360 Elite Reduced To $299, Analysts Weigh In

"Whilst the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are now equals at the $299 price point, technologically the Xbox 360 is not at the same level as its Sony competitor," EEDAR explains. "This puts the Xbox 360 in a tough position where it is outmatched in terms of hardware capabilities at $299 and the Wii remains alluring to casual and price sensitive consumers at $249. Over the next year Microsoft will most likely reposition the Xbox 360 Elite closer to the $249 price point to both pressure Sony and attract potential Wii consumers."

[ThatCanadianGuy]

"technologically the Xbox 360 is not at the same level as its Sony competitor,"

"This puts the Xbox 360 in a tough position where it is outmatched in terms of hardware capabilities at $299"

Embrace the truth bots.It shall set you free!

[patterson]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[ZBlacktt]

Just the reliability alone is a huge set back for that system. No Wi-Fi either? I won't touch the AAA games or format drive, lol.

[kagon01]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

They have a lot of knowledge for their age, seriously...

[gambare]

Analyst saying the PS3 is superior to the 360 now? *yawn* bots needs to get used to this, wake me up when they accept their heather is in decline.

[Saaking]

360 is a last gen hardware.

[Zool 08]

Vid made me LOL bubbles mate.
"Search your feelings bots you know this to be true"

[patterson]

Thank you.

Bub 4 U2 :)

[kevinx1000]

hey saaking off-topic but why have you played 144 online halo matches if you hate the game so much? i now see why you hate it so much. you only won 10 games out of the 144 you played. i see you even went through all effort of getting all the skulls... but why? you hate the game, you hate the console. why would you want that armor/achievent when you won't even get the ohers.

but really, that's one funny service record you got there.
http://www.bungie.net/stats...

[The Killer]

that was so cool, made me laught

bubbles!!

[Kill Crow]

using your logic then, PS3 is also last gen becuase it plays multi plat games even worse than XBOX 90% of the time ...

Only next gen thing about it is blue ray which, xbox can do with 1080p downloads.

Numty

[El Botto]

Let us not kid ourselves. A very large part of the franchise we have all come to love from our childhood are PS3 exclusive games.

MASSIVE advantage to PS3.

No matter how you look at things, PS3 has the advantage.

[The XBOT]

largest library of games (check)
largest number of games above 70 (check)
best live exprience (check)
cheapest sku with the arcade to start gaming (check)
best Motion controls (check)
very good number of exclusives (check)
Best versio of the multiplayer games (check)

[Gabe EatsWell]

and it still SUCKS!

[KingKionic]

Yup...competition is getting fierce now .

[ZBlacktt]

reliability

no Wi-Fi

no Blu-ray

no free online

Awh, here take a look at this list and see just how much cheaper the PS3 slim is over all the Xbox's. No hate, just a side by side.

http://www.pcworld.com/arti...

[El_Colombiano]

Oh, its Microsoft with their "Mii-too" style of business!

Anyway nothing will stop the PS3 and Sony when it comes to momentum.

[Vicodin]

There definitely is something terribly wrong with Microsoft's hardware efforts.

The 360 has been in production a year longer than the PS3. It should be much farther along in cost reduction.

It has cheaper components. No expensive RAM like the PS3 has for example.

No WiFi.

No slot loading drive.

No BluRay drive.

No Bluetooth.

No internal power supply.

Cheap and ineffective cooling system.

No HDMI 1.3

On top of all that Microsoft has hundreds of millions of dollars in online fees subsidizing the price of the 360.

It is really mind boggling on three levels:

1. Even if Microsoft had a system of the same capabilities as the PS3, it should still be 50-100 dollars cheaper just for the fact that its been out longer and had time to shrink the components and streamline the manufacturing process.

2. On top of that is the huge amount of extra features at the same price that Sony is able to put in the PS3 compared to Microsoft and the 360 for the same price even if the systems had been in production just as long

3. The 50 dollar a year online fees act as an effective loan from Microsoft on the price of the console. Meaning they should be effectively giving the console away for free because people are paying 200-250 dollars over the 4-5 years of owning the 360.

[josuttis]

There was some silly belief that somehow Microsoft would be able to compete with Sony on the hardware front after doing so poorly last gen. And that somehow that they would be able to shop around to various suppliers and manufacturers to keep up with Sony's insane internal hardware design and manufacturing capabilities.

For some reason many people are only realizing just how inane that idea was now that the PS3 has reached 299. It was obvious before, but I guess the 299 vs 299 makes it so glaringly obvious that it has knocked some sense into people who were still believing that the PS3 would always be more expensive to manufacture and have a higher retail price.

[Saaking]

There's no competition. PS3 is going to win, the 360 just can't compete with what the PS3 offers imo.

[G3TDOWN]

Still too much !

Xbox 360 is not in the same level as the PS3 is

249.99 could save it better

[testerg35]

Vicodin, why would MS need to keep lowering their price when they were outselling the PS3? Now the Sony lowered the PS3's price, MS will need to react.

[SpaZaA]

I really think 149$ is the sweet spot, just 50$ more than a PS2.
Well, 100$ If you count your Live subscription.

It just sounds good for a budget console.
LOL!

[HolyOrangeCows]

In less than 3 years, the PS3 has sold 75% of what the Xbox took 4 years to sell. And the PS3 is loaded with more features than the 360.

When it comes to software sales, however, THAT is where the competition needs to stiffen. And now that the PS is $300 (Great for a game system, a bit much for a Blu-ray player), those numbers will likely begin to even out closer as those early Blu-ray fanatics of 2006 get drowned out by real playstation gamers.

[DixieNormS]

Which are making me lmao. The Ps3 has sold as much consoles in 3 years as the 360 has in its first 3 years. Which also tells me that even with less features the 360 is neck to neck with the competition. It also tells me that MS knows what they as doing, and even though it involves ripping off the consumer, they are still making money which is why they went into the business in the first place. I have both consoles (love them both) and my 360 has died on me 3 times now. But I still give it more love Just because I believe LIve is up my alley more than the PSN.

Anyways. All of us here know exactly what comes in what box. But at the end of the day, Its the average Joe who decides what he wants to get. And if they don't care about blu-ray or even know what wifi is then the chance of them picking up a 360 is fifty fifty.

[SpaZaA]

DixieNormS...you're making me LOL, because apparently you didn't understand the numbers.

[gamesR4fun]

"The 360 has an uphill battle ahead. With the 360 and PS3 at the same asking price, its hard to deny the out-of-the-box advantages Sony's console has. Free online play, blu-ray capabilities, and a lower console failure rate are all positives the PS3 has going for it over the 360"

@300 dollars who's gonna get a 360 over a ps3? I mean all the Halo fans already got one. And with natal still a distant twinkle why would a casual gamer buy the elite over the ps3 or wii?