Good for MS i can't wait for this holiday season.

The Premium was always their primary SKU, with an increase in HDD size the Elite SKU became increasing irrelevant and it simply wasn't selling so they discontinued it. The Elite has always been a premium SKU it was never the mainline SKU. Just because its called the Elite doesn't mean that it isn't fulfilling the role of the previous 60GB Premium. They are taking the special HDMI cable out, so what comes in the box is essentially the same as the Arcade but with a larger HDD. It has even less than the Premium did as the Premium contained a Component HD cable in the box.

The thing you have to remember is this, Microsoft has been getting ready to counter the PS3 price cuts and/or slim ever since the 360 was reduced last year,

I'm more than confident MS have more than enough plans to ensure the 360 stays on top of the ps3 this year and next year and the year after etc,

It's always good to hear your reasonable thoughts when these threads get way out of hand

Very reasonable. This will hurt many.    

1. Agree

2. Concerned? I don't think its the appropriate word. If anything they are watchful. Concern is what you get when your competition does something unexpected, or something expected turns out unexpectedly good. Concern is something you feel when Nintendo launches a Wii. I don't see how they would be concerned about something which they expected a mile off, about a price cut whose size was telegraphed months ago. Sony simply isn't in a position to really cause concern at this point.

3. Agree

4. They're actually performing about equally between the Premium level SKU and the PS3 80GB. $300 vs $400 in America is pretty fair considering the latter comes with free online and a Blu Ray player, so the value argument is swings and roundabouts depending on the person.

I don't care who wins as long i enjoy my consoles why should i care?

he sounds just like somebody else

Yes, you! (joking!)

I meant 'sensibly concerned' - i.e. normal watching of a competitor, but nothing excessive.  I think though, given their lead is actually rather narrow compared to PS1/PS2/Wii levels of sales, and the current pricing/demand picture implies a cheaper PS3 would sell a lot more, they are more than watchful.  Sounds like we see this more or less the same, although you figure they're not really conerned about possible reaction to a PS3 price drop and I figure they probably are - but not excessively so.

On 4) I think there are far more gamers looking for a gaming console vs seeing the PS3 additional value, so while from some angles PS3 seems good value I think for the majority it's seen as the same thing but more expensive - so  I still believe that if they were the same price, PS3 would see higher demand - i.e. the underlying demand for PS3 is a little higher (this is WW average though, I think 360 has done really well in US and the underlying demand is more or less equal for price vs Europe or Japan).