Microsoft to slash price of Xbox 360
Microsoft said on Wednesday it plans to cut the U.S. prices of its Xbox 360 video game machine, lowering the price of its entry-level console to $50 below Nintendo's top-selling Wii.
The move makes the Xbox 360 the first game machine of this generation of consoles to sell for less than $200, a key mass-market price that Microsoft said historically has accounted for more than 75 percent of all machine sales.
The lower prices ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season--a period of time when the video game industry racks up most of its sales--puts pressure on rivals Nintendo and Sony to cut the prices of their machines.
The company said it will cut prices for its entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, to $199 from its current price of $279 and it also will lower the prices of its mid-range and high-end Xbox 360 consoles by $50 each.
Microsoft said it will cut the price of its Xbox 360 Pro, its best-selling version which comes with a 60-gigabyte hard drive, to $299 from $349 and reduce the price of its top-end Xbox 360 Elite with a 120-gigabyte hard drive to $399 from $449.
The new prices will go into effect on September 5.
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