No Price Drop Coming for the Xbox 360

Sales are good, so why change that.

Sony and Nintendo may have been lapping up most of the media attention at E3 last week's, but it was Microsoft that came out on top in many people's minds. The company is clearly pleased with its progress so far and says it's on track to sell 10 million Xbox 360s by the time the PlayStation 3 launches in November. And the company is so confident that it has revealed there will be no price cut in the console's immediate future.

"We have no plans to make any price adjustment," Microsoft's Chris Lewis told trade paper MCV. "The last couple of days have reinforced the fact that we have a great value proposition, giving consumers choice, thanks to the core system."

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Lewis is referring there to Sony's bombshell that it'll be selling two variants of the PlayStation 3 - one for $600 and another at $500 that loses some key technology, including top-end TV connectors and consumer memory cards. The high price for both is largely down to the inclusion of Sony's new Blu-ray next-generation DVD drive.

"We're not forcing the consumer down a route with [high-definition] playback. We certainly don't think it's necessary to make any changes to the current price point."

Recent reports have also suggested that Microsoft's own add-on HD-DVD drive will come in cheap enough to make the combo still cost less than the PlayStation 3.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games