MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Senior regional director of Microsoft UK Neil Thompson has told MCV that the recent price cuts are the opening gambit in a peak season which will see tens of millions” spent on marketing the Xbox brand.
Microsoft undercut market leader Wii in the battle for the gaming pound this week –cutting the price of its most popular ‘standard’ console for the third time in its history.
From today, the 60GB model will now cost the consumer just 169.99 – ten pounds cheaper than market leader Wii.
We think that for high definition entertainment Xbox is first choice,” said Thompson.
We’ve been talking to all of our retail partners about what we’re doing at Christmas and we’ve been very bold and ambitious about how successful we think we can be.
"Once you get to the price points we’re now at, the mass market can see the opportunity to step into the HD world.
On marketing we’ll spend tens of millions – we’re going to engage in a very bold promotional push from now until Christmas.”
Thompson also ruled out shortages of the console as sales begin to climb – stating that there will be plenty to go around:
I have been very bullish on supply for the UK market,” he added.
