, too confusing to market, and adoption rates of upgrades would be VERY low too low to use for most games anyway.
(like the ps2 network adapter, almost no one had one on the original big ps2 so very little games used it.)
same would happen with a graphics upgrade almost no one would buy so no games would use it.
hmmm i have one single question for 360 lovers…
Who Makes the 360??
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-
-
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EXACTLY!!!
@33 insertclevername
M$ will not allow developers to use game installs (apart from RPG’s) because they sell the Core/Arcade which do not have a HDD. They don’t want to alienate however many millions of people who have bought them.
The majority of 360 owners would say that game installs are a bad thing because it’s a console, not a computer and many use that to put down the PS3 and it’s games.
I wonder how many people who bought the Core/Arcade knew that they can’t play games on XBL without a HDD? How do they download patches for games which are crippled at launch like Bully?
@31-32 steve
This is known as a PC. They have already been invented and you might have used one to type that message.
M$ offer a free HDD? No chance, not even the tiny 20GB would be given away free. I have lots of space on my PS3’s 250GB HDD, but as soon as a 500GB or a 1TB 2.5″ SATA comes out, I will replace it and store even more HD films on there, either ones I put on myself or purchased (not rented) from the PSS.
As for the price, in the UK both the 360 Arcade and Premium (with 3 games) are cheaper than a Wii with WiiSports.