While I believe a 360 pricecut is in the works, I'm not convinced it'll be immediate nor do I fully believe Pachter's estimations. While the near future is a great way to fight against Sony's pricecut it still seems to be like a bad idea if they want to be profitable for the year, while a pricecut post-Halo 3 would get them a large amount of profit yet keep them competitive in the months that actually matter.
Additionally, I do believe that MS wants to hit the $200 mark with the Core unit given their own comments on the matter. I can buy $349.99 for the Premium. They can't dip too far on it or they lose too much money, since they still need to try to be profitable for the year, but they know that $200 is the sweetspot for sales and that at that mark the people who could care less about online and HDDs will finally see a product that hits the notes they care about.
The Elite, however, is too new to move isgnificantly if at all. Frankly, since the Sony price is still higher they have less to worry about and since it's still a very new product they'd probably create as much public distrust and unhappiness as the warenty deal eliminates. A cut to $450 makes sense, though not changing it at all would likely be best, but anything below that point sounds self-destructive to some degree.
You do not have the right to never be offended.
