So new 360 60Gb sku to sell at $299

[crumas2]

FishyJoe said:

crumas2 said:

 

No product in the US can be price fixed by the manufacturer... this is illegal.  However, consoles are likely similar to printers... very little margin for the retailer, so a $50 discount by any retailer would probably mean selling at or below cost.

 

A company that doesn't respect the manufacturers pricing guidelines will find themselves either paying more for product or cut off entirely from purchasing.

Every time a company has tried this (that I'm aware of), the FTC has been all over them like hair on a gorilla.  Price fixing is legal in Japan, so as you might imagine, several Japanese corporations have tried the same in the US, but as soon as a retailer complains, the feds come down hard.  As far as I know, Japanese companies have pretty much abandoned this approach and now use spiffs (kickbacks) and shelf-space subsidies to try and improve volume.  These seem to fly under the FTC's radar.

Then again, I don't work in that space, so my knowledge is second-hand and could be wrong.