Yes, I think the small price drop is due to currency fluctuations, they fixed the price some time ago and hadn't changed it after the currencies moved, the small price drop just re-normalizes the price to the current exchange rate. Including their top hyped game for free is a clear marketshare tactic though.

Oh please stop it... There is no such thing as desperation in business.... You all look like fools trying to put a moral stigma to a business decision....
profit, market share are all that matters....
if it doesn't work right away you adapt to the situation... No desperation here, just cold hard logic..
if it still doesn't work... You look for other solutions if you feel it's worth it... Still no desperation
and if yet again it doesn't work and you have no interest keeping the project alive, you either kill it ir sell it... But still no desperation
Thus is just business nothing more... Trying to name call it to suit your agendas is plain stupid and retarded.. There is no moral is business logic period....

Nope, that's not how it works. Buisnisses are run by people. People have emotions and make decisons based on them. We try to avoid it, but we can't. 

If your company is working on a project that they invest billions of dollars and thousands of man hours into people are going to be emotionally invested in that project. Even the higher ups of a company. 

Maybe desperate is too strong a word to use for the state of the Xbox division right now. But I bet uneasy fits the bill pretty well.

Desperation is a pretty common theme in business.

There is desperation in business. Just not in this particular case. A company that is as stupidly rich as Microsoft doesn't have any reasons for desperation. 

Then again, you don't discount products that sell well. So it's at the very least a confirmation that Microsoft isn't satisfied with the rate the console sells in the UK (how could they be?). But it really doesn't scream desperation. But you know the internet, people like to keep it classy, turning every little thing into a full blown sensation.