As I understand it the 360 is now priced as follows in the US as of tomorrow:

Arcade $199

Pro (To be eased out at) $249

Elite (New version) $299

So will this be enough on price alone. Or do we expect Microsoft to back this up leading into Christmas?

Interestingly as this price comes into effect on the 28th that in theory will give it 2 days of NPD stats. That should mean we get an indication early on if this really is something that the buying public are really going for or are they being sucked into the PS3 slim hype train.

It'll soften Sony's blow... if they can move back up to 150k-190k ww they may even be able to totally put down the initial surge

I think if enough 360's get out the door before the stat monkies close the door then they could get a big month in ahead of Sony possibly stealing the thunder. I am skeptical that they can do much more than this unless they have something else up the sleeve for Septembers numbers.

ODST will stem the tide a little bit. i think it helps that there's no major game that's launching alongside the PS3 slim. If they had timed GT5 or GoW 3 alongside the release, then I think we'd see more of a surge.

reminds me of this...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/15/sony-cuts-80gb-ps3-price-to-400/

(very similar)

OT:hmmm it wont do that much.

Yeah it will get nice sales through out the gen.

Everytime ps3 drops the price or something and let's say the xbox creates a bundle or something you hear stuff like this. Yeah it's enough and please don't hit with the oh you a blueray player and wi-fi. If value was the case then wii shouldn't have out sold the others by so much for so long because it doesn't have a blueray player of wi-fi and I'm not knocking the wii because I like the wii, it's just that people are going to buy what they want and they don't care about what other people say is a better value. When the ps3 catches the 360 in what year now 2008 no 2009 no now 2010 tell me that's news. Sony dropping the price and make a slimmer version of the same system that plays the same games is not news to me.

I'm not sure if getting rid of the Pro is a good move. Once they're gone, it means that those who would have bought a Pro for $299 (i.e. people that need a 360 with a hard drive, but aren't bothered about the Elite) have no choice but to buy an Elite at $299, so for them, rather than getting a price cut, they're just getting double the hard drive space even if they don't particularly want/need a 120GB hard drive.

All of my 360 owning friends have consoles with hard drives, but out of maybe 8 or 9 people, only 1 went for the Elite. The rest wanted a 360 with a hard drive and there was an option that was considerably cheaper than a PS3 - £160-£170 for a Pro versus £280-£300 for the 80GB PS3, but now it's £199 for the 360 with the hard drive and £249 for the 120GB PS3. Even though both consoles are cheaper, the difference is only £50 instead of £120-£140 which isn't a good thing for Microsoft.

Well...it's going to be an interesting Xmas season...no more excuses will be able to be made...