Microsoft to drop XB360 price to $350 this week?
- July 12, 2007 22:48 PM PST
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A new report released on Monday in addition to several analysts suggest a cheaper Xbox 360 could be announced as early as this week on the heels of Sony's PS3 price reduction to $499.
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting today that a lower-cost Xbox 360, code-named Falcon, is already in the works. The new design features a smaller, 65-nanometer processor as opposed to the current 90-nanometer machine. The rumored chip will likely be easier to manufacture, thereby costing less, and it emits less heat likely causing fewer system failures.
"We have a bunch of different projects that cost reduce and improve quality as you find issues," said Xbox president Peter Moore when asked about the Falcon chip. "Once you get millions [of consoles] in the field, you learn about the box under all kinds of different circumstances, you can adjust and tweak what you do accordingly."
Analyst Micheal Pachter said on Monday that Microsoft will, in fact, reduce the price of the Xbox 360 tomorrow at the start of the company's E3 press briefing. He believes the $299 Core will drop to $249; the $399 Premium to drop to $349; and the newly released $479 Elite to drop to $399 in response to lower-than-expected sales of all three systems.
In a related story, Microsoft's VP of Xbox Japan Darren Huston told reporters today that the company has no plans to cut the Japanese price of the Xbox 360 given its competitive pricing in the territory.
UPDATE: Microsoft has offered the following statement in light of today's rumors: "We have no announcements to make on pricing at this time. While price matters, content is king. And no other system is offering all the games people want to play this holiday at a better price than Xbox 360. With games like Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Madden NFL 08, Guitar Hero III and Rock Band to name a few, we have the greatest line up in video game history. Also, we are constantly updating internal components on our consoles and therefore will not comment on details of specific components or manufacturing processes."
It's likely Microsoft will do something outside of just announcing new games to boost Xbox 360 sales this week, especially in light of Wii's massive success and PS3's $100 price drop. We'll find out tomorrow for sure...
