UK Core 360 Getting Price Cuts

Playful is reporting that retailers are lowering the price on Microsoft's console ... even with Microsoft's bidding:

With no ending in sight to Microsoft's denials of any future Xbox 360 price cut, retailers from the United Kingdom decided to take matters into their own hands and offer their customers what Microsoft wouldn't: cheaper Xbox 360s. Way cheaper! As reported by several websites over the last couple of days, including Gamasutra, some UK retailers have initiated an unexpected, unseasonal, and unofficial series of price cuts for the Xbox 360, as well as for the old PlayStation 2.

In particular, the "Core" package of Microsoft's next-gen console is currently enjoying the most consistent promotions, with price cuts of up to £50 (€75 / $98). So instead of the suggested retail price of £199.99 ($390), the Core Xbox 360 is now being sold for £149.99 ($292) in some places. As a side-effect, this means that Microsoft's console is now actually cheaper than Nintendo's Wii, priced at £179.99 ($351), despite it packing way more computing power.

-- Xbox 360 Now Cheaper Than Wii In UK

Premium packages apparently remain untouched. The article speculates that this might be a push to remove stock before a new 360 model hits. That seems odd, since I assume the black 120GB HDMI
version that is rumored would be more expensive than the premium model - so why push out cheaper stock to make room for it? Or is it really just shelf space that's the problem?

Or have the core units just sold that poorly? For retailers to make this decision without Microsoft's influence means - I think - that they're dumping at a decent loss since I think the margins are pretty tight on this things to begin with.



tagged: game, gaming