The big problem for Microsoft was keeping on top of this price cut until it was due to happen. Rumours of the price cuts are sure to have made anyone aware of the impending cuts to hold off on their purchase. Hopefully sales will pick up more after September 7th.

 "No rain checks" Is the key factor here.

XGamer - You do realize MS' first year sales = worse than Ps3's first year sales.... don't you.... and Ps3 and 5 months less in Europe....

So you arguement is basically:

PS3 cutting price because they are selling in 3rd place on a regular basis = desperate.

360 cutting price because they are selling in 3rd place on a regular basis = trend setters.

/sarcasm

And thinks that 360 atrocious sales are steady

I still wonder if this is temporary.

The Radio Shack ad read like a sale --- not a true price drop.

The K-Mart ad says "Limited Quantities ... No rain checks." Which tells me that when these are gone, they don't guarantee the lower price.

Could Microsoft be moving all its old console stock to make way for something new (I mean chipset)?

Mike from Morgantown

If anyone still thinks there will be no price cut on the 7th they are clearly stupid.

Its going to be an interesting xmas with a 360 being the cheapest console and Wii still outselling PS360 combined.

However, I still think PS3 will remain at $400 80gb and $500 160gb through this year as PS3's sales will not be affected long term by this price cut by MS and Sony needs to make a profit this FY in the games division.

MS will get a jump in sales for September and probably even beat Sony in sales in the Americas. However, by October they will be close again with Sony having the slight upper hand throughout the holidays.

BTW, the "limited quantities...." is their as an insurance factor. They are assuming they will sellout of their given stock and this way they can't be sued for advertising something they do not have in to sell. All retailers do this for what they perceive as hot ticket items they may not last for the full time frame of the ad, usually one week.

Okay, I see where you guys are going with this. The 360 sales in the americas are steady. The sales in others are stagnat and in Japan as well. The price drop seems US only which leads me to believe that MS will try to keep Sony from winning the Americas market. That is MS stratagy. I never meant to sound so fanboyish towards MS. However, you can't tell me that the price drops that Sony put forth last year was not to combat the terrible sales in the US market.

I believe the "no rain checks" is to preempt the moms who come in after the new SKUs are sold out and demand a rain check to reserve a system.