PS2, Xbox Prices Slashed to £99 Mark

The UK price of both PlayStation 2 and Xbox was reduced in two inevitable announcements. But which really came first?

While Kikizo staff were occupied at an impressive preview of GTA San Andreas (preview to follow) yesterday, back in email land, two inevitable yet still surprising missives landed in out inboxes.

The first came from Microsoft at 3pm, announcing from the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany that Xbox would be reduced to a recommended £99.99/€149.99 as of next Friday, 27th August.

Half an hour later, Sony announced that PS2 would drop to a recommended £104.99 effective immediately, though some analysts have cited that retailers will most likley just sell the PS2 at £99.99 as well, taking the five pound hit in the interest of retail competitiveness.

But judging by similar happenings in the past, it is not unreasonable to guess that Sony's announcement may have been planned first - and that Microsoft caught wind of it before coming out with a spoiler announcement.

Either way, these price drops have been on the horizon for some time, particularly since SCEA announced the widely-expected US price drop for PS2 to $149.99 in the United States at E3 in May, when Kaz Hirai explained, "We believe that PlayStation 2 has the potential to reach new audiences that we haven't touched with the original PlayStation... It illustrates our commitment to continuing the growth of PlayStation 2."

Sony's David Reeves said, "The time has now come to go well beyond our 24 million PlayStation 2 owners. There are already over 1,000 games titles available, and many more new ones... still to come this year."

While Microsoft's Eduardo Rosini noted, "With this new pricing, even more European gamers, casual and otherwise, will be able to enjoy Xbox this Christmas." He added, "With the strongest Christmas games portfolio of any console, Xbox is now also the best value console on the market."

It will undoubtedly be a huge Christmas for the games business this year - and with, perhaps, more hardware unit sales than in recent years.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com