The cheapest X360 model, which was the Core/Arcade went from 199 to 129, and the Playstation 3's cheapest model went from 425 to 299 (from my understanding). If that's the baseline - the cheapest model - the X360 has obviously had smaller cuts. Say what you will, but both companies offered reduced functionality devices/modifications after the console(s).
Firstly the Arcade didn't arrive for a while after the original XBOX 360 was launched , the arcade didn't arrive at the same time as the 40GB . And the 40GB was introduced at £299 and has never received a price cut .
You do realize the Arcade is a Core, right? It's the same thing, there is no essential difference between the 2 products. Outside of the fact that the Arcade comes with a few freebies that the initial core did not. Therefore the price comparison is 100% valid. And why are you arguing that the Arcade needed to be launched at the same time as the 40GB? The X360 wasn't introduced the same year the PS3 was, so I fail to see your logic.
The whole point of the 40GB comparison is the fact that the 40GB PS3 is Sony's obvious attempt at cutting off functionality to give a cheaper price, which I think the comparison is still somewhat valid. If you want to argue price reductions, you can do it 1 of 2 ways:
1) Compare similar products, and the reduction of prices (Premium 2005 pricing > Premium 2008 pricing, PS3 60GB>PS3 60GB pricing)
2) Compare baseline products from the 2 systems (Core 2005 pricing > Arcade 2008 pricing, PS3 60GB > PS3 40GB pricing)
The problem of your argument is that the 40GB PS3 model was the price cut. For some reason, you can't get that through your mind. It was a reduced functionality device meant at decreasing the initial price point of the PS3. Kind of like the iPod shuffle and the various derivatives that are cheaper than the $300 normal iPods.
Unfortunately, in Europe, making a valid argument for the PS3 in most any case is kind of hard: There was no base line product that you could really compare to, since the 20GB model never launched in Europe, and that's the issue. Sony never debuted the product in PAL territories, which was the "true" baseline product. So we're roughly comparing the Xbox 360 Premium's price drop to the Xbox 360 Arcade's price drop, which is most likely an invalid comparison. But at any rate, it was Sony's decision to do what they did in PAL territories, which shows how drastically they've reduced the price by switching from the premium 60GB model w/ software emulation to the non-BC 40GB model.
So if you were to compare, Sony was the definate one that looked 'desperate' - They cut their prices and functionality much deeper and quicker than MS, whereas MS hasn't dropped prices as quickly across their models. But on the financial side, both are equal due to the functionality changes: Sony most likely wasn't impacted as much as the 125 GBP drop "seems" versus the X360's 80 GBP drop, since the Arcade/60GB added, and the 60GB/40GB PS3 subtracted.
Desperate yes , the cheapest PS3 cost more than twice the cheapest XBOX 360 now....the cheapest PS3 is far more functional than the cheapest 360. You obviously haven't been looking at historical data closley enough , the PS3 price drops in europe caused spikes and long term sales that microsoft could only dream of.
How so, and what argument are you even trying to make with functionality? The cheapest PS3 had it's BC compatability hacked away and totally null and void (the Arcade still has it's BC), less USB ports, flash card readers, and SCAD support all taken away when Sony went to the 40GB PS3......The Arcade has what inferior to the Premium? Just HDD functionality, which you can spend $40 to upgrade. The Playstation 3 SKUs have had entirely different functionality subsets: Backwards Compatability, Flash Card reading, and Wi-Fi have been different between each unit. The X360 has always been far more streamlined: You can still take a 2005 core, and only have the HDMI port, and black matte finish being the primary differences between that, and a 2008 Elite console.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
