Xbox 360 price cuts official... in Australia

It's not the Stateside discount we've been waiting for, but at least Australia and New Zealand are looking at discounted Xbox 360 pricing across the board. No press release, just an update to the Aussie Xbox site indicating a new starting price of AU$349 Australian dollars for the Xbox 360 Arcade -- the same console which sold for AU$399 just yesterday. That makes it AU$50 cheaper than the Wii locally. Gamespot spoke to local Xbox exec, Jeremy Hilton, who confirmed that the Xbox 360 Pro bundle has been slashed to AU$499 (was AU$579) and the Elite is now AU$649 (down from AU$729). More importantly perhaps, is this quote about Microsoft's pricing strategy:

"One of the big changes Microsoft has made is that with price drops, you'd see the US would drop, and pretty much within two weeks we would drop as well. Now, it's very much the individual countries who manage what they feel would be best for their respective regions. In March we had a price drop in Europe, and in April we had a price drop in Asia. So we're definitely moving away from that big global strategy."

So no guaranteed followup drop in the US regardless of the mounting evidence.

[Via Gamespot, thanks Adam L.]

[McBUNT @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:22AM]

Press release came out over 6 hours ago from Microsoft NZ, tbh.

[Rob @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:40AM]

yup

noel leeming:

$399 Arcade save $50
$549 Pro save $100
$699 Elite save $100

(NZD)

[McBUNT @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:57AM]

$699 for the Elite.

Until the 360 can play h264 and bluray it's still PS3 ftw.

Yea no, I don't play games.

[Chris @ Jul 2nd 2008 6:47AM]

If you don't play games why would you want a games console that plays movies?

wait, what?

[Ordeith @ Jul 2nd 2008 1:03PM]

The 360 does play h264 and Xvid/Divx. It will also stream live HD video feeds from a VMC computer.

[Adam @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:33AM]

Second, Your welcome guys

[Micanos @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:23AM]

It's "You're"

[Aarun @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:53AM]

Where's my "thanks"???!!! I tipped Engadget about this an hour ago!! I used to adore this website...not so much anymore. I think I might go read Gizmodo or perhaps Ars Technica. Slashdot anyone?

[McBUNT @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:59AM]

I don't know why Engadget haven't subscribed to press released from all the tech companies all over the world, why do they need to be tipped a press release?

[Striker @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:02AM]

If you were to submit it to Slashdot, then you wouldn't see it on the site for three more days.

[A.C.E.R. @ Jul 2nd 2008 5:27AM]

Dear Aarun,

Please accept our most heartfelt apologies for not personally responding to tip #456 regarding this subject. One of our primary goals is to waste countless man-hours personally thanking every knob that emails us a press release reprint.

Love,
Engadget

[Dave Chappelle @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:00AM]

Elite? i have never even seen one in Australia wtf is this talking about. perhaps in only one state or something. I did see the Arcade get cheaper in the catalogue today.

BUT is this enough? The reasons for this are obvious. No one is buying 360's. there now the slowest selling. Even worse than the PS3 even though it was FAR more expensive and still is slightly more expensive.

Wii + PS3 seem to have this gen no matter how many reasonable price drops M$ do. wii sales could get INSANE over the next few years. with the market share they have, iv got like 40 year old's telling me about Wii sports at my high school. lol. PS3 slow and steady 100mill.

[McBUNT @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:07AM]

Wait, this means you aren't Dave Chappelle!

[Ordeith @ Jul 2nd 2008 1:11PM]

I had to think it was because you were in AUS that you had this skewed opinion, as the 360 is doing quite well in the US and other english-speaking countries.

Then I looked up the AUS sales for last week and saw that the 360 continues to outsell the PS3 in AUS as well.

So what you are saying has no basis in fact for the region.

Wishful thinking FTW.

[Seaux @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:05AM]

Even better, from midnight tonight Big W will be selling the Arcade version for $280.

Guess where I'll be at midnight tonight.

[fistpittingnork @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:22AM]

Whataburger?

[awam @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:11AM]

Kmart is also doing further price cutting for its mega toy sale thing this week.

[Laron @ Jul 2nd 2008 5:02AM]

How about some US dollar conversions...

[Greg Mcp @ Jul 2nd 2008 5:50AM]

The Aus dollar is currently about 96 cents to the dollar.
Like the Canadians, we're creeping up to parity.
No real conversion is needed nowadays. $500 Aus is pretty close to $500 US.

[Aaronage @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:44AM]

You can use google to covert currencies, tyoe in

X USD in ZND

and there you go :D

[Aaronage @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:44AM]

Oops other way round
X ZND in USD :D

[kal326 @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:01AM]

The conversion is that Aussies are getting screwed. $625 US for an elite, down from $702 US. Pro is not much better at $480 US now, versus the old price of $557 US.

[rita hainsworth @ Jul 2nd 2008 5:17AM]

Flying there today to get my savings.

[sonoman @ Jul 2nd 2008 5:28AM]

I'd rather see they kept the pricing and made a working machine.

[McBUNT @ Jul 2nd 2008 6:03AM]

Alright, for that kind of action what you're really after is an Amstrad PC1512

[coreySS @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:25AM]

http://www.bigw.com.au/entertainment/computergames.html

$278

[txc88 @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:53AM]

sorry coreyss, didn't see your post when i posted

[OfflinePK @ Jul 2nd 2008 8:41AM]

Just out of curiosity is Microsoft still farming out launch 360s to the Aussies? I know they were doing it last summer I hope they have cleared out their stock by now.

[txc88 @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:21AM]

actually, as of tomorrow (3rd july) we can get an xbox 360 arcade for as low as $278 in australia - annoying, i spent like $500 on my pro pack

see below:
http://catalogues.bigw.com.au/portal/offerdetails/xbox_360_arcade/1186094582588?pageview=two&CatalogueID=1186055038997&gotopage=98&CatalogueID=&source=catalogueoffer&jump=

or check out bigw.com.au

just giving y'all the heads up - nab a 360 cheap! (kmart, eb games, jb hifi will all price match!)

[Marty @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:40AM]

Xbox 360 price dropped in countries where Xbox 360 doesn't sell so well!

Wow! What revelation! What conspiracy! Look how smart I is for figuring that one out! Then me use learnt intelligence to speak about PS3 world domination! Me in the know!

If I were to pretend like I know everything based off my small slice of the world here, then I could easily spout some bullshit about how everyone I know owns a 360 and how I don't know a single person who owns a PS3... so through ignorant logical conclusion, the PS3 must be doomed!

Dumb.

[Billy Gun @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:33AM]

If you read this article you will see:
http://wii.ign.com/articles/885/885461p1.html

"Taking a look at the latest console hardware figures, Wii is the current market leader with 456,000 units sold in Australia and New Zealand. Xbox 360 is slightly behind with 410,000 units and PS3 trails significantly at 285,000 units. Obviously 360 sales will enjoy a boost following this price cut but we'll need to wait and see if it'll be enough to push it ahead of Nintendo's Wii."

[Jeffrey Morgan @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:47AM]

Does the green ring rotate in the other direction in the southern hemisphere? ;-)

[ShadowKain @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:59AM]

Where is my $299 xbox pro in the U.S.!!!???

and @Jeffrey Morgan --> Yes, yes it does.

[Ordeith @ Jul 2nd 2008 1:10PM]

I had to think it was because you were in AUS that you had this skewed opinion, as the 360 is doing quite well in the US and other english-speaking countries.

Then I looked up the AUS sales for last week and saw that the 360 continues to outsell the PS3 in AUS as well.

So what you are saying has no basis in fact for the region.

Wishful thinking FTW.

[dechah @ Jul 2nd 2008 2:55PM]

Just a quick note to US people wanting to do a currency conversion to compare US and Australian pricing. When prices are quotes in Australia, they include all taxes. So a sticker price of AU$349 is what you pay at the cash register.