Xbox price cuts; Xbox price hike; Freebies you pay for; Halo art

Posted by admin on August 27th, 2009 at 08:29pm

While we’re all waiting for the eventual arrival of Halo 3: ODST, the rumors about Xbox 360 console price cuts have proved correct – well, mostly. On Friday, the price of the Xbox 360 Elite and Pro will both be cut, to $299 and $249 respectively. The UK will also see a price cut of £30 for the Elite – but a hike in the cost of the Arcade, which goes up by £20 due to “exchange rates” according to Microsoft, though they don’t explain how one version can go up while another goes down at the same time. The Pro version is to be phased out in the UK. [Source]

Whether they intended it or not, MS are showing themselves up as grasping yet again, which won’t surprise anybody, I guess. This greed is already obvious by comparing Xbox Live, which you have to pay for with the similar offering from Sony for the Playstation, which is free. MS’re adding a couple of new services, both of which cost absolutely nothing if you access them from a PC – but you will have pay to be a Gold user if you want to access them on the Xbox. Twitter and Facebook will be accessible to Gold users (only) after the fall update. [Source]

Market analysts say that, at $299, the Elite is not cheap enough to compete with the superior PS3, especially if you factor in the free online services. This means that sales of the console are not likely to be affected by the reduction, they say. I’m not sure I agree with this, $50 is $50 after all. And there are plenty of people who will go for the Xbox just because of Halo 3, still outselling many new titles after all this time, plus ODST due “any day now”. [Source]

While you’re waiting, some great Halo figures made out of clay can be seen on the Walyou blog.

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