Somebody Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Rumor: Real Xbox 360 Price Cut Coming in September Early September could see the 360's price drop to $199. Analyst Todd Greenwald recently called for a "real" Xbox 360 price cut following the price reduction of the 20GB Xbox 360, which (as it turned out) was simply a means of phasing out that particular SKU. Well, Greenwald may soon get his wish. Ars Technica is reporting that their reliable mole says a fairly significant price drop is coming in early September. Here are the new 360 SKU prices according to Ars Technica: * Arcade (no hard drive) -- $199 (currently $279.99) * Pro (60GB) -- $299 (currently $349.99) * Elite (120GB) -- $399 (currently $449.99) That would only be a $50 slash for the Pro and Elite SKUs, but getting the Xbox 360 Arcade under the Wii's price and at the $199 sweet spot for the holidays would be huge. Combine that price with a marketing campaign about the "new Xbox experience" and the difficulty in finding a Wii, and Microsoft could have a good formula for posting some big sales numbers in the last quarter of 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Karnage Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Wonder what bundle MS India will come up with this time. Since they've sworn to never to cut the price they might be including 7-8 games with the old Pro consoles this Diwali (till stocks last, of course this is the same stock from last year). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somebody Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Xbox 360 to Cut Arcade Prices to $199.99 on Sept. 7th Thanks to an amazing VGChartz member, we have strong reason to believe the Ars Technica price drop rumor is indeed true, with a photo to prove it. For reference, I cannot be credited with the picture, but nevertheless, I feel it's too important to just let go, as it's an amazing story to break - On VGC first! This picture is confirmation of the earlier Ars Technica article from an informant stating that the Xbox 360 would drop it's price in September to $199.99 for the Core, $299.99 for the 60GB model, and $399.99 for the 120GB Elite model. This picture shows nearly irrefutable proof that those rumors are substantiated, and are set to happen in just over a month. Calculating the Impact of the $199.99 Price Point Microsoft has been no stranger to the $199.99 price point. In interviews, high brass officials from Microsoft have stated they are 'very aware' that the $199.99 is the sweet spot for console sales. Earlier this year, a weakening Xbox 360 had it's price re-vamped to the 199 Euro price point in February. According to VGChartz.com tracking information, this price drop has allowed the Xbox 360 to gain traction, and sell 100% more units in the February-July timeframe - From an estimated 750,00 to 1,750,000 units in the 6 month timeframe. Could a similar boost happen in the United States? It is entirely possible: Such a price point will leave the Xbox 360 as the lowest priced Next-Gen console on the market ($50 below the Wii's $249.99 price point), and digging ever-closer to the Playstation 2's pricepoint of $129.99 Not only is the impact of the $199.99 going to of large importance, the scheduling of the drop is telling as well. It takes place 1 week after Square Enix's 'Infinite Undiscovery' and 2 weeks before Harmonix/EA's 'Rock Band 2' - Both exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform at the time of release and pricedrop (obviously, Rock Band 2 will ship in November for the other platforms). Could Microsoft be making a true power-play for the Holidays? I think so. At a $199.99 price point, and Microsoft's continued dedication to steal away both Sony's hardcore user base through gobbling up former exclusives such as Tales of Vesperia, and Star Ocean , and attempting to woo casual gamers away from Nintendo with such offerings as Your In the Movies and Lips , it would seem that the price drop could act as a suitable catalyst for higher sales. Can Microsoft Still Profit from Such a Bold Move? Dropping the price $80 on Arcades (and price drops on the Pro and Elite models), one has to ask, can Microsoft be profitable while reducing their price by over 20% on the base model, and roghly 15% on the Premium/Pro and Elite? Lets take a look at past statements regarding the history of the cost to build an Xbox 360: 1) At launch, the Xbox 360 costs approximately $525 in parts to make a unit - Roughly 24% over the price of a standard $399.99 USD Premium model. 2) By November 2006, that price, according to iSuppli had decreased by nearly 40% - From Approximately $525 per unit to $323.90 per unit for the Premium model, and under $280.00 for the HDD-Less Core model (which is now the Arcade). 3) Since then, Microsoft has made 2 major revisions to the Xbox 360, the 2nd heatsink , and the cost-cutting 65nm archatcture of the Falcon revision. According to DailyTech, the Falcon revision cut CPU manufacturing costs by 50%. 4) And most recently, the Jasper chipset, with the 65nm GPU archatecture began it's production run in early May. TG Daily reports later in the article that they expect the Jasper chipsets to launch this month (which interestingly enough, coencides with the 60GB model and the price drop, exactly like last year's price reduction). Because of the steps Microsoft has taken to reduce cost on the production of the console, and maintain profitability, it is very likely that the Xbox 360 has seen major reductions in the cost to manufacture a Xbox 360 since the $280.30/$323.90 prices were used more than 18 months ago. Using Moore's Law , it is believable that the Xbox 360 has reduced it's price a further 35-50% from the November 2006 pricepoint, and could be manufactured for (after the Jasper reivsion) $140.15 to $182.19 before other cost considerations (such as cost of delivery) are applied. This would fit in perfectly with Microsoft's goal to be profitable with the Xbox 360, as costs should be lower, or just at, the price of sale to distributors and retailers. Furthermore, it would also be in line with what Sony has done, reducing the price of the Playstaion 3 from over $700 to $400 since November 2006. Stay tuned for more updates! Lets see how accurate this photo is. Obviously, if this does come to pass on September the 7th you have VGC to thank for the exclusive industry-altering news Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRMNTR Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 ^ Interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lastAvenger Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 see the key question is, are we having any price cuts in India ? I would pick a Premium X360 right now if they said that its gonna cost 12-15k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tesla Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 The point is clearing the xbox 360 inventory already lying around here. Also with the 360 supporting game installs it makes sense in buying the 60GB premium or the 120GB elite. So far for India, Microsoft's pricing structure has been 15k for the core, 24k for the premium, 28k for the halo edition,30k plus for the elite. Recently they increased the core price to 20k, premium console price to 24k. So when festival season arrives they will drop prices to original levels of 15k and 19k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Karnage Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 The price drop was actually just a bundle IIRC. Those were the effective prices if you subtracted the bundled games cost. AFAIK they've never reduced the price in India hence my cynical post above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somebody Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Inside a 60 gig Xbox 360 Hacker extraordinaire Ben Heck got hold of one and busted it open like a naughty coconut to find out. Well of course I couldn’t resist grabbing one of these, and since I need parts anyway for an upcoming contest, why not? “60 GIGA PRO-GEAR SPEC” would be a lot catchier. The big question of course is whether or not this unit has the new 65nm GPU… check out the photos below to see! The box. They stuck on a sticker, but the box print has 60 on it as well. I would have put an exclamation point after “hard drive!” but that’s just me… FYI this unit was built on 6-20-08 and is lot # 825. There it is. Now your Xbox can have the same size hard drive as a 4 year old laptop. Personally I don’t see why the Xbox & Ps3 are so hung up on hard drive space, you either have one, or you don’t (ahem Wii) I never even filled up my old 20 gig’er, personally… Looks normals so far. Current 65nm CPU & heatsink… same old “super” GPU heatsink. I bet a lot of the cost reduction on the 360 was getting rid of the old heatpipe/copper CPU… copper is pretty costly these days! A close-up of the DVD drive specs, for those who care. Ah, I have found a difference! This is the first Xbox 360 I have seen that does not have the bottom-mounted memory chips. I had heard on the interwebs these have been a heat problem in the past (or moreso that people fixed problems by improving their heat sink to the case) so I’m sure this will help performance as well as aid cost reduction. And here’s the GPU… and it’s the same. Can’t say I’m surprized… the first Elites didn’t even have the improved GPU heatsink, and the 65nm CPU’s didn’t roll out (or rather because easily obtainable) until about 4 months after they were of supposed to have appeared. The power supply is the real kicker for new Xbox 360 owners to check. The old model was 206 watt… the new ones with a 65nm CPU are 175 watt (as shown)… and likely any model with a 65nm GPU will be around 140-150 watts. Keep an eye out, and spread the word as the Xbox 360 gets better and better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtheK Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 why 60GB why not 200 GB for the price they charge there accessories for --read 5000 odd for a 20GB hard drive they better give consumer more space... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtheK Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 lol this is M$. MOAR MONEYZ! MOAR Headache.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devd Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 ...for people getting modded 360s lol. Mo' money, less problems (unlike that Diddy/Mace song ). hahha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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