Xbox 360 Price Cut?

ProggleRock

ProggleRock

CAGiversary!
I remember hearing about a price cut a while ago for the 360, but haven't heard (or seen) anything since. I just pulled up one such article, and it said the cut was supposed to be revealed at E3, which it obviously wasn't. So is this totally debunked now? They seemed pretty certain about the rumor at the time.
 
I haven't heard anything about it either. Gamestop has a pretty good one for $99.99, but it is refurbished. Might be better off getting a more expensive one, but for those that just want to play and don't need tons of memory, I think this one is good.

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/consoles/xbox-360-pro-20gb-microsoft-refurbished/75847

  • Xbox 360 Console - White
  • 20GB Hard Drive
  • 1 Wireless Controller - White
  • Ethernet Cable
  • HD Component Cables
  • AC Cable
  • AV Cable Component
  • Headset
  • 90 Day Manufacturer's Warranty
 
there were some massive gift card offers from almost every retailer with $50/$100 in gift cards for buying any system(amazon and BB did the $100 iirc) that led us to believe a price drop was coming.
 
The gift card offers can be misleading. They can look like a lead-in to a price drop but often are just the opposite. For the platform companies providing cash or product incentives to retailers to do this, they're an anti-price drop.

This is both literal and psychological. Psychological because the consumer knows on one level he sort of got the machine for that much less but still had to put the full $299 plus tax, for example, on his credit card. An actual price drop cannot be undone without blowback from the market but gift card offers can come and go with few repercussions. From one perspective they're just bundles with the additional items not specified in advance.

The largest portion of buyers can also be counted on to make purchases with the gift card that are favorable to the retailer. If it were me buying an Xbox at Best Buy recently and a $50 gift card was part of the deal, assuming I didn't already have any games (it may sound weird but I had several dozen Xbox 360 games before I owned the hardware; the prices were very good and I had access to other people's consoles on occasion) I'd get a couple of AAA $20 games from the Platinum Hits line and the $10 XBLA Triple pack with Trials HD, Splosion Man, and Limbo. (It's a lot harder to do this if you already have an extensive library, [unless the system is a gift for someone else] the recent B2G1F at Best Buy ended up having nothing for me)

Five really good games as part of the purchase price of my new console. But most shoppers don't go that route. They'll more often than not choose a single recent and still full priced item. These carry a much higher margin than the evergreen and markdown items, making the cost of giving away the gift card less of a hit.

A big part of the calculation is that most shoppers are not CAGs.
 
The gift card offers can be misleading. They can look like a lead-in to a price drop but often are just the opposite. For the platform companies providing cash or product incentives to retailers to do this, they're an anti-price drop. It's what you do to stimulate sales without the permanence of a price drop.

This is both literal and psychological. Psychological because the consumer knows on one level he sort of got the machine for that much less but still had to put the full $299 plus tax, for example, on his credit card. An actual price drop cannot be undone without blowback from the market but gift card offers can come and go with few repercussions. From one perspective they're just bundles with the additional items not specified in advance.

The largest portion of buyers can also be counted on to make purchases with the gift card that are favorable to the retailer. If it were me buying an Xbox at Best Buy recently and a $50 gift card was part of the deal, assuming I didn't already have any games (it may sound weird but I had several dozen Xbox 360 games before I owned the hardware; the prices were very good and I had access to other people's consoles on occasion) I'd get a couple of AAA $20 games from the Platinum Hits line and the $10 XBLA Triple pack with Trials HD, Splosion Man, and Limbo. (It's a lot harder to do this if you already have an extensive library, [unless the system is a gift for someone else] the recent B2G1F at Best Buy ended up having nothing for me)

Five really good games as part of the purchase price of my new console. But most shoppers don't go that route. They'll more often than not choose a single recent and still full priced item. These carry a much higher margin than the evergreen and markdown items, making the cost of giving away the gift card less of a hit.

A big part of the calculation is that most shoppers are not CAGs.
 
I think what epobiris is trying to say is that we won't know about a price drop until it happens, unfortunately. From what I have seen in the past we will know a week or two early from ad leaks.
 
Yeah, there were rumors of a price drop, but aside from the gift cards/credit offers, no good reason for them. The 360 has outpaced all other consoles in the US for a long time, and continues to do so.

So...price drop? My guess is one around the holidays, or, if MS follows precedent, a new bundle at the very least. With the 3DS price drop and the Vita coming on the scene, PS3 likely getting a price drop soon (sales for the last three months were actually 0.2 million LESS than the same three months last year), and the Wii's decline probably leading to huge discounts, especially to make way for the Wii U, it makes sense for MS to follow suit to keep market lead. But, as before E3, there's no reason to drop price now.
 
[quote name='Kylearan']Yeah, there were rumors of a price drop, but aside from the gift cards/credit offers, no good reason for them. The 360 has outpaced all other consoles in the US for a long time, and continues to do so.

So...price drop? My guess is one around the holidays, or, if MS follows precedent, a new bundle at the very least. With the 3DS price drop and the Vita coming on the scene, PS3 likely getting a price drop soon (sales for the last three months were actually 0.2 million LESS than the same three months last year), and the Wii's decline probably leading to huge discounts, especially to make way for the Wii U, it makes sense for MS to follow suit to keep market lead. But, as before E3, there's no reason to drop price now.[/QUOTE]

well, keep in mind the current ps3 is not called a slim, there was an article stating that microsoft encouraged retailers to not advertise it as a slim and that a final slimmer version(not sure how its gonna be slimmer) may be coming near the end of the cycle like the ps2.

fwiw, MS always releases holiday bundles, but their contents are usually hit or misses(kung fu panda was a disappointment). we'd see either a price drop or an aggressive bundle offer with good games
 
seeing the Wii is priced at $149.96 at Walmart right now, I wouldnt be surprised to see the Xbox360 to match that pretty soon. I doubt it would have a HDD but I dont think it would really matter. just my 2cents
 
[quote name='MrKing']seeing the Wii is priced at $149.96 at Walmart right now, I wouldnt be surprised to see the Xbox360 to match that pretty soon. I doubt it would have a HDD but I dont think it would really matter. just my 2cents[/QUOTE]

soon? no. near the end of the cycle(3-5 years from now) before the next gen release? maybe. i believe both sony and microsoft are selling at losses on console prices now, sony moreso than microsoft iirc. i dont think we'll see either console below $200 this gen, but the upgrades(4gb hard drive to a 60/120gb minimum maybe may increase to help
 
What type of 360 deals do you think we will see around BF? I plan to wait until then to buy the system (or at least november) but I know I definitely want to buy the system over the holidays. I want to buy the 250GB one without kinect that costs $299. I assume there will be at least a pack in game (there has been practically every year) and a retailer gift card, at the very least a pack in game and a $25 retailer gift card.
 
If anything, we'll probably see a sell-off of the 250GB model as 320s make their way down - though honestly, I can't for the frell of me figure out what value these bigger HDs have on the 360. They're not 'out of the box' media players like the PS3, to which you can transfer all sorts of video files, so there's very little value in 250 vs. 320GB HDs.

Be interested to see a true "Slim" 360 model come down the line, but MS discouraging retailers from calling the 360S a "Slim" model could've been more to avoid any similarity to the PS3 branding than to keep room for a true Slim.

Aside from some well-priced Kinect bundles, I don't see a huge market push by MS this year. A Holiday Kinect Bundle with Kinect Sports - Season 2, perhaps?
 
[quote name='MrKing']Ahem.


http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/25/rumor-walmart-dropping-xbox-360-4gb-kinect-bundle-to-249-on-au/[/QUOTE]

This. It is not very likely that Walmart would adjust the price to take a $50 loss (hardware has no margin) on an item that still sells well. I would take this as a pretty good indication of a price drop in the near future.

Although, as stated above, it cannot be guaranteed I would wait a few weeks and then check...

EDIT: In the main thread cheapy just stated that a reliable source said it was a pricing mistake in the add that Walmart will honor for the week. Might be worth it to GET ON IT!
 
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