It's worth noting that, here in Australia, sales tax has to be included in the stated price. It also doesn't vary from state to state, like yours does. I'm not considering tax in this discussion, since it would apply irrespective of whether you're buying up front or not.

And no, they don't say it costs $100,000, they say that it has a $100,000 downpayment. Even if MS were advertising as "this has a $99 downpayment", I'd be fine with it. They don't - they say it's $99, and then put a little asterisk on it.

And I should be clear - I'm not saying that they tell you the final price you'll end up paying. I'm saying that they tell you, up front, the conditions - they tell you that it's a $100,000 downpayment. They tell you that you'll pay the rest of it off as a mortgage. They tell you how much the house costs in total - that is, the price you'd pay if you paid it all up front. The nuances of financing - choosing the length of your mortgage (and thus the repayment rate), etc - affects the final total, so they can't actually quote a "final price" before that step. But it's made quite clear that you're not getting the house for $100,000 - that it's only the downpayment.

EDIT: I should make clear, I'm taking the $100,000 as the downpayment, not the original total price. If you meant that to be the total house price if paid up front, then replace instances of $100,000 with, say, $20,000.

Hey I hate small print and all the bogus it contains as well but there's no need to single this out over anything else because it's EXACTLY the same as any other contract deal. They even tell you right away that you're going to be in a contract.

Actually, looking at that image bothers me even more. Why? Because, for someone who actually understands the nuances of english, it actually implies that you get two free years of Xbox Live Gold, valued at $14.99/month, not that you must pay 2 years worth of $14.99/month. This is made worse by the image on the left, which, in conjunction with the main text (the large font part), suggests that you'll be getting Xbox Live Gold as part of that $99.

Essentially, it reads as "...xbox live gold contract [valued] at $14.99/month". And while you and I are more than knowledgeable enough to know to re-read it, your typical late adopter isn't going to read it that carefully. It also doesn't say that the Xbox Live Gold contract is a necessary part of the deal.

Although seeing that image does slightly change my opinion, I still stand by the overall assertion - that it's an underhanded ploy, rather than simply an alternate deal offering people the chance to pay it off over time.

@Aielyn

lol was there ANY person who did not understand that you have to pay 99+24x15? everyone saw it after few seconds reading about the deal, why should other people who aren't on gaming forums don't see it? it is pretty much not possible to not see it looking at the pic yo_john117 posted above me

€dit: ohh ok i saw now you found the next thing complaining about when you saw the pic. wow you really try hard to complain about it without any reason don't you?

nah it just you're stupid
can't believe anyone would don't know how to read this

underhanded ploy,huh?guess because this is from MS

No, I'd be as annoyed if it came from anyone.

As for "nah it just you're stupid", I have to point out the Muphry's Law type of nature of that statement.

And what both you and crissindahouse are ignoring is that this deal isn't targetted at people on VGChartz. It's targetted at the mother that wants to buy her son a console, and glances at the deal - "Ooh, $99 for an Xbox 360 with Kinect? And it comes with free Xbox Live?" As I said, the problem is that a casual reading is going to interpret it the way I said.

For those who don't get what I mean by "casual reading", what I mean is the interpretation you see if you don't read it carefully, to make sure you saw all of what it says, and only what it says. People have a tendency to fill in blanks or miss words when they read casually. Surely you've had a situation where you responded to someone in a thread, only to discover that you missed the word "not" in their statement, thus entirely misunderstanding? That's an extreme version of this.

The problem is, where missing a "not" is a major mistake, failing to notice that the $14.99 is being charged, not a "valued at", is much easier. Especially if you don't know a lot about video game consoles to begin with.

But hey, I must be stupid, because I disagree with you, right?

please don't underestimate mothers
most of them know how it works,maybe you still don't get it,well,that's your problem

look at the picture,only 4 lines there,oh maybe they don't understand what you said because your reply have bunch of words

Clearly your too young to have experience in buying a car and a house with a down payment. 

Its simple: when you cant pay it all upfront, you end up paying more in the long run in exchange for affordable monthly instalments. Its a trade off. 

You're partially right. I mean, ok the payment will be affordable, but you still pay more, a lot more, for something that doesn't cost so much.

Anyway, I don't know if this deal will succeed, but that's a good move form Microsoft. From a business' perspective it could give a significant boost, without a price cut, so it's totally positive. From a consumer's perspective, I think it's more bad than good, because you pay a lot for something that you could buy for less.

for 360 it's not really much more since it's inculde 2years gold and some other payment things(someone already did a math)

but i bet will be a lot more later because i guess 360 will have a price cut this year