Xbox 360 Pro and Elite price cuts confirmed in Target ad for next week

[Thanks, Tyce]



A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.

Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
where the hell is the wii price drop?! they shouldn't have been able to sell the wii for $250 with a straight face in over a year.
Great price! I think people continue to take chances on the xbox despite it's failure rate because of the online experience. Sure you may get more out the box with the PS3 - but most people dont play stuff "right out the box" -- more important is the online experience, I think.
With netflix, last.fm, and rumors of twitter -- I cant imagine a better online experience on a gaming console. The blu-ray is cool, but even my roommate who was bragging about the ps3 couldn't find anyone of his friends to play against online, so he made up a stupid excuse, sold his ps3, and caved in to buy an xbox. Even though I sound like an MS fanboy, when you take a step back, and compare the games, online experience, and price... The Xbox is still a pretty sweet deal. The failure rate sucks, and even I'm currently dealing with an e73 issue, but after getting it fixed for 30 bucks on craigslist -- i haven't had a problem anymore. sucks it happened, but I'm not surprised. I expected it.
For those who read the specs, and mostly go lone wolf online, I would say the ps3 would be great.
Dont care much for blu-ray. Not shelling out 30 bucks for movies I've seen in the theaters.
Don't forget Facebook is also coming to 360 so this social networking site will probably help boost the sales. I like how u mentioned Blu-RAY movies costs 30 dollars. A price of a greatest hits or platinum hits. More replay value if you ask me. NetFLIX stream FTW>
Seems like facebook is coming to the PS3 as well, but olnly in Rumorsville for the moment though.
Okay, so first we have an argument that Blu-Ray is worthless, expensive, and isn't needed in a gaming console; and then I see you talking about how Facebook (of all stupid things) is a valid selling point for the 360.
I'm confused...
i think what he's trying to say Aaron, is that people find the online experience/services associate with the xbox as a valid reason to purchase the console.
i'm not saying that, that's a good thing. but it is the case i feel. cause it sure isn't for the hardware. lol.
with that said, most gaming now has some involvement with the online community of xbl or psnet - you're either playing against folks online, joining a part of friends, downloading content for/from game, or sharing stats with people... to me, if 99% of your seat time is spent with online gaming, people will find value in a satisfying online experience from sign in to sign out. and in the end, it's what people want. more than any single game, or whatever -- it's the fact that when you turn on your console, you've got options and things to do, and stuff to enjoy right off the bat. friends to chat to. parties to join. movies to watch. etc...
i think psnet has these features, but sometimes it's hard to compete when everyone you know has xbox live. this is just from my perspective, but i don't have any friends that have ps3s. so even if i'm concerned with the rrod, dont care much netflix, etc... but I do want to play COD with my buddies, then there's only one clear choice -- Xbox.
i dont think i would have as much fun with a gaming console if i couldnt play along with friends online, talk trash to them, socialize, etc... then download the halo screenshot of me hitting em with the shotgun, then twitter it to everyone. lol
i've owned both for a long time (old 360 rrod, sold the new one got ps3 now just bought GOY elite at walmart for 300 bucks)
I have to say I don't know why everyone bickers about the PSnetwork....
The store is MUCH better than xbox live, ps home; i don't use it but some people do, and the online gaming aspect: its much smoother (imho) than live. mainly because psn has centralized servers and don't rely 100% on p2p connections.
honestly, xbox fanboys, have you used PSN? you'd be surprised...
as for other features, blu-ray IS a big deal. when ps2 and xbox came out, all the fanboys were telling gamecube fanboys that DVD was the shit. now 360 fanboys are telling ps3 fanboys it isn't needed. if you watch an hd film and then go back to dvd, you'll be so disappointed. and honestly, bluray is the future of disc based media, why wouldn't you want it in your machine? you know the 720, or 3 or whatever is going to have bdrom because i will have to and then you will sing its praises. and if you can't find a movie for less than 30 bucks, well....stop going to fye. even CVS sells blurays for less than retail.
in the end it comes down to preference. I'm glad that all of you guys aren't on PSN, it keeps the servers clean and lag free. but you're going to play what you want to. to me, i'd rather have a more polished store than a million social features because honestly i go online to play not to make new friends, that's what real life is for. i'd rather be able to stream divx out of the box than have my windows media player (which...is a joke) sync with my 360. and of course i'd rather use a 500gb hard drive to store all my crap (music, movies, downloaded games, game saves and files) than pay a company a 100% markup for the same thing.
so choose your own gaming. i like the ps3, but i'm not going to hate on you for playing 360, a lot of my friends do.
Honestly, the wii has been overpriced since day 1, as fun as it is.
But I'm still more interested in an HD capable wii than a cheaper one. I'd easily pay $250 for a wii that would render my games in 1080p or even 720p. Not necessarily better graphics, just rendered in a decent resolution.
supposed to be a reply to jekoln
Sony aren't in a pickle at all, they aren't losing money on the hardware either. Whilst Microsoft have been busy selling RROD consoles for the last 4.5 years, Sony have been doing major cost savings to the PS3. The Slim teardown is $200, so once you add retailers and distributors cuts in there, they still make a reasonable amount of cash. (but as always, it's the software that makes money, and Sony and 3rd party publishers are doing very nicely on that front too, with Ubisoft, EA, Konami and Capcom all making more from the PS3 than they do from Xbox.
As for pricing, who in their right mind would buy a RROD-box for $299, or $250 when you can get a PS3 SLim for $299? The slims got so much more to offer (Blu-Ray, Wifi), and the very first time you sign up to Xbox Live, it's already costing you more than the infinitely better PS3....
As it standards, Microsoft are the ones in a jam, there has been no engineering work done on the Xbox, it costs the same to make as it's always done. They USED to make money on the Elite and lose money on the Arcade, however since the last round of price cuts, they are losing money on both.
ytre
do you realize that the ps3 defect rate is over 10%? the slim may solve sonys problem tho
the new xbox 360's with the jasper units are more reliable than the ps3's.
"the new xbox 360's with the jasper units are more reliable than the ps3's."
Sarcasm, or joke, I can't really tell... though, your user name gives it away a bit.
Live has better service, blu-ray movies are pointless and 30 dollars, so you are pretty much also wasting money on something you can stream off netflix.
first off, your writing is horrendous. "As it standards...?" You are an idiot.
second, a newer engadget article has confirmed, straight from Sony's mouth, that they are losing money on PS3 hardware. So there you are just flat out wrong. I'm not sure about the 360, and i don't feel like looking it up right now.
third, microsoft soldier had a couple of things right. the PS3 failure rate is around 10-11%, which is still not good. also the new Jasper revision, which has been in Arcades for a while now and will almost certainly be included in the new Elites, IS much more reliable than previous versions. how much more, and how it compares to the PS3 failure rate has yet to be determined.
and if you think it costs MS the same to build a 360 now as it did 4 years ago, you are an idiot (though i think we already determined that).
although i will say that i think Sony is in a great position now.
idiot fanboy.
i agree with almost everyone above, i'm surprised there hasn't been a ton of flaming in here haha. Anyway, i have owned a 360 for about 2 years now and haven't had a problem yet (knock on wood), but as much as i play games on it, i use it almost twice as much just to stream netflix and using it as a media center extender, which is awesome. I haven't had cable for months and am completely satisfied watching the ever increasing instant library on netflix, which a tthis point lst year was literally 1/8th the size it is now. I'll admit, if I find a first gen ps3 on ebay or something for a sweet price from someone getting a slim, i'll probably buy it, but i think even if i was just getting a system today, i would still get a 360 considering the netflix, media center extender, and all the game add ons you can get with the 360 (even tho the ps3 has a lot of add ons and arcade games, the 360 still takes the cake in my book). My old roommate let me borrow his ps3 for about 2 months b/c he never used it, which lead me to use it almost exclusively for blu ray with netflix, and i have to admit, there wasn't that much of a difference between blu ray and dvd, espeically to justify the price of a blu ray player or get a ps3 for that reason exclusively. If i can find a cheap one, i'll probably get a ps3 for games like killzone, god of war, and resistence, but other than that, its still not worth $300 after buying my 360.
acniehaus04,
First Off i own both systems,xbox 360 Pro and ps3 60gig model upgraded to 320 gb.
I think you are a unaware 360 user. Blu-ray far surpasses Dvds in Video Quality,what in the world are you smoking? lol
Also you can stream Netflix on ps3 using playon(thats what i do),look it up.
And as for the games your interested in, there are more great games on the ps3 than the 3 you listed, theres Infamous,Metal gear solid 4, the October release of Uncharted 2,Gran turismo 5 etc... Go to gametrailers.com to see HD videos of these titles ESPECIALLY Uncharted 2 which was named e3 game of the show.
it's once again sony vs. microsoft. and yet again it will come down once again to blu-ray, netflix, rrod, halo, xbox live, and the ps3 network.
pros for ps3 slim: great price, blu-ray, no hardware issues
cons for ps3: decent online experience, lack of ps3 network users (in my case at least)
pros for xbox360: great price, online experience worth paying for, stream hd movies from netflix, exclusive titles
cons for xbox 360: super-high failure rate, no blu-ray
add to this if you'd like. in the end, you will be paying more for the xbox -- but you're getting you're getting a lot out of it. i'd rather shell out 50 bucks for a yearly subscription to xbox live gold and play against friends, have netflix streaming, twitter, facebook, and the rest of the goods... rather than buying a ps3 and being all lonely as all my other friends who aren't cheap pay about 5 dollars a month for a yearly subscription to xbox live and go at it.
in the end, to each his own. for those that value the home theater experience and would rather add a legitimate piece to their home theater the ps3 is the way to go with the blu-ray. for those who don't give a hell about a blu-ray, and would rather stream movies online and now have the ability to add to their queue without heading to their computers --- then xbox is the way to go.
with all the chit-chat out there about the rrod and failure rates, the fact that people still buy xbox's regardless of probably one of the highest failure rates i have seen in consumer electronics (still blows my mind lol - i swear microsoft should get sued or something, it's ridiculous) -- that must say something about the services they are offering that go along with the hardware. even more incredible is that it isnt free. and people are still signing up. why? because it's a pretty good value.
if you buy 2 blu-ray movies for the ps3 that's already more than the price of a yearly sub to XBL. those two movies, after being watched once, will then collect dust as an addition to an alphabetically arranged dvd collection that is used to show off to others how many movies you have, and make your home theater look more credible. lol.
would rather pwn n00bs in halo3.
you forget that new 360s (jasper) have a very good failure rate (guessing around 5%). and that xbl is free (silver).
still, they are both good deals. get what you want and be happy
I personally work at Target and I haven't looked at the ad for next week yet
What I don't get, it why aren't they bumping up the size of those drives? Hard drives are amazingly cheap these days, there is no reason to limit them to 60GB or 120GB.
elite version includes 2 controllers too? someone know if it is jasper version?
thanks in advance
Thing about PS3 is that to me it's more than just a gaming system. It's so multimedia oriented. Not that 360 isn't but with ps3's bluray player makes it more multimedia than a gaming machines. I have both and honestly i play them about the same amount.
sony is losing money now on their consoles, but lets not forget that sony said they are looking at longevity. ps2 is now ten years strong and still going, so the ps3 will be around for about 8 years before we officially hear about a ps4. the 360 is a good console, but has that red ring of death problem microsoft need to fix. also microsoft will introduce a new system soon (maybe in 3 more years) that may or may not include blueray and it might be more expensive than $300.
but in the end it all comes down to one thing. the consumer, and how we spend our money. but its beneficial to us right now because we have 3 choices of consoles in the same price range. so this will be an interesting holiday season.
Nice price... but does it still break if you look at it wrong?
My boyfriend has his 360 connected to an HDTV and I can tell the HUGE difference between his setup and my 360 to an old 19" box. Granted, I've only seen LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 -> HDTV and it was beautiful, but as of now, the BF and I love our RE5 co-op and we're happy with the resolution we get on his tv and 360.
If the PS3 has games that have the co-op games we're looking for and has Netflix that we both use our 360's for, then, I would buy a PS3. This price drop has us interested in getting a PS3, but we're still not sure about it. So, comment away and let me know what games I should buy when I get a PS3.
Thanks!
Pac-Man CE is not regular Pac-Man, it is one of the best games on the Xbox 360 and it is an exclusive.
Xbox 360 Elite has always been the same price or more than the PS3, so I don't see what's changed. I think that MS should have upgraded the HDD size on the Elite, but that's about it. Dumb move for Sony/MS to not include HDMI cables as people are lazy and uninformed about cables and will just use whatever is included in the box. Consumers have been opting for the Arcade version over the Elite for a while now so they needed to drop the price. It will be interesting if this shifts the balance of what people buy now, or if they will still primarily just buy whatever is the cheapest.
Rather than a price cut, MS should invest more money into R&D, to the make the 360 more reliable. The Jasper's a step in the right direction, but it's way to early to speculate on it's reliability, much less call the quality control issues "closed".
All this debate about which console is better seems really pointless. The better system is the one that I, as an individual, prefer. Is Blu-ray a great function of the PS3? Of course - it's brilliant... but I don't know that it hands-down makes it a better system. I can buy a 360 and still buy a Blu-ray player. Since it's not exclusive to the PS3, then it really can't be used as a definitive argument (IMO.)
Same goes for 360... maybe it has "better" exclusive titles, but if those particular titles aren't of interest to me, then that argument is moot (to me.)
All I'm saying is, people arguing about such a subjective topic seems silly. Buy the console that you want. If you want a Blu-ray and slightly higher specs go with PS3. If you want a stellar online experience and more head-to-head/co-op options, get yourself a 360.
Hell, at the current price points, get yourself both.
yeah its confirmed got the walmart ad in my hands gonna be an interesting Christmas oh yeah walmart got a 32in element brand TV for 348...
Blu-Ray is OK. If you want HD, great. A majority of people out there DON'T have a HDTV, so Blu-Ray is worthless. So are HD games for that matter. I'm sure the percentage of people that have a HDTV HERE is high, but that's not the case in the real world. I have Hundreds of DVD's, I have quite a few HD DVD's and my Blu-Ray collection is slowly growing. I watch though my nice 50" 1080P Plasma, and my Onkyo 806 Receiver Bitstreaming my Audio. While HD DVD and Blu-Ray look GREAT and sound Great, I still don't mind watching a DVD, or streaming Netflix Movies, the HD versions are much better, but I don't mind the little better then VHS quality SD movies. Not EVERYTHING needs to be in HD with the BEST sound. I can watch some old Classics, or even some newer stuff on Neflix that I'm NEVER going to buy on DVD let alone Blu-Ray, but to see it because it's CHEAP. For under $10 a month, I still get my 1 Blu-Ray out at a time and all the streaming movies I could ever watch and the list is growing. Add in Media Center recording up to 2 HD programs at once though my HD Homerun, and using PlayOn, and it's Plug-In's, I can watch all the Youtube, Hulu, CBS, SyFy, ESPN, and many, many others and the list is growing, ALL streamed onto my 360 except for the built in Netflix which is much better then using Play-On that I use for the other things.
I do all that MORE then I play games. Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM that will be coming to the 360 built in later this year doesn't really interest me other then maybe Last.FM, but it will for a lot of others. The things the CONSOLE can do THESE days over just the last Generation is Amazing. I can only Imagine what the NEXT Generation will bring. It's not like they can just Stop doing everything they're doing now and start over again. They'll have to expand on top of it even more. Otherwise you might as well wait around and keep using your current console.
Nintendo sales are slowing,and with a PS3 and 360 price drop for what I think are better consoles then the Wii unless your 12 years old and younger or 70 and over. The Wii really isn't as cheap and you think. Just add a Second complete controller is what, $70!! The online is really POOR. No HD of any sort which I guess really doesn't matter for those Age groups anyway. Drop your Cable or Satellite and you can just Pickup HD channels OTA with a Antenna, and get everything else just about with just a Internet connection, so I guess keeping you cable for just that is something. You can watch your Favorite Showtime and HBO series with a DVD Box set that's out pretty quick and no having to wait a week if you want to see the next show.
Could it be Microsoft has a new xbox that why the had the price cut?
@JBDragon
"Nintendo sales are slowing,and with a PS3 and 360 price drop for what I think are better consoles then the Wii unless your 12 years old and younger or 70 and over. The Wii really isn't as cheap and you think. Just add a Second complete controller is what, $70!! The online is really POOR. No HD of any sort which I guess really doesn't matter for those Age groups anyway. Drop your Cable or Satellite and you can just Pickup HD channels OTA with a Antenna, and get everything else just about with just a Internet connection, so I guess keeping you cable for just that is something. You can watch your Favorite Showtime and HBO series with a DVD Box set that's out pretty quick and no having to wait a week if you want to see the next show."
Ok buddy this is sad you are attacking a system that is actually selling. Fine if you like your Xbox experience, but people like you are the reason why wii owners don't do the Wii360(remember that word kids). Also I’m not 12 or 70 and I love my Wii. The Wii lets me play without too many commitments or having to be tied down for huge amount of hours when I have a lot of responsibilities and things to do outside of the gaming world.
The Wii mote costing you 70 well how much it cost an wireless 360? I tell you &64.99 with charger mic sold Sep so no cheap in any gaming system. You kill your own argument . You said not everybody has a HDTV and the wii not having no HD what so ever. Ever been to the Nintendo World store in NYC?..No? Yes?..well if you do go and see all the Wii's are using HD sets and the composite cable . The Wii has something and that it works well regardless of what TV you play it in. 250 is cheap, If not just ask yourself why did MS drop the price to the same of a Wii? Because the ones with the most purchasing power when it comes to games are Parents follow by teens and adults; and we all know how much buying power Parents have in this economy.