Xbox 360 Price Cut in September?

This is a given, isn’t it? The Xbox 360 will surely get a price drop before the holidays in order to boost sales in the Holiday season. What no one knows is when it will happen and how much of a price cut it will be. We might have a good idea now, thanks to the ever-secret preserving ways of the internet.

According to a news story over at arstechnica.com, an insider told them that a hefty 360 price drop is coming and even gave them figures. The Arcade machine will go down to $199, the newly announced 60GB model that is replacing the 20GB model will be $299 and the Elite model will cost $399. There is always a cloud of uncertainty when an “insider source” crops up, but Kotaku posted a screenshot of a SKU Inquiry that clearly shows the $199 price tag, and actually gave it a date of September 7th.

All this evidence is pointing towards this rumor being true, so if the rumor is true, what does this mean to Microsoft and its competitors? For starters, with the Arcade now being at $199, it’s clearly the cheapest console. It doesn’t come with a hard drive, but when you compare software and the ability to push amazing graphics, it really out does the Nintendo Wii as an overall package. With the 60GB model now being at $299, that’s a $100 less than the Playstation 3; that’s one hell of difference when parents look at what to buy there children in the shops.

Could this price drop force Sony to reduce the Playstation 3? It might, but we don’t know how much of a drop Sony can afford. This holiday season should be pretty interesting.

TGR Verdict: Very Likely