Rumor: Catalog Lists $100 Price Cut For 360 Elite, Replacing Pro

[John Funk]

Rumor: Catalog Lists $100 Price Cut For 360 Elite, Replacing Pro

A catalog from retail store Meijer [http://www.meijer.com/home.jsp] may indicate that the Xbox 360 Elite will be receiving a $100 price cut to $299, formally replacing the Xbox 360 Pro.

Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5335673/elite-360-dropping-in-price-rip-pro-model] got their hands on a Meijer catalog, and the image you see here is pretty straightforward: An Xbox 360 Elite at a "new lower price" of $299.99. Incidentally, this is the current price of the "default" Xbox 360, the Xbox 360 Pro.

If true, this would famous Mole [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93662-Xbox-360-Pro-Being-Eliminated-Soon] back in June. The eerily-accurate Mole claimed that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 would be seeing price drops this fall.

Well, we have ample reason to believe that the rumored PS3 price drop is real [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93827-Rumor-Sony-Clearing-Out-UK-PS3-Stock], and will be announced next week alongside the unveiling of the Slim PS3 at Gamescom in Cologne. Announcing their own price drop for the 360 would certainly help take some of the wind out of Sony's sails, no?

The original report says that the price cut will go into effect on August 30th. However, our colleagues at Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/12/rumor-meijers-catalog-lists-100-price-cut-for-xbox-360-elite/] did some digging, and discovered that of "nearly a dozen Meijer's locations," only one employee had heard anything about it, and claimed it would be a temporary week-long sale, not a permanent price drop.

Of course, it seems odd to me to advertise a sale - especially one as short as a week - in what is ostensibly a long-term catalog. As always, though, there's no way to know for sure until next week.

It looks like this Gamescom might be an interesting one.

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[Earthbound]

That seems like a strange idea, but Microsoft will undoubtedly get tons of money for it. Even though the Elite comes with the larger amount of storage, I've never really liked it. I prefer the regular white 360 to the edgy black one, but you can't argue with the extra 100 or so gigabytes.

 

[Proteus214]

Nice, now I can laugh at my friend for rushing out to buy one so quickly.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

A PS3 price drop and now a 360 Elite price drop???

All they need to do now is hand out the Wii for free...

 

[Sparrow]

Hmmm. If Pro's are being discontinued... I wonder if that makes mine a bit of a collectors item now?

 

[walls of cetepedes]

All they need to do now is hand out the Wii for free...

And still nobody will want it.

 

[mattttherman3]

Well, since my xbox will die by christmas, I want it!!!

 

[Monshroud]

Well given the costs to make the Xbox are drastically lower now, this is probably a smart move on their part. Also, having 3 different versions of a console is confusing to the average consumer, so dropping to 2 is a good idea, especially since they are trying to promote the Netflix options and Games on Demand. You need an ample amount of drive space for those features. Also with more and more people have HDMI capable TV's the added HDMI out is better than what the Pro had.

Also looking forward to a PS3 price drop, maybe now I will buy one, or maybe I will still just wait until God of War 3 comes out...

Anyone else thinking Nintendo might drop the Wii to $199 now?

 

[Sevre]

Nice, now I can laugh at my friend for rushing out to buy one so quickly.

Same, my friend bought one 2 days ago.

 

[Sh0ckFyre]

Maybe they could cut the Pro model to $250, and the God-forsaken Arcade model to $179? Why phase out the flagship 60GB model?

Or perhaps give the Arcade model a 20GB hard drive, at least.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Nice to read after being an early adopter of the Elite and throwing down the kind of money that I did..

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Sweet i'd hypothesised at some future point if my elite bricked and was out of warranty i'd have to trade down to an arcade to replace it. the thought of sticking my black hardrive on a white 360 doesn't appeal.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Maybe they could cut the Pro model to $250, and the God-forsaken Arcade model to $179? Why phase out the flagship 60GB model?

Or perhaps give the Arcade model a 20GB hard drive, at least.

I too think they need to cut the price on the arcade model.
If I pick up a 360, it'll be that one; it's the one that gets the rrod the least.

 

[Eruanno]

They should ditch the arcade model instead. Why would anyone NOT want a harddrive?
(And drop the price of the standalone 120 gig harddrive. That price is r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s.)

 

[hansari]

Hmmm. If Pro's are being discontinued... I wonder if that makes mine a bit of a collectors item now?

Well did Palin sign yours?

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Maybe they could cut the Pro model to $250, and the God-forsaken Arcade model to $179? Why phase out the flagship 60GB model?

Or perhaps give the Arcade model a 20GB hard drive, at least.

I too think they need to cut the price on the arcade model.
If I pick up a 360, it'll be that one; it's the one that gets the rrod the least.

The arcades rrod less? i thought it was the elites because of the jasper chipset?

 

[Utarefson]

Maybe they could cut the Pro model to $250, and the God-forsaken Arcade model to $179? Why phase out the flagship 60GB model?

Or perhaps give the Arcade model a 20GB hard drive, at least.

I too think they need to cut the price on the arcade model.
If I pick up a 360, it'll be that one; it's the one that gets the rrod the least.

The arcades rrod less? i thought it was the elites because of the jasper chipset?

I haven't heard of that before, but i guess if it's true, then it's because 'casual' players don't put the 360 into a cupboard where the cooling system doesn't work... (that's the main reason for the rrod)

 

[CyberKnight]

Also with more and more people have HDMI capable TV's the added HDMI out is better than what the Pro had.

Actually, the Pros have had HDMI for nearly a couple years now. If Wikipedia is correct (I can't trust my own memory), a few "Core" models even had HDMI ports at the end of its lifecycle, and by the time it was rebranded the "Arcade", they all had it.

I think the only differences between the Pro and the Elite now are the color, the hard drive size, and the inclusion of an HDMI cable in the box.

The arcades rrod less? i thought it was the elites because of the jasper chipset?

I got an Elite a year ago (replaced a Pro that just gave up, without any error codes). Unfortunately it was still a Falcon, not the newest Jasper; and it gave me an E74 just inside of a year. They may be "Elite", but they're not invincible.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Maybe they could cut the Pro model to $250, and the God-forsaken Arcade model to $179? Why phase out the flagship 60GB model?

Or perhaps give the Arcade model a 20GB hard drive, at least.

I too think they need to cut the price on the arcade model.
If I pick up a 360, it'll be that one; it's the one that gets the rrod the least.

The arcades rrod less? i thought it was the elites because of the jasper chipset?

I haven't heard any definitive results about the Jasper models. I was hoping to hear they work for the long haul at e3 but there wasn't even any mention of them-probably more because it's become a marketing event again than any sort of bad results.

You may be right at this point but for a while, the majority of the rroding machines were Elites and Pros.

What they should've done with the Jasper models is re-design the whole system (360 slim maybe) to distance itself from the notorious hardware failures. A whole re-brand, like what AIG did.

 

[itchytriggerfinger]

Good news for me, my Pro RRoD'd two days ago, and I could use the extra storage to install Fallout 3, which took up 99.9% of my Old Xbox's memory.