Microsoft Announces Significant Price Cuts in Canada

[Andy Chalk]

Microsoft Announces Significant Price Cuts in Canada

Following recently-announced cuts in the U.S., Canada [http://www.microsoft.com].

The Xbox 360 Core System will now be priced at $299.99 CDN, while the Xbox 360 Premium package has been dropped to $399.99 CDN, a reduction of $100 and $50 CDN respectively. At the high end, the Elite will also drop $50 to come in at $499.99 CDN, and a new Halo 3 Special Edition [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360halo3console/default.htm] version of the console will be priced at $449.99 CDN. "The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of the Xbox 360," said Microsoft's Mitch Koch.

Confirmation of the Xbox 360 price cuts come in the wake of PlayStation 3 [http://www.sony.com], which led to an upswing in the console's sales. It is believed that Microsoft is relying on the price cut, as well as strong lineup of releases for the holiday season, to counter Sony's recent moves.

In the past, a low-valued Canadian dollar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_dollar]has meant higher prices for identical products than in the U.S., encouraging cross-border shopping despite potential warranty difficulties and other issues. A recent surge has brought it close to par with American currency, however, making price cuts more feasible for retailers and bringing pricing in line with that of the U.S.


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[Arbre]

Woah, I was eager to grab a black Elite, but that camo-paint for the Halo 3 edition looks absolutely neat as well.
But weird. It seems to have all the features of the Elite, but with a HDD of only 20 Gb?

I bet it shouldb't be too hard to replace it with any random HDD anyway.

 

[Geoffrey42]

By "it shouldn't be too hard to replace it with any random HDD anyway", I take it you mean "It'll probably be nearly impossible to replace with any random HDD, thus sticking me with 20 gigs and only 20 gigs unless I feel like paying out the *** to get 120 gigs"?

I have not been following the mod scene that closely, but my understanding early on (when it first launched, and people theorized "oh we'll just hack a bigger one in there") was that you couldn't do much. Especially since the original firmware wouldn't even recognize more than 20 gigs. Last I heard, if you buy the exact same drive that comes in the 120gb model, and use a 20 gig housing/connections, you can rig up the 120? (I tried to find linkage on this, but failed. Which, given me google-fu, means to me that there's not a whole lot you CAN do.)

You can also throw on some USB 2.0 storage, but that's only for your personal files, not the DLC or the other system specific files.

BTW, I'm not hatin'. My plan is to get an Elite as soon as the 65nm hits and its essentially confirmed that they didn't ADD problems. I much prefer Sony's model of "put whatever the hell hard drive you want in there, just buy our content!", but what can I do? I want what the 360 has to offer more... oh singstar, how I will miss not getting to play with your DLC...

One other thought: From the pictures, I think the Halo Edition hard drive comes with the tinted orange/metallic sides, like the tray cover. If you throw your bigger 120 on there, you'll screw with the chi.