Microsoft drops price on Xbox 360 line -- we're stunned
By Ryan Block 
posted Aug 7th 2007 12:19AM
posted Aug 7th 2007 12:19AM
Ohhh big surprise, Microsoft just announced a price drop on the 360 lineup. Retailers will knock $50 off the Premium systems (bringing it to $350), $30 off the Elite (down to $450), and $20 off the Core (bringing it to $280). Expect it to take effect this Wednesday, the 8th. Buy, buy, buy, people. Oh, let's briefly review how many of Microsoft's retail partners had a difficult time keeping Redmond's big secret.Read - GameStop can't hold it in
Read - Circuit City, loose lips sink console price drops
Read - Best Buy thinks the Core system won't be around much longer
Read - Toys R Us won't keep a secret
Read - Wal-Mart's a blabbermouth
Read - The Hollywood Reporter even heard about this thing
Read - Oh, here's the official release
Are all the Xbox 360s still defective, or is it just most of them now?
if Microsoft decides to come out with a 'RRoD'-free xbox, wouldn't you expect them to advertise it greatly? ;)
I don't know anyone that has bought one recently that has had any problems. I would venture to say the overheating issue was with the earlier products. Reading your post it kinda seems like you're a 360 thread troll that doesn't really want to hear a reply, but I thought I would give you one anyway.
Nobody caught this?
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070801/137224/
As of May this year, repaired Xbox's were not coming with the new heatsinks. Whether new machines are or no is also not clear. Until we get some confirmation of properly designed units with heat management in mind, buying a 360 is like playing a game a roulette. You just might win, but you also just might lose.
Some 360s are now comming with new heatsinks that should improve their quality. Lastly 360s that are being manfactured at this time come with a new 65nm chip design. So you would have to get a console manafactured July or later.
But regardless you have a 3 year warranty against the RROD.
Though truth be known, I bought my 360 for $349.99 in November 2006 at a Black Friday special at Target...
Man I know its impossible to read every article but at least read the important parts. The Falcon motherboards (65mm) will NOT be out until Fall of this year.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/microsoft/microsofts-falcon-to-dive-bomb-sony-276304.php
Dean Takahashi:
"Microsoft is in the process of qualifying the new Falcon chips and motherboard this summer. I expect it will launch Xbox 360s with the new Falcon innards this fall."
Mind you that this is just chip production, which still has to be built, packaged, ship to the US, then placed on shelves once the current ones are depleted.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/01/65nm-360-chips-in-production-last-two-quarters-45nm-on-the-w/
@ LJKelley, I bought my premium for $199 at that BF Micro Center fiasco...still is a great deal!!!
The console doesn't have a problem with overheating, and never did. The RRoD isn't caused by overheating.
Bringing it to 280$? sweet fucking deal.
I don't think $280 for the Core is that good of a deal. By the time you get a memory card to save games (you need some memory device to do this), you might as well spend the few extra bucks and get the Premium.
If you don't have enough cash to upgrade to the Premium from the Core, you probably shouldn't buy the system at all.
@ James Hoak
Yeah, you are probable right. But I've been wanting to pick up a new 360 for awhile and since I have a Premium currently, I would probably just buy a Core model and cross over my hard-drive to the new system. And then I already have a memory card that I can use for saves on my old system.
Either way though, Xbox-360 Price drops FTW!
not everyone is an engadget reader :P
No way!!!
The 360 Elite was $480, now cut $30 to $450. It was never $500.
@2
the new 360s coming out should have the extra cooling thats been showing up all over the place. wont say they aint defective, just less defective....
Buying 360 elite with Gears of War , Dead Rising , Darkness , Viva Pinata and Crackdown.
all the game i can get for $20 expect for Darkness.
When is it that the Premium will acquire the Elite features? They've talked about that.
This sucks, hopefully used core will be $199 because ps3 rules and I just wanna play like 2 games on this thing.
People would be stupid to buy the Halo edition; for $50 more you get 120gb HDD, HDMI cable, and dont have to put up with that hideous colour scheme.
"People would be stupid to buy the Halo..."
You should have stopped there.
Although a $50 cut is much better then $40. A $40 would have sounded cooler.
"Buy a XBOX 360 for 360"
Sold my 360, I'd buy another only when there is a SIZE reduction as well as a price reduction.
dont hold your breath on the size reduced 360, these current 360 cant even properly cool themselves
It would have been listed at $359.99 anyway, which isn't really quite as cool.
They can cool themselves properly when not in the oven, smartass.
what are you talking about deputy dufus on all things MS aka bill gives me a boner. The publicity of these underlying heat PROBLEMS is so bad now (every day you hear more of it; the resentment grows on shoddy design), the 60GB PS3 for 500 is picking up more hype EVEN with NO GAMES REALLY WORTH PLAYING. Just wait until that changes. Oh wait, you already know that. That's when you're going to throw in the towel and be a PS fanboi eh?!
SEE:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/japan-explains/why-xbox-360s-heat-up-and-crap-out-286202.php
Chad, long time no see.
I won't bother with your post, because you're obviously here to cause problems (nothing new).
Oh, and just for the Hell of it, I checked out that link.
Well, that just sets it in cement. Its up to the consumer to take care of it and prevent it from over heating. I have, and so has my friend, especially after hearing about this over heating bullshit. Well, if you take care of your console, it doesn't- get this- over heat. *Gasp* Who would have thought keeping it in an open place or just a place with decent ventilation, that it would over heat. Oh, and its not abnormal for the GPU in my PC to hit 70 degrees Celsius. Thats the chip itself, not the heatsink or whatever (doesn't have one). People make these temperatures out to be worse than they actually are... Hell, the fucking cut off point of my GPU is 145 degrees Celsius. Not to mention the time it took for the GPU in the 360 to heat up is odd. After even just a few minutes in say, Doom 3, Quake 4, F.E.A.R. or the like, my GPU is up to 65-70 degrees. A fan cooled chip, and I have tons of fans in my case and the side of the case is even off 90 percent of the time.
Those temperatures aren't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
80 to 100 degrees celsius in the xbox gpu after 15 minutes and having to do preventative maintenance is simply bad design I'm afraid Zeus. Sure, the threshold on my 6800 is high too, but it never gets that hot, and I don't get RRoD... But hey maybe me, the majority of consumers, and microsoft (for extending their warranty for 3 years) are all wrong. :-)
But I know what system I'll be buying when the kick butt games come out. I may even by an Xbox at that point... but not without the 65nm fav and all problems in design addressed. :)
Zeus,
Its not the actual temperature that is the problem, its the quality of the motherboard and solder. The motherboard in the 360 has been found to warp at these temperatures which is pretty odd, the warping then creates minute cracks in the solder connecting the GPU to the rest of the system. The GPU then sporadically fails causing the 3RLOD.
The solder is weaker than in other electronics as they are using a lead free solder which is apparently more brittle and forms cracks far easier than traditional solder. Apparently this was mandated by 2006 EU environmental laws to reduce toxidity in electronics.
I'd imagine the PS3 also has this solder but isn't suffering the same fate because their motherboard is of a higher quality.
All said and done, the new units do have a new heatsink, the 65nm was shown to be in production a couple of months back by engadget, so if you buy a 360 now its going to have one if not both of those solutions.
I have no idea why the refurb center was still sending out refurbs without the new heatsink. A poster on IGN yesterday actually just received this 360 back without the heatsink. Someone needs to get fired at the repair center, simple as that.
Alexhrose, that may be the case, but the temperature is easy to control, so its not entirely MS's fault.
As for you Chad, the majority of Xbox owners are having no problems whatsoever- even by that bloated failure rate.
Hey guys lets try to beat Sony's price cut of 100 bucks, but that 100 bucks will be separated between 3 models. 50, 30 and 20 bucks. Take that SONY!
The 360s are a lot more worth the money, so they don't need any price cuts to stop the PS3 into the ground, thank you very much.
Again, what planet are you living on that feeds you this nonsensical dribble? You can say what you want until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't make it any more true. Sorry :(
btw, that's directed toward zeuzee ;-)
Again, Chad.
Very mature with your posts. Grow up.
Say hi to that "hot Asian wife" of yours for me.
Oh, and just in case you didn't know, the game line up of the 360's rapes the PS3's and the system itself is more powerful in most practical cases.
Don't bother arguing with it, because no matter what you say, you're wrong.
of course the games are better...duhhhhh... that's what a year advantage gives you, at the detriment of hardware design as all can bear witness to know (what did ballmer say, extra 1 billion in service now?).
But more powerful it certainly is not. what you're seeing now is a bunch of devs still trying to wrap their heads around the ps3 while developing from the ground up for the xbox and porting to the ps3. that will of course change as engineers/developers get more accustomed to the ps3 design and with exclusive titles silly bee.
~WHOA WHOA WHOA~
Let's get back on track here.
Link to pics of the 'hot Asian wife' please for all the yellow fever boys in here... :Op
i would have replied to zeus or chad but there was no reply button.... @zeus & chad: THEY CALL IT EMAIL, IT'S FOR PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Don't leave out the actual news:
"Plus, the Halo 3 Special Edition Console price has been announced as $399.99"
via Major Nelson.
Thats actually a very good deal if you can stand the color - its got HDMI unlike the premium and for the original premium price.
Also if its a limited production run these things will have a high resale value in a few years.
I got burned the first time around by a defective 360, so a price cut isn't going to do it. Still waiting for a real redesign...
the new design has been in production since May... the new elites are supposed to be on the shelf in august and the new premiums probably in sept (since the current stock is much bigger)... If you wait until Oct to buy you probably have a great chance of getting the newer model.
"We're not going to do this- until we do that is"
of course, I just bought one Friday night :(
I would buy one, if it wasn't crap.
Im saving up for a PS3
I won't be buying one until MS fixes all the problems. There's nothing really good to play on the 360 anyway.
So I'll just wait. I'll stick to playing my PS2. (Living in the last gen, because the next gen sucks ass. Except for the Wii)
Can there be anymore a$$ backwards statements made in that post?
Nothing good to play ? WTF ? Poor taste FTL...
How about just -trying- a few of these ...
Gears of War
Lost Planet
Crackdown
Saints Row
and coming in the next two months...
Bioshock
Ace Combat 6 (16 player dogfights!)
VF5 (with online multiplayer!)
Blue Dragon
MOH Airborne
And before xmas :
Mass Effect
Eternal Sonata (best looking JRPG ever IMO)
Assassins Creed
COD4
Halo 3
There are tons of great games on the 360, thats the only thing most don't argue with.
Let's not forget rainbow six vegas
Hitting 2 birds with one stone. 360 having problems with overheating....so what better way to flush out the bad batches buy cutting the price of the console? Meanwhile ps3 is ramping (psp redesign) up its smackdown on the 360. Just like its predecessor history is set to repeat itself in this console war of never-ending price cuts before the holiday season. My moneys on the ps3. Ps3 is getting Unreal 3 first...kinda lets 360 know that until they get their console fixed a frag session will surely overheat the 360. So whats a guy/girl to do? Most of the games the 360 had at first were gonna be exclusive titles (yeah riiiiight) wind up on pc anyways. And alot of earlier titles should have returned as next gen to give 360 a better foothold (Voodoo Vince & Vexx)against Ps3. Lost planet on a killer pc just lets me know that if the demand is strong enough most of these games will be either ported or console emulation is hot on the consoles heels. And I swear Microsoft makes we wonder how low are they willing to go?
I agree. Besides, if you're already spending that much money, what's another $20?
My friend has a 360 that he's had since launch. It's already been in for repair once because of the RRoD, then just a month ago, his started scratching disks.
I started with the PS1, then converted to xbox when it came out. LOVE IT --- until the 360 came out and they pretty much stopped supporting it. I really tried to convince myself to get a 360, especially considering ALL of my friends had xboxes and used xbox live - but with all of these design flaws, I simply cannot justify buying one. My friend even had his in an open space -- he treated it like a baby and it still craps out. I finally threw my money into a PS3 and have had one since launch. Yes, it sucked at launch because you couldn't really do too much with it, but now Sony had added so much with it's firmware updates - I really feel confident in my purchase and am looking forward to the games that are coming out for it.
I leave my PS3 on for DAYS at a time running Folding@Home -- which utilizes full processing power -- and it still runs perfectly without any hint of overheating or anything. It feels good to have that kind of reassurance. The truth is the 360 is a nightmare and a flaw. Microsoft is doing great with content and partners, but the console itself simply isn't making it. I don't mean to be off topic, but to those of you that have 360s, seriously take all the grudges you have against the PS3, drop them, and research the PS3 as it stands right now. With it's uPNP support, usb support, printer support, wallpaper support, free online play, non-proprietary bluetooth wireless everything (it actually supports up to 7 wireless controllers at once AND you can use your regular cell phone headset to pair it with the PS3 for gaming)... the list goes on. Yeah - no in-game music YET - but that'll be coming very very soon.
My advice... Seriously save the extra $100 or $200 it will cost you to get a ps3 over the 360, and just do it. Read the amazon.com reviews of the console. You'll find out eventually that you made the right decision and laugh when your friends 360 gets sent in for repairs.
Personally, I use a gaming console mostly for games, and that is what your post forgets to mention. And as of right now the 360 has better games than the PS3 and seems to continually gain titles that were once exclusive to Playstation. Perhaps this will change with releases later on, but as it stands currently, for gaming purposes, the 360 is the console to own.
Seriously...I don't buy a console because of its tech inside, I buy the console that has the game experience I want. Sure the 360 may have reliability issues, which are being addressed, late of course, but still being addressed. However WTF does that have to do with my experience ? Very little. My first 360 crapped out too, but so what - I was without a 360 for two weeks then I got it back. The repair is 100% covered by MS now. If anyone is being hurt by the reliability its MS, not me.
The game experience on the 360 is second to none. There are lots of real exclusives, you can't say if its on PC its not an exclusive, thats a BS argument. I never game on my PC, that machine is for email, and message boards like this :P
While you go touting blu-tooth controllers (which game sites have mentioned randomly disconnect frequently) the 360 has perfectly stable wireless pads which are much more comfortable to hold. Secondly those sixasis controllers have internal batteries - you have to send the controller to Sony to get the battery replaced....good luck with that. I'm sure they'll cover it for free. Not.
Look, I got a PSX at launch and a PS2 when they became readily available. I do like some Playstation franchises and I have been a multiple console owner going back to the VCS.
However, I just find it odd that there are people out there that buy consoles based on hardware vs game selection.
Good timing, I was about to get a 360 Elite.
barely a real comment in this whole thread. Yep gonna buy one has most of the games "I" want. PS3 has bluray if it didn't i really never would have debated it this long. Im buying a game console. My cpu can do multimedia very nicely. Not bashing PS3 it will do loads better as time goes on. But Xbox 360(no matter how hard u throw ur opinions) is not going to fail either. I will continue to lead for a long while developers scratch their heads at DVD9 compression but are constantly pumping out games for the system. Whether good or bad(games) that kind of developer support makes them money and we all know thats the just of all this.
Looking 4 real incite? get what u think u want not what u hear on forums(think about what's important to u). they are no longer a decent source informer(mostly) just ppl who want to feel comfortable with there on choice by bashing the one they didn't choose(for instance a PS3 or 360 either way),hoping everyone else will agree with their decision. Make ur own decision dont be influenced(and if it is about game console health don't buy any of them w/o the insurance).
All electronics have problems the more they are used.
for / you / your (in two sequential posts no doubt.)
WHOA WHOA WHOA~
Let's get our priorities straight here kids...
Link to pics of 'hot Asian wife' please. ;Op
LOL that really made me laugh this morning... the other chap brings it up in every thread I provide substantive input to his half baked remarks, because I let a few ad hominems get the best of me one time when logic and fact didn't seem to cut it.
No pics, but cheers ;-)
LOL that really made me laugh this morning... the other chap brings it up in every thread I provide substantive input to his half baked remarks, because I let a few ad hominems get the best of me one time when logic and fact didn't seem to cut it.
No pics, but cheers ;-)
From what i remember, didn't someone cook scrambled egg on an XBOX 360 heatsink? if thats not getting hot, I don't know what is.
Either way, price cuts are handy, but when will we get some of that price cut love in the UK?
I think they should have cut the price by $50 on the entire line or kill the Core system and gone by $100 off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLabckoPC0g
But he ran it with the case and fans off for this test, so it's hardly surprising it cooked egg.
There is a quote in the full press release that I need to point out... “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 Xbox 360,”
Not so sure this is at all true. You were in the market a year before any other console, so it's not that people found it to be a value, it's they just didn't have another choice for a next gen console. In reality had they all been released at the same time the price cut would be right in line with when the PS3 did a price cut. I know it's really easy to spin words to make people believe what you are saying.
In addition to that 1/3 of all Xbox 360 have failure problems. (In case you want sources: http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/40314 and http://gamer.blorge.com/2007/07/18/xbox-360-redesign-codename-falcon-coming-sooner-than-later/). So how great of a value is that? The fact that it has it's on name Red Ring Of Death, you have got to be kidding me.
Last point. they say they have shipped 11.6 million consoles. Well if 1/3 is failing then at MOST they have 7 million customers...And that is being nice since some individuals are on their 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th console. SOME VALUE!
So what would the price be with best buy or circuit city's 110% match policy. Is this the policy: They match the new price plus give you an additional 10% off? or is it some fucked up crazy calculation that'll only save you like ten bucks. Because in the first scenario above you could get an elite for 449 - 44.90 = 404 + tax, where 44.90 is the additional 10% you get for a price match. If this is the case I'll buy it today.
Has there been any word on a price drop for other areas, like canada?
It's not surprising, both MS and Sony are trying to keep up with the company that is redefining "zero-to-hero"(hey at least in my mind). I personally hope that the 360 does well around Halo 3 time. They're also trying to compete with Nintendo by moving the lesser-rated titles to the left of the store shelf and producing more family-friendly titles for the 360 (at least these things are what I heard), pretty strategic. I wish the best for Microsoft, this coming from a (I admit it) Nintendo fan(boy)(if you want to add that).