Microsoft re-working the Pro model to include a 60gb HDD!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=322122

Although NeoGAF is not always the place you want to go for quality rumors, it seems plausible. I just hope that if MS does indeed phase out the 20gb model for a 60gb model, that the price stays at $299...If not (and goes up to $349 again), it's merely because MS is going to drop the price even more in August.

Welcome to last week?

I read the same thing at Arstechnica Friday.  They said it was due to the 60GB model.  They also called out the fact that a 120GB model would be released back when MS was still denying it.

The 20 gig going 300 is to clear out stock

The sixty gig will be 350. There's no way that they'd up the hard-drive space, and lower the price. MS wants to make profit, not loss.

I'll put this at moderately possible E3 announcement.  Right behind a PS3 price drop, and a Wii Price drop.

DMeisterJ -

The issue with the 20GB drive is that the 20GB drive is (about) $2 less to make than a 60GB drive...So I do think there's a chance that MS will be looking at dropping the price to $300.

For all we know, the $300 drop is to test the waters by both clearing stock out, and seeing how consumers react to the $300 price point.

How do you think people would react to a $300 price point?  Not buy consoles?  Take them back?  Only an idiot wouldn't know what would happen at a lower price point.  (Hint:  more sales).

I just happen to think that your post is overly optimistic.  If they are price cutting, I guess that they're planning on making the money that they won't be making on consoles on software.  But with Microsoft focused on profit, I couldn't imagine losing fifty dollars per console, and (most likely) losing money on every console sold helping that train of thought.  I don't know how much they make per console (or if they do at all), but price-cutting is probably the exact opposite thing that they want to do.  I think that we may see a price cut at the end of the year when Gears 2 or something comes out, (November), but I don't think it'd happen at E3.  They don't know what the holiday season holds, and it'd be showing their cards too early.

I'm the mole!

http://vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=910585

:P

That Arstechnica article was posted today.  You sure you didn't read it here last Friday?

Exactly.  Everything the elite had that made it elite was gone.  It had the HUGE hard drive, and the HDMI port.  And it has neither of those now.  I think it's time for a restructuring of sorts.  Maybe MS is taking out the Pro altogether with this and price dropping the Elite to 400.  That'd be pretty competitively priced with the PS3.

Machina -

No clue whatsoever. I've always felt that the Elite hasn't been justified as a console since HDMI became standard.

It'd be nice if MS just dropped the 3-tier system, and made either 1 SKU, or atleast dropped the Elite.

 It might be plausible, but i'm not sure.  If someone around here that was an engineer or what have you could poke around their 360 and see if it even has room for all of that extra memory I would think that this rumor would be much more beleivable as more memory really means more $$$$$ for MS with all of the ka-ching coming in from their downloads.