Wow, once all the fanboy smoke clears, it is obvious that Sony has gotten serious real fast... An immediate price cut on the 80 wasn't even rumored to happen any time soon as there is still 60 gig stock out there. I think Sony realized that if they let this holiday go to the 360 (and the current sales trends were pointing to that reality) and didn't drop prices, they might have allowed Microsoft to take such a commanding global lead that the PS3 would never catch up and 3rd party exclusives would be jumping ship left and right...
One thing is really interesting about he new pricing and that is that it puts Microsoft in an interesting, and in my opinion, uncomfortable position. That is that they are now priced too close to the PS3. Yeah there are a lot more games on the 360 and that certainly helps, but there is no doubt that a lot of people would like to get the blue ray player as a bonus.... The Elite will be MORE than than the 40 gig PS3... Add to this the fact that the lowest priced 360 is still more than the Wii and it puts MS squished in between and historically this isn't the best place to be.
One thing is for sure -- the "arcade" and the new premium with 2 pack-ins is a nice start, but Mavel Ultimate and Forza 2 probably aren't going to win many over...
I suspect we will see something totally out of left field from Microsoft in the next 30 days...
Even if they cut the elite to $399 it has to go head to head with the PS3 40 gig. While I think it can, for the most part, fare well against the 40 gig unit, a whole lot of people are going to look at that blu-ray drive, scratch their chin and say hmm.... that PS3 is looking pretty attractive right now as there are now actually some games to play...
I hate trolls.
Systems I currently own: 360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong. Yes, Pong.
