Following months of rumors and weeks of retail leaks,
Microsoft has made it official. Starting Friday, August 28, the 120GB
Xbox 360 Elite will only cost $299.99, down from its current $399.99
price point.
[UPDATE] The new model will remain largely the same as the previous
configuration, other than the fact that, like the PlayStation 3, it
will no longer be bundled with either an HDMI or
an component HD AV cable. "We have found that many Xbox 360 customers
were not using the HD cables included in the Xbox 360 Elite box, so we
removed them," said a Microsoft rep of the change. While HDMI cables
can be purchased for under $10 online, the 360 component HD AV cable is $39.99 new.
Also, as rumored, the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro is being "phased out" at a
$249.99 price point, down from $299.99. "It's being put to bed," Xbox
360 and Xbox Live director of product management Aaron Greenberg told
GameSpot. The executive believes stocks of the Pro, which will be the
last white 360 with a hard drive packed in, should last until just
after the holidays.
With the Pro's demise, the Xbox 360 will have two SKUs: the $299.99
Elite and the $199.99 Arcade, which has 512MB of built-in memory for
game saves and Xbox dashboard software installs. The price of the
latter console will remain the same, and Greenberg said there were no
announcements regarding the prices of the individually sold 360 hard
drives, which currently cost $99.99 for the 60GB and $149.99 for the
120GB. Greenberg also had no updates on the cost of the 360's wireless
adapter, which sells for $99.99.
The Elite's reduction comes exactly one week after Sony announced the $299.99 PlayStation 3 Slim at GamesCom in Germany.
However, despite the fact the Blu-ray and Wi-Fi-equipped PS3 now
matches the Elite in terms of memory and price, Greenberg still feels
the latter is a better value. He pointed to 360 software exclusives,
like Halo 3: ODST and Forza MotorSport 3. and Xbox Live's online
features, like Netflix and the forthcoming Last.fm, Facebook, and
Twitter integration, still set for "this holiday season." He also said
price was a major factor for the 360 selling well.
"You cannot underestimate the fact that we have two consoles.
If you have $200 in your pocket today, you can go buy an Xbox 360," he
explained. "I think a big part of the reason why--at a time where
Nintendo and Sony are seeing double-digit year-over-year declines, and
we're actually up 17 percent--is due to that mass-market price point."
While Greenberg did believe the price drop will increase Xbox 360
sales, he declined to offer a full fiscal-year forecast for the
console, which has now sold over 31 million units worldwide to date.
(Sony has said it expects to sell 13 million PS3s by the end of its
fiscal year.) He also declined to comment on whether or not Microsoft
was planning a hardware revision of the 360 similar to the PS3 Slim,
which now boasts an improved cooling system and a smaller and more
energy efficient 45nm Cell processor. Without getting into specifics,
Greenberg did say that Microsoft made internal improvements to the Xbox
360 hardware long before Sony did, declaring, "We're ahead on that."
In terms of recent Xbox Live initiatives, Greenberg said the
recent launch of the premium avatar item store "has exceeded even our
wildest projections," although he, again, declined to give hard
numbers. Although Splosion Man is currently the only title to reward
players with avatar items, he said many upcoming 360 games will have
such unlockables. "I think it will become fairly common in games going
forward," explained Greenberg.
Last but not least, Greenberg said the freshly minted Games
on Demand store has been "more in line with expectations. Like digital
distribution in other industries, there's a lot of trial and error. But
for the most part, it's performing well."
