The undeniable rumor, as expected, has come to be true and Microsoft’s Major Nelson has revealed September 5th as the day the Xbox 360 shall drop in price. Although not surprising, this is really the first good price drop for the 360 hardware which does not involve phasing out an old product line.
The price breakdown is as follows:
- Xbox 360 Arcade $199
- Xbox 360 $299
- Xbox 360 Elite $399
This is a US price cut, Japan had their price cut last week. We’re not sure about how the rest of the 360 regions will shake out, but they’ll probably end up with a price line much like the one above.
Anyone surprised? Anyone going to run out and buy a 360?
(Thanks, Gamestooge)
Reportedly we’re going to see smaller 45 nanometer cell processors in 2009 which leads to similar cost savings as we saw in the Xbox 360 hardware. Cost savings appear on the manufacturing side, of course, along with less power consumed by the processor leading to less heat generated by the console.
I have an extra 20 GB HD, so I might buy a second 360 for use as a DVD player (since the new Arcade machines come with the HDMI port.)