This would certainly put a bit more pressure on Sony, particularly if they cut the price of the premium and elite machines.

" However, the platform holder introduced a price cut on all three models in August last year."

Not really...it cut the price of both its 2 models that were on the market and launched a 3rd :)

But yeah, just dropping the arcade to 179.99....Meh

Dropping them by those ammounts later in the article would be quite a big move.

In other words they have finally realised they are charging too much for their useless machine!

Their useless machine? I want to shoot you down, but as I try to type the words I feel the energy drain from my body...

Errr, yes. Their useless machine.

And I have plenty of ammo to put you down quite easily son.

Proven fact that the 360 has a absurdly high failure rate (I'm on my 4th) coupled with the fact that Microsoft had to invest at least three billion dollars to extend warranties. At the moment, a chocolate fireguard has more uses.

Now, begone.

Oh god, here we go.

You, sir, are an idiot. All the 'ammo' in the world about their failure rates and investment will in no way prove your absurd claims. The fact is that, reliability aside, the 360 is an awesome machine, with some great games, brilliant Live integration and superb multimedia offerings. All of which is far more important than your fanboyish bile.

Wa-wa-wee-wa.

A cut of £30. Now I'll almost be able to afford a whole entire game. Yipee.

They need to do something because 360 sales recently have been poor. And that's an understatement. Joe Public has well and truely been alerted to the fact that the 360 is unreliable (I'd say 1 in 4 is not an unrealistic total), the PS3 is now cheaper than it's original price and does more than play a few games (i.e. it has a Blu-Ray player and a whole host of games - oh and it's called a PlayStation, and the brand is enough these days) and also that Wiis are now easier to pick up and cheaper than them all.

'The Retailer' my arse.

Xbox 360 sales dips are nothing to do with reliability - it's to do with the fact the machine has been out for three years.

Nothing would see me buy a machine that smells of Bill Gates and has the build and design quality of Changing Rooms.

@ 6

Wow! Let me type this for you so your little brain can understand. Read my post again. I think I wrote I've already had FOUR 360's (all due to repair), I think that puts your 'fanboy bile' rant to bed. As for my absurd claims, I think theres a couple of links to prove my point

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/27680/Microsoft-admits-to-unacceptable-360-hardware-problems" onclick="window.open ( this.href ); return false;" class="comment_url" >http://www.mcvuk.c...blems

I actually agree with The Retailer about poor 360 sales. I work in the games retailer myself and as far our store is concerned, PS3 sales outdo 360 by at least 10/1 for the past couple of months alone. Microsoft REALLY need to sort these issues before consumers get wind and not want to fork out for a console thats almost certainly guaranteed to break down. Oh, sorry @ 6, I've not forgotten about you... Heres somewhere you can chat with scrotes along your brain levels:

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/

@11

Not sure where you work then, but I work for Game and in our store at least its been quite the opposit. The take up for ps3's have increased somewhat, but are still not outselling 360's on a weekly basis. I'd say our ratio is 3:1 in favour of 360 at the moment.

Its unforunate that you've had to return your console so many times, but from my experience after the initial release 2 years ago the failure rate of red rings from a returns stand point has been very low - again, im only going by my store, it could be that they're sending them straight into MS due to their warranty being extended im not sure. I've had mine since 2006 and its still running perfectly fine now /shrug

@ MJ

True. Although it could also be down to hardware bundles. I'm not sure what your doing bundles wise but the one we're currently running a Premium, extra wireless controller, Viva, Forza 2, Virtua Tennis 3 and any other game of choice for £283 (pretty good IMO). Good luck though mate, although you might have sods law now next time you switch yours on. Hope not though. It's a good little machine and I'll be getting a PS3 due to exclusives not on 360. The stats I raised earlier were for our store alone though for last 4 weeks, not sure nationwide at the moment (having a nice week off).
Most of the customers do get arsey when you recommend they go to Microsoft to get the defect repaired rather than exchange it. After all, you get a new one your going to get the same problems, right?

Anyways, back to the story. I hope they do lower the price on the Arcade package... We've been sat on ours since Xmas >:(

LOL Blu-Ray who really gives a toss about that.

@ Wozza
I do!

@14 (continuing on from 15) - and millions of others, including all major films studios, video rental stores, high street & online retailers and film fanatics. Hence the reason why BR sales have outsold DVD first year sales. Just because you don't Wozza, it doesn't mean that millions of other people have your negatuve and arrogant attitude.

I meant "NEGATIVE" above. U and I keys too close together.... ;)

@6

As I said before (though seemingly I need to say it again) I don't deny the existence of reliability problems. However, to dismiss all of the positive aspects of Xbox 360 because of this is, frankly, utterly mindless.

I can see you're trying to sound clever - bless you - but clearly you're an idiot. Fanboys trying to justify their feeble nonsense - the very worst thing about the internet...

@9 - Well it must be different in your store (I presume you have a store because you seem to know the market and buying habits of people). When one has to weigh up the pros and cons to potential customer that are choosing to buy a console, even though we don't mention the unreliable 360's, if a customer is in the know, it is something that does raise their concerns. Yes I agree that sales may be low because it has been out a long time, and I've said this before and questioned where future Xbox customers are going to come from in their masses because we feel that anyone that wants a 360 has probably got one by now, but there are a few people that are undecided on their next gen console and have been waiting for the right price, and the one's that know about the RROD on the 360 are put off.

Very interesting to read the comments about Game's sales of 360s vs PS3 being 3 to 1 in the 360s favour. Seeing as the recently posted console sales have shown the PS3 to be outselling the 360, I'd say that clearly us other retailers have been able to cash in on this, whereas Game aren't. If I was in Game's management I'd be worried that the competition are taking a big wedge of their potential profits... You'd have thought that the vast majority of the console sales figures would have come from the UK's largest console retailer, but as they've not I'm happy!

Such things will vary from store to store - I would expect that considering the relative stages of their lifecycles, PS3 really should be outselling 360 at the moment.

I bought my 360 on launch day and it still works perfectly and gets played loads everyday. at least 5 of the people i work with bought there's at the same time and have also had no problems with their 360s

The 360 sales have dipped slightly, but software sales remain huge. Four big 360 games were released last week, all of which perforrned better than PS3 software.

Console sales maybe up... but that hasn't led to a huge boost in games sold.

The one areas in which 360 is still leading is definitely attach rate - 'tis the nature of its hardcore nature, I suppose.

@ 18

Yes, I too disagreed with comment 6 (which I do believe they were yours). Now your starting to show your level of intelligence calling people you don't know 'idiots' and 'fanboys' quite clearly shows your not smart enough. Read my post again and I think I wrote I've already had the inconvenience of having to replace my Xbox 360 for the fourth time (are you keeping up? Don't think I wrote 'PS3 rules and 360 sucks) and I still do think it's a good little machine.
My initial thought was Microsoft need to get the most important issue, which is getting a £200+ piece of hardware to work on a more consistent basis. After all, it's retailers, like myself and others on here, who'll bear most of customers complaints... Not Microsoft.

In our place (Zavvi) PS3 is flavor of the year so far but 360 software is still outdoing most other formats at the moment. I agree with 18. Maybe Microsoft need to get the RROD issues sorted before dropping the odd £20 off the Arcade packs which nobody wants anyway.

Cool, I may just buy one now.

Well, when It comes down to it, I cant decide. Yes Xbox is cheaper than PS3 at current, however, one thing puts me off, and thats the reliablility. However, I did read somewhere Microsoft were investing in the 3 red rings problem. Also @ 14, who craes about blu-ray? Are you crazy. Obviously blu-ray matters, at HD DVD are almost now non existent, as Toshiba have admitted defeat, and conceded into Blu Ray, and wont keep making their HD DVD's.

I think what he meant was the obvious effect of digital media on the blu ray market. Look at the music industry, physical hardware downloads are a complete minority in this day and age. Yes, blu ray has achieved a greater number of sales than DVD did in it's first year but DVD's first year market wise was very different. It didn't have a leading games console with a DVD drive built in selling in the millions at all in it's first year for starters! I don't think this forum should be turning into a 360 vs ps3 war. The article was just about a large price drop for one of the three next gen consoles. And yes I do mean Large. Thirty, Forty, Fifty pounds means a lot to some people who aren't 45 year old software develepors living with their parents.

tut tut so much hostility! you are all arguing over something that you all seem so passionate about, but you all seem to be ignoring the fact that Sony are in trouble. Xbox sales are right on target as they predicted, tough times in retail are due to the economical climate at the moment nothing more. The Xbox has many more exclusive titles that are beating PS3 hands down, and more to come. Why else would Final fantasy jump ship?? A title that has long been a PS3 exclusive, all of a sudden goes over to Xbox 360. Plus Xbox LIVE is hands down the best online service you can get and getting better all the time! PS3's online experience is patchy at best!
Plus you all harp on about the Blu ray player. give it a rest! Blu ray will be obsolete soon enough, once digital downloading gets its hold there will be no more Blu ray debate! Look at MP3s no one thought they would take off and now they dominate the music industry. Wake up you fools, why buy a PS3 when the blu ray player can't read the information at a speed required by the console to play the game?!??! The PS3 has to upload the entire game to the hard drive just to play it? What mug waits another half an hour or more just to play a game that is better on the Xbox, GTA IV for example wasn't high def on the PS3 when first release, it only output at 640! what rubbish! Plus the Xbox 360 is going to get downloadable levels that the PS3 won't!
I really wish you people would look at the facts before you start ranting rubbish! The Xbox no matter the troubles with failure rates is the better console, I know people who have had an Xbox since release and no problems at all, how are you all keeping your Xbox? In the cupboard under a blanket?

I'm seriously tempted by the XBox with the recent price drop.
Came across this deal where you can buy if for just over £100 !

http://www.laughingdeals.com/all-deals/xbox-360-arcade-system-pound-102.95-delivered.html

I, after almost a year considering, finally opted to buy an Xbox360 (despite my concerns about reliability. the main reason for this was the quality of the games, I have been playing games for 26 years now, and feel I can speak from experience. on paper the PS3 look the more tempting machine, but only because of the blu ray and the potential for the games to get good, but the truth is I wanted a games machine not a movie player and so far I have only seen 1, yes 1 game that was better on the PS3 than on the xbox. The reliability issue looks to have been mostly resolved, only one of my mates has had the RROD happen to him and I think is is due to the fact the consol has insufficent ventilation. I bought my xbox with 60gig drive an extra controler and 3 games with microsofts new 3 year warrenty for £160, I now have over 25 games some picked up for just a few quid, and the games are stunning. For now I dont think there is any doubt that the xbox has a far better range of good games, why buy a PS3 and wait for the good games to come. As for the online stuff, xbox is so far ahead of the PS3 it is a no contest situation.
My mates that do own PS3 rarley use them and are simply waiting for the price of blu ray movies to drop before they will finally have a use for the PS3.

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