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XBox (Games) The Almighty Buck

Xbox 360 Price Drop Official 92

Posted by Zonk from the this-is-where-it-gets-ugly dept.
GameDaily is reporting that the $50 price drop on the Xbox 360 is now official. That's for the premium SKU, different boxes have different drops: "The Elite SKU (120GB) has been slashed by $30, bringing it down to $449.99, and the Core SKU now has an MSRP that is $20 lower at $279.99. All prices are effective August 8th. In addition, the special Halo 3 themed Xbox 360 that was casually mentioned by Peter Moore at this year's E3 Microsoft press conference has been assigned an estimated retail price of $399.99. The Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console will arrive in stores this September and will feature "an authentic Spartan green-and-gold finish," a matching Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 20GB hard drive, Xbox 360 Headset, an Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit, and more."
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Xbox 360 Price Drop Official More

Xbox 360 Price Drop Official

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  • Slashed? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by frederec ( 911880 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:45AM (#20142687)
    I like how a price drop of 6.25%, or $30 on the elite version, counts as "slashed" prices.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by GregPK ( 991973 )
      It's about the cost of a game thats been around. I wouldn't complain....
      • I wasn't complaining about the price cut, but the language. It seemed to be exaggerating something that isn't really that impressive. And I'm curious how many 360 games are $30. Most of them come out at $60. That might have been a nicer price drop.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nuzak ( 959558 )
          > I'm curious how many 360 games are $30

          Viva Piñata and Dead Rising.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by GregPK ( 991973 )
          I suppose I should note though. The price decrease isn't enough to get me to buy one. The core needs to be 250 the premium around 325 and the Elite at 410 to even remotely have a chance at beating out Nintendo. Even better they just need the Elite to be in stock. The sku replenishment has sucked since launch on the Elite.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Grave ( 8234 )
            I don't think anyone has delusions about outselling the Wii anymore. If the market were a fixed size with no new gamers being brought in, then the 360 would be the clear leader right now I suspect. But the Wii has probably sold as much to traditional non-gamers as those who would otherwise have bought one of this generation's offerings. And of course for the traditional gamers, many are buying the Wii AND a 360 or PS3. The price decrease isn't meant to convince people to buy them, so much as it is to en

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by GregPK ( 991973 )
              Elite, still sells out in within a day of reciept in most areas. Pricing is actually pretty damn key. Look at the PS3 sales which have pretty much doubled and tripled since the price drop.

              Heck, look at Xbox V1 when it dropped to 149. It sold like crazy, so well in fact that it was out of stock in the US for over 3 months. I think the same could be easily achieved with the 360 in coming holiday. I didn't expect any price drops until after the Halo version. Its nice that its here though. But, the pri

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Wolfrider ( 856 )
                --When the 360 gets to ~$199, Teh Masses will turn out -- as unto a boiling sea of frenzied cockroaches, to scoop them off the shelves.

              • "I almost considered getting an Elite Sku for my home system which is setup with pure HDMI hookups."

                I don't think a random string of alphanumerics has any HDMI hookups whatsoever.

                "But at the time the failure rates I saw scared me greatly."

                ?? What are you talking about? I haven't heard anything about problems with the stock keeping units. They seem to be consistent on each item in stock and reflect what is in the box. Are you saying that stores are getting inventory with incorrect sku designations? What

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by GregPK ( 991973 )
                  I work with retail. So I talk about Sku's all the time, I thought it was funny when I talked to the salesperson and told him I want 2 sku's of nintendos gamestop sku even listing off the numbers. Getting the dumbfounded look before I remember he was a retail employee and I said nintendo wii. As for stock it is and still is a rather large issue with the 360 Elite. Oddly enough the Wii is what I'm after these days. As for retail. Some places have a custom sku number thats usually 6-8 digits, others hav
                  • Alright, I can understand that if you work retail then you are accustomed to saying SKU. The majority of people around here who use SKU are just trying to sound like they're "in the know" and failing.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Cyblob ( 800812 )
      This is slashdot after all.
    • I agree 30 bucks equaling slashed is a bit over the top. However a percentage of 6.25 could be considered slashed if for example I would apply it to your salary or house value.
    • Yeah, that almost covers the sales tax in MN.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by perbu ( 624267 )
      This is slashdot. What did you expect. :-P

  • SKU SKU SKU SKU (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nozsd ( 1080965 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:49AM (#20142743)
    That's for the premium SKU

    NO! It's for the premium XBOX. People don't buy a SKU, they buy the XBOX! Come ON, what is with all the SKU nonsense? I used to work at an EB Games and I nor any of the other employees EVER talked like that. Don't any of you realize how lame you sound?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Golgafrinchan ( 777313 )
      This may not be how EB employees talk, but it's how A LOT of business people talk.

      I've worked in market research, and there we spoke of SKU's all the time. That way, we didn't have to adjust our vocabulary depending on what kind of product we were talking about. That is, instead of having to say "three Xboxes" or "three cereals" or "three toilet bowl cleaners," we could refer to each of them as "three SKU's."

      I don't see a problem either way. Just depends on if you prefer typical EB lingo or typical bus

      • Given this is the games section, I think I can understand his hostility to business lingo. Actually, I think most nerds have an innate malice towards business lingo. Most programmers are probably familiar with words and phrases that have lost all their practical meaning at the hands of business lingo.

        It's a shame, because SKU is at its heart a technical term; later appropriated for business/marketing speak.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Nozsd ( 1080965 )
        This may not be how EB employees talk, but it's how A LOT of business people talk.

        That is true and I understand why they need to be more specific especially when there are multiple versions of a product. However, when conveying information to the general public it's just stupid to use that term because people don't go out looking for a particular SKU nor ever really even look at the SKU. Do you ever hear people in a store asking, "that's the premium SKU, right? I don't want to end up with just a regular
      • So when did /. become news for MBA muppets? The "that's what they do in business" is a load of crap which few here actually care about.

    • Re:SKU SKU SKU SKU (Score:4, Funny)

      by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:59AM (#20142889)
      "People don't buy a SKU, they buy the XBOX!"

      You're very wrong. That little barcode thingy on the box is what costs $449. The rest of the package is their way of saying thanks.
      • That little bar-codey thingy isn't a SKU, it's a UPC. The SKU would be more along the lines of SCPH-7001 (that's a Playstation SKU). Multiple SKU's can have the same UPC.

        So, actually, it is kind of wrong to say the Elite SKU is getting a price cut when all Elite SKUs are getting price cuts. It would be more accurate to say that the Elite product line will be getting a price cut as all Elite packages are priced the same regardless of actual hardware in the box.

    • Re:SKU SKU SKU SKU (Score:5, Funny)

      by bomanbot ( 980297 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @12:02PM (#20142941)
      Maybe they always bring up the Stock Keeping Unit to differentiate it from the Wii, which should be labeled a Flying of the Shelf Unit or something ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kelbear ( 870538 )
      Using the term SKU isn't any more lame than complaining about the use of an equivalent word. Box, PC, computer, desktop, rig, shall henceforth be strictly referred to as "Personal Computer"

      Hell, those words aren't even necessarily synonmous but are still regularly interchanged.
      • Here's why I object to people using "SKU" and do not object to people using "rig". When someone uses SKU, it brings an unnecessary and inappropriate acronym into the mix. Unless the writer and the audience are retailers, then they do not keep stocks of Xbox consoles on hand. Therefore the notion of a stock keeping unit is not something they would encounter in any other realm except for those who use it in an attempt to sound "in the know". Using SKU says to me that people aren't pleased with themselves and
        • Unfortunately, SKU conveys a very specific meaning that's hard to express as succinctly as "SKU." Some people use it for the meaning, and some use it to sound all businessy. You need to actually distinguish which are which.
    • NO! It's for the premium XBOX.

      NO! It's for the basic one that actually works for what it says on the box. People don't buy something that can't patch, can't save, can't connect to the net without buying upgrades! Come ON, what's with all the PREMIUM nonsense? I own a 360 and I nor any other owner I know of EVER talked like that. Don't any of you realize how lame you sound?

      Sorry to parody your response but it's a little hypocritical to complain about SKU vs. Premium when no one considers the Premium anything

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by |Cozmo| ( 20603 )
      Well that's the way people working at Microsoft speak of different versions of a product. Get over it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LKM ( 227954 )
      Just shut up about it already. People will use the term SKU in a lot of /. articles about consoles, and I don't want to scroll through this discussion each time. I've seent it about a dozen times in the last month. That's enough. For the rest of the year.
    • On every goddamn story about consoles, someone starts bitching about people saying "SKU". It's a valid term, get over it.

  • 65nm chips? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Belisarivs ( 526071 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:50AM (#20142755)
    The $50 price drop is nice and all, but I'd be more interested in getting a unit that didn't run a significant risk of dying on me, extended warranty or no. What I want to know is when can I get my hands on the long-rumored 65nm chip version.

    • Re:65nm chips? (Score:5, Informative)

      by MooseMuffin ( 799896 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @12:07PM (#20142995)
      I would bet that they don't plan to tell you. MS has been been putting improved heatsinks in 360s manufactured after march/april and they didn't bother to tell anybody about that. I would assume that the heatsink, and not the process shrink is the solution to the overheating problems. It allows them to own up the the red ring problem, offer the warranty and be able to say the problem has already been fixed. See here [benheck.com] for more discussion of that, and how to tell if you have the new heatsink or not.
      • It's too bad. I wanted to wait until the new process with the hopes that the system would be quieter overall. I guess I'll just have to wait for people to discover the rollout and report in the usual places. ;)
      • Amen to the improved heatsinks. These new 65nm chips merely signify the chip's newer fabrication process. This doesn't indicate if the heating problems (and thus, the 33.3% failure rate) would be resolved. Question is, would Microsoft withdraw the three-year warranty once the huge failure rate is resolved? After all, they are dropping the 360's price.
        • No way they could drop the warranty from the fixed consoles, but they shouldn't need to anyway. If they truly fixed the problem then offering to fix consoles that don't fail shouldn't cost them anything.
  • Well aside from that annoying habit of attaching that stupid SKU (stop it already. people!), I think those price drops are a bit odd.

    Why didnt they drop the price uniformly across the board? With a price drop of $50 the Core version would have been priced directly against the Wii, which I think would have made sense for Microsoft at least from a psychological and marketing standpoint.

    And why did the Elite get a price drop that soon? AFAIK it is still pretty new so the people who bought one already coul

    • Oh and one laughable bit from the article:

      "The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360," said Mitch Koch

      Yeah right and it has nothing to do with the fact that the Xbox 360 was the only next-gen console available for about a year, which makes the leadership thing sorta automatic...

      I laughed as well. They're technically correct in calling themselves the leader, but th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by CaseM ( 746707 )
        So a $250 console with a game that really grabs outsiders (Wii Sports) is going to outpace a $400 traditional console? Color me unsurprised.

        I defy you to show me where the Wii sell-through numbers are anything like the 360's, though. I own a Wii but never buy games for it, and I think that's where many Wii owners are at this point. So it made an impression on non-traditional gamers by virtue of Wii Sports. So what? The "masses", by definition, don't buy many games because they don't care a whole lot

        • I defy you to show me where the Wii sell-through numbers are anything like the 360's, though.

          It's a bit hard to do as Microsoft keeps its numbers under wraps, but I'll give it a go.

          According to Wikipedia's Best Selling Games Page [wikipedia.org], the Wii has sold:

          Total Wii games sold as of June 30, 2007: 44.82 million
          Total Virtual Console games sold as of July 11, 2007: over 5.6 million

          Assuming that their figures match up by date to the sales figured on the Wikipedia Wii page (9.27m), that gives a sell-through ratio of ~4.

          • Also consider peripheral attach rate. There was a serious shortage of Wii remotes and nunchucks along with actual consoles as well. And at $60 a set, that's not shabby.
            • I explicitly excluded WiiPlay from the games comparison because it says a lot more about the peripheral attach rate than the sales of the game itself. With sales topping 4.49 million, it does give an interesting peek into how well Nintendo is selling their accessories. I wouldn't be at all surprised if sales of the Classic Controller are slightly over 1 for every console and Wii Remote sales at 1.5 to 2 per console. :-)
              • I think the 'average' set up will be something like four remotes, two nunchucks, and two classic controllers. With some people going the extreme and getting four of everything and others being more spartan in their selection.

                • I think the 'average' set up will be something like four remotes, two nunchucks, and two classic controllers.

                  I somewhat doubt it's common enough to be the average. I only know one person who has a full 4 remotes, and I don't know anyone outside of Slashdot who has 2 Nunchucks. My setup is 2 remotes (bundled + WiiPlay), 1 Nunchuck, a Classic Controller, and 2 GameCube Controllers. I'd like to get more controllers, but I'm taking my time. I don't need them immediately and they're rather expensive to stock up

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ivan256 ( 17499 )

          I defy you to show me where the Wii sell-through numbers are anything like the 360's, though


          Really, who cares? The Wii makes a profit with zero sellthrough, and the Xbox requires at least seven game and accessory purchases to break even. So one company is selling lots of stuff at a loss, and the other company is selling a little bit less stuff at a huge profit. Which one is the "winner"?

          I'll take the profit any day.

    • Why didnt they drop the price uniformly across the board? With a price drop of $50 the Core version would have been priced directly against the Wii, which I think would have made sense for Microsoft at least from a psychological and marketing standpoint.
      Maybe it's to trick the uneducated masses into thinking the Xbox Core is more powerful than the Wii by being more expensive? No wait...

  • O Come On (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Duffy13 ( 1135411 )
    Honestly, they could do better then this. The amount is negligible, bump it up to to at least $100 then come talk to me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by trdrstv ( 986999 )

      Honestly, they could do better then this. The amount is negligible, bump it up to to at least $100 then come talk to me.

      Wait until christmas then. You should have other bundles available and get off cheaper or have more included for the same money.

  • Integrated wifi (Score:3, Interesting)

    by theantipop ( 803016 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @12:03PM (#20142953)
    I'll admit there are a few upcoming 360 games that entice me and at $350 the premium system seems like it's in my range. But the lack of an integrated wifi adapter really still kills it for me. At $100 (!!!) to get the console online, it seems especially ridiculous in light of the offerings of its competitors.
    • I'd have to agree. It's rather silly when a console $100 cheaper has the feature, which should by no means be anything more than a simple task to include.

      I'm fortunate enough to have a 20 meter ethernet cable, which is enough to go from my hub to the 360. However, it does mean there's this long gray wire running past the kitchen and in all sorts of places one might trip.
    • so dont buy the xbox adapter. Many 3rd party solutions for like 40 bucks.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Blakey Rat ( 99501 )
      Personally, I put my wireless router in my entertainment center and wire-in the Xbox and my media server, then use my computers wirelessly. But then I'm strange.
      • I rent and don't have access to the wireless router or cable modem. I have thought about running a bridge, but all the reliable ones seem to be very overpriced. And still, that doesn't excuse the lack of what I would consider to be an essential part of the Xbox platform: easy internet connectivity.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by p0tat03 ( 985078 )
        I rent, aka I can't make too many modifications to my place. I use DSL, which comes into the bedroom via phone jack, and I've got a wireless router hooked up to it. Out in the living room where the 360 is and the TV, there is no internet connection. I can't drill through the wall, and I'd like it if I could go wifi for less than $100. Honestly, 3rd party adapters are $20 or less, there's NO reason MS can't do it for $30 or so, which IMHO would be a decent price. $100 is just gougery.
        • Why not just buy a third-party adapter? As long as it spits out ethernet, you're fine using it. (Although you might need to plug it into a computer to configure it initially.) I know from experience that Belkin ones work just fine on both original Xbox and Xbox 360.
  • So does the Halo 3 Special Edition console actually come with Halo 3? It doesn't say so, but that just seems stupid to me. If you're into Halo so much you need to totally gay out with a Master Chief console, you're most definitely going to buy the game itself. But then they'd have to increase the price of the console to include the game. They're just trying to make the thing seem $60 cheaper, but really, who's going to buy the themed console and not buy the game as well? They're essentially bundling their s
  • The price drop on the core unit almost makes it a good Wii alternative, although you still need to purchase a game and you'll have to do the hard drive upgrade on your own....

    I think this is a lot better than Sony's fire sale.
    • If you are okay with only 1/2 the features, then yes it is. I suggest waiting till x-mas and picking up one of the premium or elite bundle packages which are bound to pop up. Should be able to get a decent deal.
      • Eh... I have a Wii and also my PC needs upgrading in about a year or so. Anything I've wanted for XBox (360) has come out on PC. I'm the patient type with enough of a backlog to keep me entertained for a good while.
  • Ok first things first.

    We have
    Core, previous price 300, new price 270
    10% price drop on the cheapest item

    Premium, previous price 400, new price 350
    12.5% price drop on the mid-range item

    Elite, previous price 480, new price 450
    6.25% price drop on the highest cost item?

    (Is it any surprise apparently the Elite is selling well at the moment, cough cough? mm)

    On another nother, we've been informed today that Canada's prices are dropping and they are much closer inline with the US price (after conversion).

    The real qu

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cafeman ( 46922 )

      Europe, Australia and New Zealand (and others) are more than aware of the typical 'rape'* tax applied to electronic items from the states, we've grown used to it but the consoles have been especially nasty of late (Example hard disks and CPU's - around 15% more expensive than the states AFTER conversion)

      Don't forget that unlike US prices, Australian pricing has 10% Goods and Service Tax included in the quoted price. I paid AU$530 for my 360 Professional including Forza 2, equivalent to roughly US$450.

      • Yeah I heard these 530$ rumours, when did this happen? I've never seen better than 599$ AUD with PGR3 about 6 months back.

        Then again, I shouldn't even inquire :)I just refuse to buy a non 65nm model and I must MUST have black.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cafeman ( 46922 )

          Officeworks had a standard retail offer of $580 for the Premium with Forza 2 during their recent sale. However, they also offer 5% off to shareholders and it's fairly easy to get a 10% off for family and friends voucher if you have a look around online and keep your eyes open. I'll admit I got a potentially atypical deal because of the voucher, but most places definitely aren't selling the Premium at retail - they're well under, especially when they bundle a game. But, on the same note, it's not like I'm

          • Agreed on the RRP thing with Australia but what's interesting is from what I hear, in the US RRP is RRP firm, very few get the consoles for less than 399$ US - there's been one or two deals but not much else.

            Whereas we had effectively an 80$+ AUD price drop (depending on your thoughts on PGR3) as much as 6 months ago.

            It's still too expensive though :)

            Thanks for the info and link.
  • A Canadian computer firm, MDG, has been advertising for the last two weeks that any notebook or system purchase beyond their base system will be accompanied by a free (as in beer) X-box.

    Since they offer qualifying notebooks for as low as $699, and desktops for $599, (which includes system, monitor, OS, and a software bundle including Corel and MS-Works, etc.), it seems to me that the X-box is being given to MDG pretty darn cheap.

    This looks like Barbie-doll marketing to me - give away the doll, and make

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