MS confirms European Xbox 360 price cuts
About bloomin' time...
Credit-crunch stricken gamers rejoice, because Microsoft has finally announced a long overdue European price cut for its Xbox 360 range.
The software giant has confirmed that as of 19 September - this coming Friday - the Xbox 360 Arcade model will sell for £130/€180, £20 less than it costs today.
Microsoft will also cut the price of the Premium model by £20, bringing the console to £170/€240. The flagship Elite model’s price will be reduced by - you guessed it - £20, meaning it'll set you back £230/€300 this weekend.
Neil Thompson, Senior Regional Director for Microsoft UK, said the cut was possible thanks to global sales of over 20m Xbox 360 consoles so far. “We are now able to pass on the rewards of that success to the consumer with a new retail pricing,” boasted Thompson.
PlayStation 3 fans are likely to be pretty peeved at news of the Xbox 360 price cut, because Sony said earlier this year that there’ll be no UK PS3 price cut this year.
COMMENTS
re: Media Centre Extenders
"I don't suppose you could use the PS3 to schedule your pc to record a tv programme?"
Yes I can actually... Google for Hava. There are a few other ways of programming via the PS3's web browser too. I don't suppose you have that flexability on a 360, with no web browser. Even the Wii has a browser these days. LOL.
@AC, re: price.
Yes, there are things you can't do on an Arcade. Some of them are even worth doing (playing Burnout Paradise online), though others mystify me as to why you should care (Football Manager and FFXI, the only two games that flat-out need a hard drive, are both better on the PC). But since one of the big points to this announcement is that the PREMIUM, 60Gb model is now less than a Wii, it's rather by-the-by.
@ Mark H
Can't stand misinformation so here goes:
"Plus the PS3 is really struggling in Japan and the US." Considering the PS3 has outsold the 360 in both Japan and the US this year (and trounced it in Europe), if the PS3 is "struggling", what is the 360? Dead???
"It does have a noisy DVD drive (although this has never bothered me) - but this problem will be alleviated in a few weeks time with the release of the Autumn update which will allow you to install games to the hard drive. Also it's no longer unreliable and very few people purchased the HD DVD drive anyway - people just aren't all that interested in a HD optical format."
You can install a whole 3 games on a 20GB premium console, and NONE on the arcade. Tell me again how this fixed the noise problem? Installs take about an hour. As for reliability, sorry, that is Microsoft lies (just like the original lies, that there were no RROD problems), the current units are just as unreliable.
"Ever heard of Xbox Live Arcade for starters? Then we have Guitar Hero, Rock Band (is that even out on the PS3 yet?) and all of the other multi platform multi milion sellers. I see you've also glossed over the amazing exclusives too."
Ever heard of PSN? It's like XBLA, but with much higher quality titles, none of the crud. And yes Rockband for PS3 is out, it has been for over a year (PS3 is region-free for gaming) so is Guitar Hero. RB2 is out soon too, the same day as the 360 version.
"The Arcade isn't 'crippled' at all, it just lacks the hard drive which isn't even needed to play games online anyway "
Errm, so I can play Burnout Paradise Online on a 360 Arcade? (Nope...)
What about Football Manager? (Nope HDD required)
Can I play the forthcoming GTA IV DLC? (Nope HDD required).
Can I play ANY forthcoming DLC? (Nope HDD required)
Can I download games from XBLA? (as long as they are less than 256MB, and then only 1 game).
How is that not crippled? It's hideously cripppled. Once you add the cost of the HDD (120GB, as clearly a 20GB drive, which can only install 3 freaking games is clearly insufficient), you are close the price of a PS3 (£279), Add the yearly recurring cost of Xbox Live (£50 a year), and you exceed it. Keep it for a couple of years and you are £100 out of pocket (~3 games). This does not even consider you don't get Wifi or Blu-ray in the 360.
Gimped and under-spec'd. Get a Wii or a PS3. It's simple, both fit their function. The 360 cannot decide what it wants to be. Last year it was a movie player (before HD DVD died), now that's not a focus anymore, now the Arcade wants to be a Wii, the Elite wants to be a PS3. Neither make a very good job of trying to be either.
re: Media Centre Extenders
I meant "Media Centre Extenders" i.e. Media Centre (tm), MCE or VMC. For just streaming from a computer, I could get a PopcornHour or somesuch for a fraction of the price of a PS3. For local access, I already have a HD media player connected to my tv. I was talking about using the 360 to INTEGRATE with Media Centre on a PC, and use the same user interface - I don't suppose you could use the PS3 to schedule your pc to record a tv programme?
re: Media Centre Extenders
Why not get a PS3? The media centre extender capabilities are better, and the console is MUCH queiter. If you don't want to stream, you can store ripped content locally on the HDD (and the PS3 will even rip CD's to HDD for you.) Best of all, you can shove a big internal 2.5in HDD in there, or a massive multi-TB monster via USB2, and it "just works"(tm).
Whilst it puzzles me why people buy a 360 for games, it puzzles me even more why they would buy one for media-centre, when it's the worst on the market, and does not even do Blu-ray.
