MS is not going to do another price cut before Xmas. If they were planning on decreasing the price by $100, then they'd have done it all at once instead of doing a lousy $50 nearly two years after launch.

Another price cut in 2-3 months might actually backfire as people might think they'll do yet another cut soon after and hold off on a purchase, and it would make the Core and Elite look even more worthless.

I doubt there'd have been a cut at all had it not been for the PS3 price drop and the 360 hardware issues, and that explains why it's only $50.

Why make the gap between core and premium even smaller? The tard pack just became even MORE of a tard pack. Tard + 512mb card is $20 less than a premium? WHAT? Whos going to buy THAT?


I cant really complain about a price cut, but Im bitter core didnt see a 50$ drop to match the Wii, I want to see charts and graphs after that happens so bad and they are toying with me!

This looks like they want selling the things out before the falcons are coming. Think about it: The SKU with the highest number on shelves gets the highest drop. You have to drop the price of the other two also (It would look ridicules otherwise). This looks like the move of Sony with the 60 g. It is a sell out.

Expecting another price drop in the "Halo 3/GTA time". Excpecting the same thing for the 80 gig SKU from Sony same time around.

Is anyone else beginning to suspect that Microsoft can't design efficient, cheap hardware? It's still early for them, but I'm beginning to see a pattern. I don't mean "Their systems break down a lot," I mean that they can't seem to make hardware at low prices.

From all accounts, Microsoft was still losing money on the original Xbox once it was obsolesced. Now, we get a tiny price cut two years after the release of the system, which suggests the 360, too, has not seen dramatic cuts in manufacturing cost. Anyone agree with me here? Or have evidence to contradict me?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/19/nvidia_takes_xbox_writeoff_hit/
http://www.geek.com/microsoft-and-nvidia-end-xbox-dispute/

I think that explains why there's a difference between the two machines in terms of price. nVidia refused to lower the cost of the GPU for basically the entire life of the system because they failed to profit off of it.

And I'll put my 2 cents in on the matter at hand.  But first, the reason the 360 isn't getting 2 price drops this year: It'd be a punch in the face for anyone who bought the thing for Halo 3.  Really, whatever number they go with it's what they're sticking with at least until Sony drops price again and it'd would be too much better if they did either.

I think if the numbers rumored are correct MS will do one of two things:  Drop the HDD price to $70 (or less) or discontinue it.  Really, they made a bad deal worse, and that can't mean anything good for a product.  I believe this may be one of their attempts to make profit and that it's getting axed.  Their best bet is to sell units returned to stores (aka: non-sales) to places like Gamestop cheaply after they refurbish them to recover some of their loses, heh.

Really, if they go to $350 with the Premium it means they really need to make a profit this year.  No more taking a loss on the console, and making a profit on it until Sony drops price again (I'm guessing in March for MGS4, probably in a contract with Konami to ensure exclusiveness).  Basically, they seem to be playing the same game as Sony in going from one two-SKU pricing systems to another, but they have to hold on to the Core a little while longer so that it doesn't look like they played the same trick as Sony while going one step further and raising the price.

The Core and the Elite get price drops of less than 10%? That's the silliest thing I ever heard.

Bodhesatva said: Is anyone else beginning to suspect that Microsoft can't design efficient, cheap hardware? It's still early for them, but I'm beginning to see a pattern. I don't mean "Their systems break down a lot," I mean that they can't seem to make hardware at low prices. From all accounts, Microsoft was still losing money on the original Xbox once it was obsolesced. Now, we get a tiny price cut two years after the release of the system, which suggests the 360, too, has not seen dramatic cuts in manufacturing cost. Anyone agree with me here? Or have evidence to contradict me?

 The problem with the original xbox was that it shared more in common with a desktop than it did with a console. Desktops are designed to be upgraded with a steady price, not to be kept at same specs and dropped in price. That being said, what has really changed with the 360 hardware to drop costs?

Hard drives - slight drop in price

CPU - drop from initial peak due to better yields and revisions. Same for GPU.

Motherboard - one revision so far; fairly good revision in reducing needed power circuitry.

Case, fans, and heatsinks are still probably the same in costs.

The problem with producing hardware is that to really drop costs, you have to sell a whole lot. To sell a whole lot, you need to have an attractive price point. To be able to afford that attractive price point, you need to reduce costs. This is the Catch-22 that Microsoft got caught in last generation, and ended up ignoring the 'afford' part and went for the drops. 

Sony has been able to reduce prices so much because they launched with new and costly hardware long before it was ready for mass production. As these products have gotten closer to being at mass production levels, prices have fallen through the floor.  

Entroper said: The Core and the Elite get price drops of less than 10%? That's the silliest thing I ever heard.

Lines up the prices of the two higher models to $100 apart as well as, you know, not screwing the early adoptors just a couple of months after the thing came out.  Or at least not much.

 For the Core, well, that's probably the line where the machine stops making money (possibly the Falcon version, if one is made.)

20$, very strong price cut )))))))) hehe MS idiot's...

Astrodust said: A price drop is a price drop Ckmlb I put you on the predictions list.

What prediction?