Hard to believe that Microsoft didn't have a price drop.  They seem to give the impression they think it's not going to help the PS3.

It won't hurt. They aren't gaining money if it wasn't selling great anyway, plus they keep saying the cost has come down, so maybe, just maybe, they will begin making money on their consoles, or at least breaking even on sales, even at the lower price. They said long term...

I think the fact that the elite is now only 20 bucks cheaper than the ps3 which comes with a blu ray player is pretty fuckin ridiculous for MS.

It would be stupid to lower the price to increase sales of a console with a 25% defective rate.... do they want to lose another billion in hte future paying for more repairs? They must release a new model fixing their console malfunctions before even thinking about a price drop.

I agree, and if they don't hurry the Wii will beat them to a price drop next year, which would be ridiculous and seriously hurt their sales.  I still don't expect the PS3's price drop to raise weekly sales more than 10-20% after the first couple weeks,  but I also think this is a "now or never" situation for Microsoft if they want to hold their lead over the Wii especially and eventually the PS3.

Speaking of which, did anyone ever figure out how the hell they spun their numbers to claim they were outselling the Wii in hardware? I never figured that one out.

They didn't, they said software and they had hardware at a tie since the holidays when 360 sold really well that's how :)

 I think they're mistaken not to lower the price (and try to remember that the conference is not over), but I understand the reasoning. They're set to make a huge loss on the last fiscal year, and were hoping that Halo 3 would push them to a profitable Q3. If they lower the price again, profitability goes out the window. 

I think that long-term, cutting the price and boosting their own sales (and limiting Sony's and to a lesser extent Nintendo's, and making themselves more attractive to third-parties, especially Square and Konami)  is their best strategy, but I can see why they're reluctant to pursue it.  

They were talking third party software and said the 360 sold as much third party software as the Wii and PS3 combined...  Which when you look at how dominated the Wii is with Nintendo games it's not hard to see why.

Read the price drop story I just posted.

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=4112