==> completely agree, again.

MS preferred to earn some money... they should have invested a bit more before Xmas to be massively rewarded later during Xmas 08.

PS3 outsolding Xbox360 1 week after full price drop AND before big bundle release lol.

To topic maker-and?

Ps2 sold 45 million
Xbox sold 5 million

Thats a 90% diffrence in sales,and installbase.

Xbox360 has eating a lot of it already,and wii is eating even more.
There wont be a sony domination this gen in Europe.

I think the 360 will be last in every region when its all said and done.

 I agree, very smart move. Easily makes the GT5P release look like nothing special and keeps the 360 in a good light. Though I don't really agree with the higher sales for GT5P. It's basically a big demo...I wouldn't expect it to be taken as seriously as the actual GT5 when it comes out in a year or so.

so microsoft used its big option in europe, a 70€ rebate, only to counterattack an incomplete version of gran turismo

well, may be is smart but very conservative. They only try to stay in the same position, and the things are going to be worse. GTA4 is going to be bigger for sony in Europe (may be not in UK) and MGS4 is in june. And sony has now the turn to make a rebate...

@Onimusha12
You know that the sales figures are not in real time, do you?

If MS dropped price to 'absord' GT5:P that doesn't seem too smart to me.

1) If people want GT5:P then they are getting (or have) a PS3 - a cheaper 360 makes no difference to that decision

2) We're only talking a 'Prologue' here - if the fairly strong drop was needed just for that (and let's remember evidence so far is the drop only softened the blow, the PS3 still outsold the 360) what are MS going to do when MGS, etc. release? Even bigger drops?

3) MS seem more to have negated the impact of their own drop this way - I see way more focus on PS3 still outselling it, the pre-orders for GT5:P etc. vs wow good price drop for 360


Where the drop might help is GTA - the 360 now has a big price advantage for gamers who need to buy either a 360 or PS3 to play the game, and there must be quite a few such gamers out there.

Of course that's why Sony is now mouthing off about MGS, etc. as they want gamers pausing thinking what new games they want this year (as anyone who wants the existing 360 games lineup will likely have one IMO). Personally if I was Sony I'd quietly arrange a GTA promo of some kind rather than an actual price drop (maybe a 20% price drop if bought with GTA or just a straight price drop for 1st week GTA is out.

Microsoft has been trying to squeeze every dime out of the 360 before dropping the price. It's worked against them in every country to some degree.

Look at the American Market, the $400 launch SKU, after nearly 30 months, is only $350. That's insanity! It should be $300 or less by now.
The fact that they are just now, after over a year, starting to push that "Core' model to compete with Wii in Europe is ridiculous (and pointless now, you snooze you lose as they say)
And look at Japan, why didn't Lost Odyssey get its own bundle? How come MS hasn't been more aggressive on price, especially since so many once Ps-exclusive went Multi-Platform?

Microsoft made too many assumptions
A) Having Halo and the Exclusive GTA content would guarantee victory, its much more complicated race than that.
B) That attracting the Hardcore Market would eventually trickle down to attract the Casual Market. Wii proved that going straight for casuals works better.

Considering how awful Sony was to the consumer base at the begging of this gen, it surprises me that MS may be the ones remember as the idiots.

Everything is smart or dumb until after the fact and all is said and done. None of us are really analysts so its only natural there will be conflicting interpretations of what Microsoft has done. If what they have done is smart or dumb, we'll never know, because we'll never have the alternative to compare it to.