Source: Fudzilla

Text of article:

"Microsoft Japan has announced that it'll be cutting the price of the Xbox 360, both the arcade and 60GB versions are part of the price cut and for the first time ever, the arcade will be cheaper than the Nintendo Wii.

The price drop will happen on the 11th of September and the arcade will be dropped from ¥27,800 (€176) to ¥19,800 (€125.50). The 60GB version will be introduced at ¥29,800 (€189) which is cheaper than what the 20GB version was selling for. The Wii is selling for around ¥25,000 (€158) in Japan.

This announcement comes less than a week ahead of the expected US price drop of the Xbox 360, although the arcade is expected to cost $199 (€136) while the 60GB model should come in at $299 (€204) which makes Japan the cheapest country to get an Xbox 360 in. Mind you, due to the region coding, it's not as if there will be a huge grey import market for Japanese consoles, so sadly the rest of us are stuck with the current (higher) pricing for now, until Microsoft follows suite in the rest of the world."

Looks like the Xbox 360 is getting a large cut in price that puts the prices even lower than the U.S version to go with the American price cut. It looks like Microsoft is really serious about trying to break into this market and is willing to lose money to do so.

It makes sense in a way as its found acceptance in the U.S and has developed a platform to build off in the Euro market. Japan is probably the last place that Microsoft really needs to push into.

Are 360s region free? i think i'm gonna buy one when i go to japan.

They are region locked unfortunately. If its a short stay theres only a $20 difference in price anyway.

So we can expect 4000 a week after this? As opposed to 2000?

I'm really liking MS this Generation. They have the games, the online, now the price. Frankly, they deserve better sales.

I wish they cost that much in GBP.

Surprised they haven't done this earlier. 360 in Japan has been dead. Expensive jRPGs get it one or two weeks of superior sales at most which in the big picture is no help at all vs Wii and barely enough vs the PS3. Something drastic was called for unless MS wanted to admit defeat in Japan again.

If the price cut doesn't make much difference then with such low sales its hardly costing MS much to sell 20,000 or so 360s with a higher cost than those sold in US/Others. If it does work then its worth the additional install base and might even kick-start the console to better things in the region...

The only risk I see is that if the sales don't get a decent, sustained boost at this price the MS may have to face the fact that Japan remains essentially closed to them expensive exclusives or not.

Oh, and I predict that someone is going to post using the term 'desperate move' at some point in this thread (unless I've scared them off but they would have otherwise!)

OMG

I create thread and people skip them AND create their own thread ... SHIT !

I agree with psrock, they´re trying really hard but they´ve yet to crack that 'global ceiling' like Nintendo and Sony have, become less dependent on American sales.

The only reason to buy a Japanese Xbox would be if you were planning on buying a metric ton of JDM Xbox games in Akihabara on the cheap. Games do get discounted quickly in Japan. Import prices rarely ever reflect this.

Of course they're all in Japanese, but as long as you can read Kanji and comprehend spoken Japanese, you'll be straight.