Report: Microsoft could release $200 Xbox this September

Update (Monday, 2:43 PM): This story has been modified to reflect correspondence from Microsoft this morning.

If you can see past the extremely odd prose style of this Ars Technica piece Friday by Ben Kuchera, there's actually some potentially very interesting news there: Microsoft may be ready to truly reach out to the mass market with its Xbox 360.

According to Kuchera, Microsoft may well be readying a new round of price cuts for the Xbox 360.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Remember, just prior to E3, Microsoft lowered the price of the 20GB Xbox 360 from $349 to $299.

Now, writes Kuchera, courtesy of his source, "the mole," Microsoft is planning to roll out new pricing on the entire line of Xboxes. For a console with no hard drive, the price could be $199; for one with a 60GB hard drive, it could be $299; and the high-end model, known as the Elite, with a 160GB hard drive, could go for $399.

Microsoft said it does not comment on rumors.

If the report is true, however, Microsoft could be making an important move. According to many industry observers, the magic price point in video game machines is $200. Go below that, the theory goes, and you potentially open up your machine to the truly mass market.

Right now, the lowest-priced of the next-generation consoles is Nintendo's Wii, which runs $249. Sony's PlayStation 3 can be had for $399 for a model with a 40GB hard drive, and this fall it plans to introduce an 80GB model for that same $399 price.

If the Ars Technica report is true, then, Microsoft could be the first to break the magic $200 barrier and such a move could go a very long way to helping the company reach its declared commitment to winning the console wars.

If I hear from Microsoft with comment about this, dear readers, so will you.

[make_or_break]

If true, this just goes to show just how inept MSFT is at product marketing and managing/improving their market share. The 20GB clearout price was a cruel joke, the 60GB replacement's price was even worse, and the non-adjustment of the other models in the lineup simply showed how rammed up the horse's patuwee Redmond's product marketers really are.

Knocking 14% off of a soon-to-be dead model was hardly anything to write home about; it's a DISCONTINUED model, with a hard drive cap that is hardly worth noting in a day and age where we're now measuring PRIMARY storage drives of desktops in terabytes. This only goes to prove how chintzy the Microsoft braintrust really is. Even entering back in at the $349 price point with only an extra 40GB as the only thing to show for it...utterly stupifying in their inability to understand the concept of 'value'. Even for someone like me who has endlessly ripped Sony for its handling of their own continual PS3 marketing faux pas (namely on the gaming front) can't help but see the door Microsoft has PROPPED wide open for its competitors.

The 360 has been on the market at least a whole year prior to either Wii or PS3, yet they price it like it's somehow the most precious and freshest commodity around. C'mon Rednecks, it's ANCIENT in an industry and age where yesterday's news takes only weeks to come to reality. The parts you stuff into each Xbox 360 should've long paid for themselves by now and should be a FRACTION of the cost they once where. You should be putting the SCREWS to the price points to Sony and Nintendo, yet all you do is soft pedal around them with a meek milquetoast discount. The outgoing 20GB's price point should have equaled the Wii's price point if not UNDERCUT it entirely...that would've been a flat declaration of value to the consumer. But noooooooooo...what you do instead is try to wring as much cash out of the old box as greedily possible, with little regard to the bigger picture of capturing any return to REAL growth in your market share. Small wonder at the mounds of 20GB Xboxes I saw at Fry's last weekend. No Wiis, a few PS3s, but tons of 360s.

Loser mentality with zero stomach for doing what it takes in protecting market share. That's the legacy of The Ballmer.

[kb8622]

$200 for the core is very reasonable for something that's 3 years old, and then they charge $130 just for 20gb the hard drive. Also it only comes with a wired controller, no head set or high def cables. Anyone can buy a 20gb 2.5" hdd for $30 max, so MS is probably getting them for $20 max and using an special enclosure just to make everyone pay 5 times more then they should be.

[SoDope]

Screw hard drives and how much space you need for games.....anyone else want HD or Blu-Ray disc readers in their 360's???

[jmackowi]

Perfect for those with Media Center PC's wanting to add a second or third TV...gaming is icing on the cake here.