Wednesday, September 17th 2008

Microsoft Europe Lowers Xbox 360 Estimated Retail Price

Imagine if friends and families had the ability to instantly watch movies and share pictures, live out their musical fantasies through "Lips" (iNiS Corp./Microsoft Game Studios) and "Rock Band" (Harmonix/MTV Games) and star in their own Hollywood classics with "You're in the Movies" (Codemasters/Microsoft Game Studios) - all from one console, starting at an estimated retail price (ERP) of only €179/£129.99. That is the Xbox 360, and Microsoft today announced the new lower ERP for its Xbox 360 family of consoles in Europe. Now with an entry-level ERP of €179/£129.99 and offering a plethora of exciting and broad entertainment in the living room, Xbox 360 is the true home of mass market entertainment with something to offer for every interest and budget.

From Friday, 19th September, Xbox 360, which includes a 60GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will have an ERP of €239.99/£169.99. The Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a massive 120GB hard drive enabling consumers to store huge quantities of content downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace as well as their own music, will have an ERP of €299.99/£229.99. The Xbox 360 Arcade console, perfect for those wishing to make their first foray into the gaming and entertainment world of Xbox, will have an ERP of €179/£129.99.

The new ERPs are part of Microsoft's ongoing strategy to open up the ultimate in high-definition gaming and entertainment to an even wider audience, with something for everyone. A major part of this strategy is a new Xbox LIVE online experience coming to Europe this autumn that will reinvent home entertainment from the inside out, with a bold new look and feel that is fun, social and simple to use. It's the first time in history that a mass market consumer electronics device has been reinvented through free software, changing the way we play games, watch movies, and even become contestants in game shows. Along with the new Xbox experience, the Xbox 360 platform is offering a stunning games portfolio for all ages and interests this Christmas, with new titles for music lovers, family-friendly games, and exciting blockbuster titles for the committed gamer.

"We're proud to be expanding the reach of Xbox as the first next-generation console to break the €200/£150 barrier, making the platform up to €200/£170 less expensive than competitors" said Chris Lewis, Vice President, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Europe. "History shows that the majority of console sales happen after this price point has been breached, and we're well positioned to take advantage of this mass market pricing. We're passing on the benefits of being the first console to sell over 20 million units worldwide, and of the ever-expanding ecosystem of Xbox, to consumers. We offer a large library of games and family entertainment for Xbox 360, with 90 titles coming between now and Christmas alone, and we're redefining what people can expect from entertainment with the new Xbox LIVE experience debuting later this year. Plus, with well over five million consoles sold to date the combination of the strongest games line up this Christmas, really innovative entertainment experiences and these groundbreaking new price points will ensure we continue to enjoy fantastic momentum in Europe."
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14 Comments on Microsoft Europe Lowers Xbox 360 Estimated Retail Price

#1
Hayder_Master
some times the man think about xbox 360 and he say this is may better than gaming pc price tlak
Posted on Reply
#2
lemonadesoda
massive 120GB hard drive
I trust those aren't your words, bta! LOL


P.S. What is the Xbox 360 Arcade? Is that with NO HDD? Or any other missing "features"?
Posted on Reply
#3
choppy
oh man, what a bargain....i proper regret buying my premium 360 + 3 games exactly a year ago for £290, the same deal now is about £100 cheaper
Posted on Reply
#4
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
Yes!! :D
Posted on Reply
#5
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
lemonadesodaI trust those aren't your words, bta! LOL


P.S. What is the Xbox 360 Arcade? Is that with NO HDD? Or any other missing "features"?
No, they're Microsoft's. 640 KB?
Posted on Reply
#6
Winterwind
arcade has 256mb onboard memory for storage.
Posted on Reply
#7
WhiteLotus
About time too, lets be honest.

I wonder, though if this is just to get rid of the remaining stock before they release the new models.
Posted on Reply
#8
mlupple
Those are the new models. The 20GB is the old model.

120GB IS massive for a console. Just last generation, memory cards had like 128kb.
Posted on Reply
#9
lemonadesoda
It's not massive. The "elite" is targetted as a media server, not "just a games console". 120GB is far more than is needed for a games consolem but is pretty poor for a media centre. Sure it's OK, but x360 is missing a big big market potential, to create a personal CD and DVD library on HDD, just as other media servers can. Seems pretty silly that people now buy iPods as media centres not just portable audio... and have docking stations to their hi-fi/AV systems.
Posted on Reply
#10
MilkyWay
excellent i might get the 60gb to replace my 20gb, and yeah my 20gb does get cramped i cant store to many demos and videos and i cant store music because with saves and dl content it gets cramped

thats a good price for the 60GB btw
Posted on Reply
#11
wazzledoozle
I bet Microsoft, to compete with the PS3, will at some point release a hard drive add-on that you can insert your own notebook hard drive into.
Posted on Reply
#12
MilkyWay
yeah i was hoping the Wii would allow usb hard drives to store music and those download games but i guess there is the chance that pirates might use it

the ps3 allows for you to save downloaded content to another drive to you can save to an external drive and share it with your family mates, you not supposed to but you can this is probly what micro soft dont want 360 users doing

if we had the choice of our own hard drives i bet someone would hack the 360 just like the xbox original was easily hacked with a bootloader


still if you cant beat the pirates just at least give us other options, like a hard drive bay

if you replace the drive in the proprietary drives you still get the same amount of space so there is no point in doing that theyd have to add some update to the console to allow full usage
Posted on Reply
#13
kylew
mluppleThose are the new models. The 20GB is the old model.

120GB IS massive for a console. Just last generation, memory cards had like 128kb.
The PS2's official minimum memory card was 8MB :D
Posted on Reply
#14
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Yes, but the concept of local storage was different then. All memory cards would do was save settings, saved games, profiles, etc. Today, the console hard drive is made to cache entire games / downloaded updates / addons, etc.
Posted on Reply
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