Microsoft Prepping £199 Elite
We'll see your price cut and raise you one of our own, says man. Possibly.Published 26/08/2009 at 22:59 by nofi
Official: Xbox Elite Drops to £199 [54]
360 Price Cut Incoming? [21]
Rumour: Microsoft Preempt PS3 Price Cut [47]
According to VG247’s trusted UK retailer source (ooh, who could that be?) Microsoft are about to cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite making it just £199 from Friday. These rumours have been circling for as long as we’ve known about the new PS3, but as far as I can tell this is the first concrete details of specifics, including the discontinuation of the Pro 60 GB model, and with the Arcade £159 console losing the Sega bundle and going solo.
This is, we assume, in direct battle with Sony’s PS3 price-cut last week meaning that the PS3 is still the most expensive console on the high street despite being a good £175 cheaper than when I bought mine at launch. The Xbox 360 Elite, which is now the same price as a Wii (astoundingly) will also be available from GameStation with Call of Duty 4 and Fight Night Round 4 bundled for the same price, making one hell of an introductory package for anyone tempted.
And in one final, killer move, apparently you can bag yourself one of the aforementioned Elites for just £20 if you trade in your PS3.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Erroneus | 26/08/2009 23:04
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I guess it makes sense to price the elite just under the PS3 slim, considering you are getting less (though the bundle deal is wicked) and have to spend money on Live, Wifi adapter and some kind of extended warrenty. Unless you are willing to take the chance RROD is down to 5-10% on Jasper models and you can get a Jasper Elite.
Raen | 26/08/2009 23:08
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Mostly it’s because appearing cheaper is a big part of Microsoft’s sales stratergy. And the same price as the Wii? That’s just crazy.
Erroneus | 26/08/2009 23:18
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Well that mostly speaks more about Nintendo, then Sony and MS. Nintendo has had no reason to drop the Wii in price, because it’s been selling like crazy since launch, but I’m pretty sure we are going to see a xmas without Wii shortage, if Nintendo doesn’t decide to drop it in price.
Now if Nintendo had a huge collection of great games for the second half of 2009, it would make sense, but the second half of 2009 is going to be a bit lackluster for Wii owners, as almost all the fun stuff is coming in 2010.
Anyway intelligent move by MS, not surprising though, but really… let’s see a stable slim model, should be possible, considering the 360 is a 4 year old console now.
Kitch | 26/08/2009 23:12
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Thought the Elite had Wifi?
Erroneus | 26/08/2009 23:20
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Nope >_>
kingfox | 26/08/2009 23:08
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the bundles a good deal but
i cant see many people doing the trade in option
Raen | 26/08/2009 23:09
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Agreed, I don’t imagine there’s a lot of trade in that direction. Other direction makes sense.
Erroneus | 26/08/2009 23:26
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
And speaking of bundle, Shopto is bundling the Slim with Fuel, Damnation & Dead Space for 250£, thats a pretty decent bundle, even though Damnation is not the greatest game, it can be used in trade-in deals properly, after wasting some hours on it
They should have added a hdmi cable though, can’t cost them many £.
Kitch | 26/08/2009 23:11
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This is a serious problem to Sony. Lets face it the specs for Xbox360-2 will be released this Xmas. Meaning yet again Sony are gonna be stuck. They need to get below £200 before chrimbo. These adverts of Sony REALLY need to push and saturate TV time. This drop made things really interesting. I’d consider an elite at less than £200. All they need to do is include Gold membership at half price for the first year and Sony are really fooked. IMO.
matty | 26/08/2009 23:18
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for me they need gold membership for free for 5 years and 5 free games a year lol i can afored to buy games for both and online
Kitch | 26/08/2009 23:33
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I have kids and i’m a bit “when i’ve got time” about online. I love it but for £50 I can kit my kids out for school.
Live is an awesome thing.
Hopefully with the Vidzone and now video on demand Sony can push more black wonders into living rooms. Sony are shit at advertising in the UK. They seem to think that ALL PS2 owners will automatically upgrade. Not the case any more. Brand loyalty is a thing of the past.
Raen | 26/08/2009 23:44
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I doubt it. Considering that Natal isn’t likely out till Autumn 2010 at the earliest, which brings a new lease of life to the current console, and as there aren’t any major games events around Christmas it seems silly. We may see a small tease at E3 next year, but that’s likely to be all.
Earliest release for any kind of detailed spec is 2011 really (maybe TGS 2010, but MS are very US focused so i’d imagine E3 will be there reveal regardless of the year) and probably released in 2012. Again that’s at the very earliest. Realistically I’d put it around 2013 release.
Kitch | 27/08/2009 00:18
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Natal will be “old” news by then. Nintendo will no doubt trump anything M$ can come up with. Natal is aimed at the family market. Or Nintedo ground as it should be called.
Raen | 27/08/2009 00:22
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I very much doubt Nintendo can top the technology. Whether or not Microsoft can make a significant dent in the family market which is dominated by Sony and Nintendo remains to be seen. I certainly think with their Nintendoesque slant shown in the press conference that it’s perfectly possible. As long as Natal and the Arcade are less than a Wii (unlikely) and they have one ‘killer’ title, such as Wii Sports, then they could certainly do something. While the more hardcore gamers are probably rightly dubious about uses of the tech, the “family” market is very easy to target here.
legalisemurder | 26/08/2009 23:18
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Personally i think the slim is cheap enough.You get a hell of a lot for your £250.As has already been stated you have to fork out a lot of money to bring a 360 up to PS3 standard and if you want blu ray….
Lorcan | 26/08/2009 23:25
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Huh, I didn’t think the price cut would make it over here.
Still though, I think the fact that the PS3 has a new model, it’s cut should have more of an impact.
Raen | 27/08/2009 00:26
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Mostly agree. Depends who they’re aiming at. If the 360 pushes hard on the ‘We’re cheaper’ to average consumers they could do well.
I’m not sure how aware average consumers will be of a new model, or what it really represents.
cc_star | 26/08/2009 23:26
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PS3 has nothing to worry about, the only lead the 360 has is the one it generated by being first to Market by a year, and although sony’s figures have often appeared dire it has sold around 25m units, and that’s as the dearest on the market, I’d say that’s quite an acheivement, especially as it was £425, £399 & £349 for a lot of that time.
Now there isn’t such a percentage difference between the two, and the actual difference in£’s isn’t too great I think it will do very well through till next summer when it probably will be under £199 (SRP) although I’d expect retailers offers to bring it down to that long before then.
I really want a 360 but the reported higher fault rate of the Elites is putting me off and I really don’t want a White plastic thing under my tv… And oh yeah I don’t really have any money but other than that I’m ready to go.
Kitch | 26/08/2009 23:38
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Elite is available in Black!!
matty | 26/08/2009 23:51
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he means that elites have a higher failure rate so he would have to get the 60 GB one.
Raen | 26/08/2009 23:46
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As noted the Elite is black and has a higher quality finish. The newer models may lower the failure rate, but it’ll be a year or two till we see their impact I would imagine.
Cort | 26/08/2009 23:45
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So much for the “we don’t look at the competition or care what they’re doing: we do our own thing” comment from MS earlier this month, eh?
Raen | 26/08/2009 23:47
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I would imagine this cut was coming regardless of the PS3 cut. And I would also imagine the comment refers to hardware redesigns etc… They’re obviously going to price their product competitively.
radiobridge | 27/08/2009 00:17
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This is actually great news, all i need is a wii cut and i’ll have a full set.Don’t think Sony will worry too much,The slim has enabled them to actually compete now and get the monkey of their back about the Ps3 being too expensive,almost a level playing field now really.The cheaper everything gets the better,The only prob i can see for everyone in future is that game costs will definitely rise, with others following Activision’s lead .
There was a time a few years ago when DVD players cost a fortune(my first was a bog standard LG for £279!) now some are less than the DVDs themselves,Blu-Ray players are coming down, So why not Consoles.Losing My Point here! basically Good for us the consumers.That is until we get charged £70 a game.
Raen | 27/08/2009 00:25
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The hardware is more expensive to manufacture and develop than in the other cases. With a DVD or Blu-Ray there is a relatively simple standard of outputting information from a disk. This simply requires some codec chips or software. Consoles are significantly more complex. However if you’re talking about a simple lowering then this will certainly happen, as happens in each generation.
Kitch | 27/08/2009 01:11
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Blu-Ray is the key to this battle. I believe in Australia Sony sold the PS3 as a Blu-ray player and a console NOT the other way round. I’ve been pushing PS3 as a player first, console second to parents lookin to buy for their kids! It works. Tell any parent the cost of wireless kits for Xbox and bigger hard drives and £50 annual fee for online play for the “cheaper” arcade and they will jump ship. Why don’t Sony attack M$?
Raen | 27/08/2009 09:01
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Because it makes you look cheap unless you’re very careful.
Carl | 27/08/2009 01:13
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Wow that’s cheap.
However i’m not sure it will help all that much to be honest. The 360 has been affordable for a while. Also i imagine that the Elite wa the least selling of all 3 different 360 SKUs anyway, so really most people wont notice the difference, as the 360 they will get now (likely the elite) is the same price as the one they would have gotten before (likely the Pro). Does that make sense?
Watchful | 27/08/2009 08:46
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Not really as the Pro has been priced at £169.
BlingOnMyWrist | 27/08/2009 04:27
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I don’t understand why the hell the PS3 Slim isn’t £199 anyways. I do understand that Sony is a business, and they may do as they please. But, even a £199 PS3 is more expensive than the PS3s in the states. ($24)
You guy’s are, at the moment, paying $100 more than the PS3s are currently going for here. Absolutely ridiculous. But I guess you didn’t need me to tell you that.
Watchful | 27/08/2009 08:48
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It’s better than it was at launch when we were paying over $200 more at the then current exchange rate.
djkaty | 27/08/2009 05:06
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Well Norway doesn’t appear to have noticed there was a price cut so the PS3 is still selling at 3000 kr – or $450. *sigh*