I don't think Microsoft will reduce the price of the core system, I think they will only lower the premium by $50.

It's really easy to figure out how Microsoft operates.. just think of a slackers. They will do the minimium to squeak by.

If the poster just has Premium cuts on it and no confirmation from Microsoft itself, then it's probably just premium.

Seems like this doesn't contradict earlier rumours/speculation...

http://www.vgchartz.com/news/news.php?id=451

gebx, you've gone off the deep end on microsoft ever since your fanboy/doom MS thread.

A price drop is good, there's no other way to slice it. Sales will increase, they always do. I think they are doing this move in August precisely because Sony is releasing the 80gb in August. It effectively looks like only one console got a price cut and the other didn't. I hope they cut the price of the Elite and the hard drives, would be smart.

A pack-in with the core would be great, too, and viva pinata sounds like a smart choice. Sometimes I wish more level headed people ran Microsoft and Sony ;)

I hope (and think that) this price cut will also be made in Europe before the Elite launches, because if it isn't then Microsoft will look as bad or worse than Sony here... And I say worse because the 360 has been out for a long time so there are no excuses.

EDIT - If you want more rumours, here's one. Some guy in a Portuguese forum claims he was told by a FNAC employee in Oporto that both the Core and the Premium will see their prices slashed by 100 € on the 1st of August. He even says the employee showed him some paper with instructions for doing that. From what I can see it looks as credible as possible in a forum (not a troll, not a new user). It might be just FNAC doing it, but with all these rumours it would be a bit of a coincidence. We'll see soon.

That would probably be a really good idea, so I have to question whether Microsoft could come up with it.

ckmlb said:
Toss in Viva Pinata since it sold badly and it appeals to families and casuals at least from the look of the game cover.

I don't understand why they don't do this with old casual-type games that are no longer selling. Hell, throw some more stuff on there, maybe put it all together on a single disc. How about both Viva Pinata and Kameo? Fuzion Frenzy 2 would have been a decent choice if it didn't suck so badly.

Also, two years later, why not give at least minor price cuts to items such as the HDD, wireless, and memory card?

Hrmm, I hadn't thought of that.  Maybe I will wait it out then for the Core to be $199 with a memory unit or the premium to be $299.

Found this in the neogaf thread:

Xbox overtakes Wii As Most Searched for Console

Demand is high for a price drop - in the past four weeks, the top search term with the words “price drop” was “xbox 360 price drop”. There were 70% more US searches for “xbox 360 price drop” than for “ps3 price drop”.

It won't appear that only one console got a price cut because the 60 gb 500 dollar PS3 is still in the market and in large numbers.

This appears like a reaction to the Sony price cut further legitimizing it and further making certain that Sony cannot just go back up to 600 dollars after the 60 gb machine is sold out (whenever that is).

Of course sales will go up with a 50 dollar cut but a 100 dollar cut would have made a bigger difference clearly.