Microsoft confirms: $199 new Xbox 360 coming soon, as well as Kinect bundles
By Laura June 
posted June 19th 2010 8:10PM
posted June 19th 2010 8:10PM
posted June 19th 2010 8:10PM
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First time it's so cheap!
@AlfaCat
I'm confused! You're telling me that the new shiny glossy black xbox 360's with 250gb hdd is only $299?! HOLY CRAP. I'M SO BUYING ONE RIGHT NOW. bye sony.
@Paul Elmy
*$199
@Paul Elmy No a 20 gb or something new xbox will be 199 and the 250 is 300
@Paul Elmy
it's replacing the arcade. the arcade has no HDD, so it's safe to assume the new one won't either. esp considering they allow USB drives now.
@That guy 2 *120 fix'd
@AlfaCat
I just traded in my near death Elite and two controllers towards the Xbox 360S and got 230 USD store credit. Awesome trade in deal if you have a wireless adapter and broken controllers. Got my new 360 for $76 dollars out of pocket and only walked out of the store with one less controller and had all the same features.
@AlfaCat
PROTIP: Use the new transfer feature and transfer all your harddrive crap to a cheap flashdrive to avoid the transfer cable cost if you don't have one. Only will have to reinstall your games.
@Paul Elmy
I just manage to post "First" comment without anyone noticing. ^_^
@Anticrawl Man, it sure sounds tempting to trade in my Elite but it's only 3 months old. I may suck it up and wait until it dies. Where did you do the trade anyway, Gamestop?
@AlfaCat
And thus you will forever reside in a neverworld between win and lose.
@Paul Elmy Picked mine up at walmart today.
@AlfaCat
k. So the exchange rate btwn CAD and USD is like 1:0.97. And the price in canada would be what? 299?
@aubreyq
Yeah man, follow the link in this comment to see the trade deal. It stacks by the way, which is the only reason the deal is any good. The actual console trade is shit but how it stacks is what makes it great. I was planning on spending the 125 to fix my dying video card on my launch Elite but I come out ahead with my current deal.
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/xb360250trade/Xbox360_250_TradeInFlyer.jpg
P.S. - I do not condone dealing with the entity that is "Gamestop" and would never suggest it to my fellow gamer being a member of the industry myself but as a gamer I feel this deal is great for those with dying boxes who can't wait on shipping.
Gamestop has an awesome trade in promotion right now to upgrade. I went in Friday to buy one and saw they would give me $130 for my 20gb launch unit plus $25 per wireless controller (plus a few bucks for my headset and quickcharge that I don't use). I went home and grabbed my stuff and when I got back 2 hours later the last 5 they had sold out. I did reserver one for Monday though, so for about $100 I'll be getting a brand new unit and warranty. Can't wait to have a HDD where I don't have to delete stuff every time I want to install a mappack or something. BTW, that may sound low but the old 360s are kinda worthless now especially with walmart and amazon selling arcades for $100.
@Paul Elmy 199 for the new black arcade.
@sinai
"it's replacing the arcade. the arcade has no HDD, so it's safe to assume the new one won't either. esp considering they allow USB drives now."
I reckon that won't be the case. The biggest marketing problem with the Arcade model is that it doesn't have a drive so people always recommend the higher up model and now they are charging $50 more for the entry model. My guess is that this model will have a drive but a small one like a 20-60GB drive.
This $199 console will look very good next to a $299 PS3 despite the storage. In reality, you don't need much more than 20GB to get the best features the hard drive offers. For $199, you are getting the slim, quiet model, built-in wifi, hard drive and the same huge collection of games.
If it does have a small drive, it will be an awesome job from Microsoft and Sony are basically relying on their meagre exclusives. If Sony make a Slim PS3 with a 40GB drive for $199 then it shakes things up but I doubt they will.
@Anticrawl Thanks for the link. I agree with you, this definitely works for those with a dying system or those who just gotta have the new one. I also see what you mean about Gamestop. They're sort of a necessary evil.
@AlfaCat
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE BENEFITS OF A HARD DRIVE ARE. MY WIFE JUST BOUGH ME THE ARCADE FROM WALMRT FOR FATHERS DAY. I HAVENT OPENED IT YET.
@ryandrew711
Installing games to load from the hard drive is one. Storing your media is another.
@AlfaCat What is everyone on about, how can this or any version of the same generation of xbox be considered cheap?!
Microsoft is fist-jamming the entire world with this new xbox. They shouldn't be in the process of creating a new line of the same generation console. They should be spending their time and money on getting a next-gen console finished and then charge these prices for that. The changes in the "new" xbox don't deserve $199 or $299. The changes only address issues that shouldn't have been in the original xbox 360 to begin with.
Death to Microsoft for this BS! and shame on anyone who is bending over and taking it with pleasure.
@Anticrawl Wow that's great news! My Xbox is original as well, 20 gb from launch. It's not about to die yet, as I am still playing some heavy Forza 3 on it, but almost all my controllers are damaged from throwing. Definitely gonna try that trade in deal!
wait, what is $199? The new XBOX 360 arcade?
@mikmik111
Yes.
@Aurailious What's gonna be the difference between them? Arcade has less HDD space or something?
@Very Powerfull Codfish
If it's the same as the current Arcade model, it has no HDD.
@archkron Well that's sorta pointless for me, lol... I mean... no demoes, no trailers, no movies or music, no space for game save data... what's even the point? Play games without saving?
@Very Powerfull Codfish
All 360 consoles produced after Christmas 2007 have onboard memory. 512MB to be correct I think. I'm positive the new arcade will have no less space than that, which is more than enough for atleast game saves.
@Very Powerfull Codfish
Actually, it has enough space (512Mb) for saving games and.. that's about it.
You can still use your USB drives, it isn't as dramatic as you put it.
@BlackedOut
Pretty sure the post didn't say anything about the new arcade not having a hard drive. I wouldn't think they would not give you one, I would guess they will add a 20 at least or 60. Just enough for you to want to spend the extra 100 and get 200ish more GBs.
@BlackedOut USB drives are as easy to put up with as downloading movies from Zune Marketplace on a 16GB drive. If that even works.
That's a good price. But Bundle still sounds too high.
@iPodPhone
Why? That's still less than SONY was trying to get for the PS3 when it first came out.
The prices MS has set seem quite realistic - as long as Kinect actually gets supported by developers.
And I would lob off at least $50 off all these prices come Christmas time.
@Hazdaz Don't forget, Sony PS3 had Blueray Drive which was crazy expensive in those days.... But like seriously $249.99 sounds a reasonable price for bundle according to me. Now that Wii is selling for $199 with Motion Plus and Sports Resort and Sports.
@Hazdaz
The PS3 was still less than an Apple IIe when it came out, so it was a very good value.
Come on, how much something was in the past is entirely irrelevant. How much it costs now is what is important. Personally, It would make more sense if it coated less to get the bundle than buying the system and Kinect separately.
@Hazdaz wait ur comparing a system's price released 4 years ago? and how much was the xbox 360 when it was first released? beisides my ps3 is twice as old as my dead xbox and its still running
@cge10
The launch 360 cost $399 for the Pro model and $299 for the Core model. It launched in November of 2005.
The PS3 launched at prices $599 and $499 in November of 2006.
@cge10
Also the 360 has a 3 year warranty so if you have a dead 360 it is likely uhh... your own fault for not sending it in Mr. That's That. My launch PS3 died a horrible death when attempting to play GTA4 on launch night and Sony said it would cost me $150 dollars plus S/H base line replacement, and that was only if it was the drive, more if there was actually something wrong with it.
I ended up repairing it myself and have a Slim now as well. The 360 is still the better value for gamers, but you may have an argument for more media heavy users who also happen to play games.
@Anticrawl
The 360 does not have a three year warranty unless you pay extra for it. It has a one year warranty, with three years for the RRoD and e74. While those are both common errors, of the three different Xbox failures I've had none of them had those. One lost video output and the two other had disc drive errors.
$99 for an included Kinect is nice, but it's not really the price that concerns me, it's the lack of quality games.
@Colours
>implying Child of Eden isn't a good game
@Anticrawl
Not everyone likes the same genres, or games. Lack of does not mean there isn't a single redeeming quality, just that there's not enough. It's possible that he didn't even see that one game.
@Dafrety
If you are going to speak the voice of reason Dafrety then speak of the fact the device isn't out and won't launch until Fall/Christmas, with likely several more titles to be demo'ed and announced. The "voice of reason" approach doesn't work if you keep to only one side. I have no delusions of my preference for the 360.
@Anticrawl I didn't like the Child of Eden demo they showed.
@Colours
Have you ever been to metacritic?
@Anticrawl
I don't recall saying anything negative about the 360 or you. I don't see how anything you added at this time is relevant. Would you like me to edit Colours comment?
"$99 for an included Kinect is nice, but it's not really the price that concerns me, it's the lack of quality games that I've seen at this time, in my opinion. Maybe I'll see something I like in the coming months until launch."
@Dafrety
Hrmm, clearly what I stated didn't even go in one ear and out the other, it drafted right around that thick cranium. No matter, was just a pointer for those oh so important social skills kids need these days. Hah!
@Anticrawl
Yes, when someone doesn't do anything to you at all attempting insults is the best policy.
@Anticrawl
I disagreed with you, I didn't call you names, I didn't attempt to put you down? Is this really how you respond to people who try to offer reasons why someone might not like a video game they might have not even heard of? Or is this because I corrected you earlier?