http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/19/nvidia_takes_xbox_writeoff_hit/
http://www.geek.com/microsoft-and-nvidia-end-xbox-dispute/
I think that explains why there's a difference between the two machines in terms of price. nVidia refused to lower the cost of the GPU for basically the entire life of the system because they failed to profit off of it.
And I'll put my 2 cents in on the matter at hand. But first, the reason the 360 isn't getting 2 price drops this year: It'd be a punch in the face for anyone who bought the thing for Halo 3. Really, whatever number they go with it's what they're sticking with at least until Sony drops price again and it'd would be too much better if they did either.
I think if the numbers rumored are correct MS will do one of two things: Drop the HDD price to $70 (or less) or discontinue it. Really, they made a bad deal worse, and that can't mean anything good for a product. I believe this may be one of their attempts to make profit and that it's getting axed. Their best bet is to sell units returned to stores (aka: non-sales) to places like Gamestop cheaply after they refurbish them to recover some of their loses, heh.
Really, if they go to $350 with the Premium it means they really need to make a profit this year. No more taking a loss on the console, and making a profit on it until Sony drops price again (I'm guessing in March for MGS4, probably in a contract with Konami to ensure exclusiveness). Basically, they seem to be playing the same game as Sony in going from one two-SKU pricing systems to another, but they have to hold on to the Core a little while longer so that it doesn't look like they played the same trick as Sony while going one step further and raising the price.
You do not have the right to never be offended.
