Retail Ads Hint At $50 360 Price Cut

Following closely on the heels of Sony's $100 cut in price for the PlayStation 3, retail ads seem to indicate an upcoming $50 price drop for the Xbox 360. Gamespot investigates the rumour: "It's clear that a number of retailers are expecting an Xbox 360 price cut next week, so much so that they're willing to buy print advertising for it. If that's the case, Microsoft almost certainly told them to expect a price cut, and when it would be fine to start promoting it. When Microsoft actually decides to announce it remains to be seen, although sources close to the software giant are grousing through back channels that the discounting's cover has already been blown." This comes right on time for the annual release of Madden, Bioshock, and Blue Dragon.

Comments

How about you fix the problems instead?

[Dr Kool, PhD]

I'd pay $50 more if it meant I didn't have to send my console back for repair every four months. The RRoD rate for 360s is ridiculous.

Re:How about you fix the problems instead?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd pay $50 more if it meant I didn't have to send my console back for repair every four months. The RRoD rate for 360s is ridiculous.

They've had eyes on a subscription model for software for some time, perhaps this is their entry into doing it for hardware

Re:How about you fix the problems instead?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the 360 is a piece of garbage. Any piece of hardware with at 35 percent failure rate is a piece of garbage. Any piece of hardware that the manufacturer has to spend over a billion dollars on repairs is a piece of garbage.

The console market is not the special olympics where 'everyone is a winner'. The 360 is the worst console ever created in the history of the console market.

No company will ever have the same combination of utter incompetence and almost unlimited resourced to create such a piece of shit as the 360 ever again. Thankfully.

Re:How about you fix the problems instead?

[Kazzahdrane]

35% failure rate is total bull. Where that number originally came from I have no idea but I've seen it thrown around online over the last couple of months. If I had to guess, I'd say it's closer to 7 or 8% (still dreadful for a consumer electronics product). I suggest you do some research into the history of the console market, you clearly don't remember anything before the Xbox. Not on the same scale but the early PS2s were pretty rickety, my flatmate had 5 in the first 2 years of the console. Dodgy disc lasers were the main offender. And I shouldn't have to mention the many, many disasters that companies tried to pass off as consoles. Lynx ring a bell? N-Gage? Virtual Boy? 32X? The.....Gizmondo? I play my 360 most days and have great fun online with my many friends who also have one. You don't think highly of Microsoft's build quality, that's fine - I've seen enough faulty units to know they made a big mistake with whatever it is inside the unit that causes so many problems. Out of the 3 current gen consoles I still think it provides the best gaming experience, even factoring in the possibility that your console might break down and you'll be console-less for a short time while you wait for a replacement (unless you live in Europe and can just return it to the store for a replacement there and then). You probably don't agree with my logic, that's fine too. As long as you're playing games we have something in common.

Re:ps3 did not have a $100 price drop

[ivan256]

Nobody with more than half a brain thinks the price of the PS3 is going to go back up to $599. Pretty much everybody accepts that they will start selling it for $499 but without the freebies after the 60GB models are sold out. (Which is almost everywhere now, though I personally have yet to see an 80GB model for sale in the US)

Re:Coincidentally..

[Applekid]

$50 represents a 2nd game for you. Return that console and pick up a reduced one in a week: they don't announce price drops until very close to when it happens. Unless your time in waiting in line to return it is worth more than $50, of course.