Rumor: Xbox 360 Elite Getting $100 Price Cut
Slim slim slim. Sony sure won the media war last week when it unveiled it's newly redesigned PS3, complete with price cut to $299. Whether you like the new design or you think it's a big mistake, you were still probably talking about it. Now to combat that buzz, it looks like Microsoft wants to remind folks that before Sony was slim, the Xbox was Elite.
Scans from WalMart and Meijer catalogs have started popping up, showing a $100 price cut for the Xbox 360 Elite, the version with a black case and 120 GB hard drive, in case you need a refresher. The cut brings it down to $299 and matches the PS3's new price. Everybody wins! Meanwhile the Wii is still $250. I know, right?
At this point, are any of you single console diehards thinking of picking up the competition yet? Or maybe you hold-outs are finally thinking of going HD? Both companies have said they have no plans for a next generation yet, and expect to support these machines for quite a while. There's a lot of good titles for both systems this season, so I don't think you could go wrong with either, although I'll admit Uncharted 2 makes me swoon.
Rumor: Wal-Mart Catalog List $100 Price Cut for Xbox 360 Elite [Joystiq]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 22 August 2009
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: microsoft, price-cut, rumor, xbox 360 elite
I didn't realize until visiting the Xbox 360 wikipedia page just now that the console with by far the strongest online component still ships with no wifi adapter, and instead of just buying a $20 USB adapter you have to buy the special $99 list, $70 street Microsoft one on top of the 50 bucks a year to play online multiplayer games.
Now I understand why so many of my friends have their 360s hooked up in their offices rather than their living rooms. Like me, they're cheap (but apparently not quite as cheap, since they've all had 360s for a couple years already and I haven't.)
Of course, for me a $420 Xbox 360 with which I can play online against friends for a year and download XBLA games is still more appealing than a $300 PS3 with which I can play online against zero of my friends and which has almost no downloadable games that interest me. And maybe the Elite price drop will mean a $249 or $229 Pro version, which would almost certainly be too good a deal for me to pass up. I'm pretty sure they'll be getting rid of either the Pro or Arcade version at this rate, most likely the Arcade one to make the platform more consistent going forward.
Maybe I could understand the appeal of having your machine cut free from the wires, but I never really liked the wireless option to begin with..
I'm always concerned about lag.. and whether or not there's any latency in the middle of some serious twitch gaming. I just prefer to have a nice strong connection that a direct wired link offers.
The appeal is to not have wires running all over your house like a total tool, but I guess if you're so into gaming that you're worried about a few milliseconds of lag, that takes care of that.
While a price drop on the 360 Elite would be very tempting, I'm still hesitant to make that substantial an investment in a product that (depending on who you believe) has a 20 to 50 percent chance of failing. I've had a PS3 for over a year and so far no issues...except sore thumbs and eye fatigue :-)
Maybe I'm being too resistant and should just plunk down the cash so I can play all those games I've had my eye on for years now.
I think the slim PS3 at that price will blow away the competition.
My partner and I have been discussing buying the 360 once the price drops, but noticed the new package comes without any games bundled and lacks an HDMI cable (I think the MS branded HDMI cable runs about $50). In our neck of the woods, the only Elite bundles still on the market with the HDMI cable are those with the Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda.
I think Sony's price drop will be well received. As for that wireless fear, I've had my 60gig ps3 just a couple months after the ps3 was released and I've had no issues with it at all. Tthe wireless is very sturdy, although I've never used a mid grade connection at all so it may vary on that.
If Microsoft does the price cut it's def going to be pretty temping to pick one up as well; although I'm still very afraid of the ring of death, all my friends have had their box replaced so far. :(
I thought Microsoft won't ever compete with Sony's PS3 but Microsoft said it just happened they want to phase off the older version of Xbox. This is gonna be a tough competition between the two but at least they just gave consumers more options. While waiting for Aion Online to launch, I am thinking whether to buy Xbox or PS3. I'm a bit confused but I think it's still a win win situation.