European fanboys rejoice! The
rumors have come to fruition and the whole gamut of Xbox 360s is getting a price cut in Europe. Yes, wallets will be fatter and gamers will be happier, and maybe, just maybe,
projections of PS3 dominance will falter. Without further ado, the price cuts -- which will go into effect this Friday -- per
Major Nelson:
- Xbox 360 Arcade – was €269.99 / £199.99 ($414) now €199.99 / £159.99 ($307)
- Xbox 360 Pro - was: €349.99 / £249.99 ($536) now: €269.99 / £199.99 ($414)
- Xbox 360 Elite - was: €449.99 / £299.99 ($691) now: €369.99 / £259.99 ($566)
So, it's
almost a complete shift for every version of the Xbox 360, with the Pro costing what the Arcade used to cost and the Elite sitting only €20 / £10 higher than the old Pro cost. All it all, it's a pretty hefty cut (at least to these American eyes). What say you, Euro-fanboys? Is this price cut enough to energize 360 sales?
[Via
Joystiq. Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
{ Mar 10th 2008 at 12:35PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason Karl Morrison @ Mar 10th 2008 12:55PM
Blatent.
CalabreZ @ Mar 10th 2008 12:59PM
Typo Richard, "All it all, it's a pretty hefty cut..." I'm pretty sure you meant to say, "All in all"
CalabreZ @ Mar 10th 2008 12:59PM
Typo Richard, "All it all, it's a pretty hefty cut..." I'm pretty sure you meant to say, "All in all"
Michael Paul @ Mar 10th 2008 1:04PM
Wait. "PS3 dominance" based on units sold is inevitable. They'll be bought as Blu-Ray players but be counted as game machines, and vice versa. The fanboydom will be impossible to deal with.
Microsoft needs to get going on their next model, and not skip the HD or else...
OBM @ Mar 10th 2008 1:15PM
So this is confirmed for UK also? If so, I think I'll be getting myself a nice little arcade, just for the sake of it lol
L @ Mar 10th 2008 1:18PM
Bout time ^__^ i think its well good now it falls in line with the Wii and is far lower than the PS3
L @ Mar 10th 2008 1:22PM
yes its the UK as well ..... like emmm why would they tell us the price in Pounds lol
Maat @ Mar 10th 2008 1:19PM
It's definitively a good thing BUT MS needs to do something about xbox live in Europe. I mean:
- we pay 60€ / year ( read 90$)
- we get screwed for almost every giveaway with a nice "this program is not offered in your region"
- we have access to only half of the demo / themes / gamerpics
- the video market is just a joke (at least in france)
- and we sometimes hear thing like "ooops sorry we didn't thought there was any COD4 players outside US... yeah the patch sucks ... our bar ..."
come on ....
Trekster_Gamer @ Mar 10th 2008 1:23PM
XBOX Live is expensive, I think it should be half of what it is is no matter where you live.
webster1990 @ Mar 10th 2008 1:45PM
gutted. i bought my arcade console for downstairs and for system link last month
Digitalspirit @ Mar 10th 2008 1:51PM
Well it finally happened, my Xbox bricked last night playing CoD4. GPU failure leading to RRoD. I sort of thought about buying another unit whilst I wait for the repair, but am now considering a PS3 as a stop gap. I really though I got away with a decent build of 360 but how wrong I was. 1 year 4 months and it's dead. It's a sad day, even with the price cuts, the reliability issue I have now experienced scares me from buying another 360. I hope they've done something substantial to counter these faults now. I guess my repair will take ages as well. :(
Raheem @ Mar 10th 2008 2:00PM
Maat I appreciate your comments but please don't speak for all of Europe. Here in the UK I find we actually get a lot of demos earlier if not exclusively, over North America. Granted we do pay £40 ($80) a year for Live access, however someone I know recently purchased an American code from ebay for $40 (12+1 months) and has been using it fine. Remember to factor in tax and currency rates. The Video Marketplace is getting going over here and I'm looking forward to TV shows, I believe BT have something to do with this IPTV thing?
Robzy @ Mar 10th 2008 2:10PM
@Raheem
Dono where you live mate but where I stay (in the UK) we do NOT get more demos than the americans, and we certainly don't get them before them. Video Marketplace is a joke. 50 titles after 4 months is pretty lame when you consider the speed the american video marketplace gets updated.
And as for TV shows on Live. Keep looking forward to them because MS have made no announcement to bring any to the UK so far.
I agree with EVERYTHING Maat said. If we get half the service we should pay half the price.
Chris @ Mar 10th 2008 2:18PM
We (UK) got turok before US. (noy a good example though.
sirdanrhodes @ Mar 10th 2008 2:21PM
I don't care, wait, yes i do, the wii will fall now, and the ps3 will the only competition. I bought my 360 at launch, but my mate bought his last week, and he is going insane in anger. I just have to wait for my (second) 360 to get back from repairs.
Skyfire360 @ Mar 10th 2008 2:29PM
I was wondering what the hell the article's editors were thinking. Most of the article was complete gibberish and generally terrible English, even for a blog.
Then I realized it was translated through Google. Whoops.
SadisticHam @ Mar 10th 2008 2:44PM
See maats comments, living in the UK myself and it isn't good enough.
The UK is the best looked after country in Europe by MS and most of us feel ripped off and let down a lot of the time, the rest of Europe is worse off.
Price drops will only boost sales short term, stop favoring Americans in every single flipping situation and look after your other customers if you want to start picking up momentum. And for christ sake drop the price on Live.
OH AND LET ME USE MY DEBIT CARD TO BUY MS POINTS AND THINGS, I DO NOT AND WILL NOT EVER OWN A CREDIT CARD. My god i feel so ripped off, the lowest amount of MS points i can get from shops is what 1200? So if i want to buy a 400 arcade game i either have to go out and get myself a credit card or pay £17+ because they refuse to do any lower.
I love my 360, i use it daily, a lot and I'd not have another console because this one has the games i want but the service is by no means good.
Raheem @ Mar 10th 2008 3:12PM
Sadistic Ham, what's the problem with Debit Cards? Mine works fine. If you're talking about Electron or something similar, that's a different thing. I'm not sure if they're supported. Debit cards are perfectly fine.
Robzy, we do get some demos before the US and most of the time the only reason a demo is later is because the release date is later, hence same service. To be perfectly honest, with the Video Marketplace, I don't think the speed of the downloads means it'll take off here yet anyway, hence the 'small' number of films - they're probably just gauging the market reaction. Based on your comments (and if other people feel the same way), they'll increase it. We HAVE heard about the IPTV (see: http://www.iptv-watch.co.uk/07012008-bt-vision-and-microsoft-partner-for-xbox-iptv.html) -
I'm not sure what the gripe is, play some games already!
SadisticHam @ Mar 10th 2008 3:21PM
Last i checked Debit was not accepted. I have a Solo Debit Card and at last try they would not accept it.
Either way, if it's been changed now or not it hardly matters they asked us for our opinions, you can't expect everyone to love it like you do. :P
toufas @ Mar 10th 2008 3:52PM
and i bought a new one last friday :/
i am out of 40 quid now! :(
got the arcade + dmc4 for free for £200
Mr Zero @ Mar 11th 2008 3:15AM
Wow! I'm impressed! Now I can convince Friends of mine to finally get a 360! £160 for Arcade? Nice. That's 20 quid cheaper then the Wii, but 40 quid more than a PSP..
M. Dizzy @ Mar 11th 2008 3:26PM
What's Ironic...is that after the price break Europe is now paying 14 dollars more than the amount we originally paid for the 360 Pro edition (I bought mine for 400).
I guess that's why there was a shortage in the states when it first came out...they wanted to sell more units overseas where the cost to sell was mitigated by the higher exchange rates.
Cueil @ Mar 13th 2008 1:53AM
I use my debit card in the US all the time... I never us a credit card... but seriously guys your government and their VAT is crazy we would riot if they tried that crap here