NO OFFENCE but y r m$ dropping the price in australia which has a small population so not many console sale when they could be dropping the price even more in america and europe (mostly the uk ) to increase there userbase to counter act the ps brand which is gaining momentum in america and europe

Prices in Australia and other PAL regions are very inflated as far as hardware and software goes. They probably dropped the price in Australia simply because they could afford to and it is a good time to do it. I'm hoping the Wii gets a price drop this year, if it does then I will buy it because I honestly don't believe it's worth AU$400

Its a world wide price drop? So they are dropping everywhere they can.

I think in a strange move, the price in Europe will drop again before Christmas or more value bundles( $299 EU = $469USD)

[the ps3 is 349EU = $547USD and the lower the price, then the lower the tax and duty applied to it. so a price difference in US of $100 should be more than that in EU. But i guess it depends on how hard MS wants to compete in EU. The price drop before was due to competition in that market and lack of sales. The real question in EU is does MS want to lose money to gain market share? or do they now want to return the EU pricing to be inline with the rest of the world]

The Australian dollar is at its strongest point in 25 years if i remember correctly. Most of our console/game prices have been the same since back when the dollar was at 42 US cents. Now it is up at 96 US cents, this means that console manufactures can afford to cut prices and still make a decent amount of money in Australia.

If you've been after a Wii for under $400, there has been plenty of chances to get it cheaper. Kmart and BigW frequently have it cheaper and often with a game and/or other accessories bundled. My brother paid $350 about a year ago and that included a game, sports pack accessories (though they are pretty useless) and a carry bag.

I doubt the arcade being cheaper than the Wii will effect sales... i mean who buys 360 arcade units?

It's the price drop on the 20gb 360 which would of moved a fair amount of 360 ... pity it only got a $80 price cut so its cheaper to import it from the UK...

@cyclone87 -- Just because Australia and new Zealand are smaller markets than North America or Europe dosn't mean we don't deserve price drops or that we don't move a reasonable amount of hardware for our population and it's still a $1 bn industry here in Australia ....

I'm not sure there are many ways you could depict people actually playing the console other than being on the couch or being on the floor. I think it's a better ad then what sony puts out, sure they show the games, but it feels like they alienate casuals when they only show gameplay and those weird ads with the circus acts. Also, the new buzz game depicts the exact same thing (people sitting on the couch playing games with each other).

Thankfully, neither Microsoft nor Sony have felt it necessary to place a person in each ad saying "come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on".... everytime I hear that my soul dies a little inside (the girl/daughter does it in the Mario Kart ad and one of the guys do it in the Brawl ad).