I just dont see Microsoft dropping the price of the Arcade to $130 NJ5. As much as it would be awesome and would shift some serious consoles, it just seems like so much more than is necessary. And I just dont know that they could make money on it.

Mind you if they did and made similar drops in Australia, I'd pick up a second Xbox 360.

Wishful thinking, NJ5.

Squil's suggestion has a possibility.

That said, I think both of you are wrong, and neither of those price cuts will happen.

We'll have to wait and see.

@Phrancheyez: How is it wishful thinking if:

a- I said it's just one more possibility; and
b- I don't really care how much the 360 sells

?

@NJ5

Cuz if it wasn't and you didn't care how it sold, you wouldn't post such ambitious prices. Most 360 fans who want it to sell wouldn't even say that low.

I already pointed out why I don't think the $200 price for the Pro is too ambitious, and I think it's a reasonable explanation.

I didn't pay so much attention when I wrote the $130 price for the Arcade, that could easily be $150 for the same reason (half launch-price).

I see no point in a price cut. They're moving more consoles now than they ever have before, and cutting the price yet again would probably only lead to lost revenue.

If they drop the price, it'd probably only be to counter a drop from Sony (not that they'd be stealing more sales from Sony at that point than they were before), it would probably be to $179 for the Arcade.

I can see where he's coming from, though.  They've never dropped the Pro by more than $50 at one time ($399 > $349 > $299), and I don't see why they'd do it now, especially when $50 now makes up a far larger percentage of the system's price than it did previously.

The farthest they've ever dropped the price of one SKU at one time was $80 (Arcade $279 > $199).  A $100 cut off the Pro (33%) seems entirely unnecessary.

Personally, I think that the ideal solution for MS is $199 Valhalla with enough flash to install 1 game or several DLCs (8GB) and a $299 elite with ~250GB HD

I truly just think it's overly optomistic.  Aside from increasing the volume of sales for both consoles, a drop in price for both consoles shouldn't do much too the proportion of sales going to each console.  The only difference would be if the PS3 got a $100 cut and the Xbox 360 saw a $50 cut to both SKU's. 

But even then, half-price or no, I don't think Microsoft really want to see the Xbox 360 (even the most basic one) being sold for $150.  I really don't know if they'd make money, particularly in a recession.

I would totally go out and buy one if they dropped it that much O_O I've been eying the arcade, because I don't need to play online, but that would give me the whole set.