Remember that Xbox 360 price cut
we mentioned a few days ago? Well it appears that the Financial Times Germany is reporting that this Monday, Microsoft will trim the fat from the Arcade and Pro consoles, shaving €80 and €50 off the price tag, respectively. Of course, right now this is still unconfirmed by the boys in Redmond (or in any other official location), though the buzz in the community does seem to suggest that these cuts are coming. Hopefully if these become a reality, the company will break something off for folks on these shores as well -- we need all the help we can get right now.
Update: See that photo above? it looks like that price cut really is happening. Good news for you, Europe.
Update 2: Amazon UK has jumped
on board too.
[Via
I4U News; Image via
Xbox 360 Fanboy]
posted Mar 9th 2008 2:08PM
Man, if they bring those cuts to the US I'm going to have to go get a 360.
That's not gonna happen and I'll tell you why:
1] The 360 is doing poorly in the EU. With the PS3 outselling it, predictions are that soon there will be more PS3's in Europe than 360's, even with the year headstart.
2] The exchange rate's gotta be working in their favour, allowing them to do this.
Merci Microsoft. We fine you, you reward us!
I loled
just curious, are we really paying less than Americans ???
remember we pay $310 dollars now for Xbox Arcade €200 = $310
Xbox Pro €300 = $460
Xbox Elite €400 = $615
d(>_
Uh sorry, pounds please? :$
prices in europe: vat included
prices in the us: sales tax excluded
€80 off the Arcade? Wow, that would put it at roughly £130 here in the UK, and it would be hard to resist that
Not hard to resist? What about a hard drive?
I ahve the arcade and I ahven't been wishing for a hard drive at all.
I'm not l33t though.
@ DJ, I had to google 'l33t'
l33t sounds so much like elite, so if you had to google that you are either VERY tired or a retard. Hopefully the former.
Or, you know, just not up to date on the latest of geek speak.
I don't think elite is geek speak.
Hell what do I know. Maybe l33t doesn't look like leet so then it wont sound like elite.
@ Abuzar
You missed the joke...
Actually, it looks like the European prices are apparently a lot higher than they are in the US so it seems unlikely that the US will see price cuts.
European Prices include VAT while US prices do not include sales tax. So yes when you add an average of 15-25% VAT the prices will seem more even though Microsoft is virtually selling them at the same amount.
seling it for the same amount? sorry, but that's bollocks ;)
the xbox pro costs in germany 350€, that's approx. 535$. now substract the 21%vat and you still have a price of 422$ ;)
Blackster is right. Europe is getting shafted
You are wrong simply because you don't understand VAT. Unlike sales tax which is only charged once (at final sale), VAT can be charged multiple times. For exmaple, products that are imported are charged VAT, then charged VAT again when sold to the consumer. If you do the math again, you will find that the Prices are very similar. Having worked in a store where not only did I have to sell things, but also helped my boss import and enter thing appropriately into the computer in regards to VAT, I know that many stores pay for VAT Twice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAT
Superprime: The Dollar is what's shafted, not us Europeans.
@LJKElley
talking bollocks, yes, the importer pays VAT to their supplier, and the final price includes VAT, but the company effectively deducts the supplier VAT from the final sales VAT when they report to the Inland Robbery^WRevenue (er, HMRC). i.e. effectively only the final consumer pays VAT.
Unfortunately, for high value items this can lead to "carousel fraud" where goods are moved around between a loop of companies and each claims VAT back from HMRC but the final VAT is never paid!
Perhaps VAT is not the correct explanation, but "TAX" is something everyone understand. When prices are presented in the store or in advertisement, it's common practice to not write the additional tax in the price in the US. Why it's so, I don't know. But in europe, we have laws that makes sure that what is mentioned as price in the advertisement is what come out from the customers wallet (minus all those extra cables needed and stuff that the salespeople forces u to have). So those 199.95 Euro is what you pay up. If it would be $199.95 in the US, you probably would need to cough up additional $20 for tax and pay $220 or something. Just so people are clear with that =)
Ah, well - doesn't MS still have to pay import tax on the XBoxes it sells in the US, after all they're still imported in from China, they're not made in the US, right?
As for the UK, yes the importers pay Import Tax to the customs, & VAT, but they get the VAT back when its sold to their customer (i.e. the store) or the consumer, so as far as the importer goes, they're VAT netural.
I think one thing is now for sure, we'll see a price cut on the PS3 before the holiday season this year.
Good stuff Joshua, you've edited the article to read the FT instead of tabloids. Also, you've removed the comments relating to your error.
didn't they say us LIVE user gets compensation for the down-time during the new year???
Where is my game?
Where were you when they handed out the free arcade game? The promotion lasted for a week only for all LIVE users.
I'm stupid. I think I missed that too. When'd t happen? Might've been in St. Louis...
>< NOOO.. i was very busy with work, wasn't able to even touch my xbox for 2 months
If it makes you feel better the game was Undertow, and it was shit.
Thanks, I almost made an appointment with my therapist. Also haven't seen here for a while you know :P
I'm sorry.. I read that as The Rapist.
.. I shall go hang my head in shame.
your game was the free download of that xbox arcade game calle Undertow.
about time....
not surprised,
with the favorable condition of the euro vs the dollar, i'm actually surprised this didn't happen sooner.
I think this is fake, the folder is from a Dutch toy company, Bart Smit. And those are idiots with mostly false information. It will surprise me when this happens.
Contact searching found in iPhone firmware 2.0 during SDK event
Posted on March 8, 2008 by Daniel Ahdout | Edit
So, while Phil Schiller was talking about the new Enterprise features that were going to be released on the iPhone during the SDK event on March 6th, I noticed a new feature that was added into the Contacts section of the Phone application. It is a little spotlight icon right above the A on the alphabet. We have no clue how search will be implemented into iPhone, maybe a little pop-up, but it will definitely be helpful to Enterprise users who have thousands of contacts. It is a very smart addition to the iPhone software, but how come nothing was said about it? But who cares if they didn’t say anything about it, search is finally coming to iPhone. To see this for yourself, you can go to 9 minutes and 30 seconds in on the Quicktime video of the event. What’s weird is that during the demo’s of Contacts, you can’t see the spotlight icon, but in the screenshot that he presents you can see the spotlight icon. Maybe Apple has planned to have search in the final 2.0, but it wasn’t ready for the demo.
I can confirm the price, as not only the toychain 'Bart smit' has that price, also the toychain 'Intertoys' is advertising with the same price. And both chains are NOT from the same company.. @TheSpecialist: I don't know what your comment are relating too, because every price in their advertisements are the prices they have in stores, I have never seen prices in any of their advertisements which are wrong.. So I guess you must have some beef with them..
of course they can. the dollar is weak as hell. so they gotta match to be fair
It's a Dutch ad and not a German ad.
correct, it's dutch
no one said it was german...
We just REALLY WANT TO MAKE SURE we're not mistaken for Germans :P
Sprint has $99 unlimited everything.
And Sprint sucks dog bollocks.
Nice to see MS at least making an attempt to compensate for exchange rates (this happened in Canada already).
M$ is really taking their time over this. If they don't hurry up, the PS3 is gonna shaft them. I walked of out PC World (UK) 2 weeks before xmas with a new Arcade for £140. £150 was the price point before I would by one, but the price has since gone back up.
Picture of the german Toys'r'us ad:
http://www.computerbase.de/news/consumer_electronics/konsolen/microsoft/2008/maerz/xbox_360_montag_199_euro/
So the price is confirmed in the Netherlands and Germany.
it can be cheep as chips, but that wont save it from any of the following:
A: breaking.
B: being too loud.
C: not having wlan built in.
D: costing you money to play online.
E: not having a high definition reader (bluray drive)
D: looking ugly.
I can go on , but ill refrain.
Apparently you haven't come out from under the bridge in a while...
The breaking issue, unless you have something to do with it, doesn't really happen any more; the thing isn't loud at all unless you just like playing on mute; wireless LAN is useless for gaming, and best that you don't have it; Xbox LIVE is WELL worth the 3 dollars and 8 cents a month; this is a game console- you know, something you play games on, not a movie player; ugly? I guess you must own a PS3 and don't have anything to play, so you must spend quite a while looking at your media center rather than the TV?
You can't go on unless it's bullshit much like what you posted here.
Zeus,
1) Last time I saw, Microsoft still hasn't fixed the RRoD problem...
2) There are numerous reports of how loud the 360 is. So loud, in fact, that it can be heard over the game in most cases.
3) Wi-Fi is beneficial to a lot of people. My PS3 has it and I can play COD4 with no problem whatsoever, and it saves me having to run a 100 foot cable from my computer room to my living room (The only Ethernet jack in my apartment is in the computer room).
4) Xbox Live is good, no doubt its worth the money. But the PS3 online experience (Warhawk and COD4 for example) is just as good for free.
5) Having Blu-ray built in means one less thing I have to buy later on, thereby saving me space and money. Not to mention it lets developers put more stuff into a game.
So take YOUR bullshit and feck off.
@pfromg
A.The falcons brought down the failure rate and it was reported the falcons highest failure rate is 10%,or less.Oh and the jaspers release in a few months which will get rid of RRoD for good.
B.It's not noticeable when ur playing games anyway.Also I'm not sure,but I think the falcons are quieter.
C.I habe no use for wlan so I guess that's personal
preference,but it's only $200 bucks what do u expect?
D.4 bucks a month isn't too bad especially since not only do u get to play games online but u can rent movies,tv shows etc.Also u can play community made games for free.On the media part XBL only real competition is itunes.It's has a big list of features over psn to I can list them if u like.
E.LOL looking ugly? That's strictly opinion I think my ps3 looks ugly.
F.I added this because the main reason to get a 360 is the games no next-gen console beats it in this department.The only two AA games PS3 to compete is Ratchet and Clank a kids game and Uncharted a good game,but it gets old fast it's only worth a rent with no replay value.Also I think the 360 having the highest attach rate out of all three next-gen consoles says something.
Zeus, sorry but youre wrong.
1. I bought one 360 last year. It was dead right from the box. I got another. That one is in repair right now. That is terrible odds.
2. Its fairly loud to the point of annoyance, but doesnt really seem to be a problem. Id rather it be quiet.
3. Wireless is very much fine for gaming, although it can be tricky for some. I play CoD, BF2, BF2142, and other games from my desktop wireless all the time. Lots of people buy wireless bridges or the wireless adapter for the 360. Not to mention my Wii works fine with wireless.
4. No comment. I dont know the economics of the xbox. It may be online gaming fees that actually turn a profit. Still, this is an expense people may not be aware of when buying a 360.
5. No comment. Game machines dont necessarily have to be video machines.
Its really time MS updated the console to support wireless out of the box, make it run cooler and quieter, and really work on the reliability issues.
Sorry, lowbot, but you must have gotten one of the older models (obviously), and it being broken out of the box is unacceptable, but honestly, its not like you were out that money. Yeah, the Xbox isn't the most reliable system ever made, but it is definitely covered if you do get a lemon.
I don't see what you guys are talking about noise. I honestly don't- On start up, it can be pretty loud, but once its going, it isn't really noticable unless you have the volume on your TV muted or really low.
You may be fine playing with wireless on your PC- I was for a while, too, but its not like I wasn't having issues with lag and spikes. Wireless has and always will be horrible for gaming. A hard connection is best.
"It was dead right from the box." Why didn't you just take it back and get another one?
He did. The second one he got bricked as well.
"I bought one 360 last year. It was dead right from the box. I got another. That one is in repair right now. That is terrible odds.
"
Ah, missed that. That is bad luck. My first 360 (launch unit) died after about 13months. My replacement is still kicking though *knocks on wood*. The RROD does suck, but with the extended warranty I can always send it back and bug them to send my console back instead of another, which seems to work for those that ask.