July 8, 2008 10:52 AM PDT

Xbox 360 price cut coming July 13

The Xbox 360 Pro (aka Premium) will now cost $50 less.

(Credit: Microsoft)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about rumors that Microsoft was planning to chop the Xbox 360's price in July. Well, that price cut was all but confirmed today by Kotaku.

After posting leaked photos of upcoming Best Buy, Kmart, and other circulars, the gaming blog now has a GameStop employee's cell-phone snapshots of shelf art and an internal memo announcing that the Xbox 360 Pro (aka the Premium) would drop to $299.99 on Sunday, July 13. Not coincidentally, E3 kicks off the next day with--you guessed it--Microsoft's press conference.

As Sony's PlayStation 3 has come on strong in recent months, sales of the Xbox 360 have been flat, so a price drop seemed likely. The success of Metal Gear Solid 4 continues to give the PS3 a boost, but chances are Sony, too, will have to trim the price of its console before the holiday buying season.

All that said, the big question remains whether Microsoft will announce any new configurations of the Xbox 360. Rumor has it, the company is just using the price drop to clear out inventory of the 20GB Premium before it brings out a new 60GB version. (Of course, if you're willing to take a chance on a refurbished Premium, you can do significantly better than $300). There's no word on whether the Xbox 360 Elite or the Arcade (no hard drive) will also get $50 snips or whether a flagship model with a built-in Blu-ray drive is really in the works.

Personally, I'd like to see Microsoft get rid of the useless Arcade and reduce the number of Xbox 360 choices down to two to avoid confusing consumers. Anybody else want to guess what Microsoft has up its sleeve next week and what Sony's next move will be?

Originally posted at Crave
Recent posts from News Blog
Sprint HTC Touch Diamond outed early
Woman to virtual ex: 'I won't be ignored!'
Swiss secret sauce to power green choppers
iLink to deliver answers to military online communities
Vonage names new CEO
Add a Comment (Log in or register) 6 comments
by Kwasiowusu July 8, 2008 11:51 AM PDT
This price cut is to little too late. A total of just $100 in price cuts after nearly 3 years on the market for the 360? The idiots who run the XBOX business should have cut the price of the 360 to reap the benefits of the great buzz generated by the GTA IV launch in April. Instead, they allowed the 360 to sell less than 200,000 units per month during the massive GTA IV launch, and waited for all the GTA IV buzz to die off, before bringing in a pice cut, at a time, when there is no big game to give the price cut any momentum. Expect the price cut to have a very small effect on 360 sales for a couple of months, then for the 360 to return to its normal less than 200,000 units sold per month. If you ask me, the clowns running the XBOX busines should have been sacked long ago, when they launched the XBOX 360 Elite, a good 18 months after the 360 was luanched, and still incredibly managed to include the rrod with the Elite. What further poof of crass incompetence does one need? Robbie Bach and his cohorts are world champions when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot. No one can challenege them in that department.
Reply to this comment
by Kwasiowusu July 8, 2008 12:24 PM PDT
As for what Microsoft has up its sleeves for E3, a lot of it's been pretty much leaked already. It's quite likely we'll have:

1. A Motion sensing controller a la "Wiimote", but more advanced than the "Wiimote", probably bundled with Banjo 3 or Ninja Blade.
2. 60 GB 360 to ultimately replace the 20 GB Pro.
3.. We'll probbaly see something about "Lips" whether its is a kareoke game to compete against "Singstar" or just some kind of music game hardware or both.
4. New dashborad for Live.
5. We should see good playable demos of Halo Wars, Gears 2, Alan Wake, Viva Pintata 2 etc , and see something more of Peter Jackson's Halo Chronicles,
6. We might hea somethin more about the 360 IPTV, which they have been promising forever, and have still not really delivered on.
Reply to this comment
by Hjetland1 July 8, 2008 12:31 PM PDT
Very nice more by Microsoft. This will only add value to those looking to get a 360 a a nice price point with a standard HDD. Quite a few people still looking to upgrade to a 360 this generation. Considering Microsoft will announce a full year of profit for the division next week per Bach I think now is a good a time as ever to continue to push the hardware further while continuing to see a profit margin for the next year.

This holiday season will prove to be a huge season for the 360 and I would expect to see at least one more price drop before the holiday season really ramps. The amount of triple A games the 360 has for this fall is really unreal. I expect this price drop to have very nice more for the console leading into Madden sales next month and officially starting the blockbuster season.
Reply to this comment
by JCPayne July 8, 2008 1:48 PM PDT
Poor XBox... They took soo much time and money investing in adopting the failed technology of HD-DVD and now they have nothing to show for it..... Ohh well another Microsoft prediction bit the dust.
Reply to this comment
by johnbuker July 8, 2008 2:25 PM PDT
Resident Evil 5 with Wii type controls for the 360 would be awesome...as far as the price cut goes, I bought the Arcade version at full price and then a used 20GB HD for $20, so I pretty much got this deal already...as an existing owner, I'd like to see larger, cheaper HDs...no way am I throwing down $200 for a 120GB one.
Reply to this comment
by MaLvaDo39 July 8, 2008 6:19 PM PDT
Stuff that channel Microsoft! Count it as sales and look somewhat respectable by misleading "sales".

Also, you're $6 million in the red with this disaster called Xbox.
Reply to this comment
Powered by Jive Software
advertisement

Latest tech news headlines

About News Blog

Recent posts on technology, trends, and more.

Add this feed to your online news reader

News Blog topics

Featured blogs

advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right
  • News - Business Tech

    Chrome's JavaScript challenge to Silverlight

    The advent of Google's Chrome browser, software pros say, should spur a big speedup for JavaScript, which would raise its standing against Microsoft's Silverlight technology.

  • Gallery

    Photos: Top 10 reviews of the week

    Here are CNET Reviews' 10 favorite items from the past week, including the TiVo HD XL, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50, and the Dish Network's newest digital TV converter box.

  • News - Apple

    Apple watchers spot 'iPod Nano' pix, iTunes hints

    The rumor mill has long been predicting a longer, leaner new version of the iPod Nano, and now it's conjuring up some pictures.

  • Outside the Lines

    EIC Squared: Chrome, iPods, and a Dell-Salesforce union

    On this week's EIC Squared podcast CNET's Dan Farber and ZDNet's Larry Dignan discuss Google's latest rocket launch--the Chrome browser--as well as Apple's iPod event next week and a Dell-Salesforce.com union.

  • Video

    Katie Couric reflects on first Webcast

    The political conventions are over and so are CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's first series of Webcasts. CNET's Kara Tsuboi sat down with Couric on the final night of the Republican National Convention to discuss what she liked about Webcasting, some of her most memorable guests, and whether TV news will still be around by the next round of conventions.

  • News - Digital Media

    At 10 years old, whither Google?

    Daniel Sieberg of CBS News looks at how the company grew exponentially from start-up to superstar and part of our culture, but what's ahead?

  • Video

    YouTube plays party politics

    During the presidential campaigning four years ago, YouTube didn't even exist. Now it's a tool candidates must master to get their message across. CNET's Kara Tsuboi stops by the YouTube upload booths at the Democratic and Republican conventions to find out why Google's video site has such a big presence in Denver and St. Paul, Minn.

  • News - Gaming and Culture

    Are Demo and TechCrunch50 fragmenting their audiences?

    With both events scheduled to start Monday, many press, as well as venture capitalists and others are having to choose which one to attend.

  • News - Cutting Edge

    Execs predict next Google-like tech

    On eve of company's 10-year anniversary, researchers and business pundits speculate about what technologies might someday have as much impact as Google.

  • Gallery

    Images: The art of 'Spore' prototypes

    Will Wright and his Maxis team worked on dozens of prototypes to test the elements of their soon-to-be-released evolution game. Here's a sampling.

  • Webware

    At the TechCrunch50, an unfair advantage?

    Inside baseball: How Webware and other blogs can compete with TechCrunch in covering the TechCrunch50 event.

  • Green Tech

    Duke Energy to invest in mini solar power plants

    Can hundreds of rooftop solar panels collectively operate like a central power plant? Duke Energy launches $100 million distributed solar program to find out.