Xbox 360 Releases New Price to Help Sales

Photo Courtesy of MNgilen

Might be time to pick up an early Christmas present for the kids.  Microsoft announced yesterday that it was reducing the cost of all three versions of the Xbox 360 video game system in an effort to promote sales of the struggling video game system.  I probably won’t be rushing out any time soon to pick up such an expensive toy, however the price reductions make the Xbox 360 much more competitive with the current video game king, the Nintendo Wii.

Here’s a look at the new Xbox 360 prices:

• The basic (arcade) model was reduced to $199
• The mid-level Xbox 260 pro, which features a 60-GB hard drive dropped from $349 to $299
• The Xbox 360 Elite, top of the line edition, which featured a 120-GB hard drive and is high-def compatible dropped from $449 to $399

Sales of the Xbox 360 have struggled to keep up with the Wii, largely due to the Wii’s ability to attract non-video game audiences, such as adults and older generations.  We bought a Wii a few months ago, and enjoy having family game nights of Wii sports.  My kids each have a couple additional games of their own, and I still have an original Xbox with exactly one game, college football.  No more than I play the Xbox, it would be tough to justify purchasing the Xbox 360 based on my playing time, but my kids are getting old enough to begin to enjoy some of the more popular titles.  With Christmas just three months away, this price reduction by Microsoft came at a pretty good time.