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Microsoft finally confirms 360 cuts

by on28 August 2009


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Press release tells us what we already know


Microsoft issued a press release a day earlier that we expected confirming the Xbox 360 price cuts that we have been telling you about all along. No real news in the release beyond the cuts and the suggestion that the Xbox 360 will make a fine holiday gift.

As we had already told you in our previous stories, the Xbox 360 Pro will be discontinued. The Pro will be slashed to $249 while supplies last. Filling the Pro slot will be the Xbox 360 Elite, which will move to the $299 price point going forward. Of course, the Xbox 360 Arcade model will stay at $199 going forward. Cuts are confirmed as starting effective August 28th, 2009. Similar price cuts will be made in markets outside of North America, as well.

The only two real items of note in the Microsoft press release regarding the cuts is that they are officially announcing that we will see a dashboard update coming this fall which will add Twitter, Facebook, and Last FM support. In addition, a heavy emphasis was placed on the fact that the Xbox 360 that you buy today will be compatible with Project Natal when it is released.

Our sources tell us that Microsoft will revamp the console lineup, adding a third model when Natal is released, by offering the third model option to include Natal as part of the package. Our sources also tell us not to expect another price cut to the hardware for the holiday season, but a holiday title bundle is expected for the Arcade and Elite for the holiday season. Still no word on what the titles might be that are included.

In discussions with several dealers today, we were told that the price has been dropped on both existing Elite consoles in inventory that have the GOTY title bundle, as well as the Resident Evil 5 Special Edition consoles. The RE5 SE console will be hard to find, however, as numbers of these still floating around are VERY limited and are sure to be snapped up quickly. As for the Elite with the GOTY title bundle, there are still a good number of these at non-high volume dealers who don’t sell a lot of consoles, but supplies are expected to be exhausted in the next couple of days in North America.

A reliable source tells us that we can expect Microsoft to quietly release a larger add-on hard drive for the Xbox 360, but no exact date has been selected for release. From what we hear, Microsoft is also already telling retailers that the 60GB add-on hard drive model is discontinued once inventory is depleted.

Last modified on 28 August 2009
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