giving gift cards away with a system is not even remotely close to a price cut. You still have to spend the full price of the system, and then the retailers hope you spend the giftcard and probably some extra money on some other big thing you wanted that now you "can't justify not getting" because you have a 50-100$ giftcard for the store. A giftcard is equivalent to some free merchendise, not to saving money.
The ps3 and wii are getting plenty of giftcard and other freebie deals as well despite their recent pricecuts. Its not something completely exclusive to the 360. What I'm saying is if you want to call it an "unofficial pricecut" then all three systems are getting ones. The wii is actually being sold for 100$ at frys soon. The ps3 is also having a bunch of deals with giftcards and free games that aren't a part of an official bundle.
