The '360 Arcade' Made Official
The Financial Times (via Gamespot) is reporting that (after having already been in stores for about a week), the Xbox 360 Arcade sku is now official. "The $279 Arcade will include a wireless controller and casual games including Pac-Man [Championship Edition], Uno and Luxor 2. Its launch has been widely rumoured but Mr Bach's comments were the first official confirmation. While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi and a Blu-ray drive."
Wow, 10 years ago when I was playing Super Mario Bros. I never thought PAC MAN would be relevant again. I was wrong, DEAD WRONG.
I know it's not likely for the price point, but a joystick being included is what would make that "arcade" for me.
... and a spot for my quarters.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
"While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi, a Blu-ray drive, and a substantial lack of games."
Another challenge for Microsoft is thanks to the high value of the Canadian dollar the 40 GB PS3 will be released in Canada at $399.99, the same price as in the United States (Sony also dropped the price of the 80 GB model here in Canada by an additional $60 above the already $100 price drop to reach parity). With the current price of the 360 Pro package sitting at $399.99 Canadian, the PS3 is finally the value leader between the two systems. With a larger hard drive, included wireless controller battery kit, a Blue-Ray drive and WI-FI functionality built in, the 360 Pro kit -- even with two games -- just doesn't have the value.
As retailers receive new bundles from Microsoft in the ramp up towards Christmas there is no excuse for the $50 price premium to remain in place, especially in light of Sony's move.
Ah, of course. Because the fact that it can play 360 games is irrelevant.
and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!
Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer?